Ruins of Chaos (Legacy of the Nine Realms #3) - Amelia Hutchins Page 0,227

door, he paused to look back at me as I smiled. He shook his head, leaning against it as if he was trying to decide what he wanted more, me, or answers to why our mating felt real. I swallowed the moment he chose his path, slipping out the door which he locked, telling me that even if we were mates, he still didn’t trust me. I’d seen the worry flashing in his eyes and knew where he was going.

I stood, grabbing the clothes I’d placed aside before creating the nest today. Silently, I walked to the window, gazing down at Knox standing before the statues of his family, and then touched the door between them, opening it with magic.

My head leaned against the cold window, listening for what seemed like an eternity until, finally, his rattle exploded. My back arched, and everything within me demanded I go down to my knees.

“This is where you get me out of here because the moment Knox reaches me, I will be the target for that betrayal and rage,” I whispered to the library, feeling the pause before the need to kneel for the more dominant beast abated. “He’s going to kill me this time.”

I turned, watching as the vault appeared. I placed my freshly mated hand against it, and the door slid open, and I entered. I was leaving Knox to deal with the turmoil of emotions he was forced to face. I couldn’t be his whipping post this time. The pain he’d need to release was too high. He was about to wage war against the witches on an entirely new level, and I had to protect the people I could from his wrath.

Chapter Fifty-Seven

Knox

My hand pushed against the stone door, opening the one place I haven’t entered since the day I’d buried my wife beside our son. Inside, candles leaped to life, feeling my presence. The door sealed behind me. Silently, I moved toward Sven’s tomb that held his image on the top. My hand slid through the dust and silt that had built over his tiny grave.

“Sven, it’s daddy,” I whispered, fighting the prickling of tears. Fresh pain ripped through me, raw and unchecked without warning. I swallowed through the tightening in my throat. My gaze slid to Liliana’s tomb, and I made a fist over Sven’s. “I miss you, Little Man. I miss you every day. You’re my first thought each morning, and my last before sleep takes me where the pain of your loss doesn’t hurt so much.”

I moved toward Liliana’s figure, touching the crown that matched the one I’d placed on Aria. It hadn’t been the real crown as I’d been unable to put it on Aria’s head, knowing her bloodline had killed my mate. She’d known. I’d seen it shining in her eyes as I’d handed it off to Siobhan, yet she’d not said a word about it. Aria had worn a fake crown because I’d been hell-bent on her not being Queen or wearing the one my mother had worn to wed my father. I’d been blind to what was right in front of my face the entire time.

Tonight Aria had opened to me, and I’d never felt pleasure quite like it before. I’d felt her womb accepting me, welcoming me inside. I’d felt the connection that mates shared, settling into place. The way Aria’s tiny teeth had pushed through my throat had blown me away, sealing our connection deeper than any other I’d ever felt. I’d fought against the orgasm rushing through me, forcing my body to wait for hers to join mine over the edge.

Aria was this force of nature that ripped through me without warning, wreaking havoc in her wake as she sent me barreling into uncharted territory with her. I’d never felt or met anything like Aria before, and it felt right when she was with me.

I’d watched the horror show Celia planned to force Aria over the edge, to make her into a monster in front of our people. Instead, Aria had simply folded her hands into her lap and pretended she wasn’t affected. But I’d felt her pain, and it ached. Worse, she’d felt as if she’d deserved it because of me. I was the biggest asshole to put her through hell, but I knew if I let my guard down in front of my enemies, and so much as fucking smiled at Aria, they’d move to reach her. I couldn’t watch another person I cared for die.

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