I looked at the glowing moss on the stone, feeling the sudden, staggering weight of the gap between us.
“Do you ever wish you were fated to a Veythar?” I asked softly. “Someone who understands that kind of time? Someone… safer?”
Talon’s hand stilled on my cheek. He pulled away slightly, his brows drawn together as his pale eyes searched mine. “No.”
I searched his eyes, the silence stretching between us until a scowl deepened the lines of his face.
“I do not want anyone else, Kaelia.”
“That is the bond speaking.”
“I do not need a bond to tell me how to feel,” he growled. “A bond is a guide, but I am drawn to the woman, Kaelia, not the mate.”
My lips parted, a sudden, blooming warmth spreading through my chest.
I reached up, my fingers tracing the stark black tattoos on his arm, before sliding to the side of his neck.
“Do you promise?”
“In this lifetime, and every other.”
I closed my eyes to trap the sudden sting of tears before they could fall.
“Are you scared of what is to come?”
His eyes locked on mine. “Only that I may lose you.”
Not death. Not the High Court. Me.
I used the leverage of my hand at his neck to pull him down. Our mouths met in a kiss that was tentative, almost reverent—a question asked in the dark. I gave the answer freely, my lips parting to invite him in.
The kiss deepened, slow at first, a careful claim that stole all coherent thought from my mind.
My fingers threaded into his damp hair, anchoring myself as the world seemed to dissolve into stardust and salt. His tongue slid against mine in a rhythm that was unhurried but claiming,sending tremors down my spine until I was nothing but heat and light.
He groaned against my lips and wrapped his arms around my waist, crushing me against him until every hard line of his body was etched into mine.
The light around us flared in response to the bond. The fish returned, weaving through the water in a shimmering dance, their glow reflecting off his skin.
His hands moved, sliding from my waist up the sides of my body, each pass of his palms setting fire to my skin. When his thumbs brushed beneath the soft swell of my breasts, the contact drew a sharp shiver from me.
When he finally broke away, my breath came in ragged gasps. Our foreheads leaned together, the only sound the thunder of the waterfall and the frantic beating of two hearts becoming one.
“Tomorrow, we must move,” he said.
My brows drew together, breath uneven. “We are not safe here?”
“The High Court has eyes in every shadow of Haelen,” he murmured, his hand rising to brush a wet strand of hair from my cheek. “This cave is no fortress, Kaelia. We are heading to Umbral. My kin will be overjoyed to meet you.”
Cold dread rolled through me, sharp enough to make me pull back.
“No,” I snapped, the anxiety rising in my throat. “I am human. I cannot live amongst the shadows.”
He did not let me retreat far. He stepped closer, his hands settling on my shoulders.
“You belong wherever I am,” he countered, his voice dropping to a low, vibratory growl. “You are the Veythar Master’s Solea. They will treat you with the reverence you deserve. Trust me, Kaelia. My lineage will not break what we have. They will protect it with their lives.”
He leaned down and dropped a feather-light kiss on my brow, a gesture so tender it felt at odds with the darkness of the world he was asking me to enter.