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My chest tightened. I wanted to feel brave, to say the things I couldn’t outside of Cal’s home, but I was still afraid. “How can you feel that way about me? There’s so much wrong with me.”

He ran a hand down my arm, pushing the blanket from my shoulders and picking up my hand.

He brought it to his mouth, kissing it, his gaze heating with my chest exposed to the night air.

“Your flaws fit snugly next to mine. I don’t know if this pull is ours or the magic, but I know you’re mine, Liv.

And if the fates haven’t said so, then I do. ”

“Like soul bonded?” I whispered. Like Nuo’s dream.

“Perhaps it’s a bond we made ourselves.” Brekt grabbed my cheek, pinching it. “You’re blushing. We don’t have enough crystals left.”

I pushed him away, sitting back so I could watch him while he teased me. “I don’t think I can handle any more of you tonight, anyways.”

I was almost completely exposed to him, the blanket pooling around my waist, and Brekt groaned, running his hand along my thigh. He grabbed my leg and bit down on it.

I screeched and swatted the back of his head. “What are you doing?”

“Marking you as mine,” he smiled up at me. “If I can’t fuck you until you can’t walk, this will have to do.”

“I thought you were no longer a beast!”

“I am what I am. And I want you to display reminders that I was here.” He scanned my body. “Where else should I leave a mark?”

I pushed him away with the little strength I had against him.

“My shoulder is already heavily scarred by you. I can’t use two fingers.

” I wiggled the working ones for him. “You don’t need to leave marks.

Everyone knows I’m yours.” I didn’t mask my face.

I let him see how much I meant what I said, even when there was so much more I wanted to say.

“Plus, it’s not fair if I can’t mark you. ”

He lifted a brow, turning, showing me his back.

“Oh my god!”

Red marks, evenly spaced, covered Brekt’s shoulders. The Aspis, though tattooed down his entire back, didn’t hide that I had drawn blood from digging my nails in too hard.

When he faced me, there were no signs of anger. “I like the sting, knowing the cause of it.”

“Turn back around. Where did you get that big scar?”

He swung his legs off the lounger, giving me a glorious view of his muscled back. I got to my knees, running a finger down a long white scar. “This can’t be the one from Bellum?”

His muscles bunched under my touch. “It is.”

“But I put magycris on it. This scar is horrid.”

“Magycris can prevent scars if applied well. You’re no healer.”

My nostrils flared and my anger rose when he glanced over his shoulder, giving me a mocking smile.

“Plus, having pieces of our time marked on my skin doesn’t bother me. Aren’t you sorry for the one you’ve put on my face? “ He put a finger to the scar over his eye.

“Oh no, not that one.” I wrapped my arms around his shoulders, leaning against his warm back. The night was getting cooler, and his body heat was heavenly.

“And why is that? You could have blinded me.”

I leaned farther over his shoulder, kissing his cheek. “That one makes you look handsome.”

His smile faltered. “Was I not already handsome?”

“Has no one told you that you are?”

“Not in a while. I haven’t heard it from you.”

“Yes, I have!” I swatted him, pulling away from his back. He turned to face me, and a shiver ran through me when I remembered he was gloriously nude, and I could see every large part of him on display.

“No. You called me devastating. I’m upset if this scar has reduced me to handsome.”

“I’ll correct myself.” I rolled my eyes, giving him a Maev look. “You’re more devastating.”

He seemed satisfied with my answer and laid back, pulling me down with him once more.

I put the blanket over us both and went back to running my hands along his body, this time searching for all the little battle scars marring his skin.

“What do you think it means that the Aspis tried to absorb my magic? Did you know you were doing it?” I asked.

Brekt thought for a moment. “No. I can’t remember it. Except it makes sense. If the Ikhor stole the magic from the gods and the Aspis was created as punishment, the story could be only incorrect by a single detail.”

“What do you mean?”

“Perhaps the Aspis was created to get it back, and in the process, kills the host without meaning to. I don’t think the Aspis is made of blind, killing rage. It doesn’t feel like that. It’s more desperate, hungry.”

I thought about what he said, but felt no closer to understanding who we were or if our plans were taking us down the right path.

“I need to leave soon.” Brekt ran kisses over my face. “Morning approaches. I need to prepare the others and sneak them away from the other Guardians so they can meet you at the shrine.”

“Where are they now?”

“Farther north than the shrine. It’s hard to say—when the Aspis travels, it sees the world as something smaller than itself.”

“What does it feel like? To be the beast.”

He rested his head on mine. “A multitude of things. I feel free, powerful, a king of this world. I appreciate and love what exists below me. But then I feel so desperate. I know only hunger and desperation. I feel pulled in one way and then another. And at the end of the strongest desire is you.” I kissed his cheek, and Brekt went completely still.

“In all my life, I don’t think I will ever get used to being shown kindness so easily. ”

I understood what he meant. “I’ve never been free to show kindness.”

Brekt got up to leave and gathered his clothing from the room before he came back out to the balcony where I waited. I stuffed my sadness away. After tonight, being without him would be even harder.

“Will I see you tomorrow?” I asked.

“I will meet you at the shrine if it’s okay. I would like to spend some time with the others.” He pulled his pants up around his waist, tucking himself in, snagging my attention.

“Of course. I didn’t mean to keep you away.”

He leaned over the lounge and kissed my head. “Not even being cursed by the gods kept me from coming back to you. The Guards won’t stop me either.”

Brekt turned to leave, skin darkening, eyes shifting, smoke rising. He was close to the edge of the balcony.

“Brekt!” I yelled, rising from the lounge.

Be brave. Fake it if you have to.

He turned, and my favourite sight hit me—iridescence shining in the dark. He was waiting.

“I—“ I didn’t know how to say it. After all this time, stepping out of my comfort zone remained difficult despite having been given so much power.

Brekt folded his arms, looking smug as if he knew.

I was trapped at the moment now, uncertainty bleeding into my self-doubt.

“I’ve got all the time in the world, Liv. I’ll wait.” The wind blew his hair around.

God, he was sexy.

“Bastard,” I muttered, hugging the blanket around my shoulders and studying my bare toes.

“You can do it,” he encouraged, waiting.

My anger simmered, warming my face. Had he known I wanted to tell him back at Cal’s?

“Never mind.” I returned to my room, wrapping the blanket under my arms. Glowing crystals covered the room, and my bed was in shambles, ripped to shreds. There was nowhere I could sit and feel embarrassed.

“Still waiting.” His deep voice carried in through the doors—he was a silhouette against the moon and early morning light.

I grabbed a pillow and threw it at him, hitting his head. “I love you! Idiot.”

It was so much louder inside the room, bouncing off the tall ceilings. I finally got the words out, and I yelled it at him. I groaned—my emotions ruined everything.

Brekt stepped in between the doors, the crystals setting him aglow. “That’s my girl. The fire in your veins was never from the Ikhor, love.”

The pillow landed at my feet when he tossed it back. He looked at me in a way he’d never looked at me before. It was vulnerable, scared, and so full of emotion.

In the softest I had ever heard him speak, he replied, “I love you too, Olivia.” He walked backwards, fading from the glow. “Since the first time I dreamt of you.”

When I ran out to the balcony, all that remained of the Aspis was smoke soaring directly upward. I turned my smiling, tear-streaked face to the sky.

I had never been so happy.