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“Why did he—”
Drac’s fingers tightened on her legs to the point of pain. She remained silent until the tension stole from his frame.
“His mate was taken by Gidon’s enemies. My brother bargained for her rescue. He gave up his loyalty to the realm to save her, but the enemy still took her life.” Drac’s voice had gone flat, hiding a wealth of emotions.
And somehow she knew this experience had shaped him, just as her grandmother’s betrayal had defined much of Saieke’s life. She felt a curious kinship with him in that moment. “And what have you vowed?”
A cool brush of fingers against her cheeks. “Vowed?”
She nodded. “In the last Great War my grandmother chose to save her consort instead of coming to the aid of our people. She was the High Duchess of Kryll and instead of protecting her domain…protecting me, protecting my…my younger sister, she raced to save her consort on the battlefield. Many died…because she chose the wrong love. I was only twenty years old at the time, but the memory is still sharp as the day the Mevians invaded her courtyard. I can still see the blood pooling at my feet.”
She fell silent, lost in the cries and pleading that had ripped from her throat while she held Sunnia’s crushed body. The crippling fear Saieke had felt as she’d awakened her powers for the first time and had battled to save her sister…while the woman she’d loved with such intensity ran away, crying for her love.
Drac pressed his nose into her throat. “What happened?”
“Mevians attacked my grandmother’s home. The few warriors at the keep could not hold the power of their sound waves at bay. Grandmother left,” Saieke spat. “She saved her consort, and she was imprisoned in a tower deep in our mountains. My sister died before we could administer the elixir, and dozens of our people perished. I learnt from Grandmother, duty above all other desires.”
Drac stared at her, as if spellbound. Then he spoke, “I vowed never to love a woman as my brother did his mate…for when he lost her, he gave himself over to his demon, and slaughtered…and slaughtered. Such weakness is abhorrent.”
The flatness of his voice and the darkness that leaked from him let Saieke know he would say no more. Yet the tension swirled and thickened around them.
“Is this why you resist me? Because you see me as weak?”
“Yes.”
His honesty was brutal and pain pierced her. Then another realization bloomed. He thought himself capable of loving her, for surely he would have taken other lovers? The slither of interest her thoughts evoked was alarming…and distressingly enticing. “I do not ask for your love, Darkan. I would not want it for I would not give mine in return.”
Danger seemed to hum beneath his surface, and she hated the dip it caused in her stomach. Impulsively, she drew a wall of water in a wave and dumped it on them. Her breath hitched at the frigidness of the water. “I believe I have successfully dispelled the tension.” With a smile, she blew icy wind and froze him.
Saieke leapt from his lap and flashed across the river, keeping herself levitated above the water with the use of her wind. The ice crystals she formed around him shattered and she blinked in bemusement. She was sure she had frozen him.
She drifted farther from the embankment with the wind as her propeller. As she descended into deeper darkness, she pulsed her chakra outwards and created her halo of light. The great torch was a mere dot on the horizon.
She screamed when a hand shot out of the water and dragged her under. The cold was shocking. She held onto him tightly and made the water surged and created a great wave that spewed them from the depths, he had dragged her and tunneled them toward the bank.
Saieke harnessed her elements and froze the wave and all the waters below them. They dropped hard on the ice surface she created. She chuckled when he rolled and cushioned their fall so that he took all the impact when they landed. In a beat, he spun and deposited her on the ice formation. She smiled in delight as he observed her creation.
She had frozen the surface of the river for about a mile, and had created a great ice sculpture of the wave. It stood in prominence over their heads, its sharp points curving and jutting. The blue of her chakra on the white ice gave it an ethereal glow.
“You wield your shenkiris with grace and skill.”
Saieke gave him a radiant smile pleased with his praise. “I am still limited. There are many that can freeze for thousands of miles.”
“There are many who possess both water and wind manipulation?”
“No, but the elders of Caelum, and those who have keni manipulate water with a power that is terrifying. I use my wind to help me create ice. They shape the water to their desire to freeze it. I doubt I can attain such a feat without combining my wind with water,” she murmured.
“Keni?”
“Yes, keni. They are unique techniques that only belong to particular bloodlines. I inherited my mother’s powers. I received the ability to shape wind to my will from my father.”
“Tell me more” he commanded.
Saieke raised her brow at his imperious command. She gasped as he suddenly appeared closer to her. Only inches separated them.
“I, too, am curious about you Princess.”
She heard the rueful amusement in his voice.
