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I slam both palms to his chest and shove him back a step. “Maybe I am stubborn like Alex. But at least, neither of us was a coward who run when things got dangerous!”
Fort’s upper lip raises in an angry snarl. “If Alex had run, your entire family might still be alive, Carleah. Remember that.”
Chapter 23
Carleah
“You look lovely tonight, my queen.”
The shadowy shape of the Son of Flame appears beside me as I stand at the water’s edge. Waves crash into the shoreline just beneath us, the only sound in my recent silent days. “What do you want?” I ask. “Because I have to tell you, I’m not in the mood.”
He leans in close enough I can make out the shape of a smile in the shadows. “A shame, to be sure. I am merely here to speak with you.”
“About?” I turn back toward the water. It’s been quite a few days since he visited me in my sleep.
“He asks you to sit on the sidelines while he fights this war.”
“If you are here to tell me what I already know, you can leave.”
“When you are mine, I will treat you as my equal. My partner in all things. You will not be asked to stand aside, nor let others fight your battles for you.”
“Big promises from someone who refuses to let me see his face.”
“I hide my face from you out of sheer self-preservation. For I do not trust that you won’t allow your warrior dog to cut me down before I have the chance to convince you that I am not your enemy but rather your future.”
“My warrior dog.” I shake my head. “He is much more than that.”
“Is he? Because all I see is yet another man trying to chain you.” His form moves behind me, gliding on air as the black mist swirls in and out of existence. Hot breath washes over the back of my neck, and a shadowy arm wraps around my waist. Heat radiates through the contact as he pulls me closer. My heart begins to race. “I will never cage you, Carleah, for you were meant to fly.”
“What you don’t seem to understand is that I am not a pawn to be used.” I pull away, and my body moves through his arm like mist breaking apart and coming back together. When I turn to face him now, he’s a few paces behind me. “And I will not allow any man to put me in a gilded cage. Never again.”
“There will come a time when you won’t have a choice but to see the truth in my words. These men will not stop until you are bound. For they see the strength in you, and it frightens them. I, however, am enamored by your power. Your courage.”
“I have no power.”
He chuckles, the sound vibrating through my mind. “Dearest Carleah, your perseverance is your power. It is what keeps you going when the world is against you. What keeps you speaking out when the realm demands your silence.”
“You seek to use me too,” I tell him because the need to remind us both is great.
“I aim to point you to your true purpose,” he replies smoothly.
“My purpose of waking creatures who will destroy this realm.”
I sense his anger now. It crackles off of him like lightning, and the sky above me begins to change, darkening with the force of his mood and whatever power he seems to possess. “You misunderstand all of it. They have all been lying to you since the beginning.”
“And so are you,” I growl back.
“No, my queen, I alone have made my intentions clear from the beginning.” His shadowy form glides closer. “I have never hidden them from you. I have not lied about your destiny, nor have I insisted you sit aside while others fight your war. Everything that has come from my mouth has been the truth.”
“Including your threat?” I take a step back. “Because I remember that quite clearly.”
“Especially my threat,” he replies. Lightning splits the sky and I look up. “Soon we will be united, my queen. And then no one will ever tear us apart.”
* * *
“Carleah!” a deep voice bellows, ripping me from the dream.
I shoot up out of bed, only to have hands grabbing my shoulders and yanking me back toward large bodies. Before me, Fort stands between half a dozen guards wearing armor that glints a deep gold beneath the light of the moon.
