I hurry to his side and rub my hand across his forehead. His body is badly beaten and bruised. His back is torn in shreds, and he lays unmoving on the stone floor. I lean forward, pressing my head to his chest. His body is smoldering hot, but I can hear the one thing he always hides. It's the one thing that I try so hard to capture as my own. His heart. It beats with a ferocity, and I smile even sitting within the ashes and smoke, the battle still raging in the city, the debris from Kane's anger all around me. I have always known that Kane is a good man. I've always known that Kane truly cares and that his heart beats for more than just power.
There is a lot of work to do to get him back to where he was, but something in me tells me that this is the weakest I will ever see him again. Blood flows from his wounds, and his body lays completely exhausted from the trials and tortures he has experienced. But, he's alive, unconscious, but alive. That's all that matters to me right now. Everything else will be sorted out, but right now, I know I have not lost the man that I love. I know that when he awakens, we will fight together until Drogaem is no more.
Chapter 16
Kane
Rage.
Pure unadulterated rage flows through me, and I allow it to take complete control.
I lost something in the fire and flames, but I think it's something that I never needed in the first place. Seeing Briar standing there, the light radiating, her body twisting and morphing the energy astounds me. I have known for a long time that she is capable of more than she gives herself credit for, but I never imagined the power that is inside of her and all around her.
I know that I let her in long before I allowed myself to accept and admit it. There is a part of me that always searches for the words that truly encompass the range of emotion and feeling that Briar brings. Standing here, the flames crackling around me, the dust of my enemies in the air, I finally realize what Briar has been to me all along.
She is my light. She is the hope that I have never allowed myself to have. To be a good leader, a king, I thought my soul had to be resolute. I thought I had to come to terms with allowing death in order for peace to follow. But Briar's light shows me that it doesn't matter, I don't have to allow the people I protect to fall victim to the evil that lurks within the darkness of the underworld.
I wobble forward, wanting to tell her all of this. I need for Briar to understand the truth of her own strength and power, but my body is fighting me. My knees collapse, and I hit the stone ground. As I fall, the flames of my anger extinguish. My eyes begin to blur, and before my face slams into the stone, darkness takes me.
Where I go, though, dreams do not haunt me. It's not a darkness that holds me. It's not a void like the one Drogaem had locked me inside. It is just a space, a holding place until my body allows me to rise. I stay here, feeling a tranquil peace, wondering if this is where I end my story.
No. I will decide when my story ends.
My thoughts fall to Briar, and I close my eyes, forcing the calm away. Flashes of visions pop through my mind, taking me back to the flaming hall. I hear the shifter and the vampire writhing in their own pain and agony. The vision shifts to Briar's face. Just before the moment that I pass out, I open my eyes. Immediately my body goes tense, and pain shoots through me. It clouds my mind, and I swing my arms, not understanding whether I'm fighting or falling.
"Shhh…"
The sound of Briars's voice calms me almost instantly. My vision begins to clear again, and I see her beautiful face bent over me, smiling as she wipes a wet cloth across my forehead. I allow myself to be lost in her eyes for several moments, forgetting about everything that happened before. It's a private moment, an intimacy that I long to share with her far beyond my broken body and bloodied wings. Her stare is even more soothing than the darkness I came from.
Shouts and screams shake me from my trance, and my mind falls back on my people.
My people. They are suffering.
I pull away from Briar and force my body off of the bed, dragging myself toward the balcony. My knees shutter beneath me, and pain sears from my thighs to my stomach and over into my back. I grip on to the doorframe, just as my legs begin to give out. I hold on, but my fingers begin to slip.
"Whoa, hold on," Briar says as she runs up and puts her arm around my body, bracing me enough so that my legs can find their footing again.
She tries to pull me back, but I shake my head. "I want to see."
She stands here with me for several moments, but I can tell that my weight is beginning to be too much on her small frame. She grunts. "I'm proud of you. I'm proud of your desire to protect your kingdom and how far you will truly go to do it, but I can't let you destroy yourself in the process."
I know she's right, and I let her help me
