Page 40 of A Storm in Every Heart (Enchanted Legacies #2)

I jump, realizing he’s right behind me, and whip around. He’s close enough that I can make out his outline now and a hint of his expression as he looks down at me.

“What the hell are you doing?” I demand, voice shaking slightly as I cross my arms over my chest. “You were supposed to stay over there.”

“Then how would you save me if there was a crocodile?” he asks, clearly trying not to laugh.

“Oh, now I’m doing the saving?”

“Maybe. Show me how much stronger you are, and then I’ll decide.”

“I’m not showing you anything; you’re already hurt.”

“I’m fine, it’s just a couple of flesh wounds. They’ll heal by tomorrow even without magic, and you owe me one for saving you.”

I bristle. “In exchange for saving me you want to know how strong I am?”

“I can think of a lot of things I want, but I’ll start with this. Let’s call it academic curiosity.”

“Fine,” I hiss, already knowing I’m playing with fire. “Give me your hand.”

Kastian holds out his hand, and I feel for it in the dark, my fingers brushing accidentally against the hard ridges of his muscled stomach. A shiver travels through me as I finally grip his hand and squeeze. “This is as hard as I can squeeze your hand above water.”

“That’s barely anything.”

My brows furrow. “Yeah, well, here’s half as hard as I can squeeze it under the water.”

I give him no further warning than that before I plunge both our hands beneath the surface of the river and squeeze.

I feel the bones shifting in his hand beneath my fingers, and some dark, long-dormant part of me enjoys knowing that I could crush his fingers if I wanted to.

I could pull him down with me beneath the undertow and never let go.

“Fuck!” Kastian yells, pulling his hand back from me in a shower of river water.

“I told you,” I reply, smugly stretching out my fingers like a cat might unfurl its claws. “You’re the one who asked.”

He shakes out his hand. “Fuck, Princess. I think you broke it.”

“I didn’t. I could have, though. Maybe think about that the next time you decide to corner me in the dark.”

He laughs darkly. “I’ll definitely be thinking about that the next time, but only because now I know I don’t have to hold back for fear of breaking you. You can take it.”

I inhale sharply. He was holding back before?

Oh gods.

I wish he hadn’t said that because now I can’t think about anything else.

My entire body tingles with awareness, and suddenly the illusion of our conversation fades, bringing back the reality that we’re standing here, naked, and far too close in the dark water. The tension between us sizzles in the air.

Kastian notices the shift too because his breathing turns shallow. His burning gaze lands on me, and even in the dark I can feel the path of his eyes traveling over my face, down my neck and across my collarbones, then lower.

My breathing turns ragged. Heat blooms on my skin, and I feel my breasts tighten, nipples pebbling. I’m caught between the stubborn desire to cross my arms over my chest and sink low in the water so he can’t see anything, and the desire to…not do that.

He moves nearer, the water separating as he approaches, and I feel the heat emanating from his body. Every nerve in me tingles with anticipation.

I watch, barely daring to blink, as Kastian’s hand reaches out, almost hesitant, brushing against my cheek with a gentleness that surprises me.

My heart thunders in my chest as his fingers trace my jawline slowly, memorizing the curve of my face as if afraid this might be the last time he’ll ever get to. There’s something almost reverent about his movements, a stark contrast to the raw intensity simmering beneath his composed facade.

Then his hands find their way to cup my cheeks fully, anchoring me in place. “Gods, I thought I fucking lost you earlier.”

“You can’t lose what you never had to begin with.”

His thumb brushes over my lips. “That’s true.”

My breath catches, but before I have time to consider the implication of what he just said, his mouth crashes against mine in a searing kiss, all-consuming and demanding.

I kiss him back without thinking, opening my mouth to whimper against his lips.

He swallows the sound, sinking lower in the water until we’re practically at eye level and pulling me tighter into his bare chest.

I feel dizzy, and my knees go weak. I dig my fingernails into his biceps, trying to stay on my feet, until he slips a leg between my thighs to hold me up.

My breasts brush his chest, my pulse pounds in my core, and my skin catches fire. It’s madness and clarity all at once, like running headlong into a storm knowing full well you may never come out the other side unchanged.

“Wait,” I mutter against his lips when I finally find my voice amidst the chaos unraveling inside me. “This is a terrible idea.”

I’m not really talking to him—I’m mostly talking to myself—but of course Kastian answers anyway: “Why? I don’t think you hate me nearly as much as you pretend to.”

I don’t hate him at all, actually.

I’ve tried to. I’ve tried so, so hard not only to hate him, but to make him hate me in return. I’ve been horrible to him at nearly every opportunity, but either I’m not very good at it or Kastian is a glutton for punishment.

Or, maybe, it’s that even if he doesn’t know it, some part of him still remembers me.

I whimper as his fingers trace my ribs and lower, digging into the flesh at my sides. I can feel him hard against me, and it would be so, so easy to rock my hips forward and join together once more.

My pulse throbs at the very thought of it, and I can feel the heat building between my legs.

Kastian leans forward to kiss me again, but I lean my head back. One of us has to think rationally, and it has to be me. After all, I’m the one cursed to know the truth.

“This has been a terrible day,” I breathe, even as I pull away from him. “You just saved my life, and now we’re stuck in a swamp.”

“So?” he rasps.

“So, this is what I would call ‘a traumatic event.’”

I mean it as a joke. Sort of. Okay, not really at all, but I mean for Kastian to think I’m joking.

Kastian doesn’t laugh. Instead, he stiffens, and I’m sure he knows what I’m getting at.

No one knows exactly how soul-bonds work, but most Fae think they’re triggered by shared emotional events.

I expect Kastian will know what I mean and will back off.

He clearly wants to fuck me, maybe even thinks he has feelings for me, but I doubt he wants to form an accidental soul-bond.

Even the past version of him—the version with all his memories intact—never talked about bonding.

“That’s not going to happen,” he says tonelessly.

“It could,” I comment, moving backwards away from him. “So unless you want to end up stuck with me forever, we need to stay away from each other for a while.”

I grit my teeth, and I’m grateful for the darkness because I’m sure if he saw my face he’d know how much those words cost me to say. He’d know how painful it is to pretend I don’t want this more than anything.

“No, it couldn’t happen.” Kastian breathes a long sigh. “I already found my bond and lost her, so it definitely couldn’t happen again now.”

I freeze, and for what feels like several long seconds my heart forgets how to beat.

He already found his soul-bond? When? Who?

Some long-repressed roar, like crashing waves, rises in my chest. My vision tunnels in on itself, and for a moment all I can think is drown, drown, drown…

“I’m sorry,” Kastian says.

His comment snaps me back to reality, and I blink quickly to clear my darkening vision. I force myself to laugh. “Sorry? Why are you sorry?”

“I should have told you that before…everything.”

I laugh again, and it sounds slightly hysterical to my own ears, but I hope that’s only because I know how my mind is reeling.

“You didn’t have to tell me anything, and you don’t need to be sorry.

This is good, actually. This means there’s no risk of accidentally triggering anything that neither of us wants. ”

“Fine,” he says, tone unreadable. “If that’s how you feel, then come back over here.”

“No,” I say shortly, the forced calm in my voice growing more and more shrill by the second. “No, this was a bad idea to begin with, and I’m just glad we came to our senses.”

“Is that what happened?” he asks, the water shifting as he trails after me toward the dry bank.

“That’s exactly what happened,” I snap. “I said only once, remember? And I meant it, so this was a perfect reminder. I’m going to get dressed and go back to the campsite. Hopefully Jett has that fire going by now.”

I march toward my pile of clothes and tug my ruined dress firmly over my head, ignoring any of the underclothes in favor of speed.

He has a soul-bond already.

A soul-bond he lost years ago.

A soul-bond who isn’t me.

Kastian is conspicuously silent, and I get the impression he’s building up to say something. My heartbeat quickens, and I lace my boots up at top speed, terrified to hear whatever he wants to say.

I grab the rest of my things and speed-walk toward the camp, not even bothering to be afraid of the swamp animals in my haste to get away from Kastian.

“You know, I never said ‘once,’” he says finally.

I glance over my shoulder, heart pounding with anxiety. “What is that supposed to mean?”

He stops a few feet behind me, and I can practically hear the smirk in his voice when he answers. “It means that once was your rule, so you’re the one who will have to break it.”

“Why the hell would I do that?” I hiss, voice coming out a little breathless.

“I don’t know, Princess, maybe because you want to?”

“You’re delusional,” I bite out. “And you have a bond.”

“I had one,” he corrects. “Not anymore.”

I bark a humorless laugh. “That’s not how it works, and you know it. Bonds are forever.”

“Maybe you’re right,” he says, definitely smiling now. “But I’ll bet it’ll be less than three days before you’re begging me to touch you again, and when you do, I’ll be more than happy to test it.”