[Kian] Carys was drenched in sweat. She clenched her fists in a desperate attempt to hide the trembling of her hands. A past so wrecked the only way her mind coped up with it was by making her forget all those excruciating memories. I couldn’t even imagine how broken she would be after being rescued from her own mother. No wonder she never talked about her childhood and whenever she did, it was always about her father. The mere thought of her enduring such a dark past was heart-wrenching. It pained me to even imagine a weak, scared, vulnerable kid going through all that. How heartless one had to be to torture their own child and for what? “Mate bond’s not ours? What does that even mean?” she asked. King Elysar looked at her, but didn’t reply. He was lost in his thoughts for a few seconds. “Fine.” He said, getting up. “Would you mind coming with me? There’s something I think you should see and it might make more sense to you because honestly, I am not a genius and as a two hundr
[Kian]“Wait, you can read this?” Carys asked Alpha King.“Yes,” King Elysar said.I looked at the foreign letters on the pages of that book. “What language is this?” I asked.“Faemorish,” Carys said. “Ruin said it was an extinct language. How do you know it?” Carys contemplated King Elysar.“Oh. Well…” he cleared his throat. “I am old. I know stuff you guys don’t.”Carys narrowed her eyes, examining King Elysar.“It might just be a rumor, but people say the Neutral zone was enchanted by fae magic. In case it’s true, how did you get access to fae magic? Because that too went extinct centuries ago,” Carys said. “And if you deny it, then how would you explain the decrease in the Alphas’ powers when they enter the Neutral zone? Making you the Alpha King, the most powerful.”“Carys…” I held her elbow. She looked at me over her shoulder and then glanced back at the King.“I didn’t mean to put it offensively. I am just trying to make sense of everything, like you said, Alpha King. I know e
[Carys] “If this folktale has any truth, and the Bond is actually evolving, then we might be in a little greater danger than we already were with all those deaths and disappearances and deforestation…” Alpha King tightened his jaws, letting out a frustrated sigh. Deforestation? Where did that come from? “What do you mean?” Kian asked. “Well… you see. Emrys wasn’t able to save Moratia. Her existence was wiped off from the world because of the moon goddess’ deceit. And while the goddess sliced Emrys apart alive. With every severing of his limbs, he pledged that he would return. Stronger. And when he does in the name of love and justice, he would destroy everything and everyone precious to the moon goddess before obliterating her forever.” A haunting silence hung in the air until Alpha King got up. “But this is all a crappy myth! Nothing else! It can’t be! Never! Absolutely ridiculous! I don’t believe that crap! I’ll never believe that crap!” he grunted frustratingly. “I’ll excuse m
[Kian]She looked nervous and, for some reason, Zarek had become extremely restless.I placed my hand on her shoulder. “Carys, you can talk to me about anything. You can trust me to understand you,” I said, holding her gaze.She bit her lips and nodded.“The thing is, during the duel, I almost killed him…” she said, her eyes restlessly moving around. “My dagger pierced right through his heart and he sort of died for a few seconds. His breathing had stopped and… I panicked. I didn’t know what to do. If he died, I would have been stuck in his ice castle forever, so…” she took a deep breath. “He is a half vampire, so I thought maybe my blood could do something to help him?”“O—k?”“I pulled out the dagger and while I was doing it, I felt like I had turned into ice inside out. Like my heart had frozen. I felt cold and numb and… strange. But as soon as the dagger was out of his heart, all of that stopped and… he pinned me down and… well…”I grabbed her arm with a surging impatience, “and
[Carys] “You have a thing for criminals, love?” He whispered in my ear. I shut my eyes, shaking my head. “There is no crime I wouldn’t commit for you — to you.” Something irrationally dark and dangerous brewed in my chest at his words because I knew he didn’t mean them romantically or poetically. He meant every ounce of darkness held in those words. “I know,” I said. I was pinned under the gravity of his darkening gaze. The way he could make my mind and heart go delirious within seconds was scary. With needs far beyond the scope and boundaries of morality. Because at that moment, I instantly imagined him committing all the sick crimes to me, taking me in all the illegal ways right against that bookshelf. Forget about the forbidden, I yearned to be a victim of his sins. I quickly shoved off those intrusive thoughts, but they had already mixed with his words and his breaths and I was already poisoned. All that was left was to die at his hands. The heat of his body ignited every
[Carys]We shared the light and the winds that slowly carried away with them the crushing weight on my chest. “I love you, Kian,” I whispered again. “But I really don’t know what to do about it.” Tears trailed down my eyes as I took in a shaking breath. “It’s not like in the end of all this we can just get married, have kids and get our happily ever after.” My voice quivered. “Even you know it’s not possible. So tell me, what do I do with this love? There is no way for us, Kian.” He held my hands, sliding them off himself as he faced me. “What if I say there was a way?” He said. “The first time I wasn’t prepared. I wasn’t strong enough to protect you from the world, from my father. But now, things are different. I will have the power and the resources even when I turn into a rogue…” “No,” I interrupted him. “But—” “No!” I looked into his eyes with half tears and half fury. “No. Just no. This is exactly why I didn’t want to say those words. These three words scare me more than dea
[Carys] A group of people were waiting for us in the conference hall of AAC HQ. “Told you. You won’t be doing this alone,” Alpha King looked at the people. “We are all on your side.” Liam was having a conversation with Levi, and a well-built man who stood beside him. Dominic and Ash were discussing something. Somehow Verity had reached before we did and was subtly staring at Nox, who timidly sat in his chair, not even lifting his eyes. There were several other people whom I didn’t recognize. Their eyes instantly turned towards us as we entered the hall. The same hall where I had faced my trials of being a traitor. The same hall where those same eyes were filled with doubt and suspicion. Just how fast the night ironically changes. The hall rose to its feet, greeting Alpha King. King took his seat. Kian pulled out a chair for me. I passed a nervous glance at everyone around the table. Almost all of their attention was on Kian and me. The hesitation was still there. The fear of b
[Carys] “If you want to keep up with the updates on SW and someday wish to find Morana, you will take this,” Verity said. She was trying to convince Nox to take the phone in a hostile, threatening tone. “But I don’t know h-how to use it,” Nox said timidly. “Oh, you fool. Look here! This is for calls and this is for messages. This is all our contacts, and this is for checking the group messages. We’ll be using international communication until our private communication comes into action. All you need to do is recharge it from time to time…” “That is an extra expense every month. I don’t have gold to waste on that. I don’t want it. If the captain finds out I took this from you, she will be very mad. I am only in this until I find my captain. After that, I am off with her on the sea for good. Never coming on land again. Captain was right all along. People on the land drown faster than the ones who sail on the sea. We shouldn’t have stayed on the land for so long—” “Take the fucking p