The Darkling by KL Hagaman

Author:KL Hagaman [Hagaman, KL]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-06-06T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

The Interruption

The next morning, Lilja helped Kaden put the salve over his shoulder, careful and thoughtful as to how she worked the balm, as they spent the moments catching up a bit more before heading out again.

Lilja shared with Kaden everything that had transpired in Dorai, from her talks with Suna to those of the Accordance, and even about Joss, her faux Keeper. But what she wanted to talk most about was him. How had his time been in Shinrin? What were the Towen really like? And this Haleth he spoke of that had set his veins literally aglow, who’d helped him, what was she like?

But Lilja was careful not to ask when he thought he might permanently be able to return to her. She wondered solely in her heart how long he’d need to remain in Shinrin…or want to, when their scouting was finished. He had every right to stay, and for as long as he deemed fit. He needed to heal, and she wanted that for him. But what was more was her need, along with his, for him to understand his true nature. Everyone deserved that. And certainly her Keeper did.

Still, she did not want to think of how long she’d be forced to miss him…

So, he’d answered the lesser, but spoken questions of her heart with stories of the nests hanging from thick redwoods and swinging bridges, of his time with Haleth and Seeva, few as those moments with the latter were. But truthfully, he’d not had the strength to do much more in Shinrin other than rest and try

to wrap his head around the revelations found there.

It was a curious feeling, being so close yet so far away from certain understandings.

“And you glowed?” she asked for what had to be the tenth time. “Like a firefly?” The Princess was trying to grasp the sort of bioluminescence her Keeper spoke of.

“No,” he chuckled almost shyly, rubbing his eye. “More like…trails of lava¬.”

“Lava? So the fisherman’s tale grows,” she commented with a cheeky air as she sat back, done working on his shoulder but looking it over to be certain.

Kaden cut his eyes at her and gave a funny grin, but then those eyes lingered, as they’d done more often of late, and a softness was felt through the air.

“Here,” he started gently, holding out his arms, one slightly lower than the other, realizing how best to appease her question.

Lilja watched as Kaden closed his eyes and breathed in and out a few steady breaths, quieting himself as he focused on a voice and that part of himself that had long lay dormant. Haleth’s words rang there in the dark of his mind, how magic wasn’t to be wielded, but lived.

Kaden didn’t have to look for such power, he simply had to free it.

He breathed it in around him, remembering the feeling of the energy coursing through his veins—how a part of….everything he’d felt in that moment. How connected. How in tune. How intertwined. How free…

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