Page 99 of The Heart of Nym (The Twisted Roots Duology #1)

Six Months Later

As promised, the realms were now at war.

For the past few weeks, Nymiria had awoken to the sounds of swords clashing and screams of terror.

She and Oran ran from spreading fires and the sounds of boots marching through villages.

Oran had already contacted Shidosha, alerting them of the vile ways his father had treated the Mystics within his own kingdom and urged them not to send aid.

In return, the Shidoshans offered him refuge, a place for him and Nymiria to stay for as long as they wished.

With no desire to return to the people she'd reluctantly left behind, she decided that Shidosha seemed like the perfect place for her to start over. She just hoped that it was far enough away that she could escape the nightmares.

Unlikely, but it was worth a shot.

Nymiria looked around the crowded room at all of the patrons laughing and enjoying their drinks and company.

She sat alone at the bar, her index finger swirling around the chipped clay rim as she searched.

She hadn’t yet discovered what she was searching for, but the vacant place in her chest ached so terribly that nothing could soothe it.

Not ale, not men, not women, not cards—nothing.

Setting out on her own was her decision. A terrible one of many. Though she had money and a safe place to rest her head, she’d never felt more hopeless. She’d traveled nearly the entire continent in search of something to fill that void, but she always ended up here. Alone. Drunk. Searching.

Months ago, when she last saw Desi in Eadyn, she told her friend that she was setting out to find herself. Six months on her own and she was still empty-handed, finding herself missing the comfort of silken sheets and the scent of cherry blossoms.

No—that was just the ale. Her mind was fuzzy, she had to be hallucinating to some degree.

It was impossible.

Still, the smell surrounded her, masking the stale stench of mildew and ale, of smoke and vomit and sweat. There was no way that it could be him and even if it was, she didn’t give him the glory of her looking around to find out.

You’re being cruel, moonflower.

She didn’t care. He could grovel all he wanted—get on his knees and beg for her to change her mind, but she wouldn’t.

“I recall you being rather fond of seeing me on my knees.” Nymiria went still, muscles freezing under her skin, locking her in place.

She didn’t turn her head, but she could see him sliding into the chair next to hers with the same sly grace as a cat.

“You’ve made yourself quite the difficult person to find. ”

“I wonder why that might be.” She grumbled, still forcing herself to stare straight ahead at the barkeep as he worked his rounds. “Seems as if I had no desire to be found.”

“Is that right?” He hummed, nodding respectfully as the barkeep slid a drink in front of him. Nymiria turned to him then, watching as he lifted the glass of blue liquid to his lips and downed it in one go. She scoffed.

His beauty threatened to wipe her slate clean, to make her forget why she’d ever decided to leave in the first place. Forcing anger was the only way. Though her anger was projected in the wrong direction, it was what she needed to do to protect them both from heartbreak and pain.

“You can come back, you know? I can help you learn how to use your powers, hone your skills.” Aziel sighed. “Take a break from this grueling life at sea.”

Nymiria slid him a side-long glare. “We haven’t even left port yet.”

“That means you still have the option to get off.”

She snorted. “And leave your poor brother all alone?”

She expected some look of contempt at her remark. Instead, his features didn’t change at all. It shouldn’t have mattered if he was jealous or not, but the thought did nothing to ease the sting she felt at seeing how little he cared. “He’s a big boy, he can handle himself.”

Nymiria’s eyes drifted to the place where she’d left Oran. His sleeping figure was slumped over one of the tables in the far corner of the room, hair wild and beard fully grown over the months they'd spent on the run. “I’m not so sure of that. He’s taken his mother’s death rather hard.”

Aziel’s gaze followed hers, his features softening when they took in Oran’s large and pathetic form. “He will survive, I’m sure.”

“Don’t be so insensitive.”

“I’ve never been insensitive a day in my life.

What I am is realistic. Life does not stop in death.

The hands of time continue to turn.” He fell silent when Nymiria did not react.

She acted as if he hadn’t even spoken a single word.

And she would continue to do so until he understood that she did not want his poetic prose.

“Alright, then. I see my insensitivity is the only thing that can illicit a response today, so I will be quite blunt when I say that I have come to retrieve both of you from this sorry excuse of soul searching and returning you both to the places where you are needed. You can fight, kick, and scream all you want. It doesn’t matter. ”

She turned to him slowly, her eyes narrowed and her lips giving no sign of amusement whatsoever.

Aziel felt his stomach hollow at the lifeless eyes that stared back at him, but even though his heart ached deep in the confines of his chest, he did not show it.

He could tell by the look on her face alone that she was not wanting love confessions and tear-soaked apologies.

He wasn’t even sure he could do it. Not here.

“I’m not going anywhere with you. You can do your worst, Aziel, but the only way I am leaving this ship is if I am dead.” She spat her venom, but looking at him while saying it was almost impossible.

He was beautiful. And it was in their nature for their eyes to find one another.

She despised how her heart still reacted to his presence—how her body gravitated towards him, how her instinct upon seeing him looking down at her was to throw herself into his arms and submit to everything she'd denied herself.

Finally, against her own will, she really looked at him.

In the past six months, he’d gained quite a few more piercings, his ears now decorated in silver hoops all the way to the dangerous point of them.

Those black jewels still dangled from the lobes, matching the small obsidian stud pierced through his nose.

Piercings in mind, her eyes began traveling over his body, daring to dip to the part of his clothing that hid his pierced cock.

Good gods, Nymiria.

He smirked. “Yes, they're still there.”

“Stop that.” She grumbled, cheeks heating as she swiftly turned away from him. “You should have gotten rid of them the moment I left.”

“Why?” He crooned. “Are you worried some other poor woman may enjoy them while you’re away?”

Had she? Of course, it crossed her mind a time or two.

The thought of him bending some sexually depraved creature over the table they shared their meals at, or laying her on the bed they shared…

it burned through her thoughts on those lonely nights when her mind simply would not shut off.

She’d tried quelling those incessant nightmarish thoughts by finding bodies of her own to fill her bed, but she’d seen his face in every single person she tugged into dark corners.

He’d haunted her in a way that only a creature of the Otherworld could.

Nymiria licked her lips. “Would it be so unbelievable to you that I have had other things to worry about?”

He shook his head, motioning for the barkeep to refill his glass.

“I don’t put anything past you, moonflower.

” Even though there was a hint of amusement to his voice, she could see how his eyes had darkened, how his features had stiffened since those thoughts about her failed sexual escapades had entered her mind.

The barkeep finally returned, topping off his glass and turning away, leaving them in silence once more.

Nymiria didn’t know what else to say to him.

Opening her mouth and saying anything at all would damn her more than her silence, but her silence would only drive him to walk away.

And despite all of the emotions she felt, the desire for him to stay for just a little while longer was stronger than all of them.

“You’ve ruined me, you know,” Nymiria sighed. “I can’t even enjoy my freedom properly. I try to fuck the pain away, but the moment someone’s hands touch me, it feels like I want to cut off every inch of my body that they’ve touched.”

He took another slow sip of his drink, eyes never leaving hers.

He licked a bead of alcohol from the corner of his lips, but there was not an ounce of smug pride on his face when he saw Nymiria follow the trail his tongue made.

There was just fire. It was as if she could feel it on her skin, the warm wet trailing over her flesh until a harsh shiver rattled her body.

Aziel placed his glass on the rotting counter with deadly precision, his finger swirling around the lip twice before he leaned closer to her.

“And you think that you haven’t ruined me?

” He tilted his head to the side, eyes flickering over every dip and curve of her face as he pushed a single strand of hair behind her ear.

“I can’t even pleasure myself, Nymiria. And I try—the moment you enter my mind, I have the strongest desire to wrap my hand around my cock and stroke myself until the memory of you is milked out of me.

” His lips twitched into a devious grin when her eyes moved to his hands.

“And it’s not just your body I think of.

It’s just you. As much as I’ve dreamt of burying myself in between your thighs, it pales in comparison to the desire I have to just bring you home.

To hear your laugh and that smart fucking mouth of yours, to wake up next to you. ”