Page 96 of Lies That Bleed
How much did he see?
He swallowed hard and shook his head. “I don’t know what you do. I only know that right now is the last time I kiss you for a long time.”
I frowned. “Wh—?” Before I could question him, his lips were on mine again in a greedy kiss that I matched. My hands gripped him tightly, running over hardened muscle as his tongue slicked across mine, making heat run down my chest and settle between my thighs.
Stars, have mercy on me. This man was liable tomake me explode. By the time he pulled back, I was breathless.
He looked so sad and I wasn’t sure why.
“I want you to remember something, okay?” he breathed.
All I could do was nod.
Leaning forward, he pressed his lips to my ear. “Remember that no matter how things may seem, everything I do is to protect you.”
I frowned, and then Tetra and Dev stepped into the room holding hands and laughing. I broke apart from Kohen, remembering the urgency of his message about the attack.
“Get her home,” I told him.
He nodded, and then I pulled my fingers from his and ran out the front door of the event hall with Tetra screaming after me. Liana was already there, waiting with her head down and wings tucked in so I could leap onto her. I had to ride sidesaddle since my dress was so tight.
‘Don’t tell me you are about to do what I think you are,’Liana said.
‘Am I a loud thinker or are you a mind reader?’I asked her as she took flight and headed for my house.
‘What’s the difference?’she asked, and despite the current situation, I couldn’t help but laugh.
‘So are you doing what I think you are?’she asked again, a seriousness in her tone.‘Are you going to tell your father that you see the future?’
So shecouldread my mind.
‘Yes,’I said without hesitation. It was the only way to try and save lives without endangering Kohen’s.
‘I advise against that,’she said, and I could feel her worry through our bond. We didn’t disagree on much, and to my knowledge we’d never really argued. But there was a first time for everything.
‘Noted. But I have to do this, unless you have some other way to warn the soldiers at the campus that an attack is incoming without putting Kohen’s life at risk by revealing his gift.’
She was silent, and that was that. Sometimes as a leader you had to do hard things for the good of all. My own father told me that.
Liana landed in front of my house and I leapt off of her.‘I’ll be right out here waiting for you,’she said.
That made me nervous. Was she expecting some kind of retaliation from my own father? Sure, he would be pissed I had kept such a gift from him, but he’d protect me.
Right?
‘Then why haven’t you told him you can control minds?’Liana asked.
That wasn’t fair. I planned to take that to the grave and never use that magic again unless I absolutely had to. That was one of those powers you didn’t tell anyone about. Even Tetra. To do so would put everyone who knew at risk. It was a forbidden power that no one should have, least of all a future empresswho was going to be in control of the entire Imperial Fleet one day.
But so was the gift of seeing the future. To tell my father about it now would anger him. He hated lying and secret keeping. I wasn’t naïve, I knew he’d be pissed, but I hoped he’d lay it aside and put our people first. I was his daughter after all.
“Aisling.” My father’s voice came from behind me just as I was about to knock on his study door.
I spun to find him in his robe watching me with a scowl.
“I know it’s late. I’m sorry if you were sleeping but it’s an emergency.”
The scowl lifted to curiosity and concern.
