Thirty-One
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Dianna. The Guild in Arariel.
M y head snapped back as I jolted awake. I blinked, and a white room
rushed into focus. My feet rested flat on the floor, but heavy steel
cuffs engraved with cobalt blue runes and thick chains kept my arms stretched above me. Alright, so I wasn’t dead then. I groaned, blinking at the bright lights as I turned my head and tilted my chin, trying to make sense of the large blurry figure in front of me. A guardian from another world? Maybe I was dead. Another blink, and my vision cleared.
Samkiel.
I snorted, rattling the chains above me. “Bondage, huh? I don’t remember seeing this in your memories.”
“You haven’t been through all my memories, akrai, or you’d know of the four-armed beauty of Tunharan. Now that was bondage.”
A growl slipped past my lips; one I had no control over. Samkiel’s brow rose, and he didn’t try to hide his grin as he stepped closer to the ring.
“Does that bother you?”
“The only thing that bothers me is that you and your friends are still breathing.” I hissed.
“Terrible liar, Dianna. You truly are a terrible liar.”
I jerked against the chains. My limbs still felt heavy, and I was so tired.
“I’ll rip your tongue from your skull.”
“Will you kiss me like that again while you do it?”
I slumped, replaying what I could recall of the last few hours. The map burning, my infinite rage, him and that damned armor, fighting, and that kiss. A kiss laced with magic.
“You poisoned me. I guess we have both changed.”
Samkiel kept his hands behind his back as he stared down at me.
“Not poison. It did not hurt. Quite the opposite, actually. It was merely a sleeping spell I had Camilla tweak. She designed it so it could only be activated by saliva, which meant you had to kiss me back for it to work.”
“I think the spell was defective because you are clearly delusional if you think I would ever kiss you again.”
“We can try again if you wish. I could send them away.” He stepped aside, revealing the familiar cerulean bars and Cameron and Xavier beyond, standing guard in their tactical gear. “Would you prefer that? Then see who kisses who first? Or they can stay if you prefer an audience?”
I tugged at my chains and snapped my teeth at him. “Wouldn’t your betrothed be upset if you kissed another woman?”
“There’s my jealous girl.”
“I’m not jealous,” I hissed, jerking forward hard enough that the chains bit into my wrists.
“Very convincing.” Samkiel lowered his head toward me. I pulled back but didn’t get far, his breath tickling the hairs near my ear. “Gods, you have no idea what it does to me to know you care just as strongly for me as I do for you. What’s that word you like to use so much? Oh, yes. You fucked up, Dianna. You kissed me back, which means my Dianna is still in there, buried under all that grief and hate. I will stop at nothing to have you back again. Nothing.”
Samkiel reached for my hand, slipping the ring off my finger so slowly it sent a tremor through every part of my body. A simple touch from him, and I felt more than I had in months from strangers. I tried to hide the soft breath that left my lips at his touch, but from how he looked at me, heat flaring in his eyes, turning them a brilliant silver, I knew I’d failed.
He stepped back, twirling the ring Camilla had made for me between his fingers before closing it in his hand. My body ached with the loss of his heat.
“I have a guild along with half the city to rebuild and several continents of mortals with questions. Cameron and Xavier will be your guards until I return, and then we are going to the remains of Rashearim. There, I can hold you, and you won’t be able to hurt anyone, least of all yourself.”
“Am I to be executed then, god king?”
A smug smile curved his damn lips. “You know my name. Say it.”
“No.”
“Then you’ll get no answers from me.” He turned to leave.
“You’re a coward.” I jerked and leaned forward, the chains rattling as they tightened around my wrists.
Samkiel paused at the door, Cameron and Xavier watching to make sure I wasn’t breaking free.
“What do you think is going to happen? You chain me, and what? Even with me here, Kaden is still out there building something, and I think it’s more than just a stupid weapon to kill you. He needs iron, Samkiel, and he has been gathering it for months now. What happens when he shows up with that book? You make one slip up, one mistake, and they’re dead, like everyone else you were supposed to help. Just like your family, that stupid planet, and just like Gabby.”
He turned back to me, a shiver of pain crossing his features.
“You can’t save them. You can’t save anyone. All that power for what?
You’re a joke.”
I hoped it hurt. I hoped it made him mad enough that he slipped up and I could escape.
“You can’t hurt me anymore with words, Dianna. I know the heart that still beats beneath your breast. I’ve held it. You might as well surrender now because you cannot scare me away. You never could.”
My teeth ground together, my jaw clenching at his words. I cursed his retreating form, that simple truth rattling me to my core. I knew all along.
He would never let me go, and the part of me I’d shut away behind a lock on a door in a house didn’t want him to.
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