Page 55 of Enchanted Shadows (The Enchanted Kingdom #6)

She turned to look at him and simply said, “No promises,” before attacking me again.

I deflected all five of her advances, beautifully placed and thrown. Two of which were at my head. Where the hell had all of this been when we’d been forced to fight before?

“Fight me!” she yelled. “Fight. Me.”

“No,” I said softly, even as my sword met hers, ruining her beautiful swing.

She again got her sword free and took a step back, her chest heaving. “Fight me, please? Anything but you avoiding me.”

“Kessara.”

“Why are you doing this to me? To us? Fight me!”

Seeing her clear anguish made me feel about an inch tall. I thought I had been working through things on my own, but apparently, I’d just made everyone around me as miserable as I’d felt. So I blurted out the honest answer. “Because Calix is right.”

That stopped her entirely. “What?”

“We didn’t bond. Because of me. Because we didn’t get married traditionally. And if we had, then you never would’ve had to fight your way out of Agria on your own.”

“I didn’t fight them on my own,” she whispered. “You were there. Every step of the way. You didn’t take your hands off me.”

“I was there, distracted and not myself. And we were there, in that very clearing, because of how desperate I was to fix things with you. All of it is my fault, Kess. All of it. And I can’t get past it. That my decisions almost cost you your life.”

That stilled her entirely, I wasn’t sure she was even blinking.

“Add that on the worst moments, there is a thread of doubt that seeps in and wonders. Wonders if Calix isn’t right. That you know in your heart you wanted to be bonded to him. That you still want him and not the man you find yourself married to for convenience’s sake.”

Her eyes flashed with anger then. “Are you truly this moronic?”

“I—” Was I? “Yes?”

“I have been attracted to you from the very start, and I don’t know how you didn’t see it. All your brute strength, you can choke a man with your bare hands if you merely got the whim, but instead, you lead with a tenderness and kindness that defies your exterior.”

I couldn’t form a thought while she carried on.

“I don’t want to bond with Calix. Maybe once I considered it, but even back then, when I actually did have real feelings for him, I didn’t want to give that piece of me to him.

He could take my body and have my hand in marriage, but he didn’t deserve the possibility of two Enchantments and the responsibilities that come along with them.

” She must have seen something on my face she didn’t like because she snapped, “I do not still have feelings for Calix. If I did, I wouldn’t have tried to kill him. ”

I had no idea what to say. “Oh.”

“Yeah ‘oh.’ And just as you reminded me repeatedly that what I was forced to do in Agria for my brother was not all my fault, I will do the same for you. Not all of what went down in Agria is your fault. Not telling me you were going to offer me the crown, yes. That is entirely your fault.”

“Kess,” I began. “I’m?—”

“I’m not done. You know what else is entirely your fault?

The way you kiss me. The way you constantly check on me.

The way my eyes and hands want to constantly touch you.

The way I worry about you so much that I cannot breathe.

The way that this silly marriage was supposed to be fake and hasn’t been for a long damn time! ”

I ceased breathing but felt it all, right between my ribs. A fall breeze rushed in to cool my sweat and remind me that I was, in fact, still alive. That this was real life after all. Was she saying what I thought she was saying? “Give me something real, Kess.”

“I love you!” she put her hands out at her sides, one still holding the sword. “Dammit, I love you!”

I was moving before she was done. I’d noted that sometime in our arguing and fighting, Miles had apparently decided that Kessara was not going to maim me and left.

Good. In possibly the fastest move of my life, I made all space between us vanish as I crashed into her, kissing her soundly.

She was the one to bring us back to reality, gently tugging on my hair and removing her lips from mine long enough to ask, “Are you done? Avoiding me?”

I let out a sigh but refused to move my hands from her. “I never wanted to, honey. I was bogged down by guilt over how things went down in Agria, that paired with how I feel like you deserve your freedom from all of this, even me, made me in a foul mood.”

“I am free here,” she stated. “I joined the team. I helped Artem. I am trying to... heal. ”

“We didn’t get married because we were in love,” I argued. “So I still feel as if I’m caging you. The last thing I would ever want to do to someone I love. ”

“We didn’t get married because we were in love,” she agreed. “But we found it all the same. I am free here, and with that freedom, I choose to love you. With everything that I am.”

“I love you . And I’m also about to kiss you disrespectfully,” I warned.

She cocked her head in challenge. “Make it count, Commander.”