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A pained expression passed across Samkiel’s face, and I realized just how much I had opened up, how vulnerable I’d made myself. Kaden had put wounds on my heart and soul that had never really healed and still festered.
“I have felt that way, too.”
My head whipped toward him. “You have?”
“Not to the extent of what Kaden has done to you, but similar, yes. I am a king by birth. I was not chosen or picked. It was mine because I was born into it, not because I earned it. I didn’t work for it. None of it. Some people worship and need me, but they don’t see me. They see a ruler and someone meant to protect them. I am a crown, not a man to them.” He lifted his hand, lightning dancing across his fingertips before bursting into a silver ball of energy. The forest bent and quaked around us, the wind picking up and spinning into a few small tornadoes of dust near our feet. “I am power, a guardian, nothing more.”
“I…” Knowing I had said the same vile, mean things to him, I didn’t know what to say.
He extinguished the power from his hand, and the forest returned to normal. “It may sound humorous given how The Hand acts, but a part of me has wondered if the only reason they are with me is out of duty….” His voice trailed off, and he looked at his feet.
“Sam—”
“My apologies. Perhaps that was too much. It’s easy for me to talk to you.” He forced one of those devilishly handsome smiles. “It always has been.”
I felt the corner of my lips twitch. “No, it’s fine. I just told you something personal, too, so I guess it’s easy to talk to you, as well.”
The tension in him eased, and his expression lightened at my words. “Yeah?”
“Maybe.” I shrugged playfully. “Other times, I think about strangling you.”
“Ah.” He nodded, a deep chuckle rumbling from his chest. “Well, I suppose I wouldn’t wish it any other way.”
I didn’t know why, but his comment tugged at my heart. This is what we used to share, and I had missed it so damn much. I felt the small tug at the corners of my lips, but until his gaze dipped to my mouth and hope flared behind his storm-colored eyes, I hadn’t realized that I’d smiled.
“Your smile, Dianna, is only one of the most beautiful things about you.”
Beautiful. It was such a stupid word and one I had heard plenty of times before. Yet he said it, and I damn near melted. I cleared my throat, but my voice still sounded husky. “Do you always flirt with homicidal killers?”
His smile was bright, making him impossibly more gorgeous, and a part of me ached. “Only the really pretty ones.”
I rolled my eyes and quickly changed the subject. “You know, you never asked me how I killed Tobias.”
I didn’t like how his words made me feel, and I wanted to change the subject. He made me hopeful as if my world wasn’t in ruins, and that guilt came sweeping back.
“I assumed you’d tell me, eventually. Well, I hoped you would share,” Samkiel said, his gaze focused on the overgrown patch of trees ahead.
“Really?” I asked, ducking beneath a low-hanging branch. The winding path in front of us continued to grow. “Well, funny story. It was actually you.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. I remembered what you taught me back at the Vanderkai’s mansion about large beasts and soft spots. Then I kind of let him swallow me and cut him from the inside out.”
Samkiel stopped and turned to look at me. “That’s—”
“Reckless?” I winced.
He shook his head in disbelief. “Astonishing. I have done that only once in my very long life and regretted it immediately.”
I laughed. “I have to admit, I also regretted it immediately.”
His wide smile was infectious, and I couldn’t help but return it. “Well, I suppose we now have something else in common.”
“Besides being stubborn, ancient beings?”
“Besides that.” Samkiel nodded and turned to lead the way. He held back a few branches and extended his hand, gesturing for me to go ahead of him. I walked down a small hill, wading through tall grass before my feet touched soft sand.
“This is what I wanted you to see.”
