Read Shattered Skies: Beginning's End for Free Online

two. There was no feeling I had ever experienced to compare this to. There was a quick and sharp pain and I wasn’t sure if I would be able to recover from it at first. I couldn’t breathe, I didn’t remember how to, and I thought for sure that death was coming. With a gasp of air, that burned through my lungs like a wildfire, my body taught itself to breathe again. I don’t know why, but I somehow felt empty and alone, like I was not a complete person and at that moment, I hated Darien for it. He showed me something that I didn’t know existed until now, so I never until now had a reason to miss the feeling. He knew that I never kissed because I didn’t want to feel this kind of attachment with anyone. I didn’t want to know that every time I went out on a mission that there was someone worrying about me. I really didn’t want to have to deal with the thought that someone could possibly ever care enough about me that they would put themselves in danger to save me; I wasn’t worth it. I was just Cat.
    I decided what I was going to do with my heart when I decided to be a foot soldier. I had no room for love in my life, and if I ever did fall in love with someone, I would take myself out of the situation. I was not a level headed person. I didn’t make my decisions with my head, but instead with my instincts, which usually meant I jumped in head first without thinking. I didn’t want someone else to have to deal with the consequences of this personality quirk because I was smart enough to know that one day i t would be the quirk that finally killed me. 
    The way I felt when he kissed me was more dangerous to me than the job that I did every day. It scared me way more than any monster could because I knew what the monsters would do to me if they caught me. I had no idea what this meant for me and Darien. It felt like forever before the world began to make sense again. When I finally pulled myself together enough to open my eyes to yell at him and find out what the hell he was thinking or trying to prove I was hit with sudden shock. My mouth fell open and for the second time of the night I couldn’t remember how to breathe.
    The eyes staring back at me didn’t belong to Darien. After a few seconds when I realized whose eyes they were I went completely numb and my world just shattered. I, Catalina, had never been speechless until this moment. There was nothing that I could say that would undo the damage that I had already done. If this wasn’t a bad dream I was in serious trouble. The face that was sitting less than three inches away from me belonged to the one and only King Dominus, Akia.
    My reflexes were slowed down way too much. I knew no matter what, I couldn’t let him see my face, but before I could get my motor skills intact he reached up and tugged the scarf away. 
    “You are beautiful,” was all he managed to say. 
    I found a little bit of comfort in the fact that I wasn’t the only one blown away by the kiss, but I also knew if I didn’t soon throw my wall back around myself, he would find out I was more than he had bargained for and I would be signing my own death certificate. Pull it together Cat! I screamed at myself, or do you want to die tonight? The final thought did it. I might not be living a sought after life, but at least I was still alive.
    “You are not Darien!” I threw the rage filled words right into his face. 
    It probably wasn’t the smartest thing that I could have said, but the last thing I wanted to do was to endanger my family by adding the King monster to my dance card. I had to think of a way out of the room and I had to do it quickly before he tried to collect on the evening’s promises. Killing thousands of unimportant Dominus was a hell of a lot safer than killing just this one creature.  If I murdered Akia tonight, the tables would be turned and I would be forced back into hiding to save my life and that wasn’t a life worth living in my opinion.
    “Um, no, I am