My fangs extend fully, piercing my bottom lip. Blood pools on my tongue, and my vision tunnels—everything goes red at the edges.
The need to bite her crashes through me.
The bond cries out, a sharp wail in my chest. I tear through the banister. Verglas erupts from me, drowning the room in stalactites made of rime.
The vines cease their movement. The icicle stills inside her.
“Andrik—what—” She twists against the railing, trying to move. “No, don’t you dare?—”
I pull the ice free, watching it drip and melt in my palm. Her entire body trembles with denied release.
“Thral’vesin, Saelûn,” I murmur, releasing the vines from her wrists and thighs. (Patience, soulmate.)
She spins on me the second she’s free, eyes blazing. “Are youkiddingme right now?”
I scoop her up before she can bolt—one arm under her knees, the other around her back.
Her skin is so thrahking warm against my chest, I groan. “Gods, you’re so hot. Do you know what that does to me? Your heat against my cold. It drives me thrahking insane, Lumi.”
“Put me down, Andrik. I swear to God?—”
“You’ll what?” I start down the stairs, taking them slowly.
“I’ll—I won’t touch you ever again. Ever.”
I can’t help the dark laugh that escapes me. “You were just begging me not to stop.”
“That was before you—” She smacks my chest. “You can‘t just—this is messed up, and you know it.”
Another smack.
“Put. Me. Down.”
I pause mid-step, looking down at her flushed, furious, little face. “Kai’luvar narh velorin,”I say softly. (Your pleasure is safe with me.)
“Oh, save your cryptic winter beast bullshit right now?—”
A vine rises from the handrail, curving toward her mouth.
Her eyes widen. “Don’t you dare?—”
It firmly wraps across her lips enough to muffle herthrae’vireth. (Sharp tongue.)
She makes an outraged sound against it, glaring at me.
“Thal’kisha,”I praise, voice dropping. “Much better.”
I carry her into the living room. The fire crackles low, casting shadows across the walls.
The second I set her down, new vines rise from the floorboards—wrapping around her wrists, pulling them behind her back. Another curls around her waist, holding her in place.
The one across her mouth stays over her lips. Her eyes follow me as I move, tracking me as I move around the room.
“I’m going to make this perfect for you,” I murmur, walking toward the hallway.“Velorin kai’thra ves’morin, thaelirae” (Every detail matters when it comes to you, craved one.)
A vine slithers up her inner thigh. Her breath hitches behind the gag.
I pull the floor-length mirror from the wall—frost already creeping against its gilded frame. I carry it back and position it in front of the fireplace, angling it just right.
