Your heart races, and not in a good way. “Are you okay? Is there anything I can get for you?”
“I’m fine,” he insists, lying back on your bed with his feet still on the floor. “I just need to sleep it off is all.”
“Says the one who was about to flee through my window.”
“Because it’s dangerous for me to stay here, human.”
“Dangerous for who?”
“Foryou,” he says like it’s obvious, letting out a low, frustrated growl.
“You don’t seem dangerous.” You walk around to his side, perching on the edge of the bed. “Dangerous how? Are you going to bite me again?”
He looks at you, eyes flashing. “Don’t tempt me, human.”
“Maybe I want to tempt you.”
He laughs, sitting up and pulling you into his arms.
“Fine. I won’t leave tonight. But I’m not staying.”
You flinch.
His words hit like a punch to the gut, and you stiffen in his arms, staring up into the deep, steel blue of his eyes.
“What do you mean, you’re not staying?” you choke out, trying—and failing—not to let the emotion show in your voice.
“Notforever, human.”
“Oh,” you whisper, turning away.
Maybe you got ahead of yourself.
Your feelings for him are deep, deeper than you’d like to admit, and you’d started to think maybe somehow he felt the same way.
But now…
“Human,” he growls, voice a low rasp at your ear. “I think you’re getting the wrong idea. I mean, I’m not gonna stayawayforever, got it? I’ll be back. So you just stay here and out of trouble while I sort things out, then I’ll be back.”
A spark of hope sizzles in your stomach. “You’re not leaving me?”
He stares into your eyes, holding your jaw with one hand. “No. No, my wild, crazy, beautiful, amazing human. I’m not leaving you. So don’t get any extra-crazy ideas or do anything stupid while I’m away, got it?”
You nod, throat dry, heart racing. Is he for real?
Maybe it’s the poison making him speak his mind, but something about how he’s talking feels so honest.
You lean forward against his hand that pins your jaw, pressing your lips to his.
“Deal,” you whisper. “I won’t look for you. But you better not be gone long.”
“Just give me a couple weeks,” he says. “Can you wait that long?”
“Weeks are a long time.” You frown, shaking your head. “If I say no, will you take me with you, wherever you’re going?”
“If it wasn’t dangerous, I would. IfIwasn’t dangerous. But you’ve gotta understand. I’m full of centuries of power, my sorceress.Centuries. It’s gonna keep coming back until I purge it all. I’m a storm god. I’m energy. I am the wind and thunder and lightning. A god of calamity.”
“I thought it was just wind.”
