Page 126 of Brimstone

He bent over me, pressing his lips to my jaw, up to my ear, over the sensitive skin of my neck. My eyes rolled back into my head, my breath faltering. “My soul is on the winds,” I panted. “You’re carrying it away.”

He was so strong beneath my hands. Packed muscle and power. In his arms, the dangers of this place couldn’t touch me. I was sheltered. Safe. He held me tight to him—as tight as he could without crushing me—and didn’t let me go. Did he know this was what I needed? Could he sense that in me? He held me as if he would use his body as a shield against the dangers of this world. I could think of occasions when he already had, and my throat hurt from the memory of it. His shoulders tensed as he lowered me to the bed, but still he didn’t let me go.

“Never again,” he murmured. “Wherever we go, we go together.”

“Yes. Promise me.”

His mouth was hot on my skin, his hands possessive. A promise was the same as an oath in Fae, but Fisher made this one without a second’s hesitation. “I promise. I swear it. You’re mine.”

“And you are mine.

The words weren’t enough. I needed him inside me. Needed to be as close to him as I could get. I was raw with emotion as I unfastened his chest plate; my fingers were too numb to feed the leather straps through the buckles. Fisher placed a hand over mine, stilling them, and I saw the ink on the back of his hand had changed, too. The quicksilver rune was solid now, marked in metallic blue-black. Fisher saw where I was looking and began working free of his armor with one hand, using the other to lift my chin so that my eyes met his. “Don’t think about that right now. Don’t worry about any of it. Just be here with me.”

My prince of shadows.

I had been born into the light, but my salvation had been waiting for me in the dark. It was a miracle that we’d found each other. I’d learned the hard way that anyone could have come through the quicksilver that day in the Hall of Mirrors. But it hadn’t been just anyone. It had been him, the tides of fate turning, or the machinations of the universe at play. Whatever it had been, I was grateful for it. I wouldn’t have changed it for the world.

I watched him undress. He watched me while I did the same. Naked, he lay back down beside me and turned to face me, examining each of my facial features in turn. So many people were afraid of this male. Yvelia was full of Fae who would gladly have seen him strung up and put to death. He’d destroyed an entire city. He had gone to war. He had slain a dragon and faced the Iron Death at the Ajun Gate. Earlier, he’d ripped a male’s head off with his magic and hadn’t batted an eyelid. Hewasa creature of violence—it was his creed. But he was alsothis, too. When he loved, it was with everything he had.

He blinked at me owlishly, his expression very serious as he stroked his hand over my hair. Pulling his bottom lip into his mouth, he frowned slightly, as if he were still learning how to begentle with his hands. “When I look at you, I feel as though I’m peering into a mirror,” he said quietly. “I can speak into your mind, but it’s still a mystery to me. I feel as if I should already know your every thought.”

Laughing silently, I curled a lock of his ink-black hair around my index finger. “You wouldn’t like it if you could.”

“I already know what I’d find,” he replied, his eyes dancing.

“Oh, really? Please enlighten me.”

Fisher rolled onto his back, throwing an arm up over his head. There was a dimple in his cheek—only his true friends knew it existed, since they were the only ones who’d ever seen him smile broadly enough for it to be coaxed out. I could see it there, an inch from the right corner of his mouth, fighting to make an appearance. “Oh, y’know. ‘I amsoin love with Kingfisher. Kingfisher issohandsome. Look at his ass in those pants—’ ”

“Hey!” I prodded him in the ribs, hard. “I do have other things to think about besidesyou!”

Pulling both his lips into his mouth now, forcefully preventing himself from smiling, he rolled his head to face me. He couldn’t keep it from his eyes, though. “It’s okay, Osha. Many women have appreciated my posterior in a pair of leathers. I don’t let it go to my head.”

I flicked the top of his pointed ear, and the Bane of Gillethrye yelped like a startled dog. In a blur of movement, he was straddling me and had my hands pinned above my head. “You think I’m above tickling you?” he asked in a deadly serious tone.

I looked him dead in the eye. “Go on. Do it. I’m not ticklish.”

Squinting, he looked me over, trying to see if I was telling the truth. “Well,that’sno fun,” he said at last.

“What about you? Areyouticklish?”

Fisher sniffed, his hair tumbling into his eyes. He lowered himself so that his face was only a couple of inches from mineand butted the end of my nose gently with his own. “I’m afraid I’m not going to answer that question.”

“Because you can’tlie!” I squealed, laughing, trying to wrestle free from his grip so I could test my theory, but Fisher held on tight.

“A warrior never reveals his weaknesses.” He spoke the words breathlessly against my mouth, and I could feel his smile there now. He was loving this.

“That really isn’t fair. You know all my flaws,” I complained.

Martyrs, he was so godsdamned hot. He looked like he had been carved out of marble by the hands of the gods themselves, all muscle, the lines of him sheer perfection. And he was naked, lying on top of me, and he wasmine. He sobered a little, pulling back so that he could take a look at me. “You have no flaws, Saeris Fane. You are perfect in my eyes, imperfections and all. I’m in love with every part of you. Your stubbornness. Your wicked tongue. Your foul temper when you’re tired. Your inability to closeanydoor quietly—”

“All right, all right, I think that’s enough ofthat, thank you.”

“Every part. I loveallof you.” He blew a dark curl out of his eyes. “I’d spend the fortunes of the universe to protect you. I’d drain the seas dry. Fell every tree. I would sacrifice the sun from the fucking sky and surrender the stars, too, if I could. But those things aren’t mine to give. All I have is my life. It isn’t much, but I’d spend it and consider the price small if it meant keeping you safe.”

He spoke so easily, but I would never be able to describe what his words meant to me. There was nothing in any dictionary, in any language, that could possibly come close to explaining what I was feeling right now. “There it is,” I whispered.

“What?”