Adrik admitted to wanting to use my power.
Admitted that he could take it right now to use against Necros.
But didn’t.
And why? Because he refused to hurt me.
Everyone in my life used me for one purpose or another. Necros stole my power. My parents gave me up to secure their kingdom. The men who won Necros’s fucked-up game wanted to take pleasure from me without asking. The guards treated me as a peasant, not a queen.
While Adrik had treated me as a person. An equal. A lover. All because he wanted something from me, too.
But unlike the others, he didn’t take it. Instead, he confessed his sins, put himself in a vulnerable position, and begged me for forgiveness. Pleaded with me to keep him. To make him mine once more.
“Is that what you are?” I wondered out loud. “Mine?”
“If you’ll have me,” he replied, swallowing. “I don’t deserve it—don’t deserve you—but I want you just the same. I want to be yours. I want you to be mine. I want this, whatever it is, that’s growing between us. I want it more than a lifetime of revenge.”
“So if I asked you to run with me, you would?” I asked, considering the option.
He didn’t hesitate. “I would go anywhere you wanted to go.”
“Even if it meant allowing Necros to live?”
Adrik swallowed, the motion drawing my gaze to the thick column of his neck. “We both know he deserves to die. But if you wanted to run, I’d help you run. And I’d never look back.”
“While regretting your lost chance at revenge for the rest of time,” I finished for him, drawing my gaze back up to his. “You could live with that?”
“It wouldn’t be easy, but sacrificing you…” He trailed off, shaking his head. “I can’t, Valora. I can’t hurt you.”
“Then why not kill him together?” I asked, confused. “Why is it an either-or scenario? I want him dead, too, Adrik.”
He remained quiet for so long I thought he might not reply. But his sigh was heavy with sorrow. “It’s not an either-or situation. I think we can defeat him together, but you needed the truth first so nothing could come between us. Because if we’re going to do this, we need to trust each other. Implicitly.”
Right. He’d said that. In my confusion to wrap my head around this madness, I’
d warped his statements with the lost ones inside my mind. The foreign pang his admission had caused. Followed by the seductive heat stirred by his emotional confession.
It wasn’t love.
Not quite.
But something pure. Something honorable. Something extraordinary.
“I want to work together,” I whispered. “I want to work with you.” He was the only one to concede his nefarious intentions and regret them. The only one not to use me without a regard.
Adrik cared.
I felt it in the bond we had created. Read it in his mind that he left open to me even now, his thoughts honest and tangible. No more secrets. No more lies. Just the truth. His adoration. His tangible lust. His regret. His pride. His confusion. His warmth for me. His yearning for my forgiveness.
It all swam through our connection, so raw and real that it took my breath away.
He’d said something. An affirmation of sorts. But I wasn’t listening. I no longer cared to talk. I wanted to experience him—the real him. Without a veil. Without him holding back. Without him worrying about my sensibilities.
I wanted him to fuck me the way he truly desired, the manner in which I observed inside his mind. Harsh. Hard. All-consuming. Bliss.
“Take me to bed, Adrik,” I said, interrupting whatever he’d just said.
I took a step back, releasing the silk robe I wore, revealing my nakedness underneath. I had expected Necros. But I never wanted that foul creature to touch me again. Only Adrik. And if Necros interrupted us, I’d light this entire palace on fire. Maybe I couldn’t hurt him, but the falling structure could.