Blakeshire (Insight #9)(83)
The walls kept reflecting Drake’s eyes, the devotion there, the way he would trace my bottom lip, the smile he gave me as I would speak the words that would race through my mind. They were all a reflection of what I had seen within him over the last few days, yet laced across a haunting past.
All at once, our love didn’t feel new. It felt unearthed, rebirthed into the regal status that more time than could be fathomed had created.
Vade lowered his powerful body so that he was looking in my eyes. “Now let go.”
I didn’t want to. I wanted to feel these emotions for an eternity. I wanted to take them with me so that any time I had any doubt, I could call on these images, these emotions, and tell those fears to go to hell.
“Now,” Vade said so firmly that I jerked my hand away, instantly feeling the cold absence of those emotions.
“Glory,” he stated softly.
Just as I went to question why he said that, a gorgeous woman manifested at his side. Her skin was ivory, her hair was long and the perfect shade of auburn that matched her eyes, which were nothing less than wholly engaging. Though I had no fear of her, I was sure that she was no one that should be crossed.
“Reveal Willow for our guest.”
Glory held my gaze as she stepped forward and touched the wall behind me.
Vade held out his hand to help me up.
The walls made of water fluttered, and when they focused, war was surrounding me. In the midst of that darkness, that evil, I saw the man I loved holding another. The images of them alone were sparse, but as far as I was concerned any one of them was enough to give me doubt.
“I could play out your lives with Drake for days on end and not capture every moment,” Vade said evenly. He moved his stare to the beautiful woman next to me. “My dear Glory has now shown you everything, including the last few months.”
I glanced to the girl, then the walls. I didn’t understand who she was or why Vade needed her to show me Drake and Willow’s lives together. The images on the walls of water were looping. He was right: there weren’t enough even to fill this room.
Vade crossed his powerful arms as his stern gaze fell on me. “My fellow kings were only powerful enough to lace her sparingly through his life, and you are going to let the hell that both Drake and Willow lived through for the sake of peace take your divine right to be whole away.”
“No one is taking anything away from me,” I bit out, still feeling a coldness dwelling in my soul. I wanted those emotions back. I wanted him to turn this water back to my time with Drake. I wanted to feel that complete again.
“Then stop holding back words that will confirm that you and he are one. He needs to hear them.”
“Sure, no problem. Let me guess what is going to happen here. You are going to do some all-powerful nod or something and send me back to that moment. I won’t remember a damn thing about any of this, but I will feel it, and that may do me some good for a while—at least add to the obsession I have for him, but when I have to play out this little masquerade and hear others speak faults over the pair of us, those insecurities are going to come back with a vengeance, rearing their ugly little heads. Like it or not, every woman feels those, no matter how much she loves a man or believes that he loves her. You don’t want me to be insecure, yet you want me to be vulnerable to him. Call me crazy, but that is some twisted logic. What is your hurry? I just met him.”
Somewhere in my rant, Vade’s eyes had moved to Glory’s. She was letting a sly smile dangle on the corners of her lips, and he seemed to get some unspoken message loud and clear from her.
He spoke to her, but the message was meant for the both of us. “And every man feels the same. That is why words must be spoken.”
Glory’s ivory skin blushed as she glanced away from Vade’s stare.
Vade let his gaze melt into her for a second or two before he turned his attention back to me. “I’m in, as you say, a hurry because your emotion of fear cannot be suppressed for much longer. For the fact that your life is in danger and you are one kill away from facing The King of Obsession’s First. You need to get past this. Now.”
Glory glanced over me, then moved her stare to Vade. “Let her keep the memories.”
“I cannot. The others will know we are aware.”
Glory slowly moved closer to Vade, managing to look both seductive and innocent at the same time. “Let her keep the memories of him, she needs them.”
It was clear to see if this king had a weakness, it was this woman.
He let out a deep breath before he spoke again. “The innocence that time has washed away must be recreated for their bond to be sealed. She must go to him willingly, not out of habit.”
“Do you honestly believe that any soul that was birthed from your essence would be with a woman out of mere habit? That the woman he adores would?”
It was clear to me that her words held a deeper meaning than first glance would offer.
“Of course not,” he breathed as he reached to caress her neck.
It all made sense now. He was the King of Anger standing against the others; this was the woman he had divided his reign with, a woman that had clearly invoked change. Their actions did not go without punishment. Those that were birthed from their energy were now targeted in order to bring them down.
“Let the memories remain,” Glory said once again.
“Tell me, how are you so certain that she needs them…that this will not hurt them?”