Page 173 of Hidden Kingdoms
That was what Arden had been waiting for. As her shoulders lowered and she pulled in a deeper breath, a wave of magik passed by. The weight of it heavy on my chest as it swept over me and sunk into Elodie. Her grip on my hand tightened, the pressure on me lifting as she took it on, agony transforming her face as she pushed through whatever battle was raging within her mind.
Her lips were moving, eyes still wandering under their lids as the magik worked its way through her.
I kept her hand within mine, my mind reminding me of the last time I had offered her my touch. It had been our hands that had met then, too. As we ran from The Darkness.
As I saved her life and brought her into my kingdom.
I snatched my hands away, something within me hollowing as I pushed to my feet. Those emotions I worked so hard to overcome swarmed me once more. Towering over her small frame, her head shook slightly back and forth as our contact broke, and any small sense of warmth I felt towards her was replaced by the fury she fed my soul.
And I watched gladly as Arden broke into her mind.
I had saved her. Housed her. Fed her. Sure, Kaius clothed her, but she was here and safe because of me; she owed me this.
I owed the kingdom this.
A chance of a solution, a way to save them all.
To get them all back.
Heavy, sharp breaths fell from Elodie’s lips, the current of magik in the air lessening. Her eyes flew open, the energy that had once surrounded us falling away just as sharply leaving a vacuum in the ether that chafed against my skin. The candles extinguished under a phantom force as she stared into the shadows that were now heavier than before.
Arden’s own harsh breathing came from behind me, but I ignored him, unable to pull my attention from her. From the promise of what she now held within.
“What did you see?”
“I…” Tears welled from the corner of her eyes, dripping down her cheeks, as she blinked a few times as if clearing her vision before looking up at me, brow scrunched and eyes searching for something she wouldn’t find from me.
I was still close, closer than I should have been for merely an onlooker, and I had no idea if she was even aware of the moment of madness that had come upon me when I held her hands, or if she had been as lost within herself as she seemed.
This was it, the moment she would be of any use. The moment there would be any point to everything that’s happenedover the last few weeks. Excitement thrummed through my body, my being set on the outcome of her answer.
“Tell me,” I demanded, moving forward and placing both hands on the arms of her chair as I took up her field of vision. She pressed back, but I was close enough that the heavy breaths she was taking caressed my face, soaking into my skin like summer rays.
It didn’t distract me from the need for answers, from the truth that was hidden in her mind if only I could crack it open. I’d needed to let Arden try. I wasn’t arrogant enough to believe I had more experience than him in this situation.
I just wanted it more.
I studied her caramel eyes as emotion after emotion flashed past them, too fast for me to catch as her lips stayed frustratingly closed.
“Tell me what you saw!” Elodie’s eyes tightened, as sharp as the blade that had cut her, as my words cut through whatever fog she had been lost in. She wrenched from the cage of my arms, pushing up into my space so I had to take a step back, or risk our bodies being pressed together.
It wasn’t hard now to read the anger directed at me.
“No.” She practically growled, and my own anger rose, hungry to meet hers.
“Enough games,” I spat.
I was so fucking close; she couldn’t keep this from me now.
She stepped away, keeping hold of her secrets as the gloom of the tower threatened to conceal her from me. I started forward, shoving the nearest chair to the side as it blocked my path, uncaring as it toppled to the ground, and an angry caw rattled through the room.
“That’s enough, Bastian, she needs time to process whatever she’s just seen.” Arden’s voice was clear as he rose, the light’s reigniting in time to see the last of her silvery hair whip from theroom. The thud of the door burrowing into my bones as she fled from the answers I was owed.
I didn’t care about what she needed.
What I needed was what mattered here. What did I care for feelings when the kingdom I had been put in charge of was perched on the edge of a cliff, and the answers in her head were what would haul it back onto solid land?
We couldn’t continue like this, with the threat of The Darkness hanging over our heads. Never knowing when it was coming or how to stop it. Having no way to protect the people who were looking to me, their prince, for answers. To keep them safe in their beds, to not wake and find their children torn from them.
