I wasn’t sure if I wanted to escape… or let him consume me.
Hours passed. My hands, curled into tight fists in my lap for so long I could no longer feel my fingers, ached with the need to touch him. It was a compulsion. We’d stopped once to rest the horse, then pressed on. Since Devin didn’t want to talk about his dark magic or the shadows in his soul, we rode in silence. I wish he’d told me stories about life at The Spire, or his childhood. How to do magic. Anything.
Instead, my mind wandered to more painful topics, things I’d happily left buried years ago as I never expected to have answers.
I didn’t know my parents. Didn’t have a single memory of them, no letters, no heirlooms. Just a blanket with stitched stars, left with me on the orphanage steps like some tragic afterthought.
I’d always wondered who they were. Why they’d left. If they’d wanted me or if I’d been a cosmic accident, or worse. Had my mother been raped, with me the result? Did looking at me cause her pain? Maybe I’d been stolen from adoring parents and sold into servitude at the orphanage, my entire backstory a fiction told to keep me obedient. Every possible scenario raced through my thoughts over the years.
Now… I had new questions. Terrifying ones.
Were my parents dead because they’d been Starborn? Hunted, by assassins? Slaughtered because of the blood they carried? WasImeant to die, too? Had my parents given me away to protect me? Were they still out there somewhere, hiding?
“I don’t want to belong to anyone,” I whispered. “Not to you. Not to Jarrik. Not to anyone.”
“I don’t want to own you,” he said softly. “I want to survive. I want to protect the world I swore to guard. But more than that…” His voice dipped lower, rougher. “I wantyou.Not because of your power. Because something inside me—something I thought was long dead—knows you. Craves you. Would die for you. We were meant to be together. Bonded. I know you feel it, too.”
A shiver ran down my spine. I couldn’t answer. I didn’t trust my voice. I didn’t believe him. No one had ever wanted me, cared about me. This was about my magic, my heritage. Not me. Didn’t matter. My mind rejected the lie, but my body was already betraying me, my heart thudding too fast, my breath too shallow. And I didn’t move.
I didn’t want to admit how much I wanted to lean back. To rest my head against his shoulder. To feel that arm tighten around me and pretend—for just one day—that I wasn’t abandoned, broken, cursed or hunted.
Justwanted.
7
~Devin Grimm, Seaside Inn ~
Steam-warmed skin,jasmine oil, crushed rose petals and salt. The scent was killing me. It drifted through the crack beneath the rented room’s door like smoke from an old memory. Her magic pulsed beneath it, golden and sweet and growing stronger by the minute, wrapping around my senses—and my cock—with slow, deliberate seduction.
I’d bought the flowers myself when we reached the port city. Chosen them from the market with careful hands, knowing she deserved something soft after everything she’d been through—and the trials coming. Two days ago, I’d been prepared to face the fae sorceress,Lady Myrienna, even beg for my life. But I hadn’t been prepared for this. Forher.
Cleo was a wildfire barely contained in a mortal body, and her awakening grew stronger with every moment that passed. Her presence beat through the ether like a beacon, bright enough to draw every hungering creature for miles. We were barely holding it together during the journey. She’d set two treesablaze without meaning to—just because I said something that upset her.
I didn’t blame her. I’d had years of study to perfect my skills. Had learned hundreds of spells. She was like an open flame in a windstorm. Raw. Untamed. Out of control. I couldn’t risk the world getting too close to that power. Not yet. Maybe not ever.
And Void help me, I couldn’t leave her alone. Not when she might set theinnon fire.
I leaned my back against the doorframe, arms crossed, trying to keep my breathing steady as I stood guard. The smell of the stew we’d eaten for dinner drifted up the stairs, mixed with the bright, citrus scent of the innkeeper’s soap used in my own bath. The hallway was silent save for the occasional footstep on the floor below, the flicker of torchlight catching motes of dust in the air… and the steady, unbearable sound of water lapping in the bath on the other side of that door.
Every now and then, I caught her voice—a hum. A sigh. The splash of water.
And still, I waited. Cock hard. Like a man cursed. Because going in there too soon would be a mistake. One I might not come back from.
I’d chosen the flowing nightgown now folded on the bed, paid the seamstress in pure silver. Soft linen, pale as moonlight, laced with silver thread and delicate enough to slide over her curves like a lover’s hands. I imagined her wearing it. Imagined removing it from her as I kissed every exposed bit of soft skin.
I closed my eyes and breathed deep.
Focus.She was fire. She was magic. She wasmineto protect, not possess.
When I was sure I was about to go mad—softly, with barely more than a breath—her voice came through the door. “You can come in now.”
I froze. Just for a heartbeat, long enough to make sure I was in control. Then I opened the door.
She stood near the bed, wrapped in the nightgown I’d chosen, hair still damp and clinging to her shoulders. Her feet were bare. The glow of the hearth fire painted her skin in gold. She looked like something from a dream. Untouchable. Divine. And yet sorealit made my chest ache.
She didn’t meet my eyes right away. “Is it really necessary? You staying in here with me?”
I shut the door behind me. Locked it. “Yes,” I said simply. “It is.” Not only could one flare of her magic burn the entire inn to the ground, but as her power grew, she would be hunted.
