“Do not look at her,” Talon growled over my shoulder. “Or the cell will look like a paradise compared to what I will set upon you.”
Without dropping his eyes from above me, he grumbled. “Leave us, little flame.”
I sighed and stepped around him, mumbling an apology to three of them as I stumbled out of the room and into the hallway.
The spirits sang and swirled around me, as if rejoicing in my exit. I waved them away from my face and ran through the corridors until I reached our chamber.
33
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
The world swam into focus, not with the gentle fade of dawn, but with a disorienting kaleidoscope of color and blurred scenery.
One moment there was nothing. The next, cold air filled my lungs, strong with the mineral scent of wet stone and iron.
I blinked slowly, forcing my vision to steady as obsidian walls rose around me. Their polished surfaces caught the cavern’s spectral glow, reflecting fractured, ghostly images of myself back at me.
Talon’s cave.
My chest tightened at the realization, hope and dread colliding so sharply, it had my hands clenching by my sides. Damp moss clung to my bare feet as I stood, the lush texture under my soles tickling me.
I walked forward, guided by the sound of the river, until I reached the bank.
Talon stood waist-deep in the water, strands of ink-black hair plastered against the planes of his face. He moved through the current with a quiet power that seemed to bend the very water toward his will.
When he lifted his head, droplets slid from his skin and vanished into the glow below, leaving trails of light in their wake.
I moved closer and lowered myself onto the stone at the river’s edge. The surface retained a faint warmth from some internal heat of the mountain, but it did nothing to stop the shiver that passed through me when my toes brushed the frigid water.
When Talon’s gaze lifted to mine, no surprise lingered there.
“Why did you invite me here, Talon?”
“You must know why, little flame.” His head tilted. “And, it was not very hard. You went to sleep with me heavy on your mind.”
I pursed my lips and fixed my eyes on the rocky bank behind him. “Are you in bed with me right now?”
Talon dipped his hands into the water thoughtlessly, his eyes darkening as he remained silent.
I bit down on my bottom lip in an attempt to stop it from trembling and blinked furiously to prevent any tears from falling.
He waded forward, leaving little glimmers of light in the disrupted stillness. When he was close enough that I could feel the warmth of his bare chest grazing my knees, his hands perched on the bank, on either side of my legs.
“I needed space,” he said softly. “I am preparing for an ambush at any moment.”
“I understand,” I nodded, my eyes still locked on a stone beyond his head. “But, you are also upset with me.”
Without warning, he bent forward and pressed his mouth to my knee briefly, before his lips traced upward along my thigh.Heat gathered low in my body at the feel of his damp lips trailing cool water on my skin.
“I am hurt, Kaelia.”
Hot grief flooded me, stinging the back of my throat.
He lifted his head, his hands slowly working the way under the hem of my nightgown “Why must you go against me?”
My fingers tangled in his wet hair, desperate for something that would ground me to him. He only stared until I managed to croak out the truth. “I only wanted to do what was right.”
“Right for whom?” His hands tightened on my thighs, not enough to bruise, but enough to remind me I could not pull away without his permission. “That decision belonged to both of us. You have put my kin at risk. You have placed your family in danger. You may have forced a conflict neither side was prepared for.”