Keeper of Storms (The Fallen Fae #3) - Jenna Wolfhart Page 0,91

before him. Would Lorcan abandon his people when they were willing to die for him, or would he fight beside them in the battle?

His eyes slid shut. Dammit all to hell.

“Fine,” he said through gritted teeth. “But I swear to the gods, Reyna, if you die, I will bring you back to life just so that I might kill you all over again.”

31

Reyna

“A storm is coming.” Reyna stood on the cliff overlooking the sea, a strange, exhilarating wind rustling the hair around her face. Finally, it was beginning to look silver again, Thane’s green dye vanishing with every bath she took. She felt Lorcan’s steady presence as he strode up behind her. Shadows seemed to pulse along her skin, as though some unseen magic reached out to her soul.

Was that his newfound power, formed from the strength of the throne?

Or was that just him? She’d seen the shadows on him before.

“The storm is already here,” he said pointedly, taking a spot on the cliff beside her. “It’s a part of you now, which means it’s a part of us.”

Reyna dropped back her head to gaze up at him, her heart thumping. “You don’t need to take on this storm. It’s my burden. Not yours.”

He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and tugged her close. “Don’t you see? Any burden of yours is mine. I will gladly take it on.”

Tears swarmed into her eyes. She could hear the hurt in his voice, and she hated it. And she knew why. “Please don’t be angry. You know I have to do something to help.”

He let out a tired sigh that seemed to shudder from the very depths of his soul. “Reyna Darragh. Shieldmaiden. Princess. Protector of Tir Na Nog.”

Pain flickered in her heart. “No, Destructor of Tir Na Nog. The Namhaid. The Enemy. I am no hero, Lorcan. I’m the end of us all.”

“That’s why you’re doing this, isn’t it?” he murmured against her hair. “You’re so afraid of turning into the Namhaid that you have to prove to yourself you won’t. You want to believe you’re willing to sacrifice yourself instead.”

“I’m not sacrificing myself, Lorcan. I’m not even fighting. All I’m doing is gathering an army.”

“I won’t let that damn Ruin kill you, Reyna.”

“I don’t think it’s up to you,” she whispered.

Suddenly, he grabbed her shoulders and twisted her toward him. His eyes flashed with a dangerous intensity that shook the breath in her lungs. Looming over her, he was the very image of a shadow king. Dark, powerful, his entire being pulsing with a ferocious kind of strength.

“I will make this vow to you. Here and now, in front of the whole damn world if that’s what I have to do,” he said, gripping her tight. “You are mine and I am yours. Nothing will change that. No vicious kings. No terrifying prophecies. No deals with gods.” He lowered his eyes to hers. “And no storms. I will find a way to save you. And I will rip apart Findius if that’s what it takes.”

Reyna’s breath shuddered from her lungs. His words warmed her in a way that she did not think possible. She loved the ice, but he was fire. Her body curved toward his instinctively as her heart struggled to beat. Every word he said was everything she wanted to hear, but it scared her, too.

He would tear apart the world for her.

She’d been willing to do the same, and others had died because of it. As she’d clawed her way back to his side, the Ruin had whispered words in her ears, warning her that her love for him might be the undoing of them all.

What if his love was the same?

“I don’t want you to rip apart Findius,” she said. “No one else should die, especially not because of me.”

“You still don’t see it, do you?” he asked, shaking his head as the edges of his lips tilted up. “I don’t care what the Ruin says, Reyna. You’re too stubborn. You’re too brave. You’re too strong. Unseelie will never twist your mind. You are not the Namhaid.”

Her hands fisted. “You don’t believe me. You think I’m making it all up.”

“No.” He shook his head. “I believe every word you say, but I think there is more to this Ruin than you think.”

Her heart thudded in her chest. She’d used up the second-to-last batch of herbs at dinner. She only had enough left to last her another day. And then the Ruin would storm back into her