Page 46

CHAPTER 46

BOWEN

I slipped out of bed, careful not to wake Auria as she slept. It was dusk now, and she’d need food when she awoke. I hadn’t planned to fall asleep holding her, but after nearly losing her, I wanted nothing but to feel her body in my grasp. To hear her breathing unlabored, to see her cheeks the slightest shade of pink as the healing magic brought life back into her.

She’d been so pale when I’d carried her inside, and I swore, on the back of Vulcan, that her breathing had stopped for seconds, minutes. By some miracle, she had survived. When I’d woken at the sound of her whimper, saw her eyes were open, my heart had lit like a torch in the darkest of night, burning brighter than any flame could ever dream of doing. I didn’t want to remember how my chest had felt like a hollow chasm at the thought of her not making it, how rage had flowed through me on the current of smoke tendrils, my veins blackened and my power angry, thrashing, demanding I do something— anything . That if she hadn’t woken up, I’d have to live with the fact that I’d avoided my growing feelings and she’d have never known how I truly felt.

I vowed to change that.

Stealing one last look at her petite form under the blankets, I quietly opened the door, slipping out into the hall. I inhaled a long, full breath after clicking it shut. Auria robbed all the oxygen from my lungs, leaving me breathless in her presence, but in her near death, I wasn’t able to breathe for all different reasons. As I had waited for her to wake, I hadn’t given a single thought to what her father might have done if his daughter had died in my territory. I’d only thought of myself losing her. Of her never experiencing everything she wanted to. I hadn’t thought of my people, and for that, I felt ashamed. Selfish. Now more than ever, with our plan making headway, they needed me focused.

But Auria was a distraction I welcomed with open arms, and I didn’t want to be free of her. Not like I had originally thought I would want to be.

I planned to head down to the kitchen to make her something to eat, but Lander crested the top of the stairs before I moved away from the door, and my entire body instantly went on guard. He was the reason she was hurt. The reason I almost lost her. Smoke licked at my skin, clouds of gray forming around my hands.

“You need to leave,” I ground out before he could make it down the hall.

I’ll end him where he stands , my smoke whispered, its pledge to make Lander suffer clear.

I held it back. I was only feet from where she slept, a thin wall separating us. I didn’t want to wake her if things turned ugly, but I wouldn’t hesitate to rip his head from his body.

“I have a right to see her.”

My fists flexed as my power urged me to strike. It was just as protective of Auria as I was. “Not in my kingdom, you don’t.”

“We’re engaged,” he defended, as if the title made all the difference in the world.

I took a step toward him so as to prevent my voice from drifting into the room. “You were one second away from not having a fiancée at all. If I had found her even one minute later, she would have died . She’d be dead because you were too much of a coward to take the proper precautions.”

“This is not my fault.”

Smoke thrashed in my veins, demanding to wrap ribbons around his throat. I held it back. Barely. “You brought her out there knowing damn well you couldn’t protect her. You didn’t keep her safe, so yes, it is your fault, Prince.” I spit the name like an insult, and he recoiled.

His eyes narrowed, and I wished he’d strike so I had an excuse to rip him apart, piece by piece, letting my smoke have its way with him while I did it.

Give him a reason , my magic purred. Let me loose.

I inched closer, fury radiating off me in waves. “And don’t pretend the two of you are set to be married. I know everything that goes on in this town, including every word that’s uttered. You’re in this for yourself, Bular, and I won’t let Auria get caught in the middle of whatever it is your family has planned.”

His molars ground together right before a creak sounded behind me. Lander’s eyes shot over my shoulder. I looked back to find Auria standing in the hall, a hand on the doorframe. Instantly, I moved to her, offering my hand. She was weak, still healing, and we’d woken her.

“Let’s get you back to bed,” I murmured, gently wrapping a hand around her elbow, the other steadying her waist.

“You can leave us be,” Lander commanded behind me.

I ignored him, knowing if I reacted, I’d likely rip his throat out. The primal side of me wouldn’t leave these two alone with her in this state. So instead, I led Auria back into the room.

“I want to talk to him,” she croaked, her voice slightly raspy from sleep. She leaned into my touch, and I welcomed the feel of her.

Power surged beneath my skin in warning, but I ignored it. “Okay.”

I guided her to the bed, helping her ease down on the edge of it. Lander moved into the room, watching her with a hesitant eye. I gave her space, leaning against the wall at the head of the bed with my arms crossed. I wouldn’t be leaving him alone with her. He hadn’t directly injured her, but he was the reason she was out in those woods in the first place. He might as well have done the damage himself.

I glared at Lander. “Whatever you have to say, get it out and leave.”

“Call off your guard dog,” Lander said to Auria, eliciting a snort from me.

“How do I know you’re not a threat to her?”

Lander turned on me, nostrils flared.

“Stop.” Auria shoved off the bed, wobbling on her feet. “Please. Just stop.”

I wanted to go to her, wrap her up in my arms and never let go, but I stayed put against the wall.

She kept her stare on Lander, steadying herself on her own. “What do you want?”

He looked down at her, noticing she wore my shirt. His jaw pulsed. “Tell him to leave.”

“Whatever you have to say, you can do it in front of him.”

The corner of my mouth threatened to lift in a smirk as Lander sucked on his teeth, unpleased with my presence and the fact she’d just chosen me over him in this moment.

Finally, he dropped his fight. “Auria, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for you to get hurt. I didn’t know the wolves hunted during the day. I thought they only came out at night and that we’d be safe.”

Her lashes fluttered, and I could tell she wasn’t ready for this. The attack was all too fresh.

Lander moved forward and took her hand in his. My body tensed with the urge to slice every finger that touched her off his body. He lowered himself to one knee, and I nearly rolled my eyes at the dramatics. Though, it did send a bit of satisfaction coursing through me at the sight of him practically begging for forgiveness. I just hoped she wouldn’t give in.

She dipped her chin, looking down at him. Her hair was slightly mussed from slumber, my shirt hanging loosely around her upper thighs. Siara had helped me change her clothes while she had been passed out. The ones she wore before had been caked in blood, and I’d wanted nothing but to get her out of them as soon as she was healed enough for us to move her.

“Please know that it wasn’t my intention to leave you vulnerable out there.”

“It’s always a risk,” Auria whispered, pain laced in her words.

“I know. And I was an idiot for thinking it was safe to bring you to the mines.”

I arched a brow. The mines? Why would he have been taking her there?

“It’s safe if you take the proper precautions.” If Auria wanted to see them, I didn’t want her to fear the thought of ever visiting them. I’d take her, if she’d let me. “Your spur of the moment decision to take her out there with no backup, no proper weaponry, could have gotten you both killed. The forest is passable if you’re smart.”

“Are you calling me dumb?” Lander asked, dropping her hand as he stood to face me.

I shrugged. It was too easy to get under his skin. “If the shoe fits, Prince .”

“Leave.” Auria’s tone left no room for argument.

Lander shot her a questioning glance as I kept my eyes locked on him. One wrong move, and I’d sink a dagger in his throat and watch as the blood drained from the wound. “You heard her.”

He rolled his lips together, likely contemplating staying. “We’ll talk about this later.”

He turned on his heel, leaving me and Auria alone in the room. I watched as she stared at the door, wondering what she was thinking. Did she hate him? Forgive him? Want to end his life as badly as I did?

“Can I get you anything?” I shoved off the wall and dropped my arms to my sides.

She shook her head, sitting back on the bed almost as if in a trance. From feet away, my gaze caught on the tear that escaped her eye, rolling down her cheek to drip off her chin. In an attempt to hide it, she turned her head away from me. But out of everyone, I was the last person she needed to hide her emotions from.

I crossed to her, easing down to my knees, and gently grasped her chin between my thumb and pointer finger. I used my other hand to wipe another droplet away. “Don’t waste a single tear over him.” I held her eyes with my own, darting between the two, before coasting my gaze down to her shoulder, sliding down the pale skin of her arm as my hands fell to the bed on either side of her. Not long ago, she had been broken—dying in my arms. And she very well could have, had Vulcan not come to grab me in time.

What if he had been minutes later?

Seconds?

What if she had died before I arrived?

What if she never knew it was because her coward of a fiancé hadn’t a clue what to do to stop the bleeding or that he could attempt to remove the venom?

I was kidding myself, though. He wasn’t smart out in the world—only in his castle hidden away in Torbernite, where his parents and brother told him what to do and when. He wouldn’t have sacrificed his life for her, and that was the difference between him and me.

I’d give anything to keep Auria breathing, even if for just one more breath.

“Bowen—”

I snapped my focus back to her, finding her lips sealed shut, like she’d thought better of whatever she was about to say.

“What?”

She shook her head the slightest. “Nothing.”

As her cheek moved with the obvious sign that she was chewing on it from the inside, I could tell she was keeping something from me. But if she didn’t want to tell me, I’d let that be her secret to decide to share.

I had other concerns.

“Why was there glass littering your kitchen floor?”

Her forehead creased. “You were at the house?”

“Siara was. To grab some things for you. But she saw the mess and came straight back.”

She blinked, her hands intertwining together in her lap. “Right.”

I waited silently for her to go on. Maybe a glass had slipped through her wet fingers?—

“Paxon was there, waiting for me.”

Instantly, smoke flickered in my veins, prowling through my body with the urge to hunt. “When.”

She slackened slightly, leaning closer as she felt me go on alert. One glance at my arms and we’d see the graying veins as my magic feasted on the need to keep her safe.

“After you left me the other day.”

“Why didn’t you go back out and get me?” My voice was full of lethal calm, grating as I fought the impulse to go out there and find him myself.

She unclasped her hands, setting them on top of mine on either side of her. Slowly, I turned mine over so our palms touched.

“He wouldn’t have let me if I tried,” she said, defeat clear in her tone. I fucking hated it.

“I would have killed him if he so much as laid a hand on you.”

With the way she averted my gaze, I knew he’d done something.

“Where did he touch you?”

“Bowen—”

“Where, Auria?”

Her eyes turned pleading, and fuck, that look alone would’ve sent me to my knees if I wasn’t already there.

“It’s in the past, Bowen. I’ll clean the glass before I leave?—”

“I’m not worried about the fucking glass, Auria. I’m worried about you .”

The words left my tongue on their own accord, begging to be voiced.

A slight crease was etched between her brows as she processed my words, my mind doing the same. Admitting I was attracted to her—fine, that was nothing. But this admission felt like…more.

“I’m okay,” she whispered.

I stood, my hands opening and closing without her warm, delicate skin against mine. “You could have died.”

She got to her feet, no longer unsteady as she did. “I didn’t.”

“But you could have!” My voice boomed through the room, and I hated how it rose. Hated the things she brought out in me.

“I’m not made of glass!” she shot back.

I froze with only her in my vision. Is that what she thought? That she’d shatter under the wrong circumstances? She’d already overcome more than many could say in their lifetime, and she’d only gotten to live hers for a few weeks.

If Auria Tenere was anything, it was steel.

My hands fisted at my sides as I shoved my magic back down, erasing it from my veins. “You won’t break that easy, Princess.”

Her stiff shoulders eased the slightest, the smallest hint of a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth, and I thought maybe she believed me. Or maybe, she was starting to believe in herself.

“No, I won’t.”

And I knew now that she did.