Where Ashes and Oaths Collide

Chapter 7: Fate?

“That is not you fate,” Luz declared firmly, his voice carrying the authority of someone used to giving orders that were obeyed without question. “You are not some chattel to be bartered away to the highest bidder.” He closed the distance between them again in two long strides, his armoured form towering over Amelia’s smaller frame. The black vein in his neck pulsed brightly as his emotions surged. “No one touches you but me,” he stated plainly, as if this were an undeniable fact rather than a declaration from a man who claimed he couldn’t offer anything anymore. “So, I can stay?” Amelia asked shyly. Luz’s entire posture shifted at her hopeful question. The rigid command in his stance softened into something more human– a vulnerability he had not shown anyone in years.

“Stay?” His voice cracked slightly, the word catching in his throat. “Stay with me? As what– my prisoner? My concubine?” The vulnerability in his voice surprised even him. He ran a hand over his face. “You want to stay with me?” he asked again, this time his tone laced with disbelief rather than anger. “Do you understand what that means? You would be leaving behind everything you know to live in a Corrompido camp surrounded by monsters who would happily rip you apart.” His crimson eyes searched hers desperately, as if trying to find the flaw in her logic. “I can’t protect you here. Every day is a battle against this darkness eating away at my soul. One wrong move and they will kill you just to punish me.”

“You burned my village to the ground!” Amelia said a bit too loudly; her voice laced with irritation. “Whatever safety or freedom I had died with my father.” She cupped his cheek, the black vein pulsing just below where her hand made contact. “Whether I stay or go, I don’t see much of a future of myself. But at least with you I will be happy,” she said with a softer, tender voice. “As soon as you stop being an i***t and say I can stay.” Luz’s face went utterly still at the insult, then something in his crimson eyes softened at the tenderness in her voice. Her hand cupping his cheek felt like a brand against his cold skin, melting through layers of guilt and armour. “An i***t?” he repeated with a ghost of his old smile touching his lips for the first time in years. “Is that what you call the man who just ordered his own army to give you an hour’s head start?”

His free hand came up to cover hers on his cheek, trapping it there. The contact sent a visible tremor through his system. “Happy?” his voice dropped to a raw whisper. “How can you possible be happy with me? Look at what I have become. This isn’t happiness.” Despite his words, Luz leaned into her touch instinctively, seeking comfort he had not realized that he was craving desperately. “Maybe, you aren’t happy because you don’t have me?” Amelia said suggestively. “I mean, I am pretty great…” The suggestive note in her voice seemed to short-circuit Luz’s carefully constructed defences. His crimson eyes widened slightly. A flicker of something hungry and possessive stirring within them. “You think I am unhappy?” His laugh was rough, almost desperate. “Of course I am unhappy! Every day since I self your village has been hell knowing I wasn’t there to protect you.”

He leaned down closer, his armoured chest pressing against her until she could feel the cold steel through her clothes. The black veins on his neck pulsed rapidly as his control frayed under the combined assault of her proximity and suggestive tone. “Pretty great?” he repeated, his free hand sliding down to wrap around her waist possessively. “You are infuriatingly perfect. That has always been the problem.” His voice dropped to a dangerous murmur. “Don’t tempt me with things I can’t have anymore.” Amelia looked at him with a frustrated scold. “But you can have me,” she protested, then she went up onto her tip toes and pressed her lips against his. The instant her lips met his, something fundamental shifted within him. His entire frame went rigid, the crimson glow in his eyes flaring brightly as if startled by an electrical current. For a fraction of a second, the armoured commander of the Corrompido army vanished, replaced by the young golden knight whose heartbeat solely for this woman.

His crimson eyes fluttered closed and his hand flew to the back of her head, tangling in her red hair as he kissed her back with desperate intensity. The kiss was messy, raw– years of pent-up longing pouring through him like a flood breaking a dam. “Gods above,” he gasped against her mouth between kisses. “You taste exactly as I remembered.” The black vein on his neck pulsed violently as the Darkness within him screamed protests at this sudden surge of forbidden emotion. Yet Luz ignored it completely, too consumed by finally holding Amelia after six endless years apart. “I– I will be you concubine,” she managed to say between kissing and her own ragged breathing. The word ‘concubine’ struck Luz like a physical blow. His crimson eyes flashed with something dangerous, a mix of possessiveness and self-loathing that made the black vein on his neck flare ominously.

“Concubine?” his voice was low and sharp, echoing off in the dark tent. “You think I would let you become my f*****g plaything while I command armies of monsters?” He griped her red hair tighter, tilting her head back to force her to meet his intense gaze. “No,” he bit out harshly. “If you stay with me, you are not some temporary warmth in my bed. You are mine. Understand that clearly.” His other hand moved to rest possessively on her hip, pulling her flush against his armoured muscular frame. “I will be yours,” Amelia said clearly, looking deep into his crimson eyes. The sheer finality in her voice seemed to shatter whatever remain of Luz’s self-control. His crimson eyes burned with an intensity that made the tent air feel electric. “Mine,” he repeated hoarsely, as if testing the word on his tongue. “Say it again. Tell me you belong to me completely.”