Page 96 of His Darkest Desire
The heat that sparked within Kinsley had nothing to do with the crackling fire.
She placed a hand on his chest, over his heart, which pounded beneath her palm. His skin was hot and smooth.
“I’m still dreaming,” she said. Why else would Vex be here in bed with her, half naked, caressing her face with such gentleness?
Vex cradled her cheek in his big palm, drawing her eyes back up to his, and flashed those white fangs in a smile. “If this is a dream, Kinsley, surely it is my own.”
Kinsley brow furrowed. “It’s not a dream?”
“It is not.”
She glanced at her hand on his chest. “I’m awake?”
Vex smoothed his hand along her arm until it settled upon hers, holding it securely in place. “It would seem so.”
“I’m awake… I’m…” Her eyes widened. “You’re awake!”
She touched the back of her other hand to his forehead. He was no longer burning up with fever, and though it was hard to tell in the firelight, it seemed his sickly pallor had vanished.
“How do you feel?” she asked.
The corner of his mouth quirked up. “Better than I have in a long while. And you, Kinsley? I’m told you’ve taken little rest this past week.”
Warmth flooded her cheeks as she lowered her hand to her belly. He refused to let go of the other, curling his fingers tighter around it.
“I’m fine. I…” Kinsley dragged her eyes away from Vex, only then noticing her surroundings. “I’m back in your room. In…your bed.”
“You needed rest,” he replied, combing his fingers into her hair, “so I brought you here. It’s far more comfortable than the laboratory, is it not?”
His mention of the laboratory only reminded her of everything she’d seen during his slow recovery. Many times, his magic had transformed the chamber into bygone places, and those illusions had been so vivid, so real. So heartbreaking.
She’d watched Vex as a child, terrified and alone, gaze upon the fiery ruins of everything he’d ever known. His people, his family, his home, all gone, consumed by flames so intense that Kinsley had almost felt their heat.
His healing slumber had been anything but serene. During every illusory scene, she’d seen the pain etched upon his face, had felt the strain in his writhing, feverish body. And he’d only calmed when she’d laid her hands upon him and spoken to him.
Kinsley might’ve thought them nightmares projected from his subconscious mind, but the wisps had told her the illusions hadn’t been dreams at all—they’d been memories. His memories.
She’d seen the loneliness in his eyes as he stood in his tower, looking down upon the goblin village. The lively music from below had been made sorrowful and haunting by the distance that separated it from Vex. But she’d seen something more behind his mask.
Longing. Longing and a glimmer of hope.
Vex had lost so much at so young an age, and he must’ve felt alone for so long…
Even through those seemingly harmless moments, Vex—her Vex, in the present—had been restless in his slumber. He’d writhed and muttered, his body as tense as it had been during the more horrifying scenes.
She’d wondered why those memories had troubled him so, until she recalled what he’d said in the library.
My tower was razed. Torn down around me, stone by stone. Everything I had built, everything I had sought to protect…destroyed.
His restlessness had been rooted in guilt, in grief and pain over what had been lost.
Over not only what had been taken, but who.
Tears of anguish and rage stung Kinsley’s eyes. Everything Vex had suffered, everything he’d endured, had paled in comparison to what the fae queen had done.
She’d made Vex her slave and threatened to kill everyone in his realm to keep him. A threat Kinsley knew had been carried out.
Kinsley curled her fingers against his chest. “Vex, the things I saw while you slept…”