Page 25

25

Reyla

“ R eyla,” Lorant growled, his voice full of desperation. It felt like I was lying on a smooth, soft surface with him kneeling beside me. His fingers traced across my brow. “Wildfire. Wake up. Please. I can’t—” His words choked off.

Hearing the pain in his voice made me shove aside the drowning feeling and rise to the surface. I opened my eyes to find myself lying on the blankets this man had crafted and given me. His hand on my face felt good.

“I’m alright,” I croaked.

“What happened?”

“That power’s nasty. It came when I told it to, but it wasn’t happy about it.” I frowned, remembering. “It hit me.”

“You froze, and your eyes rolled back. I caught you before you fell to the floor.”

“How long have I been out?”

“Only a short time. Not long.” His concerned gaze met mine. “Don’t do that again. I wouldn’t be able to go on without you.”

“And here you think there was no kindness in your soul,” I said, overcome with both the heady feeling his words gave me, plus the realization that he cared. Truly cared. Not just in his snarly, growly way. “You like me.”

His eyes closed, and when he opened them again, they sank into mine. “Without you, I have no reason to exist. Where you go, I will follow, and the fates help whoever tries to stand between us.”

“Lorant.” I stroked his face. “I don’t know what to say.”

He eased off the bed, his tortured gaze gliding down my frame. “You don’t know what I felt when I saw you collapsing, knowing that something had attacked you. I needed to kill, but there was no one and nothing in the room to slay.”

“I’m not hurt. I’ll be more careful next time.”

“There won’t be a next time. You don’t need that book. All you need is—” He swallowed hard. “You’re going to remain here while I take care of this issue. When I get back, we’ll sit and talk. I’ll tell you more stories from when I was young.”

I sat up, ignoring how the room spun around me. “I want to hear them all, but I’m going with you.”

“Why won’t you listen?”

“I did. I just don’t agree with what you suggest.”

“It wasn’t a suggestion,” he snarled, back to his old self again. “It was a demand.”

I swung my legs over to sit on the side of the bed, my head cooperating with the movement. “I don’t take commands well.”

“How did you ever survive at the fortress?”

“With my wits. The strength of my arm.” I lifted one and flexed it to make a muscle. “And the support of my friends. You’re my friend, so I’m going to support you tonight by going with you.” My lips quirked up. “Because I’m not sure about your wits or the strength of your arm.”

He swooped in and knocked me back on the bed, following me down, pressing me into the blankets with his palms on either side of my shoulders. He nudged his face into my neck. “You, my wildfire, need to be taught a good lesson.”

“I actually think bad lessons might be more fun.” I bumped his chest with my palm. “As much as I’d enjoy your lesson, we have plans for the evening.”

He growled and backed onto his heels, still looming over me. “I don’t want you going. It’s not safe.”

“I thought it was just a simple conversation. What’s unsafe about that?”

His jaw twitched.

“Not safe for me means not safe for you either, so I’m going,” I said. “You need me.”

He slammed his eyes closed before opening them again. “I do. One twitch or hint that you’re still feeling the effects of what happened, however, and I’m bringing you back here and tying you to the bed.”

“Do you promise?”

His gaze hooded and fell on my mouth. “I can’t wait until you’re mine.”

My skin tingled, but we had things to do that didn’t involve him claiming any part of me I might offer.

“Let’s go.” I slid off the bed.

“Leave nullification alone. I mean it.” He strode to my bedroom door and swung it open, urging me to go ahead of him into my sitting area. Farris hopped off the bed and followed, his jaw stretching into a whining yawn .

I wasn’t going to leave nullification alone, not when I’d actually gotten the power to pay attention. I’d be ready for it next time, that sly, slimy thing, and then, it would be mine.

His attention fell on the table with the tea party for Erisandra. I hadn’t yet asked my ladies to take it away.

“You’re looking at what’s left of my latest interlude with the queen mother. She didn’t stay long, not even long enough to taste my?—”

He scooped up one of my horig cakes and popped it into his mouth, chewing. His groan rang out, and he shuddered as if he was in the throes of an amazing orgasm. “Fuck…” His eyes opened, and his face split wide open, his emotions pouring through. “You made horig cakes for me.”

“Not necessarily for you.”

He stalked over to stand too close to me. “For me .”

I shook my head and twisted my lips. “How did you know I made them?”

“They taste sweet, like you.” He said it so simply, so innocently, I couldn’t find the will to chide him. “Save them all for me? I want to eat them later.”

I waved toward the plate. “They’re yours.” I’d make them every day if only he’d always look at me like this, as if I was his world.

As we left the suite, I sent Faelith inside to take Farris for a walk and dismissed the others.

“We’re going to the tower,” Lorant told Surren. “Remain here to guard the queen’s suite.”

“We need to remain with her at all times.”

Lorant slanted a look at Surren, who twitched. “ I will watch out for her.”

“Oh, yes, of course, Lord Lorant.” Surren dipped forward in a bow. “We’ll…wait here.” He frowned my way .

“I’m armed,” I said in a breezy tone, tapping the hilts of my blades. “I’ll be safe with Lord Lorant.”

Surren reluctantly nodded.

I swept past him, keeping pace with Lorant. We rounded a corner and took the next hall, arriving at the top of the stairs.

“Where, exactly, are we going?” I asked.

“When we leave the castle, keep your blades handy.”

I lifted one eyebrow as we started down the stairs. “Are you expecting an attack?”

“I’ll explain elsewhere.” He tapped his fingertip on my lips, sealing them before giving me a smirk.

I pinched mine closed, nodding.

“I do love it when you obey me, Wildfire.”

“Don’t get too used to it.”

His mouth twitched, but he didn’t say anything else as we made our way to the foyer and stepped out through the front doors.

We strode down the long drive leading to the road winding up from the city, leaving the castle behind.

“Why not flit there?” I asked.

“I need to walk.”

Stomp, that is. Was my snarly night guy irritated with me? I didn’t tease him about it, though I was sorely tempted.

Our boots scraped on the stone road flanked by dense woods. The night was alive with distant cries of birds, their shrieks echoing through the thick canopy on either side. Cool night air swirled around us, and as we passed, sticks snapped and thuds rang out from creatures bolting in the opposite direction.

“I hid deep in that side of the woods, you know,” I said, gesturing to our right.

I could feel the heat of his irritation pouring off his skin. “So close to the castle? ”

“I sensed I’d be safer than, say, wandering past the wall.”

His growl ripped out. “You know what lies beyond the wall.”

Creatures.

“I was fine.”

“I could not find you!”

“That was the point. It was good for me to get away.”

He snarled. “Don’t do that again. Ever.”

“If I need space, I will take it.” I could be just as stubborn.

Stopping, he didn’t turn my way. He clenched his hands to fists. Released them. Then to fists again before he started walking, saying nothing.

At least that was settled.

The moon’s silvery beams stabbed down through the canopy, illuminating swaying branches and creating shadows that danced like silent phantoms. Despite its ethereal beauty, an unsettling chill lingered in the air. Yet nothing threatened us from beyond the tree lines.

Speaking of shadows. I found lots of power around me and actually had to shove aside the nasty, twisted bits of negative energy I’d one day command for nullification. If I didn’t know better, I’d think it was sorry for hurting me.

Not now, I told it in my mind. I’m working with the nice power now.

I tugged lavender power in and compressed it in my mind before sending it out to the shadows lurking around us. They perked up and looked my way. Not exactly looked. It was more a feeling that they were suddenly paying attention. They drifted toward me, making their oozing demands that weren’t spoken words but whispered wishes. My pain, an easy share. Lust, also easy while I walked beside Lorant.

And love. Oh, how they ached to feel love.

Even that I could send to them, that aching, twisting feeling in my heart I got whenever I looked at this strong man by my side or his mirror image. I had so much to give. I just hadn’t gotten up the nerve yet to tell them.

Once they’d fed, the shadows cooperated, gliding in close to cloak me. Disappear me, one might say.

“Well done,” Lorant said softly. “And quickly too.”

“I have a great teacher.”

He shot a smile my way. “That you do.”

“A conceited one, I’ll also add.”

“I won’t disagree.”

“But that’s not all you are.”

His head cocked my way. “Do tell. What else am I?”

I swore he held his breath. No, he guarded himself because he thought I’d scorn who and what he was. Why hadn’t he realized I never would?

“You’re also the most unrelenting protector I’ve ever known. You might snarl and scowl, but it’s because you’re always bracing yourself to keep me safe, no matter the cost. You’re fierce, yes, but that ferocity… By the fates, I feel untouchable when I stand beside you. You don’t only guard my life; you guard my heart in ways I don’t think even you understand.”

“Reyla.” His eyes actually glistened as he stopped and stared at me, as he reached out and somehow found me behind the shadows, cupping my face in his gentle hands and looking directly into my eyes.

“And yes, you’re brutally honest, but it’s a relief, like standing in a cold wind when you’re hot. You don’t lie to spare my feelings or coat the truth with pretty words. Sometimes, I hate that.”

“I can tell.” There was that adorable, infernal smirk again, the one that made my heart spin.

“Sometimes, I need the truth, not sugar-coated words that may one day taste bitter. Your clarity cuts through my doubts when I can’t see the way forward myself. You’re cunning, sure, but it’s the sort of cleverness that saves me. Your plans and your instincts are flawless, even when I don’t always agree with where they lead. There’s no softness in your strategy, no hesitation, and yet, isn’t that decisiveness something to admire and trust?”

“If you keep going like this, I'm going to kiss you,” he croaked. “Not to shut you up but to give back this feeling in the only way I know how. I'm not a man who can speak pretty words. I'm me. Ruthless. Brutal. And merciless to everyone but you.”

My heart cratered, cracked wide open to let him inside. “You’re passion in its rawest form,” I said with all the heart I couldn't quite express. “You feel everything with the force of a hurricane. It’s terrifying, really, to hold the attention of someone so consuming. But at the same time, it makes me feel as if I’m the only thing you’ll ever fight this hard for.”

“ Evermore , Wildfire. In this world, the one beyond, and until the fates end it all, I will seek you.”

Tears burst in my eyes. “If you keep talking like that, I'm going to sob.”

His thumbs stroked away my tears. “Don't shed them for me. Please.”

“Don't you see? Every decision you make is your way of loving, even when you don't realize that’s what you're doing. But I see, Lorant. I see it all and it means everything to me.”

He stood so close that I could feel the rise and fall of his chest, the heat radiating from his body, wrapping around me like a promise. He tilted my chin upward, holding me as if I were made of something fragile, as if any sudden motion might break me. The calloused pads of his thumbs lingered at the edge of my jaw, brushing against my skin with the faintest pressure. This whisper of a touch said more than words ever could .

“Reyla,” he breathed, my name spilling from his lips in a way that felt almost reverent. A prayer to the very fates themselves.

His lips brushed against mine gently. Featherlight. Testing. As if he feared that I might crack open or crumble beneath the weight of his adoration. And for one beautiful moment, his kiss was sweet and achingly tender. One born of restraint, of care, of a man who dared to believe if only for a heartbeat that he could show me this small part of himself without me drawing away.

I leaned in.

That was the moment everything inside me shattered.

He made a sound then, something guttural and deep in his throat, and his sweetness unraveled into something wilder. His hands, still gentle but no longer hesitant, cradled my face as one of them slid to the nape of my neck, pulling me into him like he couldn’t bear to have space between us. His lips pressed harder, firmer, moving against mine with a hunger I could feel all the way to the marrow of my bones.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and met the intensity of his kiss with my own. Fire coursed through me, a wildfire this man could so easily ignite. My head spun, but my body knew exactly what to do. I threaded my fingers into his hair and held tight, determined to never let go.

He lifted his head, his eyes searching. “I'd die happy as long as you always looked at me like you're doing now. Like you care. Like I have meaning.”

“Evermore.” I repeated his word. “Never doubt that, Lorant. Never.”

He gave me a nod and eased back, glancing around almost sheepishly. “I…haven’t been paying attention. Anything could’ve rushed toward us, and I?—”

“You would’ve slayed it already. ”

“You don’t realize how truly distracting you can be.” His gaze pierced the woods around us. “We need to go.”

Not stand in the road and kiss.

I sucked in a breath and released it, then drew the shadows closer again, wrapping them around me like a blanket.

We continued walking.

And while we did, I teased the nasty magic, stretching my hand out only to yank it back before it could make contact.

I didn't miss that it kept slithering closer.