We decided to climb higher—to get closer. The sensation I had the day before returned.
“We’re being watched,” I hissed.
Auriel nodded. “Stay close to me.” He reached for the hilt of his sword, his green eyes blazing with determination.
We climbed higher, coming to a small rock landing, and again Auriel touched the mountainside. He gasped, almost as if in pain, and his tan skin paled, the green light of his eyes going out.
“Auriel?”
His chest heaved, and then suddenly he looked like himself again. “Sorry, I’m all right.”
“Are you sure?” I asked.
But then he stepped back, and stumbled. He’d never stumbled, not on his own. Not like this.
A pit formed in my stomach and the hair on the back of my neck lifted, and a shiver ran down my spine. Something was wrong.
“I just felt—I can’t explain it.”
I took his hand in mine. My heart was beating faster and faster.
“Was it the void? Did you sense Rhyan? The shard?” My heart hadn’t warmed, hadn’t heated the way it did for the others once my magic was revealed. But … I couldn’t shake the feeling, or the fear running through me. We weren’t alone. “Auriel, I?—”
A growl sounded behind. And then another one came from above. And an akadim walked out onto a short cliff near where we stood.
We didn’t have time to react, to grab our swords. The akadim leapt, flying up into the air and then soaring as he fell. He tackled Auriel, rolling him down the hill.
I screamed and turned around, only to come face-to-face with another. The sun shone behind him, the light glaring and leaving me momentarily blind to everything but his silhouette. I blinked, stumbling back. He moved, blocking the sun, and my vision cleared.
“Hello, lover,” Rhyan growled, his voice low.
I reached for my sword. For the red shard. But Rhyan was faster. He wrapped his hand around my neck, and squeezed, and squeezed, my feet lifting off the ground.
Auriel yelled my name, the sound faint and fuzzy. And then my vision blurred, my breath coming short. I was aware of something clattering to the ground, something falling. Metal. Crystal. Light.
Rhyan’s lips, now large and fanged, turned up into a cruel, monstrous smile. My eyes closed, and then I knew nothing.
Chapter
Thirty-One
LYRIANA
I awoke to the sound of Rhyan growling low in my ear. My back was pressed against him, his arm wrapped around me, keeping me warm. His hand was splayed across my stomach as it was most nights, one finger moving absent-mindedly back and forth, back and forth, soothing my skin. It was a familiar sleeping position for us. Except for the fact that I wasn’t sleeping. And apparently, neither was he.
Rhyan was up. And from the way he was poking me from behind, it was clear thatallof him was.
His breath deepened before I felt the blankets shift beneath us as Rhyan pushed his erection against my ass.
I grinded back. “You’re awake,” I said, my voice hushed and heavy with sleep.
“Your fault,” he teased, his fingers now moving in slow lazy circles across my skin, just barely brushing the underside of my breasts.
Instinctively I arched against him, trying to bring his hand higher. To feel him cup me there. I wanted to feel his hand squeezing me, his thumb brushing against my nipple. But he kept his hand in place, his fingers purposely taunting me more.
“My fault?” I asked.
“All your fault, partner.” His voice was low, and scratchy. I arched again, and this time, his hand moved exactly where I wanted him.
