Shadow, who was still holding his mate, leaned down and kissed her hard on the mouth. “I’ll be back for you soon,” he murmured. “Please stay in this tent and don’t make me destroy dynasties to find you.”
Mera fought a smile. “Only because you said please.”
Shadow kissed her again; this one went on longer and I left them to it. Standing between those two and the ice king that was Reece was not my favorite pastime. Moving into the bedroom I’d been assigned earlier, I headed straight for the bathing area. Not that I needed this sort of setup to clean myself, but I found great comfort in water. Many of the power layers of my land in Honor Meadows were surrounded by water, and if the opportunity to soak my woes away presented itself, I was always going to take it.
This quirk of mine was an oddity among the transcendents, but it was one that I’d claimed and accepted a long time ago.
The moment I felt Reece’s and Shadow’s energies leave the tent, I stripped away the “human attire” I’d donned earlier. Dropping it to the ground, since I wouldn’t be wearing it again, I stepped into the glassed-off tub. The sand weavers were masters in this world, turning the various colored land into glass and weapons and household goods. This tub was mostly crystal-colored, with streaks of gold swirling in intricate patterns. Crouching down, I ran my fingertips across the swirls, following them to find they all led to a central point that was so cleverly hidden you didn’t even know it existed until you were there.
As I marvelled at the desert art, I thought about how much I’d missed this world. Even after all of these years away, it still felt like a second home—I should never have stayed away for so long.
Shaking off the melancholy, I stood and hit a lever attached to some copper piping that extended high up the wall of the tent, ending in a spout designed to spray liquid down into the tub. From previous experience here, I knew this piping system would be planted deep into the ground, all the way down to where theliforinaran. As this “water” ascended, it would be heated by the land and sand itself since these deserts ran hot.
It took less than a minute before the warm, slightly cloudy water ran over me, and I let out a low groan at the sheer pleasure of this cleansing ritual. Tilting my head back, I stood in silence, my mind busy while the rest of me slowed to a pace I could once again handle. My blood, my energy, the magic in my veins... I calmed it piece by piece, until eventually, even my mind was quiet. Which lasted all of two minutes before Mera’s energy entered the room.
“I tell ya,” she said breathlessly, “if I was into women, you would not be safe right now.”
With a laugh, I opened my eyes to find her perched in the arched doorway, leaning against the frame, her face flushed and pupils dilated. Which had nothing to do with me and everything to do with Shadow and the state he’d just left her in.
“They’ve gone back to the meetings?” I asked, already knowing the answer but needing a conversation opener. It was too easy for me to sink into silence, and I had to stop doing that if I wanted my future to be different from my past.
“They have,” she confirmed, “but they’ll be back soon. Knowing Shadow as I do, it’s going to prey on his mind that someone is leaving outfits at our door and that when we open it, we could be attacked becauseobviously everyone is out to kill us.”
“You love his obsessive possessiveness,” I said with a chuckle.
Mera shuffled further into the room so she could take a seat on the small ledge along one side of the tent wall. “This doesn’t make you uncomfortable, right?” she said suddenly, as if it had only just occurred to her. “I forget that everyone isn’t as cool with nudity as I am.”
A true laugh burst from me, and I had to marvel at Mera’s ability to amuse me. “You are the most naked person I’ve ever met, friend.” She shrugged because she was proud of that fact. “And it doesn’t bother me at all,” I said truthfully. “I’m too old to care about flesh and skin on display. It’s just the vessel keeping our energy contained.”
“You’re always so covered, though,” she said, no doubt thinking about my usual attire.
“We wear armor for protection, not because we’re hiding our bodies. The last thing I’m worried about is someone catching sight of my breasts and having a moment over it.”
Mera waggled her eyebrows. “Lady, your tits are totally worth having a moment over. Speaking of, I think you should use them and have some angry sex with that bronzed god. You two need to get it out of your systems.”
My body tightened at those words, and the ferocity of that involuntary movement shocked me to the point I had to reach out and grip the side of the wall behind me to keep my legs steady. Memories crashed into me with the same force, and I found myself saying, “We’ve actually had sex before.”
Now it was Mera’s turn to almost fall off her chair. “What the hell, Angel,” she near shouted. “How could you not tell me that? Was it amazing? It was amazing, right? I imagine he fucks like Shadow, and in that regard, you shouldn’t have stopped atonce.”
With that reminder, painful memories pushed through the lustful ones. “It was the night before my world ended. First time for both of us, and it was… amazing.” That word didn’t even come close to the truth of it. I’d experienced the sort of pleasure I hadn’t known existed within my body and, for a brief moment, it had felt as if Reece and I were on the cusp of forming a true soul bond.
Until it had all been torn away.
Mera’s face fell, her hand pressed to her chest. “The night before, Angel? Oh, I’m so sorry. That’s so freaking sad.”
It was. “My life was mostly about duty, with Reece being the one part that didn’t fit the mold. Even our parents were allies due to their love of power and fighting, but we… we were true friends.”
“A true friend you were secretly in love with?” Mera guessed.
I nodded. “Oh yeah, I was completely gone over him, but I also had no intention of messing with our friendship. The sex happened after a particularly hard day of battle, when we were both injured and needed some patching up. You know how it is when adrenaline is high and clothes are low.”
Mera sighed. “I swear I’ve read this story in one of my paranormal romance books before, and it’s my favorite kind. Please tell me there was only one bed and you had to share because, damn…” She fanned her face. “That’s my kink.”
My lips twitched. “Therewasa bit of a bed shortage.”
She squealed before shutting it down in a flash, even as her eyes remained bright. “This is your second-chance romance, Angel. You have to give it another shot.”
Second-chance romance…
