“No you’re not,” Kiran countered, pulling me into a hug. His hands, strong on my back, pressed me into his chest willing to hold me there for the rest of eternity. I shivered, thankful for his embrace that seemed to be the only thing keeping me from emotionally and physically combusting.
“I thought we were equal,” I mumbled, embarrassed to admit my weakness. “I thought I could stand against him.” I felt Kiran shake his head and hold me even tighter.
“You can stand against him,” he whispered into my ear, his words ringing with solid conviction.
I pulled back, to look up into his eyes. They were steely blue, fierce with determination and resolve. “Thank you,” I whispered, my voice catching in my throat.
He smiled down at me, our skin tingling from where we touched. He leaned down and kissed me on the cheek and as if that weren’t enough, he moved his lips over my skin to the corner of my mouth where he pressed them against my lips fighting the urge to kiss me passionately. I felt the fight in his touch, the struggle to follow through with his promise to let me come to him. And at any other time I would have been disappointed, but now was not the time to reciprocate his emotions, now was the time to figure out a way to defeat his evil father and rule the kingdom that belonged to me.
“Let’s get you inside,” Kiran opened the door behind me and ushered me inside. “But, don’t even try to get rid of me. I will not be leaving here today or maybe any day in the future.” His grin turned roguish and I smiled back, I didn’t have the slightest desire to make him leave.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
I watched from a castle terrace as more prisoners were unloaded. Titans moved them gruffly from place to place until they stood in a single file line. They were marched toward the dungeon entrance, without grace or patience.
My stomach churned as I realized I didn’t recognize any of them. Not one of them belonged in the Resistance. These were every day citizens that had been charged with some outrageous accusation worthy of an unfair prison sentence.
Lucan was turning into a mad man before my eyes. I clutched at my stomach as a dangerous foreboding feeling threatened to make me sick. He had always been evil, I knew that. But before my eyes he seemed to be becoming even more dangerous…. deranged. The sinister expression on his face was barely ever softened and his eyes seemed permanently marked with paranoia.
He challenged this kingdom to fight back with their actions, but even more it seemed he tested the Titans and their loyalty. The blood oath seemed to call to his doubts and bring out his inner demons. He couldn’t be any more confident of the original contracts meaning, than we could, but the ominous threat still hung over all our heads, and he had decided to make every one of us pay.
My heart broke for the innocents suffering for my cause. They deserved a better kingdom, a better life, but they did not deserve to be the victims of a war they weren’t even apart of until now.
“It’s time to go talk to Avalon, we have to do something about this,” Kiran whispered gently. I jumped, startled by his presence. I had been too caught up in my internal misery to notice him approach me.
“When?” I asked, not willing to take my eyes off the last of the new prisoners waiting their turn to enter the dungeon.
“Tonight,” he whispered. “The All Saint’s Festival is in three days. I have never seen my father like this before, and I’m afraid for the kingdom. With everyone gathered…. Something just isn’t sitting right with me.”
I turned toward him, laying a hand on his arm. “I have that same feeling,” I admitted, not able to meet his eyes.
“We’ll figure this out, Eden,” Kiran assured me, lifting my chin so that he could meet my eyes with confidence. “We have to.”
“Kiran,” I began, knowing how this would end. “I was thinking more about the prisons…. I know you think the magic is evil and all, and well, I’m not even sure if it would work like India…. But, maybe that would be enough magic to-“
“No, please don’t suggest it,” Kiran cut me off, pulling me into his arms afraid of losing me. “It’s not safe. Like you said, you have no idea what would happen…. There is another way, we just haven’t figured it out yet.”
“Ok,” I relented, falling into the fear of the unknown. It was only a thought, a fleeting thought that I had toyed with for weeks, but only that. The truth was, I didn’t even know if it was possible to get to the magic, and if I did get down into the caves, there was absolutely no way to tell what could happen. If by some miracle I was able to possess the magic without getting killed, or at the very least mangled beyond all recognition, I agreed with Kiran that the magic was evil. No good magic would cause Immortals’ to suffer the way those prisons did.
“We’ll know more after we talk to Avalon,” Kiran finished. I stayed in his arms, letting him protect me from the vile malevolence that surrounded me in every direction. The castle had come to feel like home, but the criminal residing within, the energy radiating from Lucan was a suffocating and foul evil.
----
“Pssst, Eden,” Avalon stepped from behind a tree as if our connection didn’t tell me his exact location.
I ran into his arms, throwing myself against him. The midnight sky, lit up by only a fingernail moon shed eerie shadows on tonight’s meeting. Other than the waning moon, the sky felt empty. The stars hid behind heavy autumn clouds. The fall trees had shed half their leaves, and the ground crunched beneath our feet with the sound of dead vegetation.