Page 91 of His Darkest Desire
But he knew, too, the thoughts swirling in the magus’s mind. He knew the torment of that decision. Knew the magus was weighing the scales, plotting, planning, hoping. Hoping there yet remained a way out, that he was clever enough to escape.
What pained Vex the most was that the magus had been right—he’d found a way to escape the prison in which she’d trapped him. But he’d never had a chance of escaping the queen.
After a long silence, the magus nodded.
The queen’s grin widened. “Swear it upon your true name. Give me your oath.”
Lips barely moving around his fangs, the magus whispered his oath to the queen, granting her his true name.
Cold dread coiled around Vex, crushing him slowly, heart and soul. A true name once given could never be rescinded. And an oath broken…
The queen laughed. Her skin brightened until golden light flowed from her—the light of day, the light of the sun, blinding, withering, scorching.
In truth, the queen hadn’t consumed him with light, but she’d consumed him all the same.
That light engulfed him, forming a blazing golden void around Vex. All he’d worked toward, all he’d fought for, all he’d come to cherish…all of it had been annihilated by that light. And now, finally, it would annihilate him too. It would give him the release he’d been denied for so, so long…
No. It is not over. I am not done.
He’d long believed that everything had been taken from him save his life, but that had never been true. He had the woods, cursed yet his own. He had the wisps, faithful, unwavering companions whose care had sustained him. And now he had Kinsley.
His mate.
He felt Kinsley then. Felt her presence, felt her hand on his, her thumb brushing his knuckles. Felt her smoothing back his hair and tracing the scars by his eyes.
She had returned. Returned to him.
“You’re not there, Vex,” Kinsley said. “You’re here with us. With…with me.”
The queen’s aura had been malevolent, diminishing, oppressive. It instilled awe and fear and drove people to their knees. Kinsley, in contrast, exuded serenity. There was fire in her, undoubtedly, but it was the fire of passion, warm and gentle. Not the cold, harsh flame that burned in the queen’s heart.
If the queen had been sunlight, destroying all in its path, Kinsley was moonlight—soft, caressing, ethereal.
It seemed as though an eternity had passed since last he’d looked upon his mate’s face, since last he’d touched her. All that time lost. When he dragged himself back to reality, back to Kinsley, he’d have much to make up for.
Gradually, the sheer white void gave way to the embrace of blackness. Vex sank into it willingly.
With Kinsley there again, it wasn’t nothingness. A new light, small but unmistakable, shone in the darkness. A soft, silvery light.
My Kinsley. My mate.
My moonlight.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
A sense of heaviness settled over Vex, and with it came awareness. Awareness of his body and its weight. Awareness of his leaden limbs and the dull aches with which they throbbed. Awareness of the taut skin on his belly, of the bedding beneath him, of the blanket draped over him. Of his thirst and his hollow, gnawing hunger.
Awareness of…warmth.
His eyelids fluttered as he struggled to open them, but they were as heavy as the rest of his body, if not more so.
He inhaled. The air was like a scorching desert wind to his raw, dry throat. He released the breath with a weak, broken sound that was halfway between a sigh and a wheeze.
Vex’s awareness expanded. He was lying on his back, propped up on pillows to allow a bit of space for the arms of his wings. One of those wings was folded against the wall of the alcove, while the other was stretched out, dangling off the pallet.
Someone was tucked against his side, their head resting upon his arm, their soft hair spread over his bare skin, positioned so their weight wasn’t atop his wing. That body was the source of the delightful warmth.
Vex had no desire to move. This was exactly where he was meant to be. Why spoil it, why throw it away?