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CHAPTER SEVENTY-EIGHT

Ellery

I had no idea where I was in the Revenant Woods anymore, which would normally be the most perilous thing I could have done, but I knew where I was going. It made no sense, yet I didn’t hesitate in my path onward… even if the trek was slow.

I discovered a way around the river when it disappeared into the hillside. I had no idea where it went and didn’t care as I sat on the ground and slid down the hill on my ass.

When I reached the bottom, I crossed to the other side, away from the river, and backtracked the way I’d come. The wind howled as trees broke apart, and the rain lashed sideways across the land.

The lightning crashing into nearby trees sent sparks and branches flying. One trunk cracked straight down the middle before splintering apart; the rain doused any fire that might have started.

The sparks flying around me were whipped away as I rounded a bend and stopped when lightning blasted into the ground only five feet away. Its power, sizzling across the earth, electrified my body as I became hyperaware of my surroundings.

Desire speared me as intensely as lightning did the trees. When its light faded, night descended once more.

Before the light vanished, I knew it wasn’t only the lightning causing such a reaction inside me. With the blinding light gone, I spotted Ryker in a cluster of trees only fifteen feet away.

No lightning danced around him, but his eyes had turned entirely black as bolts fired through them. The hungry look in his eyes tugged at something buried deep within my soul. It yearned to break free.

My visceral reaction to his nearness clenched at my belly and spread down between my legs. I was reminded of the feeling I experienced while standing near the gem, but there were no dead here, no friends, and no common sense as the storm ravaged the realm.

The magnetic pull I’d followed drew me onward. The wind and rain no longer mattered as everything in me focused on him .

Ryker emerged from the trees and stalked toward me with the fluid, mesmerizing grace I knew so well.

I wanted to run to him, fling my arms around him, and lose myself in his embrace, but I couldn’t stop watching how the water ran from his hair, down his handsome face, and cleaved his clothes to his powerful body.

His muscles flexed and bunched with every step as the feral energy he emanated mingled and flowed with mine while our lightning entangled. I knew every inch of him better than I knew myself, but he still fascinated me.

And then his arms swept around me and lifted me from the ground. My legs encircled his waist as his mouth crushed mine.

His kiss rivaled the power of the storm. It was a claiming kiss, a branding of his possession over my heart and filled with a need so raw, I felt more animal than immortal as I matched the passion of his lips on mine.

Out of our control, his power seared into me as our lightning swirled through us. It rose to meet the storm and encompassed us in a golden white glow that burned against my closed eyelids.

I dug my heels into his ass as I clawed at his shirt. His hunger battered me as his erection rubbed between my thighs, unleashing a firestorm of need. I had to have him inside me, filling me, fucking me until we were both coming apart and begging for more.

There was something almost unbearable about my inability to feel more of him, but it ebbed when I tugged his shirt up far enough to flatten my palms against the chiseled edges of his abs.

The smooth skin over his muscles was a delicious contradiction as his muscles bunched and flexed beneath my explorations.

My fingers skimmed the scars crisscrossing his flesh. I knew them well and had kissed them all. They were as much a part of him as his lightning, but while he’d earned them in the most brutal ways, they’d forged him into a man to admire.

His hands entangled in my hair, pulling it back to break our kiss and expose my throat. He nipped at my neck, and when I bucked against him, he bit harder.

Fire lanced through my veins as I ground against him. The pleasure and pain together created a hedonistic wildness within me.

Reclaiming my mouth, Ryker poured his love and strength into me. I was more powerful than him, but he’d sacrifice everything if it meant keeping me safe.

He was determined to protect me but just as determined to teach me how to embrace my power and set it free. Unlike some men who might fear a woman more powerful than them—his father and Gaius—he’d never hold me back. He’d do everything he could to propel me onward, and that was why we were us .