The man in question stopped pacing mid-step, frozen as his eyes landed on them. Eira was trapped by his stare. She was made weak by the relief that flooded through her at the mere sight of him. As if just from seeing him again, the world was somehow right.
“I think we should give them some space.” Noelle shared a grin with Alyss and they both retreated to their rooms before Eira could say anything else.
She was laid bare by his eyes alone, his willing captive. Eira drank him in as she submerged herself in the warm,safefeelings he flooded her with. In a breath, she would learn his reaction to the events of the day. In a second, they would have to confront the source of his worried look, of her frantic escape…of everything.
But for this one second, he looked at her as if the world began and ended between her right and left feet. He looked at her like she was a goddess among men. She wasn’t strong enough to break that stare.
He was.
“Cullen…” she started, weakly, as he began to cross the room to her.
Wordlessly, he swept her into his arms, crushing her against him. Her hands landed on the expansive plane of muscles that made up his back as her senses were overwhelmed. The smell of citrus soap, of windswept laundry, of sun-drenched duvets and lazy days that she wanted to slip between her fingers like his hands in her hair. Cullen’s fingertips grazed her cheeks, exploring tentatively, as if confirming that she was real.
“Eira.” He breathed her name like pain, like ecstasy. “Thank the Mother. I was so frightened.” His breath was hot on her cheeks. Or perhaps that was just the flush of guilt for worrying him. “You ran. Something was wrong. I knew it and I wanted to help you…but I couldn’t follow. I should have. But my father, he—” Cullen’s face twisted with agony.
“He what?”
Cullen ignored the question. “Then I heard of an incident at the Archives and you were missing again.” He made a strangled, choking noise and the muscles of his throat constricted as he swallowed hard. “I thought they had you again. I thought I might have lost you for good.”
“I’m here.” Her hands covered his and Eira’s eyes fluttered closed. She breathed so deeply her head spun. “I’m sorry for worrying you.”
“Don’t apologize.” He sounded like Noelle. “I’m just glad you’re all right.”
Eira nodded and looked up at him. His expression, so vulnerable, so pure. So everything Ferro was not. Cullen was truly a balm to the scarred and tattered remains of her heart.
“What happened?”
“I…” Instinct silenced her. But the darkness of the pit lingered in the shadows of the room, reminding her how fleeting each moment was. Her time with Alyss and Noelle—their support—emboldened her. “I need to tell you something, but I’m afraid.”
“Of what?”
“That you’ll see me differently, or will want nothing to do with me.”
“Trust me when I say, that will never be the case,” he reassured her, stroking her cheeks lightly with his thumbs. “You are everything to me, Eira.Everything.”
Trust him, she urged herself as she drew a shaky breath. “It’s about Ferro…”
Cullen’s expression darkened and doubt passed through her at the sight. Was he about to back away at the mere mention of Ferro’s name? How much did he know of her previous infatuations with the man?
“What did he do to you?” Cullen growled savagely. The tone might have frightened her if it was not directed at those who would harm her.
“There are some things I didn’t tell you about my time with the Pillars… Things I did…” For the second time in one very long day, Eira shared the gambles she had made with Ferro. She shared every blow he had made against her body, and her mind. She laid out every insecure, ugly, vulnerable part of her at Cullen’s feet and, when she was done, awaited his judgment.
As she spoke, his expression only grew more brutal. The muscles of his cheeks had turned to stone from clenching his jaw. Even though his expression remained grim, his eyes burned with a rage she hadn’t thought Cullen could possess.
When she finished, he continued to stare wordlessly, looking through her as though he were glowering at the version of Ferro who existed only in her memories. Eira shifted, throat sore and uncomfortable at his nonverbal probing. Was all of this anger truly a result of Ferro alone? Had someone ever been this protective, this enraged on her behalf?
“Say something,” she demanded softly as the silence dragged on.
“I am a failure.”
“You are not.”
“I have failed in the one thing I want to succeed in—protecting you.”
Eira rasped a laugh under her breath. “The feeling is mutual… I don’t know what Ferro would do if he found out about us.”
“All the more reason to keep things secret.” He released her and wandered over to the hearth, staring at the smoldering embers of the fire. Eira watched him, remembering how he had stopped himself short when it came to Yemir earlier.
