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I used too little magic on my second attempt and only just closed the next gash, the outlines of the injury still clearly visible even though my magic had stopped the bleeding. The third time, I got it right. From there on, I quietly worked my way over his torso, sparking blue wherever my fingers went, following the taut ridges of his muscles from wound to wound until his age-old scars were the only blemishes cutting through the smooth bronze.

When I looked up, he hadn't taken his eyes off me, watching me with wistful wonder – as if I was no more real than a bubble of soap, bound to burst and vanish any moment.

Warmth flushed through me, hotter than the blissful warmth of the sun caressing my skin, and with it came the renewed awareness of his rock-hard thighs beneath me. Just a few inches and I’d have that sculpted chest under my lips. It was so damn tempting to follow that magnetic pull towards him, to grant myself that moment of simple desire, drive away the cold in my limbs and my blood-drenched memories …

But Creon didn’t move – not the slightest twitch in my direction.

‘What are you thinking?’ I breathed.

I’m realising that I barely looked over my shoulder during this fight.His signs were stiff and hesitant, as if his fingers weren’t quite sure yet what to make of his thoughts.It’s … surreal. Battling alongside someone I can actually trust with my life.

An entirely different warmth joined the seductive glow simmering in my lower belly. I swallowed and managed, ‘Even though I got myself dragged off halfway through?’

He shrugged.You fought your way out of that.

‘I nearly drowned.’

You wouldn’t have if you hadn't expected me to come for you.

That gave me pause. I wouldn’t have. If no one had been around to help me, I wouldn’t have dreamed of flinging myself into the sea – it would have been certain suicide, an even faster path to death than whatever awaited me in Iorgas’s arms. And yet I hadn't even waited for the confirmation Creon was coming after us, that he would indeed be there to pull me out.

A strange thrill ran down my spine. ‘I … I don’t think I looked over my shoulder, either.’

No.His lips curled into half a smile.I know.

The moment lingered, a silence broken by nothing but the slapping of tattered sails. Creon was watching me – eyes alert but wings slowly tucking in, shoulders loosening, thighs melting into the deck beneath me. Small signs of safety, but coming from the male who hadn't been truly safe in his lifetime, they were far, far more than that.

‘I remember thinking of you as a one-man army,’ I said slowly, quietly. ‘When we first met. But we’re quite past that, aren’t we?’

Even below the unnatural grace of his movements, the tightness that slid across his lips was unmistakable – an expression that I could only describe as the very opposite of a threatening burst of laughter.You have no idea how much I want to be past that.

‘A two-man army it is, then.’ I smoothed a hand over his chest, letting my fingers trace the contours of his muscles, and found myself releasing an unexpected chuckle. ‘Really, it’s about time someone protected you, too. I think I’m going to have your back until you’ve become spoiled and lazy and forgotten how to draw a knife.’

This time itwaslaughter tightening his lips.Ambitious as always.

‘Has that ever stopped me?’

No.He wrapped his left hand around my waist – delightfully warm fingers, nudging me as close as I could get while his right still moved between us.I might still try to object, though.

I cocked my head, raising an eyebrow at him. ‘Bad form, fighting against your own comrade in arms.’

The opposite, cactus, he signed, head tilting ever so slightly in the opposite direction – a gesture that was somehow, unmistakably, an invitation.I’m finding those are my favourite fights by far.

Oh, hell. My heartbeat quickened at that stormy look in his eyes, pumping a heady anticipation through my veins. A feeling I really shouldn’t allow here, on this ship that had become a floating graveyard … But he was alive. I was alive. And as soon as we returned to Tolya, the watching eyes might not leave us alone for days and days to come.

I leaned forward ever so slightly, inch by inch, until our foreheads bumped together, noses brushing past each other but never truly meeting. Creon moved back in perfect harmony with me, keeping our lips just one breath apart as he lowered himself onto the deck with agonising slowness.

‘Are they?’ I murmured. ‘Because I should probably get started with spoiling you, then.’

A chuckle stroked my lips. His wings flattened out on either side of us as he came to rest on his back, stretches of rich dark velvet over the weathered wood; his head was last to settle against the deck, his face framed by ruffled strands of hair, his eyes burning wild and untamed.

I hovered above him for one still moment, drinking in every single detail of his inhuman beauty – his long lashes, the sharp edges of his jaw, the way his lips curved ever so slightly in that irresistible smirk. His eyes sang a siren’s song, luring me closer, daring me to start this most joyful of battles.

‘I’m yours,’ I whispered.

His fingers gripped the back of my neck in response, pulling me into a kiss of searing intensity. His lips were soft yet demanding, tender yet devastating, returning that claim more eloquently than the sweetest of words ever could – captivating me with nothing but desire as he pinned me to his chest. I kissed him back with equal fervour, wrapped my hands around his jaw, tangled my fingers in his dark hair. His wings swept up, embracing us both. And just like that, days of separation shrunk to insignificant moments, all those hours of missing and longing and worrying reduced to a faint echo in my memory … He was here. He wasmine.We’d take on the whole damn world if we had to, and who was going to stop us as long as we were together?

I moaned as his possessive kiss deepened, and again as he clawed at my dress with a growled breath, tugging at that last barrier separating our bodies. His other hand skimmed over the small of my back, tracing circles over my bottom and thighs before slipping beneath my soaked skirt. My skin had gone feverishly hot under his touches. My legs spread themselves for him as his fingers squeezed and kneaded their way up along the inside of my thighs, torturously slow on their way to that little spot that burned for him like hellfire.