Total pages in book: 169
Estimated words: 156210 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 781(@200wpm)___ 625(@250wpm)___ 521(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 156210 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 781(@200wpm)___ 625(@250wpm)___ 521(@300wpm)
“I know I ruined the whole wedding, but you must understand it’s all scary to me. I’m completely out of my depth. I’m used to doing everything on my own and trusting a man enough to marry him isn’t something I can just jump into.” Though as he says that, he climbs into bed and under the covers. All he’s wearing is a simple long black nightshirt and it’s a struggle for me to focus on his words instead of imagining how easy it would be to slide my hand under the flimsy garment.
Not that I have any energy for bedroom activities this soon after surviving a despair bite, but his arms feel so nice around me I lean into the hug, eager for more of the tenderness he showed me last night. It hurts that he’s scared I might betray him, but I can’t demand trust without offering it myself.
There’s things he should know about me, and since he already proved that he can keep his lips locked, I exhale, swallow, and meet his gaze.
“I’m not who you think I am.”
Chapter 17
Kyran
Ifeel as though I’ve just stepped off a cliff on a night so dark even the most powerful shadow magic can’t save me. My guts coil, like eels hiding between rocks, but when Luke’s pretty vulpine face relaxes, I know there’s no way back from this. A potion can explode in an alchemist’s face if they hesitate too long before adding the final ingredient. It is a huge risk, but he’s already proven his readiness to keep my secrets, and after a lifetime in hiding, there’s a part of me that longs to be seen for the man I am, not the illusion of my brother.
“Wh-what do you mean?” Luke asks, cocking his head. His attentive eyes don’t appear so bloodshot anymore, and the way his fingers skirt over my chest makes my heart beat faster.
I hate that he feared me enough to run away from our wedding. Maybe if he gets to know me, we won’t have to overcome so much by the next full moon? Maybe he will understand where I’m coming from and see that I have no reason to put him in danger.
Still, even though I volunteered the truth about myself, now that he’s asking for more information, chills throb under my skin as I clear my throat. “This is related to the sun mark, and you have to promise to never tell anyone, no matter how trustworthy they seem,” I say, playing with his beautiful, rosy fingers.
He nods, and the look in his green eyes is so sincere I’m ready to tell him everything. I know he’d break under torture, but it will never happen under my watch. I’d be dead if it ever came to that, and then, my secrets wouldn’t matter anyway.
For a moment, I struggle to decide how to start, but it all comes down to the fact that he’s an alien to my world and has no point of reference for what the symbol I’ve been carrying since birth stands for. I clear my throat, slide my arm around him, so we’re closer, and whisper, “I know the sun is something normal in your world. Legend says we used to have it too, so long ago even the oldest of elves don’t remember that time anymore. But when it was still around, it was so very jealous of its twin, the moon,” I say, looking at the dark sky beyond the windows of my bedchamber.
“Before it was chased away forever, it tried to consume the moon to take its place in the sky and, well, it is believed that is always the story with twins, so it is a cursed thing to have two children out of one birth. It is very rare, but when it happens, the second child to come out is marked as the sunspawn,” I say, and while I often forget the mark on my chest, now it seems to burn with raw fire. “Some parents banish the child to your world or leave it out in the wild, for nature to take its course, others make sure it knows its subservient role to its sibling. The mark cannot be taken off, and no illusion can hide it. It’s for everyone to see, because the sun child is expected to be cruel and jealous.”
Understanding spills across Luke’s face like ink in water, and his eyes widen. “B-but… Why? Just because you’re the younger twin? The prince’s twin…”
I lower my gaze and tighten my hold on his fingers, worried he might pull away at this revelation. “One thing is definitely true. I was jealous. All my life, I’ve seen my brother’s existence as a slight to me, because if he hadn’t been born first, I would have been the one to live in comfort and splendor. Instead, I was a creature of the shadows,” I say, meeting Luke’s gaze again as fire sparks deep inside me. “Replacing him when it was convenient, and nobody but my parents and him even knew of my existence.”