Page 142 of Taken By Shadows

“And this is a clue?” He searched my eyes.

I nodded.

“I will help you.” His voice was steady and I leaned into it. “I will help you. Any way I can.”

It was his way of making me stay. And it worked. It was enough.

His fingers held my chin again. “Imogen …” He breathed my name with new life every time he spoke it. “Imogen … I …”

I wasn’t ready to leave yet. I knew that. I knew I had to, but I didn’t anticipate that leaving this new world would be this hard.

“I don’t know what I want,” I said over the pattering of rain. “I can’t give you more than that.”

The rain soaked me as I looked at him through a silver veil.

“Can you live with that?” Could I?

“Do I have a choice?” He shrugged his shoulders back, a smirk beginning to touch his lips.

Despite myself, I smiled.

“At your mercy, Lady Imogen.” His eyes danced with a wildness as he beamed down at me.

Chapter forty-three

My clothes clung to me, and my hair was heavy on my shoulders as the rain continued. But I didn’t care. Kaed pulled me along through the abandoned streets of the city, our shoes splashing on the shining pavement. Everyone else was tucked up inside, away from the heavy spring rains.

Had that really happened? He’d just offered me something no one else ever had. No one. Kaed was a prince of the Crown and had just offered me, a nobody, their help in finding my family. If there was any way to find my family, surely the Crown could find them.

But that wasn’t what my mind kept circling back to.

It was the memory of Kaed’s tongue twining with mine.

We were in a part of the city I didn’t recognise. I didn’t know a lot of places in Viverna, truth be told. I had gone places with Denora or Audrie, even Gavrin.

And Eryk.

But I had never actually seen the city with Kaed.

Having him around me, touching me, tasting me. It was intense. We could have been lost in any street or standing under the Crown Oaks themselves, and I might not have noticed.

He’d never stayed long around me. Just to pick me up and put me places. Chastise me or berate me. Or occasionally save my life.

“You were avoiding me.” My gaze flicked up to him. “Why? What did I do?” I folded my arms.

Kaed raised an eyebrow at me. “You didn’t do anything.”

“Well, what then?”

“Peach,” Kaed blew out a heavy breath, his hand raking through his hair as he pushed the wet strands from his eyes. “I said I was protecting you …” A heavy raindrop tumbled to his lips. “I’ve been protecting you from me. I’ve been fighting it. I just thought I was stronger.” Thunder took root in his chest as his voice lowered to a hum.

I was afraid to ask. But I had to know. “Why have you been fighting it?”

There were any number of reasons. I was no one from nowhere. I didn’t have prospects or a fortune. I didn’t even have magic. I had no family left, save for an expecting human sister whom I couldn’t even claim by blood. His title alone was enough to set us apart by worlds.

“Because I was afraid.” He turned to me as we approached a manicured lawn that was soft from the rain.

“Afraid?” I couldn’t imagine him being afraid of anything.