Corrupted: An Epic Dragons and Immortals Romantic Fantasy (Fallen Emrys Chronicles Book 1) by E.E. Everly (motivational books for men txt) 📕

“You would be dead to all those who love you,” my father said.

I am dead to all those who love me.

Dead.

No… Not dead. Alive. You are alive, Niawen, Seren said.

I nodded. Kelyn is yet alive.

As I jumped into action, my light flew into Kelyn, surging around the arrow. The head had lodged into the left lower chamber of his heart. Every beat caused more blood to leak from the chamber and tear the hole larger. Once removed, Kelyn would bleed to death in seconds. As he was, he had minutes.

“I can heal him as I move the arrow a fraction at a time,” I said.

As I pulled up on the arrow, blood flooded the space. I patched micro tears and forced the blood back into the chamber. Minutes became hours. I fought against the damage to Kelyn’s heart as I ignored mine.

Not dead. Alive.

Kelyn is alive.

I might be dead, but he will live. I imbued my soul with these words as I worked; all the while Kelyn remained unconscious.

Somehow I finished. Somehow the men helped Kelyn and me onto Seren. Somehow I held him until we arrived at the palace courtyard.

I recalled Kelyn being torn from my arms as if a piece of my soul went with him.

Kenrik met us. Yes, I last saw his terrified brown eyes before I slid into his arms, spent.

The darkness around my heart welcomed me into nightmare.

TWENTY-FIVE

I thrashed, twisting in a ribbon of cloth. It constricted around my chest, my legs, my arms. I couldn’t free myself no matter which way I turned.

“She’ll injure herself,” a woman said. “We should restrain her.”

“Leave her be,” a man replied. “I’ll watch her.”

I hissed. I groaned. I’ve doomed my soul. Deian, save me. I’m not a killer. Please forgive me!

I bolted upright. “I killed them! They’re all dead because of me!”

“Niawen!”

Pressure on my shoulders. A warm breath in my face.

“Niawen,” a man said.

Light grew behind my eyelids, and I opened them. A maid held a candle in my face, and Kenrik gripped my shoulders. His pupils swirled with the reflection of light. The brown of his eyes was almost gone in the dim room, but the circles of his pupils were pronounced.

Eyes huge with worry.

“It’s all right. You’re safe. Those men deserved to die. You stopped them. You saved Kelyn’s life.”

“Kelyn? Kelyn!”

“Yes. Do not fret.”

I ripped at the sheet, frustrated my legs were trapped.

“You should stay abed,” Kenrik said. “You need rest.”

“I do not need rest. I need redemption.” I rolled to the other side of the mattress, tumbling off the side and to the floor. As I scuffled with the infernal fabric, Kenrik raced around the bed to me.

I leapt to my feet and ran past him, shoving the door so roughly it slammed against the wall.

I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.

Steady, Niawen. Seren pushed her calm into me.

It didn’t help.

Kenrik followed, yelling after me. “Where are you going?”

I rounded a corner. Realizing I took an incorrect turn in the maze of palace corridors, I backtracked—

Right into Kenrik’s arms.

“I need air. I need air.” My breaths were too shallow, too rapid.

He eased me against the wall, with his arms caging me.

I pushed at his chest. “Let me go, Kenrik.”

He didn’t budge.

“Please.” Defiant and rigid, I turned away from his intense gaze.

“Look at me, Niawen. Take deep breaths. Here.” He placed my hand on his chest. “Breathe as I do. Steady. Deep. One at a time.”

I stared into his eyes as he stared into mine, not reading into his soul but studying the depth of color in the light of the hall’s sconces. His chest rose up and down beneath my palm. The warmth in his hand lent me strength as it had the day I healed Sorfrona. I paced my breaths with Kenrik’s.

His eyes never left my face. “There. Do you feel levelheaded?”

I shook my head.

“I’ll help you through this.”

My eyes filled with tears. “You can’t possibly know what I’m going through.”

Kenrik spoke with every kindness. “Don’t think that I couldn’t possibly understand you. I do. We all go through similar distress after first taking a life.”

“You’ve taken a life?”

“Yes. I’ve been in minor skirmishes. And regrettably a few men have died at my hands. I was sick. Lost everything in my stomach. It’s not a horror I’ll ever forget.”

“Did they tell you what happened?” I asked. “What I did?”

“Seren did.”

“You spoke to Seren?”

Yes, he did. Everything is all right.

“No one else has returned yet,” Kenrik said. “They’re more than a week out. Remember? And Kelyn is asleep. Seren says he couldn’t tell me anyway. He was unconscious.”

I chewed my lip. “I was scared. I thought Kelyn was dead. The ruffians—they murdered so many people.”

You saved the village. You saved Kelyn, Seren said.

“I know their deaths don’t feel right,” Kenrik said, “even if they were bad men, but you should feel justified in taking their lives.”

“I thought that at the time. I passed judgment on them. But I don’t think that’s how the Creator would do it.”

“We can’t judge as he does, but sometimes we must act to save innocent lives.” He lifted my chin because my eyes had drifted to his chest.

I was embarrassed and felt weak.

Ashamed.

“You acted out of fear,” he said. “Out of a desire to protect.”

“No. I was angry. I wanted them to die for hurting Kelyn.”

I imagined my father hammering words into my head. You’ll bring ruin down on all of us. You’ll bring death to the dragon realm.

Your father is mistaken, Seren said.

But look what I’ve done.

“I’ve corrupted