Thunder began to pour from his irises. I could not tell whether it was anger or something else. He walked me backward, step by step, until my back struck the wall. I was not sure I would survive him this time, his storm, his fury, but I wanted to find out.
“I would never hate anything of what happened between us,” he said at last, his voice so dark it could have turned me to ash.
“Then stop pretending you do.” Defiance rose in me like fire. “I’m not the one who is running. You are. From yourself. From your power and everything you think you did. And that is exactly why the storm is always so furious.”
He stroked my face with a gentleness that did not match his eyes, then slid his fingers through my hair and tugged, hard, opening my neck for him. “Since when are you so wise, Magister?” He kissed my neck, then sank his teeth into me.
I yelped. He pressed a hand to my mouth to hush me, pouring his furious gaze into mine.
“You shall stay here, safe and sound, because if something happens to you, my love, I will turn this entire fucking kingdom to ash.”
My love.
Was he aware he had said that?
His hand slipped from my mouth and seized my neck. Our lips crashed together in a furious, hungry kiss.
When we tore apart and I caught my breath, I felt it. The tip of a blade right between my ribs. His dagger, pointed at me.
“They could push a blade deep within your skin.”
I shivered.
He drew the dagger back and sheathed it, then caught my throat with both hands. He pushed hard. Air fled my lungs.
“They could strangle you until you coughblood.”
He held me there, my throat contracting in desperation, until the black began to close in at the edges of my sight.
Then he let me go and used his magic to pin me to the wall. Lightning danced along his arm until it spread to his fingertips.
I wasn’t fast enough to release my power.
The bolt struck my skin, hitting the scar on my shoulder as though it were a conduit.
It hurt. Incredibly so.
I fell to my knees, clutching my shoulder, tears threatening to spill.
“Or I could accidentally unleash my storm on you,” Kael said at last, staring down at me.
Then he kneeled in front of me and gathered me into his arms as I tried and failed to dry my tears. My head found the crook of his chest and he held me tight. His scent—leather and cedars—wrapped around me like a warm blanket, and for a moment everything felt right again.
“I don’t know how to love you without breaking you, Evie,” he whispered against my temple like a confession, his hand sliding through my hair. “So you’d better stay here.”
Then we both heard it. A loud boom. Like a boulder crashing into stone. The ground shook above us. Screams and shouts echoed somewhere far away.
Kael rose to his feet. “That is my cue. The siege has begun.” He paused as he looked at me. He seemed to hesitate, and I caught a flicker of deep sadness in his eyes. “Stay away from me, Evie. As you said yourself, the storm is always so furious.”
He dressed and left. Just like that. He took the coiled stairs leading up, and I was alone in the armory, the lightning scar on my shoulder burning beneath my clothes.
Tears spilled freely. Was that it? Were we done?
Another boom shook the ground and walls.
Had us making love under his storm not proven to him that this was possible?
Thatwewere possible?
