Page 22 of Shadows of Ruin (The Broken Prophecy #2)

Chapter 21

Kade

I felt her heartbeat through my shadows.

Erratic, frantic.

I came up behind her and she didn’t shy away. Inhaling slowly, I touched the small of her back and moved my arm to the front of her body.

“Breathe,” I whispered, like I’d done in the palace hallway in Brookmere.

She twisted around in my arms, makeup smudged from tears.

Fuck, this was my fault. Either for bringing her here or for dancing with so many women tonight.

I let my shadows envelop us before taking her hand and leading her into the gardens, away from prying eyes. I didn’t need anyone looking out one of the many windows from the great hall and seeing us together. I’d already done a pathetic job protecting her from my father, I needed to be more careful.

I wouldn’t do it by feeding the monster and ignoring her. It had been stupid to even think I could. I hadn’t accounted for my actions causing her any kind of pain, which made my decision to embrace the role I played in Mysthaven while she watched even worse.

She didn’t protest as I leaned her against a cool stone wall and took a few steps back. I let my shadows linger, since they somehow brought her comfort.

Who was I kidding? They’d fight me to stay by her even if I tried to reel them in right now.

She inhaled slowly, watching me, so I didn’t look away. She held my stare, finding that strength inside of her as she breathed in and out.

With her silence, I didn’t know what exactly had set her off. Sent her running out here. So I waited, letting the silence linger.

Maybe she needed another minute. Or a distraction. I could give her that. I thought back to when I had her pinned down after she trained with Storm. She’d yelled about how she’d opened up and I hadn’t. She was right.

I’d been too damn scared to open up to her when we were in Brookmere. One thing becoming clearer and fucking clearer—my Little Rebel owned my damn heart. After her surprising jealousy tonight, I let myself hope, for the first time since killing her father, that we might have a chance.

If I wanted to keep that chance, I’d have to share parts of myself with her that I’d kept secret for so long. Even if I loathed the idea.

“You’ve seen when my eyes change, when the monster inside of me takes over,” I said.

She tilted her head to the side, then nodded. “What is it?”

I crossed my arms, fingers brushing at the sleeve of my tunic. “I don’t know exactly. It’s a darker part of me.” I dropped my hands. “I’m in control of it most of the time, but there are times it’s harder to manipulate. It’s stronger here in Mysthaven than it was in Brookmere. At least until I met you. ”

I frowned thinking about how much less it affected me in Brookmere.

She shuddered out another breath. “Why?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Storm helped me try to control it. It’s exploded out of me a few times, which you have also seen. That change developed a few years ago. It’s dangerous.”

“You never seem to stay that way long though,” she said.

Little did she know even with Storm’s assistance, we could barely contain it. We’d discovered his fire could protect him and the others from it when it lashed out, but he’d never gotten it to disappear. Not like she did.

Tell her.

I stepped forward toward her. “When you touch me, I feel you through it. The darkness doesn’t last, almost like it can’t.”

Her lips parted. “Like tonight.”

I nodded, so close now I could take her in my arms. Fates, I wanted to hold her, touch her, claim her, but not until she wanted it. Not after everything I’d done.

“Giving in to it felt like the only way to get through this,” I confessed. “I’m a fool. Hiding everything I feel from the king seemed like the most important thing, because if he finds out how I feel about you, Little Rebel, he’ll break me by using you.”

“Don’t say things like that,” she said. Her gaze went to my lips, then back to my eyes.

“Like what? That you mean something to me?”

She nodded. “I can’t. I don’t know if I can trust you completely. You clearly have other duties here. I live in an entirely different world. It could never work. Besides, you almost kissed someone else.”

I stared at her. Was that what made her flee? Did she think I could stand the thought of someone else touching me? “That almost sounds like you care.”

Her eyes flared before narrowing on me .

I couldn’t help but smile as I lifted her chin with my forefinger. “I don’t know why, but your jealousy makes me want to do terrible things, Little Rebel.” I took one last step, closing all space between us as her back pressed into the wall. “Delicious things.”

She shoved me in the chest, pushing me away. “I should hate you.”

Her soft floral scent washed over me, making me instantly fucking hard. I’d noticed it the first time I stood close to her, and now, it haunted me. The intoxicating sweet smell lingering on her skin as if she’d just walked through a damn garden. It reminded me of spending time out here back when my mother was still living.

Lana had no idea the pull I felt toward her, the desire. It was a damn miracle I could function in her presence.

I’d shoved it all down since we fled Ellevail, suffering as I deserved until that spark of hope ignited tonight.

“Having you here, seeing you with my father today, I panicked. I thought maybe I'd show my own indifference. I danced with everyone he wanted me to, hoping it might take his focus from you. I have been fucking terrified thinking about what he said to you, thinking about what happened today. When you showed up at the battle with him, I thought I might destroy the entire colosseum.”

She frowned. “Why?”

How could she not see it? Feel this?

I sighed, running a hand through my hair and stepping farther away, giving her more space. “He could hurt you with no remorse. I’m trying to protect you. You don’t know what he’s capable of.”

She shifted against the wall. “Maybe you should have thought about that before dragging me here.”

“You’re right.”

Lana blinked, surprise flittering on her face. “Well, maybe this birthday isn’t total shit after all. Hearing you say I’m right was as good as any gift.”

“Birthday?” I asked, horrified at how she had to spend her day.

She nodded. “Twenty-third.” She ran her hands over her arms, rubbing them gently.

My shadows crawled up, copying the movements, and she smiled down at them.

“Well, I'll need to get you a gift, obviously,” I teased. “What would the Princess of Brookmere want most?”

Leaning her head against the wall, she closed her eyes, worrying her lip between her teeth. Fuck, I wanted it to be my teeth on her lips.

“I want a distraction.” She sighed and looked at me again. “To not be in my head and worried or angry or grieving for one minute.”

I stepped toward her, willing to do all that and more, but she hesitated. The pause crossed her features, creasing her brow.

“You don’t trust me.” It wasn’t an accusation, merely me trying to gauge how best to give her what she wanted.

She pursed her lips. “I don’t know what I feel,” she whispered.

I looked at my shadows, still caressing her arms and wrapped around her legs, and smiled. “But you trust my shadows.”

She glanced down at them, her frown deepening. “I guess it’s— I know it’s strange, since they’re you, but I think we both know they have a mind of their own.”

I retreated to the railing of the balcony and leaned against it, settling in. Willing my shadows didn’t take much since they had always been drawn to her. One of the tendrils gliding up her arm shifted into a shadowy hand and grazed up and around her breast, to her neck and into her hair.

Lana let out a small gasp. Her damn perfect piercing blue eyes stared me down, daggers in their own right. I felt her gaze sear every part of me.

“I have an idea, Little Rebel,” I suggested. Fuck, my cock was hard, straining against my pants already, just thinking about what I could do to her. Do for her. “Do you want my shadows to give you your distraction?”

Another hand formed and caressed her stomach, while the shadows around her legs teased her dress higher.

She closed her eyes.

“Ah, ah,” I said pausing their exploration. In this, we were one, my shadows and me, without a need to fight or battle for dominance. “I need you to tell me you want it. Tell me yes.”

She nodded.

“Out loud, Illiana.”

Her gaze snapped to mine, and the need reflecting back threatened to bring me to my damn knees.

“Yes.”

I swallowed, gripping the railing to keep from getting any closer. I didn’t think after everything that had happened I’d ever get to touch her again. This was beyond my wildest dreams.

Even if she didn’t fully trust me, the sliver of hope remained that she might one day fully forgive me. She might let me all the way in. But for now? For now, I’d take this as the precious fucking gift it was and give her exactly what she needed. And then some.

My shadow reached behind her hair and pulled it back, exposing her neck. Long tendrils whispered down her skin. A barely there caress. Just enough to send goosebumps down her body at my phantom touch. Fates, her skin was soft.

Lana let out a hushed moan, eyes fluttering closed again as my other shadows rose higher and higher, tracing the inside of her thigh.

“More. Now,” she begged.

“Patience, Little Rebel. ”

I commanded the shadows to slowly circle around Lana’s wrists, stretching them above her head and pinning them in place against the stone wall.

Her eyes flew open, as she realized she was now trapped, unable to move.

“Look at me,” I said. She obeyed and I resisted the urge to go to her, to beg on my knees before her to listen to my words. “They will never hurt you. I will never hurt you. Never again.”

She inhaled and exhaled a slow breath, then nodded.

I willed the shadows formed beneath her dress to continue, changing from whispery tendrils into a hand. If it wasn’t going to be my hand, then at least my shadows could feel her orgasm around them.

Shifting, I clutched my own thigh, completely off kilter watching Lana give herself over to my shadows.

The shadow hand coaxed her legs apart, and pushed her satin underwear to the side, not like there was much there to begin with.

The cool whisper of the evening air across her entrance elicited the most intoxicating moan from her, and I had barely begun

This will be fun.

A shadow finger slowly edged its way inside of her. She was wanting and ready, and I shuddered feeling how eagerly she awaited more through my shadows. She watched me, just as I watched her, and a fire sparked in her gaze. This woman would be the death of me, thoroughly, truly, and I couldn’t bring myself to care.

I’d give her whatever she wanted and then some. So long as I could be the one she looked at like that.

The finger began to meticulously stroke inside of her, while other tendrils of shadow snaked around her body, massaging her clit as she shook against the wall.

A shiver of pure desire jolted through me. The way my shadows glided in and out of her so fucking perfectly nearly brought me to my damn knees.

I gripped the marble of the balcony to the point of pain, willing myself to remain in place. If I allowed myself to move one inch, it would send me into a spiral. One I may not be able to come back from.

No, be still. Feel her beneath your shadows. Let her have everything she needs.

I sent more shadows out from me to play with her breasts, all while others still pinned her arms above her head. I grinned in anticipation, remembering just how much she enjoyed when my tongue greedily devoured her nipples, so I sent shadows there, flicking and pinching them. Suddenly, my coil of control over my shadows loosened, and they took over, but we were of one mind so completely, I didn’t need to urge them to do my bidding. Giving her the most pleasure possible was the goal. For both of us.

My shadows were unwavering in their need to claim what was theirs.

Claim what was ours .

More and more, the shadows stroked, building her to her peak.

“Please, Kade,” she whimpered. “Please.”

“I know.” I couldn’t look away as she writhed against the wall. “Stay with me.”

My grip remained unyielding, threatening to crack the marble. Fates, the need to touch her, to be inside of her, overpowered my senses. As if detecting my slip in control, the shadow finger left her and she gasped in anger.

I could feel how close she was to finishing. Her rage snapped me back to the present, and before she had time to revel in it, I directed the shadows to plunge inside of her once more, this time shaped more like me, filling her in the way I so desperately longed to. Her moans deepened as she arched her back, straining against the hold the shadows had her in .

“Yes, yes, yes.” Her cries were like air, and I needed more. I needed to hear her come.

A few more pumps, and Lana screamed my name, riding out her pleasure on my shadows. I sent a torrent of them around her to muffle the sound from anyone too close to the gardens. This was mine .

Her pleasure, her satisfaction radiated through me, through the shadows. All of it, mine.

My cock painfully strained against my pants, begging to be set free. I would have to find my own release tonight. The sound of her coming would be my muse. A sound permanently ingrained in my brain.

Back fully in my control, I released the shadows from her hands and moved her undergarments and dress back into place as she stood there, panting.

Smoothing the fabric of her dress, I could see she struggled to gather her thoughts. I watched as her walls built back up in her mind.

I wanted to keep her here with me, in an unguarded moment, even if that desire revealed how selfish I was.

“Distracted?” I asked.

She left the wall, walking toward me and hesitantly placed her hand on my chest. Warmth spread over me, radiating outward at her contact.

I leaned down, unable to stop myself from placing a kiss on the top of her head. She leaned into me, so slightly I didn't know if she realized she’d done it, but I clung to that feeling. Just as I would cling to this memory.

“Happy birthday, Little Rebel.”

She dropped her hand and took a step back, lips parting and then shutting again.

“Good night, Kade,” she whispered.

She retreated back toward the ballroom, and I walked forward, collapsing against the very wall I’d held her against, desperate to revel in the scent of her .

We would be okay. I’d make sure of it. We’d go to Cassandra, figure out what to do here with the prophecy, and then?—

Then I’d take her to her kingdom, win it back, and spend the rest of my life proving I loved her.

Fates, I loved her. More than anything and in ways I didn’t even think possible. Which meant nothing would stand in my way of giving her whatever she needed.

I put my hand over my chest, vowing silently to myself. I’d use the monster inside of me in any way, every way if it meant making sure this world would be safe for her again. Safe for us.

No matter what.