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“What did you do?” I snarled at him, as he kneeled in front of me, holding his hands out with his palms toward me. His shadows had vanished too, his magic dissolved into the air.
“Nothing.” There was honesty in his voice.
“You spoke through the shadows,” I snarled. “I heard them speaking to me. Calling me mate.”
Shocked murmurs tore through the crowd, and my attention jerked to them.
The magic within me swelled again, fiercer and angrier and so much more panicked.
“Diora.” Namir’s voice was firm but calm as he reached out and caught my wrist. Instinct told me to rip it from his grasp, but he placed it against the center of his chest, my palm to his bare skin, and then he let go.
The thrum of his heartbeat below my palm grounded me, somehow. I’d felt it night after night in the forest—it had calmed me then. Miraculously, it did the same still.
“Do you feel that?” His murmur was soft, but confident. Our eyes were locked; my golds, and his grays.
I jerked my head in a nod, hesitating for a moment before saying, “The shadows…”
“I wasn’t speaking to them, or through them.”
Stars.
We werefated?
“Leave us,” Namir commanded, his eyes never leaving mine as his voice raised. Even without looking at them, I knew he spoke to the group gathered near the place he used to sleep, and not to me.
“You heard the king,” Lavee growled. I knew she didn’t like me—my monster had nearly killed her the week before. But she still followed Namir’s order.
My golds remained locked with his grays as the crowd left, neither of us speaking again until the clearing was filled with only me, Namir, and our shadows. My heart pounded rapidly, sweat soaking my armpits and forehead as panic clutched my chest tighter and tighter. All I had on was my undergarment, still, and it was still damp from the wash the night before.
“Fated bonds are rare,” I finally said, shaking my head harshly. “We can’t be fated. I only just got free. I’m supposed to kill you—I have to, if I want true freedom. If I want to live.”
My palm left his chest.
I stood swiftly, and then began to pace. Despite my stress, the monster in my chest remained mostly dormant, as if she had known and was confirming that Namir and I were connected.
Namir changed the subject abruptly, standing too. His hands fell to his sides. “What happened in the tent, Love?”
I scowled at him and the damned nickname he’d just thrown at me, and continued pacing.
He stepped into my path, and his hand landed gently on the side of my arm. I halted, and his eyes crashed into mine again. “What happened in the tent, Diora? I haven’t seen you that terrified since the first day we met.”
A bead of sweat trailed down my back, making me shudder, and the king released my arm.
“Please,” he told me. “I’ve been fighting the protective urges I feel for you since that first day we met, but your fear had me nearly turning into a shadowed wolf myself. What happened?”
I forced my eyes closed, and let out a slow breath.
Despite my confusion, and shock, and everything else, I trusted him.
Mostly.
So I explained, “Someone closed it—it was dark, and cold, and the same size as my prison.” A shiver tore through my spine, and the beast in me stirred. “I thought I felt my chains, for a moment.”
The king’s expression darkened, as it always did when we spoke about my past. “You’re safe with me, Diora.”
“So your shadows have said.” I pushed wild, tangled waves of hair off my face and out of my eyes.
At least my monster hadn’t made anyone bleed this time.
