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“Why are you apologizing?” I hissed up at him, my heart rattling in my chest. “Just cut my throat and be done with it.”
He leaned forward, mist roiling from his skin. It curled around my cheek, a soft caress that shot shivers down my spine. I waited for him to sink the blade into my neck and for the brutal pain that would follow. But all he did was shift against me. His thighs pressed tightly against my waist, and his free hand cupped my shoulder.
I should’ve been afraid, but a thrill went through me instead. His lips were agonizingly close, and his breath was hot against my cheek. Warning bells clanged in my mind, but I didn’t whimper in fear. I returned his hard gaze with one of my own, meeting his anger with mine.
He wrapped his hand around my dagger, tugged it from my grip, and then tossed it into the grass. The steel left my neck a second later. He hurled his dagger away to join mine.
“What are you doing?” I whispered.
His eyes went dark. “I don’t want to kill you.”
My breath rattled in my lungs. “Then you’ve just made a very big mistake. Because I definitely want to kill you.”
He lowered his face to mine so that our noses brushed. A tremor went through my core. “Is that truly what you want, love?”
“I said don’t call me that,” I breathed, my heart pounding so hard that it drowned out the distant birds.
Slowly, he rose to his feet. I tumbled to the side, grabbed his dagger, and pointed it right at his heart. I stood on shaky legs, watching him watch me with an infuriatingly flat gaze. It was impossible to know what he was thinking.
“That won’t work,” he said. “We can’t harm each other in our dreams.”
My stomach turned. “Then, why did you just try to…?”
“I was forced to try.”
Silence stretched between us. Even in a dream, the tension was palpable, thick and heavy like sap from the trees. It coated my tongue, and my words stuck to my mouth until I was choking on them.
“Why?” I finally asked him, stepping so close that the point of the dagger pierced his tunic. “You’re the one who lied to me. For whatever reason, you led me around your mist and shadow filled lands, pretending to help me find my family.Youwere the one who betrayed me, not the other way around.”
His eyes narrowed. “How are you able to lie so easily? I should be able to tell, but I can’t.”
“What in the name of light are you talking about? Nothing you’ve said makes any sense.”
“I know who you are.”He took the dagger from my hand and tossed it even further away, power humming from his body.“Because I’m the one who killed your father.”
Shock punched me in the stomach. All the blood drained from my face. The ground seemed to tip beneath me, throwing my head into a wild vertigo. I reached out to grab something, but all I found was air and mist and Kalen’s terrible power.
“That’s impossible,” I choked out. “Oberon killed my father.”
“No. He took credit for it, likely to make a point,” he said quietly. “I found your father in the mists, and I had no choice but to take his life, just like I had no choice but to put that dagger against your neck. If I could harm someone in dreams, I would have been forced to kill you, too.”
My lips parted. “You actually mean this. It’s not some cruel joke?”
“I’m afraid I mean every word.”
Fists clenching, I glared at him, horror snaking through me. The Mist King had killed my father.
Kalen had killed my father.
Burning tears filled my eyes.
“I was right about you,” I hissed. “I actually regretted stabbing you with that fucking blade, but now I wish I really had killed you. Everything Oberon has ever said about you is true. You’re a monster. You kill mortals for no reason.”
He stiffened. “I didn’t kill him for no reason. He was trying to release the god’s power, and I had no choice but to stop him. If I hadn’t done something, he would have destroyed the—”
My entire body went tight.
“No.” I shoved at his chest, but he was an immovable stone. “Stop lying. Stop talking about him!”
