Page 58

Marin

Water lapped against my skin. Had I returned to the sea? My prison? My eyes fluttered open into darkness. Anemones twinkled overhead. The water was so cold.

Fear unfurled inside my chest like wicked talons sinking deep. A scream clawed at my ribs, trapped in a cage of bone, a scream that would shatter them, like the ones that had splintered beneath the sleeping giant.

My arms thrashed. My body convulsed with terror as I came to. Iron-like bands locked around me, tight—so tight, I couldn’t move.

“You’re safe, Mare.”

That voice. It dulled the panic, stealing it like the thief who wielded it.

Skin against skin. Warmth. Gavin held me in the waist-deep pool, his breath soft against my ear.

It wasn’t anemones overhead, but stars. The darkness was the deepest night, filled with crickets, and the faint scent of jasmine.

I couldn’t catch my breath. The last traces of fear clung to me like wet sand, sticky and heavy, refusing to let go.

“Take it slow,” Gavin murmured, his fingers splayed across my back, pressing me closer. “We’re at the inn. The saltwater pools. The innkeeper said it would help.”

Salt. I craved it .

My head tipped against Gavin’s bare shoulder, and I tasted it on his skin. It lingered in the air. It was glorious, quenching the ache inside my body and dousing the heat.

“I feel better,” I said as the panic finally eased, leaving me strangely rejuvenated.

“Your fever is gone. It took a while.”

“How long?”

“Almost an hour. I didn’t think it was going to work.” A rough edge thickened his voice. “It wasn’t working. Your skin was so hot. I—”

A breath punched from his lungs, and he didn’t finish.

“It worked.” My fingers curled against the stubble covering his jaw. The muscles flexed as he swallowed hard. “Just like the steam. You did that. You always know what I need.”

He let out a bitter laugh. “I don’t know how much help I was, barging into the inn like I was about to tear the place apart. I scared one of the guests.”

I ran my thumb under his chin. “And Aetheryal thought they only had to fear the giant. You’re part of the legend now. They’ll write poems about you.”

Gavin brushed the wet hair away from my temple, a soft smirk blunting some of the tension in his features. “There once was a man from Ever, who lost his damn mind forever. Something like that?”

“They’ll sing it around campfires. Some poor bard will play a lute.”

He groaned. “We’re never coming back here.”

We had to leave first. A tiny shiver rushed through my limbs. There was still the vine. A lot could go wrong. I couldn’t take the steam or salt water pools there.

“Gavin…” I glanced through the moonlit water, ca tching the faint shimmer along my legs. “If something happens. Promise me you’ll find a way to return the shard to the sea. I need to know my friend will be free.”

Gavin shook his head, his hands cupping the sides of my face. “Don’t talk like that. We’re so close.”

“I’m hedging my bets. I learned that from a very talented thief.”

“Don’t flatter me and ask me to do something impossible at the same time,” he grumbled.

“But you’ll do it for me. Won’t you?”

He hesitated, tipping his head back to the stars. When he met my eyes again, they burned with fierce resolve. “Your friend will be free. And the witch will be dead. I promise you that.”

I believed him. And gods help anyone who stands in his way.

“Good.”

The cool water lapped against my skin as I rested my head against Gavin’s shoulder. All around us, the night air was warm and intoxicating, as if it were keeping our secrets.

I knew the morning would come fast, dawn breaking before I was ready. A part of me wanted this all to be over, for us to win, and find our happily ever after. Another part wanted to stay here in this crystal pool forever.

Because the only thing certain was this moment. And I wanted it to last. To sear it into my mind for the cold climb down. Just in case it was the last perfect one I’d ever have.

My fingers trailed along the smooth edge of his collarbone and down the ridges of his stomach. I felt the breath rise sharply in his chest, his fingers tightening around my waist.

“It’s your turn to tell me a story,” I murmured, unknotting the linen wrap at my shoulder and letting it sink into the pool. Leaning in, I glided my lips softly against his neck.

“You know all my stories.”

His thumb tilted my chin back, his gaze dipping to my mouth before something hungry flashed in his eyes.

“Actually, that’s not true. Have I ever told you the one about the masterful thief and his jewel?”

“No.”

A beat of silence passed before Gavin’s thumb ghosted over my cheek. His voice was husky, a quiet rasp in the darkness.

“There once was a thief who was ruggedly handsome, charming… truly magnificent.”

“A marvel without a shirt.”

He pressed a smirk against my temple. “I’m telling it, but yes.”

“Modest too.”

“The whole package.” Gavin’s fingers slipped lower, tracing the line of my neck. “But he was adrift. Wandering from kingdom to kingdom. Searching.”

He wrapped his hand around the compass resting against my heart.

“Until one day, he stumbled upon a precious jewel.”

I shivered, shifting my body closer. “And did the jewel like being stumbled upon?”

“Not in the slightest.” His mouth found my shoulder, warm and lingering. “It was elusive.” His lips skimmed down my arm. “Unamused by his charms.”

A soft laugh escaped me, my head tipping back. “Sounds like a fool.”

“No. It was just wary.”

Gavin’s hands slipped under my thighs, and I wrapped my legs around his waist as he carried me from the pool. Water dripped down our skin, the air now chilled. He ducked under a heavy canopy and lowered me to a cushioned lounge.

His gaze was riveted, sweeping over me in the faint moonlight. My pulse pounded, every inch of me tuned to the way he looked at me—like the jewel was flawless.

“What happened next?” I asked, barely recognizing my own voice.

Gavin’s gaze traveled over the curve of my breasts, then his hands followed, palms rough as they slid down my stomach.

“The thief tried to claim it once, but it slipped through his fingers and fell into the sea.”

A shadow flickered over his features, his gaze holding mine as his lips brushed over my navel.

“And it darkened his soul because he knew he’d never find another.

My heart stumbled. “Gavin—”

“But the tide, Marin… the tide brought it back.”

He lifted me, splaying his hand across my shoulders, drawing me close.

“Did he claim it then?” I whispered.

Gavin pressed a kiss just below my ear. “It was evasive, its facets sharp.” His lips followed the map of scars along my collarbone. “It cut him once or twice.”

“But he didn’t give up.”

Gavin’s fingers slid low, teasing the ache between my legs as his thumb brushed over the sensitive bundle of nerves. I moaned, dropping my forehead into the crook of his neck.

“Not once. Even when it wished he’d fall off a roof.”

Heat flushed up my throat as he traced slow, devastating circles, pleasure tightening in my core.

“That’s a very strange wish for a jewel. But tell me—” My head spun, eyes drifting closed. “Did he ever steal it?”

I trembled, crying out as he answered first with his fingers, teasing me until my nails dug into his back. Until release shattered through me. Then his words coasted over me, low-pitched and rough with emotion.

“He didn’t have to. It was given to him.”

Gavin cupped the sides of my face. He slanted his lips over mine, deepening the kiss, a low sound breaking in his throat. Moving over me, he pressed me back against the cushion, his breath ragged as he stripped away the wet linen clinging to his body.

His story wrapped around me, the words echoing like an ancient legend. But this one was ours.

Pressing my hand against his chest, I felt his heart racing against my palm.

I rolled my body until I was straddling him, his weight shifting beneath mine.

I slid my hips deliberately against his, savoring the way his fists clenched.

He gazed up at me with a look that filled my lungs with enough air to last a lifetime.

“Let me love you, Gavin.”

I wanted him to feel it—all the things he’d done for me. The way he’d lifted me when my soul was drowning. How never letting go made me believe it was possible to stay.

A growl rumbled in his throat. His hands settled on my waist as I rocked against him, chasing the ache that pooled low in my stomach.

“You give me everything,” I whispered. “Let me show you what it feels like to give you everything back.”

I sank onto him in one, slow, perfect motion. His head dropped against the lounge with a sharp inhale. He was wrecked, and I reveled in the way his body bucked beneath mine, the way his fingers dug into my skin.

My mouth grazed his neck. I brushed a kiss to the hollow of his throat, then dragged my lips down the ridge of his chest. I moved slower, deeper. His eyes squeezed shut, his breath a curse that slipped free.

“Do you know what it feels like to be loved by you?”

He shook his head, his breath stuttering.

I pressed my lips against his ear. “Like you made a vow nothing could touch me. Not monsters or fear. Not the dark… the cold. Like I’m free.” I pulled back just enough to look at him. “You did that. Your love is my greatest treasure.”

I rocked my hips again, and he groaned. He was at the edge, shaking. Then his hands gripped my waist, hard, like he couldn’t take another second.

In one swift motion, he flipped our bodies. My back hit the cushion with a soft bounce.

He kissed me roughly, hands tangled in my hair. No more restraint. No teasing story. Just his mouth hot against mine, his hands locked around my hips as he sank deep.

Meeting him with the same hunger, I moaned against his mouth as he moved. I tasted the salt of his skin and breathed in his dizzying scent. It would never be enough.

He drove into me like he’d lost himself. Like he was remembering the past few hours and was trying to banish the memory with the feel of my skin, the race of my heart, and the release spiraling tighter.

When I shattered, my name tore from his lips, his body following, his grip tight like he’d never let me go.

And he hadn’t. Not once.

He’d followed me here.

Now he was taking me home .

We let the night air wrap around us. It promised to keep our secret. Everything we’d gone through in the sky. Everything yet to come.

Tomorrow, we’d climb the vine and break my curse. Tonight, I just wanted to relive our story. Because it didn’t just have a happy ending—it was endless.