I looked away, swallowing hard against the rawness in mythroat. “Don’t lie,” I whispered, my voice shaking. “I know you hate the Temple for the way they’ve chased you.”
He stepped closer, his dark gaze fixed on mine, and I could feel the weight of his presence, heavy and all-encompassing, wrapping around me like his shadows.
“Perhaps I wanted you to see the truth,” he admitted, his voice low, almost a murmur. “But not like this. Not when it would break your heart.”
A laugh, bitter and sharp, escaped me.
“Do you think I’m broken now?” I shook my head, my fingers curling into fists as I tried to hold on to the pieces of myself that felt as if they were slipping away. “Maybe I am. Maybe this is what happens when the very foundation of your life is torn out from under you.”
I felt his gaze on me, dark and intense, but there was no trace of satisfaction in his eyes.
Only a quiet, steady presence that felt like a lifeline in the storm raging inside me.
“You’renotbroken,” he said softly. “Shaken, maybe. Hurt, betrayed—but not broken.”
The sincerity in his voice, the quiet strength in his words, sent a tremor through me, and I felt my anger waver, my frustration fading beneath the weight of his words.
“Why are you saying this?” I asked, my voice barely more than a whisper. “Why do you care?”
His gaze held mine, unwavering, and I could feel the intensity of his presence, the unspoken words that lingered between us, heavy and all-consuming.
“Maybe because I know what it feels like to have everything you believed in stripped away,” he murmured, his voice rough, edged with something raw. “And maybe… maybe I don’t want you to face it alone.”
His words cut through the ache in my chest, and fora moment, the weight of it all seemed to lift, replaced by something that was both terrifying and exhilarating, a spark of something that felt like hope.
But then the reality of it crashed over me, the knowledge of who he was, what he was—a creature of darkness, the Shadow King, the very opposite of everything I had ever believed in.
Whatever had happened between us was nothing more than an impulsive moment of recklessness.
I couldn’t turn to him and justthrow awaymy old life. It wasn’t in me to discard my people, no matter what the Elders or the Temple had done.
“You’re the last person I should be turning to,” I whispered, shaking my head as if to dispel the strange, unrelenting pull that drew me toward him.
“Maybe so,” he said, his voice quiet but unwavering. “But that doesn’t change the fact that I’m here. And that I don’t intend to leave.”
I looked up at him, feeling the weight of his words settle over me. His gaze held mine, steady and unyielding.
He took another step closer, and I felt my breath catch, my pulse quickening as he reached out.
“Elena,” he murmured, his voice barely more than a whisper. “You don’t have to face this alone.” I placed my hand in his, and let him draw me to my feet.
I hesitated, my gaze flickering between his eyes, the unyielding strength in his gaze and the gentleness that softened it.
I felt the pull again, that maddening pull that drew me toward him like a moth to a flame. His darkness called to something inside me—something deep and hidden, something I didn’t fully understand.
For a moment, the world around us seemed to disappear. The forest, the night, the shadows—they all melted away until therewas nothing but him, and the way his dark eyes burned into mine.
Before I could think, before I could let the doubts and fears consume me, I reached up, pressing my lips to his in a kiss that was both fierce and desperate, a silent plea for solace, for understanding, for the strength I couldn’t find within myself. His arms wrapped around me, pulling me close, and I felt the warmth of his embrace, his heart racing against mine in tandem.
There was a dark hunger, an elemental urgency, in the way his mouth opened under my onslaught. I may have started this, but it was Dario who pulled me closer, his shadows swirling around us and meshing us together as if they, too, had been craving me and wanted to swallow me whole.
A tiny moan escaped me, and my hands clutched at his shoulders, hard enough to bruise, but I didn’t care, and neither did Dario.
“Elena,” he murmured in my ear, and then my feet left the ground as his shadows surged, and we were both quite suddenly at the edge of the forest, the bark of a tree rough against my back, a welcome contrast to the feverish hands that roamed my front, cupping my heavy breasts and teasing their points. His tongue swept into my mouth, stroking and teasing.
I moaned as I squirmed, and Dario’s dark chuckle sounded in my ear, making me shudder.
“Hold still, priestess,” he said teasingly, and the next moment, his shadows caged my wrists and bound my hands up against the tree trunk behind me. I narrowed my eyes at him, but the next moment, I gasped when he pressed closer, molding our bodies together and making my hips jerk. He groaned, mouthing my collarbone, and I thrilled at the desperation in his tone. It was obvious I was not the only one unraveling here.
