The Bound (Ascension #2)(63)

Then, something happened. And her heart stopped.

Kael whirled around so fast that he was a blur. Everything shifted. Even the night air changed directions, as if in connection with him. Dean couldn’t move fast enough. He tried to pull up his sword to block the stroke, but Kael was faster, impossibly faster, and his blade slid into Dean’s shoulder.

Cyrene jumped forward out of instinct, but there was nothing she could do. She cried out in disbelief.

“No, no, no!” she yelled, dashing to his side.

She didn’t even care that Kael was hovering over him. Kael yanked his sword out of Dean’s shoulder, and it made a sickening squelching noise. Cyrene shook at the sound. This couldn’t be happening.

Kael reared back to finish the deed, but Cyrene jumped in front of him.

“Don’t! Don’t kill him.”

Dean groaned on the ground, and blood was spilling out of his shoulder far alarmingly fast. He needed medical attention.

“Please, please, Kael.”

She had no idea how in a split second the advantage had changed. Dean had gone from winning to this. She could have stopped this. But, instead, she let the boys have their stupid battle. All for what? Nothing.

“And what will you give me to stop?” he asked.

“Kael,” she whispered, pleading. She only had one thing to offer, and she couldn’t go back home.

He took a confident step toward her, and she felt the hazy feeling sweep over her once more. He hadn’t even touched her, but she was losing focus. It hung just on the edge of her consciousness. It wasn’t quite as overpowering as before. More hesitant but still…there.

“What are you doing?” she whispered.

“Showing you just how easy it would be.”

Black tendrils caressed her skin, pulling her toward him. The spark that was always there sizzled, and an oily grip drew her toward him. She shivered all over. Panic was laced as much with the need that she felt, but she didn’t understand.

“How are you doing this?” she asked. She knew he could feel the fear thrumming through her body.

“I think you know.”

Magic.

Creator! Kael Dremylon has magic. Something extremely powerful and completely awful! He shouldn’t be able to do this. It didn’t make any sense. Viktor Dremylon hadn’t had magic. That was why he couldn’t be with Serafina. It didn’t run in his blood. How else can Kael possibly have it?

“Me. Take me,” she said. Her heart broke at the words spilling out of her mouth. She’d do anything to save the people she cared about.

Kael held the sword, still slick with Dean’s blood, at his side and smiled like he had really just won a prize when the words tumbled from her lips. He circled her wrist with his hand and crushed his lips down on hers.

It was like a jolt of electricity. The touch seemed to amplify his powers, but it also brought hers to life. She had ignored the powers at her fingertips before. She had destroyed buildings and possibly killed men who were doing their jobs. She couldn’t risk it again. Even against Kael. Especially against Kael.

But he was pulling it to the surface, and for a second, she let go, and was flooded her with magic.

“There you are,” he whispered against her lips.

“You’re the rightful heir,” she breathed.

“Someday soon, everyone will know.” He smirked, triumphant. “Now, go.”

He shoved her away from him, and the fog lifted slower than last time. It hovered in her mind with a denseness that wouldn’t exactly dissipate.

“What?” she asked in confusion.

“You’ll come back to me,” he said knowingly. “And, when you do, I’ll be waiting.”

She shook her head to try to push away her confusion. “You’re letting me go?”

“You’ll remember this, Cyrene. You’ll remember and know…it’s all your fault. Everything that happens. You’ll remember, and you’ll come back to me.”

“Never,” she breathed.

But he just smiled before turning around and walking off the dock, like they had just had tea instead of fought with swords…and magic.





Cyrene fell to her knees at Dean’s shoulder and hastily cradled his head in her hands. She held him against her and fought back the tears and confusion.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

Kael wasn’t supposed to win.

And she knew…he had definitely won.

He was letting her go, but there was a price. And she was terrified to find out what that price was. Terrified to wake up one day and discover that he was right, that everything that had happened was her fault. She hated that Kael was inside her head, but he was.

And worse…his magic had gotten inside her head. He was the rightful Dremylon heir. Which meant, as the Braj had told her all those weeks ago, that the Braj and Indres had been sent by Kael to kill her. He had been trying to kill her for months. And that contradicted everything else Kael had done since she had met him.

Kael was the one who had warned her not to leave the palace grounds in Byern when the killer was on the loose. He had been furious when he found out that she was gone. He had helped find her when she had gone missing in Albion, even after she had knocked him out with a silver candelabra. He had even made sure that he walked with her to the library, so she would be safe. Then, he’d trekked across Aurum to collect her.