Free The Sentinel Keeper (Forest Series) by Sarah Kent

said. “Look at me.”
    She lifted her gaze. His face was stricken with pain. Beth cursed. This was a man who suffered. It was a small relief. This was not his choice.
    “Tell me everything,” she ordered.
     
    Melchior sat up now, pushing his long back hair back from his face.
     
    “I am cursed. It is my punishment from the Gods. It has been this way for thousands of years. I was cursed to rule alone, and never to have a mate. We can never lay together again.”
    Beth frowned.
    “Why, what will happen if we do?”
    “You will die,” he said.
    Beth felt a cold dread through her. No, she wanted to cry out. This is not possible.
     
    “Are you sure?” she asked.
     
    “It only happened once, many centuries ago. Since then I have never risked it. And I would never risk your life.
    Beth.” He looked at her. “If things were another way I would never let you.”
    “Is there no way you can change this,” Beth asked as tears sprung into her eyes, hot and burning. He didn’t answer as he pulled on some clothes.
    “Don’t make it harder than it already is for both of us,” he said. “By the Gods Beth I want you,” his voice was hoarse. “I want you like I have never wanted before. But this is my fate. I will go now and kill the Dark Lord. Tonight I will keep you safe. But you will leave in the morning.”
     
    Beth stood up.
    “Just go now,” she said, running her hand down his cheek “Go and finish this. I will be waiting for you. I am not going anywhere.”
    He pulled her into a tight embrace. Then he turned and left the room.

CHAPTER 14
     
    Beth slipped the deep emerald green robe from the back of the wardrobe over her head and stared at herself in the mirror. It fitted her perfectly, like its silk folds had been made for her alone. Her deep black rings had gone, and her face looked more alive than it had in months.
    Her lips were swollen from Melchior’s kisses, but most of all her eyes blazed with a feeling she never knew could come to her. Belonging. She had never had it as a child, never had a family. As an adult she had never needed it, nor wanted it. But now it surged inside her. She had never belong anywhere until that moment she had stepped into the forest. Now she knew where she belonged, and to whom.
     
    She ran a finger over her lips and she could still taste him there. His dark and spicy sent that drove her wild. This was all new to her. Both the strange and wonderful world that he came from, and the feelings her stirred deep inside her.
     
    She was not going to lose him now, not when she had just found him.
     
    She opened the door and padded out of the room. She knew what she was going to do.
    She had dreamed of it her entire life.
     
    She walked down the long staircase in the now-empty tower. Outside she could hear the roar of thunder as an almighty storm slashed across the sky. The fight had begun. Her fight was about to start too.
     
    Beth let her feet lead her lower as they moved across the floor as if they had done this a thousand times. Before her stood a great door, so high its top seemed to reach up to the heavens. She pushed it open and stepped into the cathedral. She had been in this room before; it was the one Blane had taken her to before he had carried her up into the tower. But she had not seen the full beauty of it. Before her was a marvel of colour and light, as plants and trees grew up the walls, creating a massive space out of their bows. Huge trunks reached upwards to a roof that had no end. Just the stars floated above in the empty space. But not any stars she knew. These were different, huge globes that hung in the sky aeons away.  Lights from another realm, one she was now part of.
     
    Beth moved across the floor as if in a dream. There in the front of the room was the stone dais. She walked quickly now, feeling the power of the space urge her forward. She could feel Melchior in this room and she knew that this was his domain. It made what she was about to do