His arms came around me, pulling me back until my spine was pressed firmly against the hard, wet plane of his chest. One large, calloused hand swept my wet hair from my face, slow and gentle. His touch was so tender it made my heart ache.
“Look at me,” he murmured, his breath hot against my ear.
I turned my head slightly, caught in the gravity of his gaze.
My hands, which had been balled into fists, slowly unfurled. My fingers brushed against his forearms, tracing the ridges of muscle and the raised lines of his tattoos.
“We will never be safe,” I breathed, the truth tasting like ash. “The High Court will continue hunt us.”
“Let them come,” he growled, his lips grazing the curve of my shoulder. “I have waited centuries for a soul that hummed the same frequency as mine. Do you think I will let a few robed judges take you from me?”
He turned me in his arms until I was facing him. The water fell between us, a shimmering curtain, steam thickening the air until every breath felt heavier, warmer, like the room itself was closing in around us.
His gaze dropped to my lips, and my stomach tensed with a want so desperate, I was not sure I could deny it.
I leaned forward, pressing my forehead against his chest—not in surrender to the bond, but in surrender to the man who was currently the only thing keeping the world from swallowing me whole.
“I am afraid,” I whispered into his skin.
“I know,” he said, his voice dropping to a low vibration. “But you are mine. And I am yours. Fear is for the unprotected, Kaelia, and I will never let you stand alone.”
He lifted my chin, his thumb brushing over my lower lip until it parted. When he kissed me, it was slow, deep, and devastatingly possessive.
He pulled away and the water ceased with a soft click of his fingers, the cavern plunging into silence but for the dripping stone.
He wrapped me in a thick, fur-lined towel, his movements surprisingly careful, cocooning me in overwhelming warmth before lifting me into his arms as though I weighed nothing at all.
The scent of him clung to me as he carried me out, past the heap of discarded clothes, and lowered me onto the bed.
The mattress was firm, the fur quilt and satin sheets swallowing me whole. He handed me a plain black cotton shirt. “For you to sleep in. Unless you would prefer to sleep nude.”
Heat flooded my cheeks as I snatched the shirt and pulled it over my head. I buried myself in the blankets, shuffling into the center of the bed.
“Move over,” he commanded, dropping his own towel.
I was much too exhausted to offer even a whisper of an argument. I shifted, my limbs feeling like lead as I conceded the center of the expansive bed to him. He slid in beside me, his large frame instantly radiating an intoxicating heat that seemed to seep into my chilled skin.
I tried to remain at the very edge of the silk sheets, but his hand found my hip with a firm grip. He anchored me against his side, pulling me back until my bare skin pressed into the hot expanse of his chest. A soft, weary sound slipped from me—part surrender, part relief—as the tension finally began to bleed out of my muscles.
He let out a long, strained sigh, his hand trailing up from my hip to rest possessively on the small of my back.
“Sleep,” he said, his lips brushing over my forehead. “We will speak when the sun rises.”
As sleep finally dragged me under, I felt him shift, his breath stirring my damp hair. He pulled me closer, his chest molding to mine.
“You are the very other half of me, Kaelia,” he whispered into the dark. “You make me whole, and I will not let them touch you. I would rather lose my soul to the deepest depths of the abyss than let them have yours.”
24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“Hold it upward, not outward.”
The Spirit Spear pulsed with a restless energy that crawled up my arm, the black wood cold against my palm.
I tried to focus on the crystal tip, but my eyes kept snagging on the steady movement of Talon’s throat as he spoke.
Before I could adjust my grip, Talon stepped forward and pulled the spear cleanly from my hands.