Immortal Reign(44)

“It seems I’m apologizing a lot today, but I have to. I’m sorry that I lied to you, that I hurt you. I’m sorry I blamed you for everything horrible that happened. I’m sorry that I didn’t see how much I loved you from the very beginning.” She wiped at her tear-filled eyes. “Well . . . not the very beginning.”

“No,” he allowed with a wince. “Certainly not.”

“The past is forgotten.” She placed her hands against his chest, reveling in the feel of him—solid and alive. And here. “Know only this: I love you with all my heart, all my soul.” Her voice broke on the raw truth in her words. “That losing you destroyed me, and I never, never, ever want to feel that way again.”

Magnus stared down at her now, as if shocked by the intensity of her words. “Cleo . . .”

Cleo pulled his face down so his lips could meet hers again. And it was as if the thousand-pound weight that had been attached to her ankle for more than a week, pulling her further into the depths of the ocean, drowning her slowly and painfully, had finally released.

His kiss was everything. So deep and true and perfect.

Magnus picked her up again, his strong arms easily holding her weight as he moved away from the edge of the water.

“I’ve missed you so much,” he breathed against her lips as he pressed her up against the side of the cliff so she could feel every line, every edge of his body against hers. “I swear I will make it up to you, all the horrible things I’ve said and done. My beautiful Cleiona . . . say it again, what you said just now.”

She almost smiled. “I think you heard me.”

“Don’t tease,” he growled, his gaze intense. “Say it again.”

“I love you, Magnus. Truly and madly. Forever and ever,” she whispered, hungry for his kiss again. Starving for it. “And I need you . . . Now. Here.”

She’d already begun to loosen the ties of his shirt, desperate to feel his bare skin against hers with no barrier between them.

His mouth was on hers again, desperate and hungry. Magnus groaned deep in his throat as Cleo ran her fingernails up his chest, pulling his shirt over his shoulders. He slid his hands beneath the edge of her embroidered skirt before he froze, his lips parting from hers.

A deep frown creased his brow. “Damn it.”

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“We can’t do this,” he whispered.

A breath caught in her chest. “Why not?”

“The curse.”

For a moment, Cleo had no idea what he meant. But then she remembered, and a small smile parted her lips. “There is no curse.”

“What?”

“Your grandmother made that story up to deceive your father, to explain why my mother died in childbirth. But it’s not true. There’s no witch’s curse on me. It was all a lie.”

Magnus didn’t move. He studied her for several moments as he held her, pressed up against the cliff’s side, their faces at the same level—eye to eye.

“No curse,” he whispered, and his lips curved into a smile.

“None at all.”

“And the Kindred magic within you . . .”

“It’s a big problem, but not at this exact moment.”

“So we can deal with it later.”

She nodded. “Yes, later.”

“Are you certain?”

“Completely certain.”

“Good.”

This time when Magnus kissed her, there was no restraint. No stopping or waiting, no doubt or fear. There was only this exquisite moment that Cleo wanted to last forever, finally reunited with her dark prince.





CHAPTER 15


    MAGNUS


   AURANOS




Magnus knew they should have returned to the palace hours ago.

But they hadn’t.

Instead, they watched the sun sink into the horizon in the west, turning the sky shades of purple, pink, and orange.

“I like it here,” he said, his fingers threaded into Cleo’s long golden hair. “It’s officially my favorite place in all of Auranos. And this rock at my back . . . my favorite rock in all of Mytica.”

Cleo nodded, nestling closer to his side. “It’s a good rock.”

He took her left hand in his, tracing the blue lines that spread from the water magic symbol on her palm. “I don’t like this.”

“Neither do I.”

“But you said you’re in no distress.”

“I said it. I meant it. But . . .”

“But what?”

“But . . .” she began. “It is a problem.”

“An understatement, certainly.”

“I want to figure out how to use this water magic, but I can’t. It doesn’t work that way. At least, not that I’ve discovered yet.”

Magnus remembered stumbling through the forest that dark night, coming upon the campfire of the fire Kindred.

“I saw Kyan,” he said.

Cleo gasped and pulled away so that she could look into his eyes. “When?”

“After . . . the grave.” He’d already told her some of what he’d gone through, not wanting to dwell on the darker moments. She knew his father had given him the bloodstone and that if he hadn’t, Magnus would be only a memory now. “He let me believe he was still Nic for a while, like he was toying with me. He wanted me to tell you that when he arrives, you need to join him. I would have torn him apart right then, but he looked so much like Nic . . .”