May the void take him. “It would please me, too.”
The silence sat heavy for a long time. Then she smiled for the first time that night. It was a radiant thing that captured his focus immediately, and he took it in hungrily. The violent urge to destroy everyone who’d ever witnessed it or been the cause of taking it away coursed through his veins.
“I will visit tomorrow,” she said, “as long as there are no Kroids.”
“No Kroids,” he agreed. Because if any more came—or the Blood Vultures, or the entirety of Clan Rax themselves—he would simply destroy them all before he let them harm her. In fact, after what they’d done to her, he may just make it his life’s mission to wipe Kroids from existence entirely.
“Then I must get some sleep,” she said with a tired smile, “so I’m ready for battle with Exxo tomorrow.”
“I’ll stay. I’d like to watch you sleep.”
An uncertain expression came over her face. Something told him that this, too, was not proper. He made no move to leave but tensed in preparation for her dismissal.
“Is this some Xaal custom?” she asked.
“Vay,” he lied.
“It is a shame I cannot self-destruct,” Exxo said.
“I see,” she murmured, then pulled the covers up around her again. “Goodnight, Ved.”
“Goodnight, Isobel Nott,” he muttered as she closed her eyes and curled a hand beneath her chin.
He stayed long after she fell asleep, watching her chest rise and fall shallowly with slumber. Everything from the way her lips parted to the small furrow in her brow affected him.
Something warm curled in his chest, something unfamiliar and dangerous. Forbidden. He rubbed his knuckles hard over his sternum, willing the feeling to go away. Instead, as she made a soft sound and muttered nonsensical words in her sleep, it only grew fiercer.
“You should have killed her when I told you to,” Exxo said.
But even he lacked conviction.
They were bothnevskold.
Chapter 18
Isobel
Ved waited for her at the forest’s edge.
Since he’d come to her bedroom four nights ago, this had become their routine. No matter when she was able to get away, he was there waiting for her, as though he sensed her the moment she stepped outside. As though there was an invisible thread connecting them.
“You brought the same book?” Ved asked once they boarded his ship.
“Of course I did.”
Beyond handing off tools to him as he needed, the tasks she could help him with dwindled. Their time together was running out, and the knowledge of that weighed heavy on her.
Which was why, when he asked her to read to him while he worked, she couldn’t refuse. At first, she offered to read him some of the great adventure novels tucked away in their library, but he was adamant that it needed to be one of SV’s books.
Despite her arguments, that was exactly how she found herself reading one of the author’s older novels to him.
Nolan dismissed his captain with a wave of his hand. Charlotte had been through enough; she didn’t need Reginald’s overbearing presence on top of it. As soon as the door shut and they were alone, he wrapped his arms around her.
Charlotte’s body melted against his, a perfect fit. She sighed with relief. “Oh, Nolan, I couldn’t bear to be away from you.”
“I’m here now, my love. I vow to never leave you again, my sweet Charlotte. I want everything with you. I want to be your protector, your confidant, and your support,” Nolan professed before capturing her mouth in a passionate kiss. His hands wrapped around her waist to—
Isobel cut herself off with a surprised gasp. She’d gone through the night before and marked the passages in the book that held anything risqué, but she was so caught up in the story she’d overlooked her notations.
