Wind whirls around me, the sensation both welcome and unnerving. Welcome because I can finally feel something other than an icy sense of nothingness. And unnerving because it’s unworldly in nature. Angry, too.
“You deserve this fate, Persephone,” Demeter goes on. “It’s a lesson you need to learn. Alphas are monsters. They’ll take you against your will. Do unfathomable things to you. I tried to save you, sweetheart. I did. But you chose this. You chosehim.”
The wind heightens, a rush of power washing over me. It’s hot and unfamiliar. A kiss of lively electricity, one that sets my veins on fire.
A scream echoes in my mind, the agony razor-sharp as the heat threatens to burn me alive.
Only for a kiss of cold magic to calm the flames.
Demeter growls, the reverberation deep and intimidating. “What is this?” she demands.
But I can’t answer.
I have no mouth. No corporeal form. No identity.
I am simply a mixture of fiery intensity and ice.
Cold bands wrap around me, yanking me out of the void and into the maze.
Demeter’s roar follows close behind as flames erupt all around me in a blinding flash of brilliant light.
I lift my hands to shield my eyes, only vaguely aware that I’m me again. Human.Corporeal.
And then everything stills, the silence reminding me of the abyss.
A sob escapes me, the notion of being nothing again chilling me to my very core.
“Sera,” Maliki breathes, his voice and presence the most welcome experience of my existence.
I lower my hands to find him hovering over me, his dark brows angled downward in concern.
I don’t think; I react, and throw my arms around his neck, needing to feel him, to ensure he’s really here. That I’m safe. Not lost. Not alone.Not forgotten.
“Is this real?” I ask, desperate to be told I’m awake. I still exist.I’m here.
“Yeah, trouble, this is real,” he replies, his fingers threading through my hair as he hugs me against his bare chest.
He’s naked.
I’m naked.
Everything is warm.
Everything is tangible.
Everything is okay.
I press my face into his neck and breathe him in, indulging in his leather scent tinged with smoke. Though, the latter smells stronger now, like he’s wrapped me up in his smokelike tattoos.
“What happened, Sera?” he asks. “Why did you get so hot?”
My shoulders stiffen. “I felt hot to you?”
“Like you were burning up with a fever,” he replies, his fingers combing through my hair. “I had to cool you down with my shadows.”
My eyes widen. “The bands…” It was Maliki’s cool power that I felt wrap around me.
But that… that means it was all real.
