Page 28 of Bound in Flames (The Savage Hearts #1)
Chapter 28
Dex
T he cool mountain breeze swept across the terrace, carrying with it the distant rumble of an oncoming storm. Cleo stood at the edge, her frame silhouetted against the dying light. The wind tugged at her braid, curls tumbling free. Her shoulders were tense, her head bowed as though the weight of the world had sunk into her bones. She’d just come back from the gardens where Grath said the earth’s magic pulsed the strongest he’d ever felt. She spent hours there each day, searching for something—answers, control, peace perhaps. But tonight, the tight lines of her posture told me she hadn’t found it.
I approached quietly, the soft steps of my boots almost silent on the stone. Her back straightened, she always felt me before I even touched her, but the way she braced herself made me want to shake her. Shake the fear and doubt from her until she could see what I saw. What I knew.
“You’re still doubting yourself, my beautiful mate,” I said softly, though there was a darker edge to my voice. I hated seeing her like this. It twisted something deep inside me that wanted to destroy anything that dared make her feel this way.
She didn’t respond, didn’t even turn. Her gaze was fixed on the horizon, the distant peaks stretching endlessly, as if the answers she sought lay somewhere in the fading light. When she finally turned to me the vulnerability I saw in her eyes about bought me to my knees.
“What if I can’t control it, Dex?” she whispered, her voice trembling. “If I use this magic in battle and I pull on the wrong thing and hurt someone…” Her voice broke, and she took a shaky breath. “What if I become like them?”
Did she really think that was possible? Her fear of becoming like the Dark Ones wasn’t new, but hearing it aloud—hearing the way her voice cracked on the words—made it impossible to ignore. My mate, the woman I would kill for, was terrified of herself . And worse, I didn’t know how to fix it.
“You’re not going to turn into one of them,” I said as I stepped closer, my hands gripping her arms tightly to anchor her. To keep her from slipping into the spiral of doubt. “You’re not like them. You could never be like them.”
She didn’t believe me. I could see it in the way her lips pinched together, the way her fingers clung to my forearms as though I were the only thing keeping her upright. “But I feel it,” she whispered, her voice breaking. “That raw, dark power… it’s right there, and it’s waiting for me to use it. It’s so seductive when it calls to me. What if I’m not strong enough to resist? What if we’re desperate enough, and I open that door? And then what? What happens when I lose control!”
The memory of her vision surfaced like a cruel reminder: the shadows consuming her, or her magic blazing to defend us, leaving nothing but scorched earth where she had once stood. The prophecy weighed heavy on my shoulders, its promise of destruction clawing at my mind. Was this the fate we couldn’t escape? My people wiped from Ostelan, or worse—my mate destroyed, consumed by her own power as she fought to protect my people?
I cupped her face, forcing her to meet my eyes. “You won’t lose control,” I said fiercely, my voice shaking with the force of my conviction. “Because I’ll be with you. When the darkness pulls at you, you draw on me. You pull from my strength, Cleo. I’m your mate. It’s my responsibility to keep you safe.”
Her lip quivered and her hands fisted in my shirt, clinging to me like a lifeline. “Promise me you won’t let me hurt anyone. If something happens, if I can’t control it, you’ll do whatever it takes to stop me. Even if?—”
I tightened my hands on her arms, clenching my jaw so hard it felt like my teeth might shatter. She was asking the impossible. How could I promise that? How could I even consider it? She was my mate. My life . The one thing in this world I couldn’t lose. How was I supposed to sacrifice her, even to save others?
“Don’t ask me for that.” I growled in warning.
“You have to, Dex. If it comes down to it, you have to protect the clan. You have to protect them from me.” Her eyes shimmered with tears.
A rage burned deep in my gut. Running a frustrated hand through my hair I stepped away, pacing the terrace, faired my anger would scare her. “You’re asking me to choose between you and them,” I growled dangerously, “Do you even realize what you’re saying? You’re my mate, Cleo! My mate. There is no choice!”
Her fear and frustration tipped the scales, and angry tears spilled over, racing down her cheeks, “But there has to be! If I lose control and I become dangerous, you have to stop me. P romise me .”
I stared at her, the crazy woman who had become my entire world, and felt something dark and feral unfurl. “No!” My voice was thick with barely restrained rage. “Do you hear me? I’ll kill anyone—anything—that comes close to making you lose control. I’ll rip them apart with my bare hands if I have to. But I will not loose you.”
Cleo’s lips trembled as she looked away from me, shaking her head dismissively. “You can’t save me from myself.”
“Watch me,” I stepped closer until there was no space between us. My hands roughly grabbed her face, my fingers pressing into her soft skin. “You’re mine , Cleo. My duty. My mate. I’ll do whatever it takes to protect you. From the shadows, from the world, or from yourself. I don’t care what it takes.”
Her breath hitched, and I kissed her fiercely, pouring everything I couldn’t articulate into the press of my lips. Love, desperation, fear—it all bled into that kiss, a vow as much as it was a plea. I finally pulled back breathless, and pressed my lips to her forehead. “Don’t ask me to promise what I can’t give. I’ll fight for you, Cleo. To my last breath.”
Cleo twisted her hands around the leather of my armor, clutching me close while her tears soaked into my chest. “I’m so scared, Dex,” she whispered, her voice trembling. “I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“You won’t, I’ll be there. Every step. Every battle. You won’t ever fight this alone.”
Dusk fell and the shadows crept closer, but I held her continued to hold her trembling body, stroking lazily across her back in comfort. I knew one thing for certain. I would do whatever it took to keep her safe. Even if it destroyed me.