He kissed me before I could argue that we couldn’t avoid each other because I’d been sent to work with them, to heal their kingdom, together.
It wasn’t the careful type of kiss I’d experienced before, where both partners fumble, trying to do the right thing. There was no charm here, no practiced sweetness—nothing like Nisien. His other hand shot up, pulling me down with an unexpected, almost reckless desperation.
Emrys kissed like a man who’d forgotten what gentleness was but ached to remember. And, gods help me, I responded like I’d been waiting for it all along.
As the space between our chests became nothing more than the fabric on our bodies, my magic reached out to embrace his.
My body reacted to him so intensely that my spine was trembling. Every part of me leaned into that moment. Not just my lips and hands, but the wounded, weary torch of hope I still carried for him.
His starving hands roved, caressing me with nothing short of possession. A faint tremor ran through him from the rigid constraint he was placing upon himself. With every ragged breath he took against my lips, each inhalation was a plea, each exhalation a type of reverence that shook me to my core.
When we finally parted, I was breathless and aching in places that only he seemed to stir to life. His absence left a chilling void, like a sudden blast of cold air into a burning room.
“I’m sorry,” he said, trying to lean away. “I shouldn’t have—”
“I kissed you back,” I argued, giving him the space he sought.
I wasn’t supposed to want him like this. I was supposed to think of the good of the realm, the stability of Darreth, of getting back to my family as quickly as possible. But none of that mattered when he looked at me like I was the last candle in a world gone dark.
Emrys was everything I shouldn’t want butdidwith all my heart and every inch of my overheated skin.
His chest rose where I still leaned on him slightly, and for a second, I thought he might say something. But he only rolled away, stifling a groan of pain.
His expression shuttered when he looked up at the ceiling. His mental walls went up so fast it left me cold, like a door slamming shut on a storm just as I’d finished enduring its wrath. “The tunnel’s clearly unstable. I’ll try to clear it.”
He began to drag himself toward the debris. No glance back. No closing words. Just more distance.
I let him. The emotional agony he concealed beneath the armor of coldness he preferred to wear was more obvious to me than ever.
The silence between us stretched taut, brittle and brimming with things unspoken as Emrys shuffled unsteadily, inspecting the ruins. I folded my arms around myself, not for warmth, but to hold in everything I couldn’t bring myself to say.
I couldn’t tell him I already missed the heat of his body against mine and the rough steadiness of his hands. That for one breathless second, I wasn’t alone. That the world had suddenly felt less cruel as he held me.
I was hurt, but I had only a few spare minutes to consider it. Somewhere in the darkness, the rhythmic dripping of water became a countdown, and it only took moments to reach a crescendo.
Chapter 39
Isca
The first tremor felt as though the hillside we were under had just taken a breath. A low, grinding sound deep in the earth reverberated in the empty space we occupied. My stomach dropped, instincts screaming to flee. Then water started flowing in, just as I’d feared. It began to pool around our feet, rising steadily as the ceiling dripped faster.
Emrys’s tone demanded my immediate obedience. “Come!”
Now you want me close.
I wanted to screech at the injustice of it, but we had to get out of this collapsed tunnel soon. Still, after seeing how he’d dragged himself around during his inspection, I worried about his plans.
I approached only after staring him down for three stubborn breaths.
But then he mutely reached out and pulled me closer into him with one quick yank. The gesture didn’t feel romantic in the slightest—desperate, more than anything—even if I was enjoying being in his space once again.
“Wrap your arms around me and hold tight.”
Again, I obeyed. This marked the first time I’d embraced Emrys.
Before I could even take my next breath, the intimacy of the moment was completely forgotten. Because my views on magic underwent a complete and irreversible transformation.
The instant Emrys raised his hand, power erupted from him.
