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

outcasts. His home might seem meager, but the realm thrived in trade. The river supplied many fresh foods, even in the bitter winter.

The rooms were abrasive and cold, with the minimum amount of tapestries to insulate the stone walls, but the negative ambience also might have been from the dreary, overcast skies lending their harshness. No sun shone into the rooms, and candelabras did little to dissipate the gloom.

“You and Seren arrived just in time for a long winter,” Caedryn had said.

As if a winter storm could keep a dragon shut in, but Caedryn was eager. Every step he took during our tour was exact. He stood proudly, but his eyes always stayed on my face, calculating.

More than once I glanced at him as I surveyed each room. More than once his gaze caught mine, and I looked away.

It bothered me that Caedryn was keen for me to call this place home—that word splintered me. Where was home? Home was Gorlassar. Home was filled with family and friends. I almost felt that way with Sieffre and his people. I liked them. I trusted them—until I realized they would all die on me.

My grip tightened on the parapet, and I leaned my head against the stone. Caedryn and I stood on the outer wall around his citadel. Houses covered the ground below us, crammed together like kittens in a basket, spreading out in the distance.

Caedryn leaned casually against the wall, studying my reaction with confidence. “I know my home needs a woman’s touch. I’ve turned down the head housekeeper’s efforts to make the place more cheery. I suppose, before, I didn’t see the need.”

My brows knit together with confusion. The need would arise if a woman demanded added comforts. No bachelor would care. Caedryn implied that I should be that woman.

I thought of Owein and his joke that he should marry me.

Caedryn laughed. “I’m a bit stodgy. I’ve lived here for more than a few years.”

“Exactly how long?”

“Oh, here we go. You’re really asking my age. If Siana left Gorlassar over three thousand years ago, then how old could I be?”

I glared at him as I shifted my lower jaw from side to side.

“You know that’s what you’re thinking,” he said. “It’s not easy to judge an emrys’s age unless you’re staring them in the eye, is it? How many ages has my soul seen? How much wisdom is behind these eyes?”

I inhaled sharply. The age of an emrys didn’t matter. The topic irked me to no end. Some of us were more spiritually or mentally mature than others. On an eternal timeline, we all evened out to some degree or another.

I shrugged. “Once we mature in our lights’ ability and our physical self stops aging, I don’t see why the difference in years should matter.”

Caedryn’s eyebrows arched slightly. “Deep down this bothers you, or you wouldn’t want to know.”

Who said I wanted to know? He’d brought the topic up.

Caedryn was gauging me carefully, not diving with his light, but noticing every flinch of my body.

I was boiling under the surface.

“I don’t want to discuss it.” I didn’t want to bring Aneirin up. I didn’t want to comment on the difference in our age and how he wasn’t ready. I was ready. Had been ready. Moving on was much harder when I was constantly reminded of him.

I turned around and backed against the wall. I could practically touch the heavy gray clouds above me.

Caedryn moved a hand’s breadth away from me, propped his elbow on a higher part of the wall, and supported his head. He had the appearance of someone who was deeply interested in whatever the other person might say, as if I might divulge my heart’s desire, but he was hiding behind a casual air. Almost mocking. “I don’t want you to think I’m an old man, but take a guess.”

“I told you it doesn’t matter!” I was curious.

His eyes narrowed. “Well then. Now that that’s settled. I’ll leave you to ponder my peculiarities.” He turned and stalked away.

THIRTY-EIGHT

I shoved past the guard into a study on the second floor. Caedryn’s dark head was bent over parchment as he scrawled with a quill. An attendant took the sheet and placed another one in front of Caedryn.

When Caedryn didn’t take the time to look up, I blurted, “Did I insult you?” I’d fumed for hours after the tour and Caedryn’s abrupt departure. If he wanted me to make Islwyn my home, he sure wasn’t winning me over with his evasive nature.

“To insult me you’d have to do something disrespectful.” He waved his attendant away.

I rolled my eyes as the man left. “Why do you want me here?”

Caedryn’s sneaky conniving smile curled his lips, as if he was three steps ahead of my thoughts.

“You just seem keen to have me consider this my home,” I said.

Caedryn tickled his face thoughtfully with the end of his feathered quill.

I brushed up to the table and braced my arms on the surface. “You were practically begging me to stay.”

“I’m not begging you to stay, but think about it. I offer you a life of freedom. A life without boundaries. Limitless. No rules. No fear of ever being exiled. Living beside the humans, but with the blessing of having an immortal stand by you. Someone who knows the ways and customs of your people. Someone who carries light and understands its glory.”

I straightened. “You offer me this. A fresh start?”

“Yes!” Caedryn stood and leaned across his desk as I had. “That’s what you want, Niawen. No darkness in your heart. A blank slate.”

“You can’t erase my past.”

“Maybe not. Your past has shaped you, but it’s up to you to decide which parts you allow to haunt you and which parts you