Page 62 of Of Nightmares & Fire (Elusive Umbra #1)

Chapter forty-eight

Kyros

There is no going back for me. She may not know everything, but this confession gives her something .

My eyes are lost to the endless moon in her gaze.

Her lips part, and the bottom trembles with unsaid words.

She doesn’t have to acknowledge what I’ve said.

I just want her to be here with me. Everything else will come on its own time.

“I—Kyros,” she says with her voice shaking.

Everything in me softens around her. Every sharp edge dulls.

I give her a sad smile. After everything that I have been through in my life, it's only fitting that I would fall for someone who is meant to be my enemy.

Someone whose whole purpose was to take everything I ever cherished away. And now?

She is all-consuming.

The one thing that I don’t want to escape. I’m not ready to hear her words. I’m not willing to accept that she doesn’t feel the same. How could she?

Cupping her face I press two fingers to her lips, silencing whatever it is she was going to say.

Right now I just need her to be here—I'm selfish, but I don't care.

I lean in. Slowly dragging my fingers away, I replace them with my lips.

Surprising me, she opens herself up, sinking her tongue into my mouth, inviting mine to dance with hers.

Her taste floods my senses and lights my blood on fire.

My fingers sink into her hair, tilting her head back and giving me more of her.

The moan that releases from her throat has me lifting her from the ground.

Her arms wrap around my neck and her legs around my waist while the sun heats my back.

She digs her hands further into my hair, pulling it from the tie at the back of my head and letting the strands fall loose.

I press her into the flat rock of the mountainside, unable to suppress the groan building in my throat as I grind my hard cock into the center.

Thin fabric is the only thing that separates us. She whimpers, and I feel it everywhere.

Our skin sears where it touches. Our bodies seem to meld into one, with hands wandering, gripping, and pulling.

I want nothing more than to rip away the little clothing we have covering our bodies and sink into her, but I pause when I feel her hesitate.

Her fingers at the tie of my breeches, but she breaks the kiss .

“Kyros,” she says breathlessly, and after a moment of deep breaths, I nod. I know what she is saying even without her voice. We need to talk about more than she even realizes, but we are running out of time.

“I know you have questions, and I want to give you all the answers. I do, but Shula, we are running out of time. We have days until we leave. Days of traveling before we have an audience with the Queen of Diemos.”

“Are you going to tell me what the man, Karnnen, meant?” The question comes out like a blade.

The passion of the fire grows between flashes of the anger and hurt in her eyes.

“I will be the death of you? The death of everyone?” She asks, locking her eyes to mine.

My jaw clenches hard enough to crack bone, and I take a deep breath.

“I wasn’t meant to be a suitor for your father’s games.

” I say, loosening my grip around her and allowing her feet to settle back on the ground.

She keeps her hands against my bare chest, and I know she can feel the same pounding beat of my heart as I tell her some truths.

“Mavros was meant to be the only one playing his games. I was there to be support.” Her blue eyes brighten a little as the sun casts its glow over both of us.

“Something changed?” She asks, the venom in her tone gone, and my lips curl at the corner in a half smirk. Softening for me, too, Shula? It seems we are both doomed.

“Everything changed,” I say, and pink rushes her cheeks.

“The moment I stopped that cranky old skin dealer, Martier…” I can't help but smile at the memory. “When you clearly did not need my help.” She rolls those bright eyes, and my smile widens before I’m serious again.

“I may not have known right away, but there was something. Something I couldn’t place.

Then again, when we ran into you at the tavern.

.. Something I have never felt before rose in my chest every time I saw you.

Every time your wicked mouth bit back at anything I said.

You were a wildfire. Reckless and deadly, but like a moth to a flame, I was drawn to you.

I tried to stay away; tried to get Mavros to stay away from you too. I think I knew you weren’t who you said you were, but I never imagined you were—well, who you are…”

“The Princess of Eathian. The one your brother was meant to court?” She asks, and I give her a wry smile. My eyes then narrow on hers.

“Something like that.” I say, tilting my head as I look at her.

A gust of wind blows over the water and crashes into the mountain where we stand.

Both our hair are blown across our faces.

I shake it from my eyes before I tuck the unruly strands behind her ears.

“Truth is, I lost all control when I walked into the palace and saw you at King Connard’s side. ” I say.

“You didn’t look like you lost control. It was me who made a fool of myself.

” The pink blush deepens as she recalls the memory of her shattering the goblet of wine.

“I didn’t want to lie to anyone. You know that, right?

I needed to. I was running from a life I never wanted.

” My thumb scores a line across her rosy cheek.

“I do. I see that now.” Had our pasts been kinder to us both, maybe our future wouldn’t be so bleak. I don’t tell her that, though. Instead, I kiss her forehead and pull her into me. My eyes shut as she melts into my arms, fitting perfectly in my hold. I swallow hard.

“We have time to talk more on the journey to Diemos. I promise we will talk, but while we are in Aithne preparing for the celebration and your birthday, you will train. Focus on learning what you can. The Creshian Forest can be a dangerous place, and I think it's time we talk to the others about what we are facing with your nightmares.” I say resolutely. Astraea chews on her lip. A caw sounds from a distance. I smirk, quickly throwing a glance over my shoulder and then looking back at the wide-eyed look on Astraea’s face as she sees Drabek narrowing the distance between us.

She shuffles out of my arms with a screech as the large, Creshian raven lands deftly on my shoulder.

I clench my jaw tight as his claws dig into my bare flesh.

Drabek doesn't seem to notice my lack of clothes, though, and preens his feathers as he looks her in the eye and tilts his head.

Blinking, he surveys the woman I deemed worthy of bringing to this place he knows I frequent alone.

Astraea covers her mouth with her hand; her eyes widen as if this feathered creature is more fearsome than the manticore she faced in the dunes.

A chuckle rumbles through me, and Drabek leans forward, lifting a lock of her hair with his large beak.

He clicks with it several times, hanging the hair loosely in his mouth before dropping it and chittering in approval.

As though this was his way of greeting. A gentlemanly kiss to the hand.

“Shula, meet Drabek.” My grin widens as her face morphs to fascination. “He likes you. ”

“He is beautiful.” Tentatively, she reaches her hand out just as she did to the beast in the dunes, and usually I would warn someone else not to, but I know without a doubt that Drabek will be accepting of Astraea.

Her fingers glide through his feathers, and he fluffs them as soon as her hand retreats.

He shakes his large head with a caw. Astraea’s face lights up, and she laughs.

A truly loud, beautifully joyous laugh, and my stomach tightens.

I want to learn all the sounds that can come from her lips.

Her gaze finds mine as I watch her, and she blinks, looking at me through her lashes.

“There are depictions of ravens in the palace, I’m sure you saw; they are carved into the great hall doors.” She says, and it takes everything in me not to react.

“Yes, I recall the art of them.” I say with a shrug, feigning nonchalance.

“I’ve always loved that art. It’s one of the only pieces my father didn’t destroy.

” She says as her eyes catch back on Drabek, who shifts his head back and forth between us.

His curious eyes blink a few times at me.

I sigh before I run my fingers through his feathers, allowing my shadows to dance and tickle along their lengths.

“It’s a blessing from the divine that he didn’t destroy it as he did everything else.

” I say through my teeth so quietly I think she may not have heard me at all, but the words were more for me than for her to hear.

There is no way she would understand anyway—not yet.

“Drabek, we will be back at the castle in four days' time. Until then I want you to stay close. Keep an eye on things that I cannot.” He rubs his head against my offered hand, and Astraea smiles at both of us.

“Go.” I command, and with a shrill cry, he launches into the sunlit sky and disappears beyond the clouds.

We both watch the clouds for a moment, though I am the first to look away.

My eyes are drawn to the woman in front of me.

I watch her as I have since the moment she stepped into my life.

Still, I don’t understand it. The way that fates twist our worlds so impossibly, causing loss, heartache, and destruction only to bring two people together in a way that seems so unimaginable.

Her chin drops, and she is smiling. She could steal every last breath from my lungs with that smile, and I would die a happy man. I lift my hand between us in offering, and she doesn’t hesitate.