They accepted her. They accepted her as one of their own. As their soulbound. As someone they would fight to the death to keep alive. As a friend and a soldier and an equal. She felt it in every glowing bond tethered to her mind, and she couldn’t help the tears that made their way down her face as a golden and a violet wyvern swam ahead of the others.
We’ve come to take you home, Elessia.Auphore halted a few feet behind Ydren, who swam all the way to shore, impatiently waving her head for them to get on her back.We’ve come to take you to where you belong.
Chapter 38
Kerym
He watched the eagle fly over the ship, its wings wide as it headed to the fleet they had almost reached, and Kerym knew.
“I’m sorry, brother,” Kerym mumbled under his breath as his eyes shifted toward the witch sisters standing to his side, realizing Pellie had approached him for the first time since they’d boarded this ship.
“We’re almost there.” Setting her hands on the railing beside him, she looked out over the sea.
“Are you worried? Or… scared?” she asked softly as Kerym let out a long breath, trying not to pull her to him and kiss some damned sense into her.
“I’m never scared.” Kerym grinned at her, noting she did not believe him then either.
Stubborn, beautiful, thought-consuming witch.
He wasn’t scared. He might not have his gift anymore, but the other one—the earthly gift flickering under his skin—had awoken something in him. A confirmation that he truly didn’t care where he’d come from, that he did not seek to figure anything out, that the only thing that mattered wasnow.
Pellie mattered. His friends mattered. This war mattered. Kerym’s heritage? Not so much.
Besides… he would hopefully have a day or two to train his new skills, and having firsthand insight into how the enemy’s magic worked? Priceless.
“I am worried, though,” Kerym offered when silence stretched on, his lips curling up again as Pellie turned to him, her green eyes falling right into his as if they’d never left.
Gods, she was so beautiful. He couldn’t help looking her up and down, and the pink on her cheeks nearly severed all self-control he had left.
“What are you most worried about?” Pellie seemed to fight the wish to step into his arms, her hands locking behind her back, and Kerym choked down a disappointed groan when she appeared to win the war she’d waged with herself.
“That I am losing my charm.” Kerym tilted his head, his eyes moving to her feet, watching how she bounced back and forth from her heels to her toes. “That would be such a tragedy.”
A shocked giggle fell from Pellie’s lips. “You’ve lost your gift… we’re about to go into war… and you’re worried about your charm?”
“Yes.” Kerym didn’t have to fake the frown he shot her. “I have asked you to marry me. I have told you I’d go anywhere with you. I have beeninsideyou, and don’t pretend you didn’t love it because we were both there. Still, you do not believe me when I say I do not care about anything other than you.”
“Kerym…” Pellie warned, her hands landing on his chest as he stepped into her space. But she didn’t back away as she continued. “I… I don’t know what will happen when we go home. After what the other witch said, it might not be anything like what we remember it, and I… I can’t ask this of you. To leave all your friends? To leave the world you grew up in? Or the one you didn’t, but that you come from? It’s too much to ask.”
So. Fucking. Stubborn.
“Do you know what’s too much to ask?” Kerym said, his voice going gravelly as he bent down to close the distance between them. “Too much to ask is being this close to you and not getting to kiss these lips.”
His mouth nearly brushed hers, and he could have died for the little gasp she sucked in.
He moved his fingers to trace a featherlight path over her collarbone, over her slightly exposed shoulder, and finally down her side. “Too much to ask is seeing this body and not getting to worship it.”
Kerym moved his lips to her ear. “Too much to ask is smelling you right now and knowing that you’re getting wet for me, but not being able to satisfy you.”
Pellie reached for him as he took a step back, but Kerym shook his head. “No, beautiful. I fell for your goodbye last time. You do not have to marry me. You do not even have to love me. But until you believe me when I say where you go, I go, and that I’ll never regret that decision for as long as I shall live… I am keeping all this”—he playfully swept his hands over his body—“to myself.”
With a laugh, Pellie stepped toward him.
But a voice he knew so well but hadn’t heard sound so…
Was the voice happy? Yes, it was Raine’shappyfucking quip that interrupted them.
“Don’t be fooled, witch. Kerym talks a big game, but he’s as mushy as they come.”
