Page 90 of Acolyte (Tempris #2)

Leaves rustled overhead, fairies peeking from between the branches.

Skye’s heart was hammering in his chest. The Queen watched him as he backed away, those eyes following him as he turned to go. He needed to see Taly. Needed to get away from the Queen and that suffocating gravity of power.

“It’s feels good, doesn’t it?” she called when he passed under one of the arches.

He glanced over his shoulder, waiting .

That smile was back. “Taking ownership of your life,” she clarified. “Doesn’t it feel good?”

Skye didn’t bother to reply as he exited the arena. The Queen already knew his answer.

Taly dove beneath the water, swimming down to the bottom of the pool. Fire and water crystals swirled across the floor in nonsense patterns, shimmering softly, and when she reached the deepest part, she hugged her knees to her chest and exhaled slowly. Streams of bubbles raced for the surface.

Here she stayed, listening to the gentle roar of the water as her hair whorled around her, pushed by the gentle current.

After Skye had left to go do whatever it was he planned on doing, she had spent her day sorting through clothes and books, trying to figure out what would stay and what would go.

She had come to the palace with nothing, so it was a little astonishing just how much stuff she had managed to accumulate in only a year.

Clothes, jewelry, trinkets from the fairies, gifts from the Queen, and so many books .

At least that last one was easy. Azura had given her a list, slipped beneath her door that morning.

It detailed every reading assignment and spell she needed to complete before she returned to the palace—which Taly had no doubt that she would at some point.

The future was a weird, tangled mess, and even if she hated the Queen right now, forever was a long time to hold a grudge.

Home .

That word had been chasing her all day.

They were going home tomorrow. Back to Tempris. Back to an island full of shades. And even though this was what she had been working towards for nearly a year, desperate to get back to her friends and family, now that the time had come…

Taly craned her head, looking up at the light as it danced across the surface of the water. She wasn’t sure how to finish that thought. If she even wanted to.

Being in the palace had come with an assumption of safety she had taken for granted. True, the Queen’s methods had been brutal, sometimes cruel. But Taly had never feared for her safety. She’d never wondered if she’d live to see the sun rise. Never doubted she’d live to see it set.

It had taken nearly a year, but she finally understood the gift she’d been given.

Azura, for all her eccentricities, had given her time. Time to train. Time to get stronger. The Queen had given her a chance against the Sanctorum—one she wouldn’t have had otherwise.

Taly’s lungs were starting to burn. She was out of air, so she unfolded her body and kicked off the bottom of the pool.

She surfaced a moment later, gasping in a breath.

It was dark, the only light from the crystals flickering in the pool and peppering the rough-hewn rock that curved overhead.

She had found this grotto early on, and it was still one of her favorite places to come when she just needed to think.

The water was warm, fed from a natural hot spring, and the air was fragrant.

She could hear the roar of the rapids that fed into the palace like a distant growl, soft enough to be soothing.

“I know you’re there,” she said to the shadows. She wasn’t sure how, but she could feel him.

There was a soft huff, then Skye stepped away from his place in the arched open doorway. Taly looked him over. His shirt was clean but untucked. His hair was wet, as though he’d just showered. There was more color in his face than there had been that morning, and the limp was gone.

Noticing her assessment, he smirked, as if to say, See, I was right .

Apparently, all a shadow mage needed to overcome even the most egregious of injuries was a few laps around the property, and she was going to remember that the next time he was moaning and whining and asking her to spoon feed him all so he could get a look down her shirt.

“Five minutes,” he said. His voice sounded strangely hushed as he came to stand by the edge of the pool, hands in his pockets.

“What?” Taly asked, treading water.

A shadow passed across his face. “You were underwater for five minutes,” he said too softly. “After minute three, I… But then I remembered...”

“Oh,” Taly mouthed silently. For a fey, that was hardly impressive. But for a human… “Sorry,” she mumbled.

He shook his head, watching as she swam closer. “Don’t be sorry. It’s just… all our lives, you’ve always been so much more breakable than me. It’s going to take me a little while to realign my thinking.”

Ah. That she could more than understand .

Taly reached the side of the pool and hoisted herself up, water sluicing off her body as she turned to sit on the stone ledge.

Her blue and white swim costume was copied from a human design.

Form-fitting but practical, though far from revealing, especially by fey standards—his eyes still sparked as they slid across her body.

Slowly taking in the flash of her back, her bare legs. Brazenly lingering on every curve.

Her toes curled in the water. He gave her a wicked smile as he eased himself down beside her, as if to say that, yes , he knew the exact effect he had on her now, and yes , he planned to use it against her in the most delightful way.

Jerk .

Even in her head, the word lacked bite. She could hardly look at him without thinking of that mouth.

Without wondering just how long it would be until it was back on her own.

And considering that he was staring back at her with that same desperate hunger reflected in his eyes, with longing and lust and more love than she knew she deserved, she found that she didn’t really mind.

“I’m still human in my dreams,” she said when she remembered how to speak. His brows rose slightly. “Azura calls it a fabricated self-image. When we dream, we don’t appear the way we are but rather the way we perceive ourselves.”

“And you still perceive yourself as human?”

She shrugged. “I guess a part of me does,” she said softly, turning to stare at her toes in the water.

“Or maybe… maybe I just don’t want to forget that face.

Sometimes it feels like the girl that walked into the Vale relay died that night, and someone else came out in her place.

I haven’t fe lt like me in a long time. After the Queen’s test, I… I’m not sure if I ever will again.”

She could feel Skye watching her as she leaned back on her hands, tilting her head so she could see the crystals flickering above. “You know,” he began, hesitant, “you can talk to me about Vaughn. If you want to, that is.”

Of course, he’d see that wound. Of course, he’d try to fix it.

“I don’t regret it,” she whispered up to those crystals that glistened like stars.

“I feel like I should, and I keep waiting for the regret to finally settle in. But I don’t think it’s going to.

I killed a man, and if given the opportunity, I’d do it again.

If given a thousand second chances, I’m pretty sure I’d kill him every time, and I’d never feel regret. ”

She turned her head, finding those green eyes in the flickering dark. “What does that say about me, Em?”

Skye sighed and looked to the water, then back to her. As if he couldn’t figure out just how to tell her that becoming fey had turned her into a monster incapable of remorse. That human girl would’ve felt regret. She had been kinder.

“I think…” he began, but then stopped.

She didn’t speak, waiting.

“I’ve had to kill a lot of shades in the past few weeks,” he said slowly, as though feeling out the words.

“Some of them I knew; some of them looked like they could still be alive. But Carin and Asher—killing them felt more personal. More real, somehow. We traveled together, fought together. But if I found myself back in that room, I would kill them again. Without hesitation. They were going to hurt you. And me. I don’t think we should feel regret for protecting ourselves against our enemies.

Sadness at the necessity of taking life, perhaps. But not regret.”

Taly stared at him for a long moment, something easing in her chest. If he was right…

Maybe she wasn’t tainted then. Wiser, yes.

Aware of things about herself that she’d never wanted to know.

But maybe the world wasn’t quite so black and white as it had once seemed.

Maybe she could feel sadness but not regret, and maybe not every good thing about that human girl was gone.

Leaning over, she gave him a gentle kiss. “You got smarter while I was away.”

He snorted at that, kissing her again. And again. One hand lifted to tangle in the hair at the base of her neck. “Maybe I was always this smart, and you just didn’t listen.”

“No,” she said, her breathing growing ragged as his tongue began to tease at her bottom lip. “That’s not it.”

“It could be.”

“It’s not.”

Her hands slid up his chest, gripping him by the collar as he slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer. She smiled against his lips, and he went still as death. He knew this game as well as she did. If there was a body of water nearby, they both knew what the rules demanded.

“Shit,” was all he was able to say before she threw her arms around him and sent them both hurtling into the pool.

Taly surfaced a moment later, almost cackling with laughter as she blinked water from her eyes.

Skye had always been bigger and stronger, and she never got to be the one to do the dunking.

But the king had been dethroned! And he didn’t look too happy about it as he emerged a few feet away, shaking the water from his hair like a wet dog.

“You’re going to pay for that.” Mischief lit his eyes as he ripped his sodden shirt over his head and tossed it to the side. “And here I was being nice—”

“Oh please.” She let out a little squeal, backpedaling through the water when he lunged for her. “The ‘sadness at the necessity of taking life’ ? You actually expect me to believe you came up with that on your own? You stole that.”

“Nope.” He tried again. Missed. “That was all me.”

“Yeah, right.” She splashed him, but he shielded his face. “You’re not that eloquent.”

A flare of aether was the only warning she got before he snatched her wrist—

And then she was gone, halfway across the pool.

Water dripping from his hair, Skye stared at her, slack jawed.

Shit .

She’d phased.

And she’d been doing such a good job of not casting in front of him. Knowing she was a time mage and seeing her cast were two different things, but now—

“Do it again.”

It was Taly’s turn to gape. “You’re not…” Frightened. Disgusted. The words seemed too silly to say aloud—this was Skye, after all. And he loved her. But fear wasn’t always logical.

He swam to her, that powerful body moving through the water with a grace she had always envied. A natural ease of movement that only a shadow mage could muster .

Strong hands slid around her waist when he was close enough, pulling her against him so she wouldn’t have to tread water.

“Show me more magic,” he commanded softly. He was grinning from ear-to-ear, almost giddy. It was impossible not to smile back.

Impossible not to give him exactly what he wanted.

So, lifting a hand, she let the water drip from her fingers between them. But instead of dribbling back into the pool, the droplets hung suspended, each one glittering in the flickering crystal light.

His eyes were wide, but she wasn’t done yet. Taking one of those droplets between her thumb and forefinger, she dragged it through the air. Then she took another and another, pushing them up toward the ceiling until—

“Stars,” he breathed.

She nodded. The explosions always began before sunset, and even when they ended, the smoke would obscure the night sky. She hadn’t seen stars in such a very long time…

So, she had started making her own. Using her magic to reform the shape of reality.

Skye squeezed her tighter, looking on in wonder as she continued to drip water in the air, forming starbursts and constellations and little comets that shimmered in the dark.

And because he was a menace, he began to pepper soft teasing kisses along her jaw, then her neck.

The spell shuddering when he would nip her with his teeth.

He found a place beneath her ear, and one droplet fell. Then another.

“Concentrate,” he murmured against her skin. The water did such wonderful things as he slid his hands along her body, over the swell of her hips and up her waist. His thumbs just grazed the undersides of her breasts before beginning their journey back down.

Such slow, wicked torture, and Taly was aware of every place their bodies touched, every bead of water he licked from her skin.

And when he finally found his way back to her lips—he wasn’t gentle.

The way he kissed her—it was a kiss that made a vow.

That said he belonged to her and she to him, and that no matter what, she could never leave him behind.

Not again. Not ever. Not even if this thing between them crumbled, and they spent the rest of their lives as just friends.

They went together now. Into the future and into the unknown.

Until the end.

So, Taly kissed him back, hard and wild. She made that promise as the delicate patter of rain filled the grotto, the stars falling down around them as the last of the spell unraveled.