Page 54 of The Gathering

Bala and Nyssa exchanged a look, and together they shook their heads at him. “You’re adorable when you want to be,” Bala teased.

“You can’t actually tell him that,” Nyssa argued.

Dorian cleared his throat. “To Kings, then?” he asked.

“And Queens,” Nyssa said.

Dorian grinned. “And Queens.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

“I LOVE YOU.”

Aydra’s voice echoed in Draven’s mind. The entire moment was on replay. The look in her dilated eyes. How the glinting lightning had bounced off her crown from outside. How thunder had rocked his core as she said those three words. Three words he wasn’t sure he’d ever expected to hear from her.

Three words that would turn their worlds upside down.

She loved him.

Draven’s heart was whole as he stepped out of Aydra’s room, still holding onto her hand, and he turned to face her—taking in her enticing figure again in the tight-fitting dress she wore, the gold lightning popping off around her hips and her breasts and her neck.

She was more stunning than any sunset or sunrise he’d ever seen.

As he leaned forward to kiss her cheek, he said, “Don’t let the Blackhands charm you before I’ve arrived.”

The once-over she gave him nearly made him throw her over his shoulder and rip that dress to shreds in pursuit of her again.

Her smile bared as she bit her bottom lip. “Find me for a dance later,” she said, teasing and mystery in her tone that made his stomach knot.

“A dance?” He nearly balked.

She couldn’t be serious.

Not a dance with him in the middle of the grand banquet, with every meaningful Dreamer and council member and the rest of the leaders of every race of Haerland watching. His chest warmed, a restlessness in his extremities, as he wondered what she had planned.

She’d just said she loved him… She couldn’t actually be thinking of telling the entire kingdom…Could she?

He glanced fleetingly back to Lex as he said, “I hope the scribes have their quills ready,” resisting the urge to smile. “We’re re-writing history tonight.”

“No,” Aydra said, confidence and provocation rising in her eyes. “We’re breaking the Chronicles at the spine.”

Sometimes he wondered how he had gone so long without loving her.

He grabbed her at an instant, kissing her hard and hoping she could feel as she made him feel.

He held her face in his hand when he pulled back, and he couldn’t help himself from saying, “I fucking love you,” in a desperate rasp, and then he kissed her hard again. It took everything in him not to drop to one knee right there, but he decided to wait.

Nadir and Hagen were arguing in the courtyard when Draven found them. He was still on a high from his afternoon, still in a daze and hearing her words. So when his friends parted from their wrestling—in which Hagen had his arm wrapped tight around Nadir’s throat, and Nadir was bent over, struggling under his grasp as Hagen tried to free Nadir’s hair from its bun—Draven hardly noticed.

“There’s the big guy,” Hagen teased, only looking up and noticing his approach.

Nadir swiped the opportunity to whip Hagen over his shoulder, but Hagen dragged him down with him, and Draven ended up standing over the grunting pair as they groaned in pain on the ground.

He shoved his hands in his pockets and shook his head between them.

“Fucking bastard—“ Hagen grunted.

Nadir was quicker on his feet, and he managed a slap on Hagen’s face before jumping up and rushing back on the other side of Draven—Hagen fast in stumbling to his own feet, cursing the Commander while a grin spread on Nadir’s face.