Chapter 27
Thunder rumbled in the distance.
There was a charge in the air alright. We were waltzing. I didn’t know how to waltz, but Nikolas was leading me and that made it simple because I would follow Nikolas anywhere…in a dance, off a cliff, into the pits of hell…anywhere.
“You have captivated the room, as I told you you would.” Nikolas whispered, his breath feathering along my neck.
I felt heat burn through to my cheeks. “No, not me.”
He exhaled. “Very well then. You have captivated me. I can tell you that with the utmost confidence.”
I drew my head back to look into his eyes and steeled myself to say the words I didn’t want to say. “Nik…don’t.”
The pain in his eyes at my words set my heart to aching and everything in me wanted to snatch them back from the air between us.
A hand touched his shoulder, yanked it rather, and it did not belong to me. I saw the perfectly sculpted blonde curls before I heard the voice that hit my ears like liquid acid.
“I will not have this.” Brigitte bit the words out between thinned lips, nearly snarling at Nikolas. She looked crazed, eyes wild and angry.
I stepped back, escaping Nikolas’ embrace, brought back down to reality with a crash and a burn. My heart constricted inside my chest.
Not yours, not yours.
The unwanted thought ricocheted around inside my head.
“I have said all I have to say on the matter. It is done.” Nikolas spoke in a level tone, irritation edging into his voice.
Brigitte’s eyes flashed with fury, her face turning a deep shade of red that bordered on purple. “I will not allow it, you will not make a fool of me.”
They were close now, in each other’s faces in a bad way. I retreated and neither noticed as they stood toe to toe.
Yeah, that spelled happily ever after.
I scanned the room, desperate to find the exit. Relief flooded my veins as I turned to find it only a few paces away. The guards opened the doors for me, right on cue and I slipped out into the garden.
Once outside, I didn’t stop. I hit a run, or at least as much of one as I could in my beautiful and, as it turns out, hindering dress. I ran straight to the place in the garden where I’d found Nikolas. It was kind of ‘our place’ and I was kind of sad and pathetic for seeking it out.
I tried to catch my breath, walking in circles and trying to think of things like kittens and puppies and scary dangerous death trap horses, anything but blue-eyed knights that held my heart on a string.
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end and I stopped pacing, a sinking feeling creeping through my veins, cold and heavy like blocks of ice. For emphasis, the sky flashed and thunder rumbled, loud and demanding, the ground trembling in its wake.
“Dani.” Nikolas breathed.
Turning to face him, I forgot about my fearful body hair and the sinking feeling.
I’d had enough. He was ripping me apart, dangling in front of me like water to someone dying of thirst…just out of my reach.
Now I was angry.
“No, no more. You can’t pretend to be unaware of what you are doing to me! I…I can’t keep doing this, just leave…leave me alone.” I spat at him, gouging my fingernails into my palms to keep the tears at bay.
He looked relieved and anguished and happy all at the same time. “No, I will never leave you.” He said the words with a little laugh, like I was stupid to suggest it.
I huffed at him, fuming now. “Is this a game to you? Because, if it is, it is not a fun game, not for me!”
Nikolas stepped closer, I stepped back.
“Dani…this is no game. Please, let me explain…you make me feel—“
I cut him off. “No, no I don’t want to know how…no!” I picked up an apple from the ground and threw it at him.”
He ducked out of the way of my makeshift missile easily and closed the space between us, never missing a beat. He grabbed my arms. “It is over, Dani. I will not marry her.” He paused, watching my reaction.
I couldn’t speak, I wasn’t sure if I’d heard him correctly, afraid to believe that I had.
He took my silence and ran with it. “How could I marry her, how could I share my life with someone when…when my every breath is drawn for you? It always has been and I do not know how that is even possible, but I know it is true all the same.” He paused, trailing his fingers the length of my cheekbone. “I have been going along in this life, merely existing, and when I looked into your eyes that day in the woods…it is as if my heart only then started beating. Dani, I cannot…be…without you.”
“You…you…really?” I said eloquently.
Nikolas laughed, the sound sad and happy. “Yes.” He breathed. “I am captivated by you…I am lost without you. I am yours…every breath, every beat of my heart, every piece of my soul…belongs to you.” He wound his fingers into the hair at the base of my neck, pulling my face to his. Foreheads touching we stood there breathing the same air. “All of me belongs to you.” He breathed the words and his breath feathered along my cheeks, ignited tiny fires throughout my body.
A streak of lighting escaped the clouds, connecting the sky with the earth as the bottom fell out and the rain came pounding down in thick sheets.
We didn’t move, staring into each other’s eyes like we had only just been given the gift of sight. I watched as the rain trailed down his face, watched as his gaze found my lips. He tilted my head back and pressed his mouth to my eyelids one by one, then my cheeks and my jaw. He brought his other hand to my face and my heart hammered so violently against my chest I worried he could feel it too. His brilliant blue eyes dropped to my lips again and he pressed his mouth to mine, fingers knotting in my hair, drawing me against him.
I could swear the clouds parted and I know I saw fireworks behind my eyelids. The storm powered on around us, fierce and beautiful and alive…just like this moment. I knew this is what I’d been waiting for my entire life, this space in time where I stood with Nikolas. It was like the earth had moved to carve out a little hole where only he and I existed and there was no mistaking that in my world, the earth had absolutely moved.
The kiss was sweet and cautious and tender at first, but it wasn’t close to enough. I parted my lips and the kiss became intense. We were devouring each other, clinging desperately to one another. He was light and air and happiness and I needed him to survive.
We were both soaked to the bone now, massive drops of rain cascading down our faces, but it didn’t matter. I wasn’t sure if my feet were touching the ground anymore. He kissed me like his life depended on it and I reciprocated in kind. We were close, but it wasn’t enough. I pressed my body to his as he ran a hand down my shoulder and past my ribs, wrapping it around my waist and pulling me to him tighter. Still, not enough. I could have crawled inside of him, burrowed into his beating heart it would never be enough.
My heart charged on, beating frantically, sweet and violent again. I loved him. I loved Nikolas so much it was nearly painful, but still perfect.
Thunder cracked and lighting flashed all around us, the ground trembled. It was just as it should be, at least, that’s what I thought at first. But, then when the thunder ceased, the ground continued to tremble. Not constantly, but like a ticking clock or a beating heart…tick…tick…thud…thud.
We both realized it at the same time, breaking away from the kiss. I stared up into Nikolas’ eyes to see them widened in fear. It was only then that I realized my hair was standing on end again.
“What is that?” I asked as the ground shook again, my fingers clinging tightly to his forearms.
Nikolas shook his head, turning toward the sound and taking my hand in his to lace his fingers into mine before turning on his heel. Then, we were running through the darkness toward the castle again. The rain was still pounding along with my heart as we rounded the shrubs
and the doorway to the castle garden came into view.
I didn’t even see her.
I was too busy concentrating on the sounds of confusion and fear wafting through the air from the hundreds of people inside the Grand Room. It wasn’t full out panic yet, but it was headed in that direction.
Nikolas stopped, pulling me back and behind him in one fluid movement. At a loss, I peeked around him as the ground shuddered again and the rains receded to only a fine mist.
Annette sat on the ground, soaked to the bone. She raised her emaciated arm and brought it down to the ground and impossibly the earth quaked beneath the strike. She sat looking at Nikolas, eyes empty and lifeless, then her gaze shifted to me and they sparked to life. Her eyes almost glowed and not in a good way as they filled with loathing. She raised her arm again and I saw the mark on the underside of her upper arm. It was off, skewed and wrong like I was looking at it after being hit over the head with something, but it was there…a sick looking sun that glowed a faint red. It was different than my own mark, but it was blatantly obvious what it meant. Annette was magic, too.
This time, an ominous smile spread across her hollowed face before she struck. She didn’t strike the ground though. She swung her tiny arm like she could punch me from there.
That’s strange.
That was my last lucid thought and then I was sailing through the air.