Eona - Alison Goodman [131]
I pressed my hand against my forehead. “I’m sorry to have disturbed you, Your Majesty.”
The pearl was too close to me. He was too close. What if Ido was right?
“I wanted to speak to you anyway,” he said. “Alone.”
I lifted my head and forced my eyes past the pale glow to the sensuous curve of his mouth. The memory of his lips against mine reverberated through me. I stepped back. “Your Majesty, I beg pardon, but I am very tired.”
“It will not take long.” He cleared his throat, the hard swallow forcing my gaze back to the jewel at its base. “I have come to understand that I have offended you with my honesty about your power,” he said. “I am not accustomed—” He paused and rubbed his chin. “I mean, apart from my father, there has been no one whose opinion I was required to consider. And I’ve never had to”—his finger traced the edge of the pearl—“pursue a woman.”
Was the emperor apologizing to me?
He took a deep breath. “I cannot take back those words—we both know they were the truth—but I regret that they caused you hurt.” He reached across and took my hand. “And they did not take into account the importance I place upon your role as Naiso. Eona, you are the moon balance to my sun.”
For a moment, I could not speak. His balance? My heart ached with the trust in his words. I wanted to be his balance, but I was more likely to be his death.
“I am honored, Your Majesty,” I stammered.
“Kygo,” he corrected softly. “I am sorry I hurt you, Eona.”
His sincerity sliced through me like a knife. I tightened my hold on his hand and felt hard metal pressing into my skin; the blood ring was back on his finger. Good. He needed the protection. “You know I would never hurt you, Kygo.”
“I know.” His head tilted; a smile quickly suppressed. “Of course, you have already punched me in the throat and tried to stab me with a sword, but I know you would never hurt me.”
I closed my eyes, but it did not stop the tears. He did not know how much truth was in his jest: at the inn, I had barely held back Kinra’s murderous desire for the pearl. And that was even before I had been touched by the madness of the black folio.
“Eona, I’m only teasing,” he said. The soft touch of his fingers stopped the track of my tears.
I pressed my wet cheek into his hand, unwilling to open my eyes and see the pearl. Unwilling to see the truth. But I knew Ido was right. The pearl was the way to save the dragons. To save our power. Even as he had said it—even as I had denied it—I had known it to be true. Like a part of a wooden puzzle locking into place, creating a picture of pain.
I took a shaking breath. Kinra had not been a power-hungry traitor, after all; she had been trying to save the dragons. There was no taint of treachery in my blood. Yet that did not change the fact that she was still trying to take the pearl through me—her Dragoneye descendant—and it was endangering Kygo’s life. I was not going to be a puppet of my ancestor or the gods or whoever held the rods of this shadow play. Not without a fight. There had to be another way to save the dragons. Another way of mastering Gan Hua. And I could think of only one place it might be: the black folio.
I opened my eyes. “I know,” I said, but my gaze had already locked onto the pearl.
Always the pull of its power nestled in the back of my mind. Now I knew why. Kinra. I had to protect Kygo and the pearl until Dillon brought the black folio. Until I found a way to save the dragons without the Hua of All Men.
I had to protect Kygo from Kinra. And I had to protect him from me.
I pressed my lips against his palm, into the soft gateway of energy, imprinting his touch and smell upon my spirit. Then, forcing a smile, I stepped back. Away from the sun that balanced my moon.
Ryko was the first person I saw as I followed Kygo back into