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I closed my eyes in pleasure, and a magnificent garden of iridescent flowers bloomed all around and above us.

I gasped, taking in the saturation of every colored petal.

From the spilling wisteria off the luscious magnolia trees to the violet morning glory that climbed up their trunks.

Mystical flowers grew before my eyes like a palace of reconciliation and ease .

A gentle breeze brushed my cheek while butterflies with bioluminescent circles drawn across their wings landed on the flowers around us.

My eyes shot open to a smirk on Fletcher’s flushed cheeks, his hands dimly glowing with my magic.

“Wherever you want to keep the bad thoughts away,” he whispered through ragged breath, his hand coming to cup my cheek.

I grinned at him and let my eyes open and close whenever they felt like it. Either way, I was overwhelmed by his deep cinnamon eyes, his warm touch, and his aura of love I’d been deprived of. Either way, he was the most beautiful thing in my presence.

He brought his knees up slightly to give me more traction as I continued to ride him.

His head tilted back as his own eyes closed, and I wondered if he was joining me in the garden.

So I shut mine too. The feeling of him on my skin filled me with a sense of peace, like I had kept a small flame alive in a windstorm and the dawn was just breaking over the horizon.

I moved faster, and so did he. I panted as his name spilled off my lips in a breathy whisper.

In that moment, I loved him. I did. I loved him.

I vaguely noticed my own skin glow dimly as I began to slam myself against him with fury and passion.

His grip over my hips tightened, digging into my flesh, but the bite of his nails only spurred my need for him.

“Yes, Ripley,” he huffed out in a breathy tone that turned torturous. His hands flew to my shoulders, forcing me down onto him as he jutted upward and held his position. And when I felt him succumb to ecstasy, I met him with my own.

It was then that I fell apart. Raveled. Tangled in him. My love sown back to his protective spirit—to the dark aura he was buried in .

CHAPTER NINE

I opened my eyes before Fletcher, morning sun streaming over the bed from the small window near the ceiling. Dust particles spun and danced in the light, bringing in the smell of the nearby forest.

I shifted my legs so that my feet weren’t tangled in the mess of blankets and cuddled closer to Fletcher, who lay on his side, arms wrapped around me, and sleeping steadily.

I faced him, assessing his features. The zigzag knife wound on his temple looked a little better.

Sleep did him wonders. His skin was olive again, and though the skin surrounding his eyes was still darkened, he finally looked rested.

Redness in his lips had returned, making them irresistible.

I wanted his mouth on mine again. But his health was more important than my urges .

I rested my hand over his chest, wanting to feel my magic pulsing through him, in and out of his heart, if it was still there.

And with my movement, his heart rate increased.

I felt a faint wave of something flowing from him to me under the palm of my hand.

Had that been what he was referring to? The ritual? That bond it had created?

“Let me know if you want me to take off my shirt,” he whispered then smirked. “It’ll be easier for you to rip out my heart with your teeth that way.” I went to remove my hand, but his had already come down on top of mine, holding it in place. His eyes fluttered open. “Are you okay?”

“I’m okay,” I croaked. “Why do you always keep your shirt on?”

His head came closer as his lips pressed against my forehead. “Because you always ask me about my tattoo when I take it off.”

I had forgotten about the small number ten inked right below his collarbone. Every time I had asked him about it in the past, he’d been cagey and distracted me from knowing an answer. “Why can’t I know?”

Something dark and concerning dashed over his expression .

The tattoo was about me.

“It is.”

I narrowed my eyes and pushed myself away from him a bit. “Then why can’t I know?”

His smirk vanished and was replaced with a look of simple contemplation. “I’m afraid.”

I drew languid circles where I thought the number lived just beneath his shirt. “Of what?”

His hand came down on mine, flattening it over his tattoo. “Of what you might do if you find out what it means.”

“Is it about the ritual?”

He shook his head. “It is not.”

I scrunched my lips to the side, biting on the inside of my cheek. “If you won’t tell me about that, will you tell me about the ritual?”

He rolled onto his back, keeping my hand over the tattoo.

His other arm pulled me closer. After a deep inhale and exhale, he started.

“When you were little, you were a nuisance.” He smiled like he enjoyed the memory.

“You used to seek me out and call my name from across the courtyard. You’d bat your eyes at me, sway your hips, swing your purse.

You’d try and hug me—chased me around. I’d always push you away.

” He chuckled. “You’d come visit me every night, and it would take me hours to convince you to go back home.

” Then, he paused and his smile turned into a distracting frown.

“Your existence consumed my entire life, every thought.

“When I was nine, something nasty settled over the kingdom. My magic pulsed under my skin like a lighthouse. I couldn’t catch my breath. My heart was racing, and I knew something was wrong. Something was wrong with you. Like you’d die if I didn’t get to you in time.

“When I looked out over Elizy from my spot on my hill, I saw three other boys leaving their houses, skin flaring like mine. I knew I had to get to you before them. Whatever it was, you wanted—needed me to help. And if I didn’t get to you fast enough, I’d lose you.

” He took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes like he didn’t like thinking about it.

“I raced toward the mountains behind the kingdom, toward the feeling of your distress. I thought maybe you had teleported there or you slipped and fell. I tried using my magic to get to you faster, but it wasn’t working.

“I got to the base of the mountain and stopped. I watched the other three boys climb while I stood there, sensing you. That’s when I noticed something underlying your panicked signal. A smooth, quiet hum of you, Ripley.”

I looked at him while he told the story. He was fond of the memory. I could tell by the way the corner of his mouth tugged upward at the thought of being able to sense me better than the other boys.

“I looked back to the castle, and you got louder, brighter. Your magic was trying to tell me something, calling to me. So I ran in the opposite direction. I scaled the outside of the castle walls, onto your balcony, and into your room.

“And, uh, that’s it. I found you safe and sound in your room even though the king and queen had sent the hologram out of you in distress on the mountain for us to reach.

But,” he exhaled loudly, “since I did not reach your hologram by midnight, you were,” he looked to the ceiling, clenching his teeth, not willing to finish the sentence without a moment to collect himself first, “promised to the boys who did.”

My heart fractured.

“I was disqualified.”

He’d known the difference between me and a hologram, and that hadn’t been good enough?

“So, does that mean there are three other men who can feel me like you can? ”

He swallowed hard. “Yes.”

The thought scared me. I had some intense connection to three other men? “Where are they? Did they come looking for me too after I was taken by my mother?”

He screwed his eyes shut. “Ripley. I really don’t like thinking about the other men who you were promised to.”

I gulped and pressed on. “Did they come looking for me like you did?”

He sighed. “They did not.”

I narrowed my eyes. He had been the only one to search for me no matter where I hid, no matter the distraction. My heart fluttered and my stomach flipped. I didn’t want to be connected to other people. It was too much. It was unwarranted. Not when Fletcher had proven himself more than once.

Fletcher gulped for a second time, as if he preferred I didn’t have a curiosity about them. He preferred to be the only one.

“They are in Elizy. Waiting for your safe return.”

I looked away, suddenly feeling violated by knowing other men—strangers—could feel my distress like Fletcher could. “I don’t want them to feel me. ”

“Me too.” He gave me a glance and blurted, “I have a surprise for you,” ready to finish with this conversation.

I furrowed my brows, remembering the last time someone had a surprise for me only to be locked in that cage with Mirin by my mother. My heartbeat fluttered as every part of me burned with the impulse to flee.

“Whoa,” he muttered as he, too, felt my panic. “Hey, what’s going on?”

“My mother. She said she had a surprise for me and locked me up.”

He tilted his head, brows pulling upward and making his brown eyes large with worry. “Okay. Let me rephrase it. I have someone I’d like you to meet. I just need you to get dressed first.”

Sensing his calm and seeing his earnest smile took the edge of the trauma away. “I don’t have any clothes here.”

Fletcher reached over his shoulders and yanked his shirt over his head. “Use this.”

The tattoo did not distract me as much as the wounds—my wounds—that now marred his body. On the shoulder without the tattoo was a deep gouge that still glistened of crimson blood .

“Fletcher—”

“Don’t. Don’t say a word. Just put it on.” He got up and opened the bottom drawer of Aldris’s dresser, pulling out my leather pants he had purchased for me during our first night in Ellion City. “We don’t know where your shirt went, but I believe these are yours.”