The water was cold around us, but her body burned with magic to defy it. When we were hip deep, I gently lowered her feet into the lazy current.
Weighed down by my armor, I started to unbuckle my pauldrons.
“No.” Her voice was quiet but firm.
She cupped water in her palm and let it spill over the metal, washing away some of the grit still stuck to it. Her gaze never left mine. The cold shocked me through the layers, but her closeness heated me more than any spell.
“It’s my turn,” she murmured. “Please let me. I can’t see you properly like this.”
I could’ve argued that I hadn’t yet had the pleasure of undressing her, but I wisely held my tongue. Warm, deft fingers unlaced the leather strips holding both pauldrons in place. I whisked each piece aside, metal catching the moonlight as they landed on the riverbank, awaiting later cleaning.
Leather slid away and chainmail whispered in afterthought. Piece by piece, she stripped me down to my bloodstained undertunic and trousers. As she reached for the hem of my tunic, the sudden contact of her skin on my bare flesh sent a shiver through me. I hissed in a breath through clenched teeth, praying for patience.
I ducked, allowing her to pull it off over my head. It joined my armor on the riverbank.
One small hand traced the puffy pink scar on my side as she washed my skin.
“This is new,” she breathed, the sound barely disturbing the quiet murmur of the river.
I stifled a growl deep in my throat. “I was sloppy.”
“How is it already healed?”
Explaining just how much the curse had changed about me didn’t take long. The confession brought a sense of lightness, as if a dark secret had been set free.
Isca responded with the surprise I’d expected, but something else too. “So youdidbreak your ribs when you were sparring with Owain!”
A grimace tugged at the edges of my lips. “I apologize for lying to you. I didn’t want you to worry.”
Another quietly exasperated sigh escaped her, now as familiar to me as my own breath. It was all I needed to hear to know that she truly understood.
And then Isca was there, pressing first her bare skin against my armor of scars then her lips. She traced the largest with her fingers and mouth, as if willing even more healing into them through her tender touch. I’d been hard for some time, but with each touch I became more and more lost in the sensation of her soft body against mine.
Isca reached up with both hands, tugging lightly on my neck. “Kiss me.”
Another command I was only too happy to obey.
I was under her spell—in body, mind, and inner darkness. The curse dragged itself along the bars of its cage, hoping,beggingfor more contact.
We stood there, mouths tangled up in each other for some time, soap forgotten, until she abruptly pulled away.
“Emrys,” she said, voice filled with humor, “are you…purring?”
I hung my head, shutting my eyes with such force that a throb echoed behind my eyelids. “Yes. Sor—”
“No, no. I…like it. I know the curse will always be there, Emrys. I’ve already accepted it. Even with it, you’re still you.”
All these months I’d been worried about how the curse would affect me when I was around Isca. All this time I’d feared that I would hurt her, or that she’d see the dark truth of the monster I was.
I’d already slaughtered a regiment of men for her. Yet in that moment, I would’ve burned the entire world just to make her happy—though she’dnever want that. She’d just handed me the greatest gift I could possibly receive: her trust and acceptance.
And didn’t she deserve the same from me? I’d promised her while she slept that I’d become the man she needed me to be. I’d stumbled in rescuing her, but I hadn’t stopped trying. I never would.
Again and again, she’d proven how reasonable she was. So who was I to decide for her what she wanted?
And for the first time, I thought that what she said might actually be true. If she still saw Emrys when she looked at me, after everything I’d done, maybe I was still him underneath it all.
Before I could aim, the words flew from my mouth like an arrow, piercing the air. “I love you.”
