He exhales slowly before he presses his lips to my neck, trailing up to my cheeks, forehead, then back to my lips. Soft kisses. “In this demon world full of lies and illusions, a death bond is the one unbreakable promise.”
“What happens if you don’t do what you swore to do?”
“I die, too,” he says, a simple statement that triggers the rise of dread inside me, but I allow the warm water and Roman’s hands to wash away my fear. I meet his eyes, my body pressing to his. “Can you tell me about your promise?”
He gives me a shake of his head. “I don’t want to keep it from you, but the terms can’t be spoken aloud to anyone other than the one I made the bond with. The terms can only be carried out.”
I take a deep breath, accepting his answer and falling back into the warmth of his body and his power.
When we make it back to bed, and he wraps his arms around me, my heart squeezes. For a brief time, secluded here in the jungle with Roman, I’ve found true peace.
If only I could live in this moment forever, pushing back the darkness that awaits me.
I fall into a dreamless sleep, so deep that the voice calling me awake is a soft echo in my mind, a gentle tug. Until it isn’t, quickly becoming a stern command.
“Nova, wake up!”
CHAPTERTWENTY-NINE
Ijolt upright, disturbing Roman, whose arms were curled around me.
His eyes fly open as I push upward. “Nova, what is it?”
I shake my head, listening intently. “Something’s wrong. But I don’t know…”
“Good. You’re awake.”
My left palm sparks and Reaper’s bonding mark gleams in the early morning sunlight. “Reaper?”
Her growled speech inside my mind is both a welcome intrusion and a cause for concern.“Come quickly, Nova. Follow your wolves. My pups will lead you to me.”
Her voice cuts off and all I can manage is, “I have to go.”
Roman doesn’t ask questions, quickly striking a rune to give me clothing—jeans, a black tank, and boots—while he also dresses, choosing jeans and a simple black T-shirt. “I’m coming with you.”
I pause in the act of hurrying to the bathroom. “You said that you and Reaper don’t breach each other’s territory. I’m not sure where she wants to meet me. Will you take her presence as a threat?”
“She deserves to meet her pups,” Roman says. “I won’t get in the way.”
Whatever Reaper needs to tell me or show me, Roman will need to know about it too. With that in mind, I give him a nod.
Moments later, he wraps his wings around me and takes me back to the cabin. Most mornings, I find my wolves basking with Ingrid in front of the fire.
This morning, they’re congregated near the door, the little bat clinging to Temple’s back, their heads turned expectantly toward me. My wolves’ energy is sharp and biting, all four of them anxious and tense, their yips urging me to hurry.
Ace is growling by the time I reach them, his snarls so abrupt that I suspect he would have broken a window to get out if I hadn’t appeared. Quickly scooping up Ingrid, I place her on the table with a bowl of berries to eat. She’ll be safe here and I can’t risk her being hurt if she comes with us.
As soon as I open the door, Ace lets out a howl and all four of my wolves race off together. I sprint after them, conscious of Roman following, although he remains a small distance behind.
We leave the area directly around Roman’s home, the familiar territory that is like home to me, and race along a narrow track through the dense greenery. Multiple times, I have to leap across a dense patch of vines or slide beneath low-lying branches, but with my wolves leading the way, it’s not too difficult to anticipate the obstacles ahead of me.
The sound of softly bubbling water reaches me seconds before we burst through a section of densely packed trees and stop at the edge of a low-lying creek. The bank is wide on either side of the stream and covered in ruby-red sand that slopes gently toward the water, a bright contrast with the emerald environment.
My wolves stop ahead of me, right at the edge of the water, their onyx fur standing out starkly against the sand. The surface is soft under my boots as I step closer, remaining within the shadows cast by the spreading branches that stretch across the waterway. Roman barely steps beyond the treeline behind us, only the tips of his boots extending onto the sand.
My wolves ignore the clear running water at their feet, their focus firmly fixed on the other side.
My breathing calms as we wait, but not without effort.
