Page 36 of The King has Fallen (The Kingdom of the Krow #1)

~ MELEK ~

I stared at that screen in the cage, my wits scrambled and mind spinning from Gault’s maneuvering. I knew what she was implying, but it had to be a trick of some kind and I was watching for it, not for her, but for the movement of the cage or the screens or—

Ahem.

I almost leaped out of my skin, whirling, reaching instinctively for one of my blades before I’d even returned to earth, every hair on my body standing straight—and every instinct shrieking alarm when I found her standing demurely behind me, her hands clasped in front of her, and her chin low, but eyes up on me.

And only slightly smug.

“What… the actual… fuck?” I breathed, then I blinked as it came to me. She was making me see her.

I growled and folded my arms. “This is another of your visions. A very good trick, Yilan, and one that you’ll probably need to use to escape now, but—”

“No, Melek. This is real.”

Her face was solemn, her knuckles white where she clamped her hands together, and I realized she was stopping herself from shaking.

“Walking the shadows is… I am very adept at it. While you slept at night I walked the camp and listened and spied and…” she lifted her hands and kind of shrugged. “I’m not lying to you.”

I gaped at her, empty headed. Utterly speechless.

It was a trick. It had to be—a manipulation of my mind.

“I can tell you that Gault has his own spies. They aren’t as good as me, but they’re good. He also knows the men follow you. And he’s growing more and more jealous. All these efforts to show himself up next to you, to set you up for failure… they are not by chance. And they are not for any other purpose. He knows. And he’s working against you. I’m certain the Shade was his, though it is the one part I cannot prove. He is… You were right that he is not stupid. But he is made foolish by his own pride. And his gluttony for power. He is already King. He already conquered most of the continent. And now he’s coming for you. You cannot let him win. If not for yourself, then for the rest of us.”

Unable to take my eyes from her, certain she would pull another trick, and—despite myself—convinced that she spoke truth. I shook my head.

She took a step closer to me, then another, until she stood at my toes, her head craned back to meet my eyes.

“I’m telling you the truth. All of it. I vowed to you that I would not break my word, and I haven’t. I haven’t escaped. And I have not used my knowledge against you. I… I cannot. I could not without hurting myself,” she breathed.

She was impossible. She was infuriating.

She was incredible.

I couldn’t find words. I clawed a hand into my hair and blew out the breath that was making my ribs creak, still just staring at her, yearning to reach for her, and frightened to as well—what if it was an illusion? What if I’d fallen to her in my mind?

“I’m not lying, Melek,” she whispered, her brows pinching and eyes beginning to shine. “Everything I’ve told you is true. I… I am here. I need to know what you’re going to do.”

I shook my head. “I truly do not know,” I croaked.

Her throat bobbed. “What… what do you want?”

I was so far beyond anything comprehendible, I just shook my head and groaned. “You.”

Her eyes went wide, and the dam broke on my tongue.

“Yilan, I cannot give you into his hands—not for a moment. He is ruthless, brutal, and utterly without conscience. And you… you are my mate.”

She sucked in a breath and took a step back, but I followed her.

“I saw it that night at the lake, and I think you see it too, but you don’t want to. You’ve been denying the inevitable and it has brought us here. Don’t you see? Can’t you feel it? Of course you can, I know you can—stop telling yourself it is anything other than—”

“Lust. Lust is not a bond—”

“This is not simple lust!” I snarled and she continued to back away from me, but I did not let her retreat. I followed her, snaking a hand around her waist and keeping her there, though she leaned back and her hands came up to my chest as if she’d push me away.

But she didn’t.

She just stared.

Terrified.

And I had to know… Was my mate terrified of me? Or of the situation in which we found ourselves? Because she had me by the balls and she didn’t even realize it.

“Stop thinking , Yilan,” I hissed. “Stop reacting in your fear and just… measure this. If there is truly a soulbond between us—which I am certain there is—we will never be free of it. We can face it together or apart. But we cannot pretend it doesn’t exist.”

“I… this isn’t… you can’t just—”

Unable to resist, I reached up, cupping her jaw with both hands and opening my mouth against hers—softly this time. Not the deep, demand of lust, though that fire blazed in my belly. This was a question, a taste, a request.

Lips open and hovering over hers, I sighed into her mouth and barely traced her tongue with mine.

She sucked in and froze, but did not pull away, and so I did it again.

I kissed her not as a conquest, not even as a lover.

I kissed her as the precious twin to my soul that she was.

And to my delight, she melted against me, her breath short and sharp, but her kiss soft, tentative, questioning.

“Yilan,” I breathed, “please.” Fighting myself for restraint, I slid one hand into her hair, and the other around her waist, pulling her against me, pinning her to me, and deepening the kiss.

And, joy of joys, she responded, arching back over my hand on her spine, the skin on her neck pebbling, and opening her mouth.

Her hands slid up my chest to lace behind my neck, her nails digging into my skin, but even that bite was a desperate pleasure.

I rumbled, arching her backwards and leaning over her, unable to be close enough, my body quivering like a boy, desperate with need.

I felt the moment she accepted me, felt the thrill of her body turning liquid in my arms, and the delight of her needy whimper. Felt the shift in my chest, as if a piece of my heart had been nudged aside to make room for something—a warm presence still coyly hidden in shadow. But present now. Making itself known.

I groaned again and dove for her throat when her head tipped back and she let me take her weight—her featherweight. There was nothing to her at all, which was terrifying, and also so fucking admirable. She was a little wisp of nothing, yet she kept me thinking, kept me moving, continued to surprise me.

Mate.

Soulbond.

Mine.

She gasped when I nipped at her neck and her nails dug harder into the back of my neck, pulling me closer. I chuckled and kissed my way up to her throat, the corner of her jaw, the nipped at her ear before whispering.

“It has been torment listening to you breathe every night, knowing how close you are and what I would do to you if you were willing.”

Her breath caught and she dropped one hand to the side of my leg, drawing her fingers up slowly in a way that set my blood on fire, but also reminded me of the danger that she was in. That we were both in.

I made myself take her face in my hands and lift my head to meet her eyes, staring down at her, pleading with her to trust me. To hear me.

“Yilan, you are in danger even I cannot be certain to protect you from. The bond… the bond exists. If he were to take you—or kill you… I could not survive it,” I croaked.

She blinked, her eyes, which had been glazed with lust, now wide and wary. She searched my gaze as desperately as I’d searched hers moments before.

“I will not leave you with the King—and that statement alone is tantamount to treason. Do you hear me, Yilan? You must escape before I leave. You must. Walk the shadows, kill the guards, whatever is needed, you must be away from here, and soon. If he changes his mind—”

“I cannot simply walk out of here, Melek,” she whispered hoarsely, then cleared her throat, still staring at me. “It takes a great deal of power to move as I just did—I can only do it for short distances. And I am not invisible to anyone who knows how to look. And besides… you push me to accept that there is a bond between us, then insist that I leave you?”

“There is no other choice!” I growled.

“Yes, there is!” she hissed. “You could lead. You could control. You could take the Nephilim in a new direction—”

“God, you don’t get it at all, do you?!” I growled, releasing her so that she stood straight, though I couldn’t step away, my body wouldn’t allow it. “So intelligent, so certain of your path—but so fucking stubborn. Think it through, Yilan!”

“I have! That’s why—”

“You draw so much from half a word and a second look, and you stay blind to this? I tried to let you see it, tried to make it clear: I cannot defy the King. He is Gall’s true father and he knows how much I care about the boy. He knows I would never leave him to… to this,” I spat. “The moment he gets so much as a hint that I am working against him, he will take Gall and hold him. He will not kill him. Only torment him—just to get to me.”

She blinked and took a deep breath. “I did… I did gather that.”

“Then why do you—?”

“It just means we need to take Gall with us.”

I jerked. She couldn’t mean…? “We?”

She nodded quickly. “We. Us.”

I could barely breathe. “So… you sense it? You admit—”

“I sense the most terrifying thing I’ve ever experienced, Melek,” she whispered. “And instead of sending me into a panic, it… it lights up my heart.”

God, the joy that coursed through me then was—

“And… it cannot be,” she breathed.