House of Darken (Secret Keepers #1)(84)
After a few moments I was adjusted to one side so Daniel could step in and grip onto the other, free side. Then, without any warning, Lexen’s wings burst out to their full lengths and we were flying.
18
I’d thought flying on the magic carpet was scary, but it was nothing compared to the sensation of soaring like this. Lexen’s powerful wings lifted us high and out over the flames below. I tried my best not to look down, because if I started to panic I would wiggle and he’d probably drop me.
I must have said something out loud about being dropped because Lexen let out a rumbly chuckle. “Trust me, little human. I’m not going to drop you.”
His voice was at least ten octaves deeper than usual, a hybrid of man and beast, just like his body. “When are you going to quit with the ‘little human’ stuff?” I said, needing to find a distraction from the possibility of falling into flaming lava.
There was silence, just the whoosh of wings and the roaring of flames below. “It doesn’t mean what it used to,” Lexen finally said. He left it at that, and I found I was satisfied with his answer.
I’d sort of known that already; his voice used to snarl over the word “human,” but now it was gentle. It had gone from an insult to a nickname.
“You two should stop fighting the inevitable,” Daniel said. I twisted my head, my heart aching as I stared into his tortured eyes. How could there be so much emotion in a pair of eyes? Seriously.
“What’s the inevitable?” I asked, voice barely audible above the crackling noise of fire and lava around us.
His lips twisted into a grin and I realized there was a deep dimple carved into his cheeks. Je-sus … Lexen had hot friends.
“Emma doesn’t understand our world,” Lexen interrupted Daniel. “She doesn’t understand what this sort of relationship would cost her. I … won’t do that to her, no matter what my draygone soul wants.”
A growl ripped from his throat then and I was startled enough that I jolted. “Can you maybe not speak in code any longer?” Annoying Daelighters. “Tell me exactly what you mean for once.”
His growls halted in an instant, and I almost died of shock when he answered me straight up: “Draygones have one mate – choosing someone who calls to their souls. It’s an eternal bond. As a Draygo, I have a draygone soul within me. It is what makes me different from other Daelighters.”
“Your dragon has chosen me?” I choked out, tears already springing to my eyes. I swallowed a few times, willing away the damp pressure. I’d always felt a link between us, so this explained a lot.
“Fuck,” Daniel cursed. “She’s going to cry, Lex. You know I don’t deal well with crying females.”
I snort-laughed. “I promise not to dry my eyes on you, Daniel.”
He still wore a slightly panicked look, very at odds with his overtly masculine badass fa?ade.
“Why did that upset you?” Even with his dragon voice there was a layer of concern tingeing Lexen’s words.
I had to clear my throat a few times. “I felt a connection to you from the first moment I saw you. Before that, actually. Your house would always draw my eye and curiosity. Like that time you slowed your car next to me and cracked the window. There was this draw to go closer.” Fear had made me run, but part of me wanted to open that car door and see who was inside.
Lexen nodded, clearly remembering what I was talking about.
“Then when you kidnapped me and were such a bastard,” I continued, “it was easy to hide those feelings … focusing instead on my animosity and annoyance. Only the more I got to know you…”
“The stronger it got,” he finished for me.
“Yeah, pretty much.”
I was about to ask him what he had meant about his world and dragging me into it, when I noticed that we were now past the land of flames, moving across an entirely new landscape.
“Gauntlet of Malinta … monsters,” Daniel said, following my line of sight. “Be grateful that Lexen will have the strength to bypass it also.”
Grateful didn’t even begin to cover it. It was a land of swirling sand. Which doesn’t sound that terrible until you take into account that every time one of those huge mounds of orangey sand shifted in the breeze, claws would emerge. There were thousands of monsters pushing their way in and around the sand, fighting each other, ripping wisps of what I assumed were souls to shreds. Creatures I had no names for, creatures that would probably haunt me. The screams were very loud now that we were flying above it, and I had to tear my eyes away because I was starting to feel nauseous.
“Focus on me, Emma,” Daniel said when I looked down again. “You can’t help them. That’s the first thing to learn about the justices. It’s every Daelighter for themselves.”
“How can you stand living near this place?” I murmured, my jaw clenching hard as I fought to stop the tears. Seeing those souls beg … cry … scream … it was too much for me to handle.
Daniel’s features were hard, his eyes flat. “Like Lexen, I have no choice. Born to the Imperials. Royal blood and all. I will fulfill my destiny to curate and punish the dead.”
Which was clearly the last thing he wanted to do, judging by that tone.
“Are there any Daelighters who go straight to the land of redemption at the bottom?”