Page 49

Marin

Gavin was on his feet in an instant. His grip found my shoulder, firm and grounding as another shallow breath rattled in my chest.

“Mare, listen to me. I need you to hold on. I have an idea.” His voice was steady, but there was an urgency beneath it. “You said the moisture in the bog helped. We need some steam.”

His hand left my shoulder. A sudden cold absence. Across the room, metal clattered as he wrenched open a cabinet. The rush of water. The scrape of a pot against stone as he shoved it over the fire. I pressed a shaking hand to my ribs. Black spots danced in my vision.

“It hurts—Gav—”

The composure in him cracked, something raw bleeding through. No charm. No teasing. Just him, stripped bare.

His hand trembled against my back.

“I know, sweetheart.”

A single, ragged breath slipped past my lips as he lifted me in his arms, gathering me close. “It won’t take long. Just listen to my voice.”

He lowered me to the floor in front of the fire, whispering calmly in my ear. His arms were still wrapped around me, my back pressed to his chest. But my throat burned. The darkness pressed closer.

I'm dying. Not here… not now.

The curse coiled deeper. Tivara's magic spread like thick mold, my lungs growing tighter until I felt them convulse. A final, failing gasp.

Then, nothing.

Utter stillness as my lungs stopped working.

Fear. All-consuming fear slithered through me.

“Breathe, Marin.” Gavin bent forward, lifting the pot from the fire, holding the edges with one of his shirts, and pressed the pot under my face.

I tried to tell him I couldn’t. That it was too late. But the words died in my airless throat. My heartbeat was too loud… too sluggish. I dug my fingers into his arms, nails biting into his skin, but he didn’t flinch, only pressed a hand to the back of my neck and gathered the hair from my face.

The steam rose, bathing my skin. I coughed. A hard, wrenching sound. My lungs spasmed as they heaved back to life.

“Slow,” Gavin murmured gently.

A small inhale. Hot and raw. Burning from the inside out.

“I’ve got you,” he whispered. “As long as it takes.”

I sank against him, letting the steam pass through my aching throat. It curled in waves, easing the pain. Loosening. Gavin’s thumb drew slow, grounding circles over my ribs.

“That’s it, Marin. It’s working.”

It was. The pain faded. My breaths evened into a smooth rhythm.

For a long time, I just sat there, letting Gavin hold me. Letting the fear subside, knowing he had vanquished that monster, too .

“Do you need more?”

The worst had passed. I shook my head.

Gavin adjusted his hold, easing me down with him onto the thick mat he’d unrolled. His arms stayed around me. He didn’t let go.

“I’ll make sure the fire doesn’t go out,” he said. “We should keep one lit whenever we can. I’ll figure something out for when we’re inside the castle. A torch, maybe.”

A ghost of a laugh slipped free. “You’re the brawn. I’m supposed to be the problem solver in our partnership. You’re leaving me with nothing to do. I’ll have to retire.”

Gavin smoothed his hand over my hair. “Sounds good to me. Let’s retire to a house by the sea. I may even own one.”

“Stole one,” I whispered, burying my forehead into the crook of his neck.

“We’ll hammer out the details. I’m fantastic with a hammer.”

Another laugh burned in my throat.

Gods help me, I loved him.

The fire crackled, its glow flickering against the walls. The storm still raged, wind bracketing the windows, rain drumming against the battered roof.

“Tell me a story, Mare. Like you used to.” Gavin’s voice was quiet, almost coaxing. A whispered request he’d made so many times before when we'd camped under the stars.

I hesitated, but only for a moment. I had a story. One I hadn’t been able to tell him or even admit to myself until now.

I wet my lips, nerves dancing under my ribs, and let my soft voice fill the room.

“Once, there was a girl who fell into the sea.”

Gavin’s breath brushed against my neck in a sharp inhale. “ What happened to her?”

“She was imprisoned by an evil witch who tricked her into believing her life was over. That she’d failed her family, lost her friends, and helped to start a war against a once peaceful kingdom.”

Gavin’s fingers flexed over my hip, then relaxed. He was listening. Feeling every word.

“The girl was chained and forced to work in underwater mines, chipping away at minerals embedded in jagged stone. It was dark… cold… terrifying. She wished it would end. Hundreds of times… a thousand. Every day, she carved marks into the stone just to prove she was still alive.”

I swallowed around the sting in my throat. “She hated the witch for stealing everything she loved. She hated the man who'd broken her heart. But most of all, she hated herself for believing she was easy to forget.”

His hand stilled against my spine, a faint tremor running through his fingers before they tightened.

“And after that?”

“A mermaid told her of a legend that could save the kingdom and earn her freedom.

But when the sea queen let her go, it wasn't freedom. It was a curse disguised as a second chance. And when she came back… nothing was the same. A devious thief had stolen her house. Then he took the seeds she needed right out from under her. She wanted to make him pay. So she chained him to a rail. He chased her to the vine. And when they climbed, he should have let her fall. She deserved that.”

“He would never.”

The words scraped as if he'd carved them in stone.

I angled my head. “This is my story, not yours.”

“Sorry.” But he didn’t sound sorry. His thumb skated under my chin. “Just helping you fill in some important details.”

Our gazes collided in the narrow space between us. “The most important detail is that the girl isn’t the same one who drowned. Who clawed herself back from the depths. She changed because of him.”

Gavin’s eyes flared. I didn’t look away.

“After everything I've been through…” My voice softened. “You need to know how much I rely on you.”

His chest rose on a deep inhale.

“How much I need you.”

He tensed against me, heart pounding.

“How much I want you, Gavin.”

Silence. The world stopped. A different world started turning.

“Say that again.” His tone was hoarse, the words so low the wind almost drowned them out.

I slid my palm along the side of his jaw. “I rely on you. I need you. And I want you so much, it hurts.”

He didn’t move, so I kissed him.

I tasted the faint sweetness of honey on his lips. Felt the rigidness still ruling his body, and the disbelief warring with my words.

I kissed him deeper, the battle not won even though his breaths were broken, chest falling beneath my hand as if I’d pushed him from the castle wall. Maybe I had, throwing back words he'd given me in anger, but had only proved to be true.

He pulled back, cradling my face in both hands. His forehead dropped to mine.

“Stop. You have no idea—” His voice cracked. Then a wrecked sound tore from his throat. “I shouldn’t want you this much, Marin. And you shouldn’t let me. You’ll need a hundred pairs of shackles now, because this time, I won’t wait for the key. I’ll never get enough of you. Never let you go.”

“Then show me, thief.”

Gavin groaned and crushed his mouth to mine. He wasn’t careful or tethered. His kiss was wild and desperate. I met it head-on, threading my fingers through his hair, pulling him closer.

He deepened the kiss, rolling me beneath him, his body pressing me down into the bedroll. I gasped, arching into him as he dragged his lips down the column of my throat.

“Gavin—”

He caught my mouth again, more urgent, his heart hammering against my skin. I’d never been kissed like this, like he might shatter if we stopped. As if I held his heart in my hands, and he was begging me with his mouth, his fingers, and his ragged breaths to give him mine.

I had. I do.

He skimmed his fingers under the hemline of my shirt, sliding over my skin. The roughness of his calloused hands—hands that rebuilt my home, that anchored me to the vine, that flipped a coin always in his favor—made me tremble. I instinctively rolled my hips into his.

I swallowed his groan, reaching for his shirt, edging it up his back. He stripped it off, breathing heavily.

My gaze raked over his muscled chest, firelight turning his skin gold. He was striking. A force. Strength wrapped tightly around the most devoted heart.

Slowly, I peeled my shirt off, tossing it aside as I lay back. Watching him. Watching the way his gaze went liquid as he tracked the curve of my breasts, the dip of my stomach.

The longest look of my life .

His voice was barely leashed. “I’ve seen gold. Gemstones that men would kill for. But nothing— nothing —has ever stolen my breath like you.”

My lips curled. “Charmer.”

He shook his head, something raw flashing through his eyes. “Charmed.”

I was. Endlessly.

Gavin pressed his body against mine, our remaining clothes landing in a pile a little too close to the fire. We were going to burn down the outpost and end up sleeping in the rain after all, but I didn’t care.

He kissed me once, claiming my lips as his rough palm cupped my breast, thumb grazing over my hardened nipple. I hummed low in my throat as a jolt of heat rushed through me.

Then he explored me with his mouth, mapping every sensitive spot, lingering at every sharp inhale, branding me with the gentle scrape of his teeth. He pressed his hardness against me, and the heat between my thighs burned hotter.

The map led him south. His mouth traced a languid path down my stomach, his tongue swirling around my navel, making me moan.

“Please,” I begged, a shiver searing through me as he kissed the inside of my thigh. His lips swept lower with teasing torment.

“Is this what you want?” A slow lick over my heated skin. “What you need?”

I opened my mouth without a sound as he nipped even lower.

“Tell me, Mare. Who gives you everything?”

He waited, the wicked wretch, until I was trembling beneath him .

Until I answered.

“You, Gavin. Only you.”

His grin was a lethal thing. A slant of pure mischief and victory. Then, with his gaze locked on mine, burning like a green fire, he dipped his head and tasted me.

My back arched off the bedroll, but Gavin’s grip tightened, keeping me exactly where he wanted. Fingers digging into my thighs, he worked slow, devastating circles over my center.

There was no rush. He drew out every sensation, making me feel like my curse had been lifted and we had all the time in the world.

My fists clenched in the bedroll as a wave of pleasure crashed through me, tightening my core, making me see more stars than I could ever count.

“That’s my girl,” Gavin murmured, his voice wrecked with praise. “The one who clawed her way back from the sea.”

My heart clenched. I dragged in a breath. A deep, pure breath, savoring the weight of it, and the weight of his words.

“More, Gavin. Give me more.”

He let out a low, starving sound, sweeping his mouth one last time over the inside of my thigh, then slid up my body and found my lips. His hands sank through my hair, pulling me closer as his kiss deepened, turning essential. More than air.

Nothing else mattered. Not the castle looming in the distance. Not the maze. Not the clock ticking down, promising to end my life.

It all faded.

Gavin cupped my face in his palm and settled between my thighs. There was something in his eyes, something so fathomless, I knew I'd never reach the bottom. His mouth closed over mine like the sea in his eyes closed over my head, dragging me under. Hoping I never surface.

Bracing himself on his forearms, Gavin entered me slowly. The breath caught in my chest from the incredible pressure. The way we fit.

He dropped his head into the curve of my neck, his voice rough in my ear.

“You don’t know what you do to me. There is no end to how much I want you.”

Fathomless. An endless sea.

He kissed me again, our breath mingling as he moved within me. The pleasure inside me coiled tighter, an unstoppable tension.

He thrust deeper, and my hands glided down his back, finding the solid muscle of his hips. I let myself feel. Every stroke. Every claim of his mouth against mine. Everything that made us different, united against the forces that would tear us apart.

His control snapped. Breaths turned brutal as if my curse had become his, and he welcomed it.

My name slipped from his lips, again and again, the word his only tether. As if silence might snap it free. He held me tight, impossibly so, and I cried out as he took me with him, shuddering—breathless—into the place where nothing else existed but us.