Page 163 of Quicksilver

“Careful, Osha,” he chided. “My teeth aremuchsharper than yours.”

He hadn't bitten me at all tonight. Aside from the little nicks to my lips and the tip of my tongue when we'd kissed so roughly, it hadn't escaped me that his canines had stayed well away from me during sex. It hadn't mattered. The night had been incredible. More than incredible. I wouldn't have changed any of it.

“I already know how sharp your teeth are. What I don't know is why you have a new tattoo,” I pressed.

Drawing me closer, he rested his chin on top of my head and sighed heavily. “All right, fine. I'll tell you. In the past, one party always got the mating marks first. When the other party accepted the bond, sometimes Marks showed up on their bodies, too. It didn’t happen all of the time. But sometimes...” he trailed off in a hushed voice.

I pushed away from him, sitting up too fast. My head spun like a top, but I ignored the pitching room, narrowing my eyes at him. “You did...what?”

“I accepted the bond. Earlier. When I was inside you. When my soul was wrapped around yours.” He wassocalm. Not a hint of uncertainty or nerves at all.

Meanwhile, I felt like I was about to pass out. “Youacceptedit,” I said.

“I did.”

“How?”

“It's easy. You make the decision. You claim the bond. The bond claims you.”

“No! How could youacceptit? I'm—” I shook my head, trying to get my thoughts in order. “I'mhuman. Aside from all of the things we have to iron out once Everlayne is safe, you're nearly immortal, and my lifespan is—is—”

“Inconvenient,” Fisher said. “You're right. That part sucks. But...” He frowned, snaking his arm around my waist, and pulled me back down to lie on his chest. Once I was settled, he slowly stroked his fingers through my hair and spoke again. “I'll be grateful for every second that I can say that I belong to you, Saeris Fane. Eighty years or eighteen hours. It doesn't matter to me. It'll still be the highest honor of my life. But don't—are you about to have a heart attack? Your pulse isflying.” The bastard laughed, and I nearly burst into tears. “Don’t freak out. Here. Look.”

He took my hand and lifted it, showing it to me. I watched as the inked runes gradually faded until my hands and forearms were unmarked again. “Just because I've accepted it doesn't mean you have to. You still have weeks to decide. And if you reject the bond, then it won't matter. My new wings will disappear, and that’ll be that.”

He'd accepted me as his mate.

In spite of all the blockades that stood in our way and all of theverygood reasons we shouldn't be mated...he'd done it.

“I'm in love with you, Saeris Fane,” he whispered quietly into my hair. “And I'm already half-mad, anyway. What's a little complicated thrown into the mix?”

“I—”

“Please,for the love of the gods, don't say anything. Just let me have my fantasy. Just for tonight.”

Iwasgoing to have a heart attack. Or my heart was going to break in two. Either way, my heart was in trouble, and there was no protecting it now. Fisher's hand swept up and down my side, and slowly, the room grew dark until, once again, it felt as though we were floating in a sea of stars.

He didn't want me to respond to his declaration. I understood that, and I could give him his peace for tonight. The sun would rise again soon, though, and we wouldn't be able to avoid the conversation. In the meantime, sleep made my bones heavy, weighing down my eyelids. Tomorrow, we were going to save Everlayne.

As my exhaustion promised to sweep my consciousness away, something occurred to me out of the blue. “When we were here last time, you said that the people of Ballard had something you needed. But you never got it,” I whispered.

Fisher gently kissed my forehead, and all around us, the flickering candle flames started to blink out. “Yes, I did,” he said. I barely heard his next words as I drifted away. “I came for a little hope.”

38

MARTYRS FOR FRIENDS

I woke to a soft mattress,the smell of sugar, and honey-warm sunlight pouring into the bedroom. Outside, tiny birds jumped from branch to branch on the tree beyond the bedroom window. I smiled as I stretched my arms over my head, delighting in the way my body ached from last night's adventures. And then my smile slowly slipped away...

At some point, Fisher had carried me to bed. Not back into the small room where he'd slept as a child. He'd put me in his mother's bed. And he wasn't lying next to me under the duvet. The bedroom door was open, and through it, I could see the ominous black shape of a spiraling shadow gate.

“No. No, no, no, no,no!”I rocketed out of the bed, hissing when I stood on my boots. My heart sank at the sight of the pile of fresh clothes laid out for me on the chair by the window. Bypassing them, I ran into the living room, going from room to room, naked, trying to quell my rising panic.

“Fisher? Fisher!”

He wasn't in the kitchen. Wasn't in the other bedroom, either. The apartment was empty. Rivers of candle wax covered the furniture and ran down the shelves. The remnants of ourdinner still sat on the counter by the sink in the kitchen. And in the center of the living room, where we'd spent most of our night tangled up in each other, was the gods-cursed shadow gate. I stared at it, my eyes flooding with tears. It swam in my vision, but there it remained, hovering an inch above the rug, making a dull rushing sound. I clapped my hands over my mouth, but they didn't keep the loud sob I let out from ringing loudly around the apartment.

What have you done, Fisher? What have youdone?