Shadowed Heart & Deceit (The Silver Wilde Chronicles Book 2) by Dahlia T. Drake

Author:Dahlia T. Drake [Drake, Dahlia T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2023-10-16T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-One

Stupidly, I hadn’t expected to see him again. He’d made it very clear he wasn’t going anywhere, and he was supposed to bring me back to Kaia imminently, but after what happened with Erik, I expected Kaz to disappear in a puff of smoke. And yet he didn’t.

He was here with shock and relief written all over his ravishing face. Another thing I don’t deserve. That was bad enough, but it was the look of clear and unconditional acceptance that knocked me with a gut punch of shame and guilt. I thought I might puke—everything I’d done with Erik, from kissing him to nearly killing him, for lying, for deceiving and fucking everything up. The lump in my throat was too big to swallow, and I was way too spent for ‘abscondo’ tonight. I just had to endure it.

Kaz jogged to us with this beatific expression, and held his hand up to help me down, but I couldn't look him in the eyes. Beast slithered off me, draping himself around AJ’s shoulders, and I let the incubus help me down and wrap his arms around me. I soaked up his warmth, the reassurance of his deep and steadying voice, the earnestness of his concern. I accepted all these gifts despite having continually made a mockery of them and I didn’t have it in me to lash out anymore. Gratitude was all I had left—a deep and overwhelming gratitude, awash with shame. The lump in my throat shattered, allowing all the sorrow inside to gush out in a big, ugly, bawling mess. And for better or worse, that was the least of my reasons to feel ashamed now.

Kaz held me tighter, his voice a soothing balm until the shame returned, beginning a cycle of howling sobs fading to simmering mews and back again for a good ten minutes. Finally, he took my face in his hands and looked at me. His soft expression hardened when our eyes met, and my heart sped up as I pressed down the enduring feeling I might hurl.

“Shit,” he whispered, looking back and forth between each of my eyes. I tried not to whimper. “Shhh, it’s okay. Hold on.” With his hands still on either side of my face, he dropped his head and closed his eyes. I didn’t know what he was doing. We stood like that for a long moment before he uttered the words that solved the mystery. “Restituo… sarcio… da tempus…”

The nausea receded and I began to breathe easier. He’d suppressed the curse again, but I still felt like a wrecked ship, and it was my own fault. The pitying look he gave me had me tearing up again, and I tried to pull away so I didn’t have to endure that particular torture, too, but he held on gently.

“Hey, you’re okay. Everything is okay now.”

I shook my head. “No, it’s not. Everything is shit, Kaz. I’m so sorry. I’ve fucked everything.”

A corner of his mouth pulled up, even as the concern remained.

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