By My Side
By Misha
Disclaimer- Not mine.
Author’s Notes- This is my entry for day 20 of the Choices July Challenge “Commitment”. This was requested by frugalchoicer. It has been a long time since I wrote TC&TF and even longer since I wrote Kenna and Raydan. If you know me, you know that Kenna and Diavolos are my OTP, but I do like Kenna and Raydan together. This is set at the end of Book 1.
Pairing- Kenna x Raydan
Summary- After Kenna’s coronation, she and Raydan share a moment in the garden.
Rating- PG-13
As the celebration continued inside the castle Kenna slipped outside and moved towards the gardens, though she noted with dismay that they were in great disrepair after two years of neglect, breathing in the cool air, and savoring the silence.
She had done it, she had reclaimed Stormholt and regained her throne. She was queen. And yet, the battle had just begun. She had defeated Marco, but did she have what it took to take on Luther Nevrakis? Was she strong enough to defeat the man who had murdered her mother?
“So pensive, didn’t anyone tell you this is a celebration?”
Kenna whirled around to see Raydan standing there, watching her carefully.
“We always seem to find ourselves alone in gardens,” he commented, stepping closer/
“I’m afraid these gardens compare very poorly to the ones at Aurelia,” Kenna said, glancing around, once again seeing the signs of Nevrakis cruelty.
“And yet there is still beauty here,” Raydan countered, “and none more so than you. Moonlight suits you. Though last time we were in a garden, you were not so solemn.”
“I wasn’t Queen then,” Kenna countered, “at least not really. I was a queen without a country. I was fighting to reclaim my home, now I have to prove I am worthy of it.”
“Not an easy feat,” Raydan agreed, watching her carefully, “but one I have every faith you will accomplish.”
“Is that so?” Kenna asked and this time it was her turn to step closer, “and how can you tell? You barely know me.”
They had known each other for mere weeks and yet… hasn’t Kenna be drawn to him since the night they met? Wasn’t that why she had kissed him in the garden and why she found her eyes lingering on his mouth even now?
“I consider myself an excellent judge of character,” Raydan told her, his tone both humorous and a touch arrogant, “and I know that you are a queen worth following.”
“Will you follow me?” Kenna asked, holding her breath as she awaited his answer, surprised by the realization of how important it was to her.
Raydan reaches out a hand, stroking her face, “anywhere you ask me too.”
“And If I ask you to stay at my side forever?” Kenna asked, her eyes searching his. She wasn’t sure what she was asking. She was a queen, he was a spymaster… it was as foolish and forbidden as her feelings for Dom had once been and yet, so much more powerful. She knew what her mother and Gabriel would say, if they were there, but they were ‘t and she was no longer a princess, but a queen with power over her own destiny.
“Then that is where I will be,” Raydan assured her. It was a promise, of what exactly she wasn’t sure, but they could worry about that later.
After all, they had a war to win first, but before that…
Kenna tilted her face up towards Raydan’s to meet his kiss, his arms slipping around her waist and anchoring her to him as the kiss deepened, the world melting away and with it all of Kenna’s troubles. Yes, there was a war to win and tomorrow they would start planning again, figuring out how to defeat Luther Nevrakis, but that was tomorrow.
Tonight was hers, theirs, and she was going to savor it
-The End
