Page 75 of Flameborne: Chosen (Emberquell Academy #1)

“No! You have to stop protecting me. None of them will respect me as long as they think I need you standing over me!”

“Bren…” His brow pinched to lines, but his eyes were sad.

Gentle. It made me want to throw myself into his chest, and that made my stomach clench.

“Faren should never have said the things he did. Those rumors, they’re unfounded.

The murmurings of jealous men—that’s all.

They aren’t a reason for you to struggle. There’s nothing wrong with needing—”

“Stop it! Don’t look at me like that!”

“Like what? Like I care?!” he said gruffly.

“Like I’m a… a child who needs to be comforted. I am not a child.”

He huffed. “Trust me, I’m aware,” he muttered, then blinked like he hadn’t meant to say it out loud.

My head jerked back and his eyes snapped to mine, both of us staring.

Something, right at the center of my chest, behind my heart, flipped when he stared like that.

My body swayed towards him of its own accord, but I caught myself.

Intended to turn my back, to cut off that gaze, to ignore the bloom of feeling—but I couldn’t.

I opened my mouth to tell him to leave, but no words came out.

Something hot and needy unfurled within me. Something I’d previously only felt for Ruin—until he’d stomped and kicked, and now it felt filthy.

“Bren,” Donavyn breathed, his voice low and ragged.

“I’m ruined,” I blurted, then clapped my hand over my mouth, the need coiling inside me turning to the ache of humiliation.

Donavyn’s eyes narrowed, his brows heavy and shadowing those beautiful eyes. “What?”

Oh God. But I needed him to stop looking at me like I was precious. He needed to know. Because once he did, that light would die, and… and that had to be the answer.

I swallowed and dropped my hands, gripping them together at my waist. “Faren wasn’t…” I swallowed hard. “I’m not a virtuous woman. So— ”

“Oh, Bren—” He stepped towards me, reaching out, and that was worse.

I stumbled back against Akhane who hissed at him and he drew up short, motioning to soothe her. I thought that would break the spell, but the moment she stopped hissing he looked at me again, and something in his gaze hooked right behind my ribs.

No.

“I am not the King’s whore. And I never will be. If that’s expected, I’ll—”

“No, Bren. Absolutely not. There is no man in this Kingdom to has a right to you—or should believe he does.”

I nodded, swallowing again. Relieved. “That’s good,” I stammered.

“But I believe men like Faren have a sense of women who…” My cheeks went up in flames and Donavyn clawed a hand through his hair.

I finally dragged my eyes from his because I couldn’t say these words with my soul open to him like that.

I raked a gaze down his body and spoke to his feet, Akhane’s broad leg at my back like a tree trunk.

“I’m not innocent, Donavyn. Some men can sense that.

I don’t invite them, but they think I’ll welcome them—I won’t!

” I said tightly, meeting his eyes just for that moment because it was important that he knew.

His Adam’s apple bobbed and that put a spear in my guts so I looked down again.

“I am not the King’s whore. But to most men I am no better—” My voice broke and I cut off, swallowing the pinch in my throat.

Donavyn’s chin dropped. I didn’t meet his eyes, but watched his feet and saw his weight shift. His posture tense.

He was angry.

Shit.

I swallowed again. “I have no desire for men,” I lied. “I’m not here to tempt a man. I just want to live my life and try—”

“Bren, don’t you dare .”

I shrank as he stormed towards me, closing those last feet between us and came to a jagged halt at my toes. I knew he’d be angry when he learned. But I hadn’t anticipated that he’d come at me.

“Bren—”

“I’m not going to—”

“Bren, look at me.”

I shook my head. “I already know the shame, you don’t have to tell me,” I whispered, putting a hand back to Akhane’s leg because I felt like I might fall. “I just want to fly and—”

“For God’s sake, Bren—none of that matters, and it’s not your fault!”

I frowned at his feet, barely breathing—then sucked in when his hand rose, one finger hooked under my chin and he pulled my head up.

He towered over me, hair falling around his face, those pale eyes piercing and locked on mine. The tension in him made the skin at the corners of his eyes crinkle. Between the hair and the shadows on his cheeks, his eyes burned bright and stopped my breath completely .

“Let’s be very clear on one point: I don’t give a shit about your past,” he said, searching my eyes.

“And any good man I know wouldn’t either.

No matter what you’ve done—or what’s been done to you.

The Flameborne are Chosen for a new life for a reason.

But nothing prepares you for this. Your past life is just that, your past. It isn’t what you’re measured on here.

And hear me, Bren: Faren shouldn’t have spoken the way he did.

If he, or any other man ever speaks to you that way again, you tell me.

I will make certain he is informed. I would do the same for Terra, or the women who set my fire and serve my meals.

You don’t need to earn a man’s respect. He should give it to prove his value to you . Yours is already apparent.”

I sucked in a breath, tears rising from nowhere. Why did those words cut me so deeply?

I pulled my chin out of his grip and turned away, but I drew up short because there was no room between him and Akhane’s leg, so I had nowhere to go. No way to escape.

“My value isn’t—”

“Your value is in your heart, and your mind, and your courage, Bren. Stop talking about yourself as if you’re lowborn. You are anything but. You’re fucking Chosen. Not just Chosen, you’re the first woman ever. Can’t you see what that means?”

I looked up at him instinctively, searching his eyes now because, no. I couldn’t.

“Akhane Chose me because I was trying to kill myself,” I said bluntly.

‘Bren, no. I told you.’

Donavyn blinked, then his eyes widened.

I set my teeth. “She knew I was—”

Akhane gave a strange, high call and Kgosi rumbled, shoving to his feet, head low and mouth open, groaning. Donavyn jerked to look at his dragon over his shoulder and I wondered if Kgosi would attack. But Donavyn only huffed.

“I know,” he said grimly, then looked back at me and his jaw was as tight as mine. “Kgosi wants me to make it very clear to you—you were not Chosen from pity. Akhane knew you before she saw you.”

‘It’s true, Little Flame.’

I clenched my teeth as a wave of doubt and self-loathing rolled through me. But Donavyn continued.

“He’s showing me, Bren. It was the grace of God that Akhane saw you in time—but she didn’t Choose you because you wanted to die.

She Chose you despite it,” he bit the word off, his teeth clenched and eyes blazing like he was angry.

“I ache that you were so deeply wounded, Bren. I wish—” He cut off suddenly as Kgosi’s head turned towards the stable door.

“What—”

Donavyn turned, raising a hand towards me. Then he cursed under his breath and whirled back to me .

“Tell your brothers what happened that day,” he said quietly, darkly.

“What?”

“Tell them,” he insisted. “They need to know.”

I frowned and opened my mouth—this had nothing to do with my brothers!—but just then, Ronen appeared in the doorway in a posture of submission towards Kgosi. Gill stepped up to his side a moment later. Then shadows moved in the corridor outside and the murmur of the others behind them.

“No,” I breathed. “I can’t—”

Donavyn leaned down, lowering his voice, his gaze intense. “You can. And you will. This lie you believe ends tonight. Your past means nothing. But your rebirth here? That’s important. And the only way you’ll ever learn that they can care, is if they know and remain. That’s an order, Bren,” he said.

His expression was blank. Tight. As if he fought to cover anger. But before I could think about what that might mean, Kgosi stepped aside and let my brothers enter.

I wanted to swear.

Donavyn straightened and backed away, his eyes deep pools of some emotion I couldn’t identify.

When he was a few steps away, he lifted one finger.

“An order,” he insisted as my heart fell to my toes.

Then he turned his back on me and marched towards the door, stopping to catch Ronen’s arm as they passed.

“Your sister has something important to say,” Donavyn said. “Listen.” Then walked away.

Ronen’s brows rose, but he nodded and turned back to me a look of concern on his face.

I glowered at Donavyn’s back, trying not to think about what he’d just ordered me to do. I thought he would leave, but he strode over to join Kgosi near the door, leaving the others to circle around me.

Akhane crooned again and I kept my hand back, resting on her leg, my breath growing shallow.

“What’s wrong?” Gil asked as they clustered in a half-circle around me. “What else happened?”

I shook my head and licked my lips. I couldn’t do this. Donavyn couldn’t truly expect me to—

“Apparently our sister has something to say,” Ronen said quietly, then turned to me. “Whatever it is, Bren. We’re here. We’ll listen. We have to. It’s an order,” he said with a small smile.

Well … fuck.