“Feng has been nothing but suspicious since our arrival.”
“Then we’ll do what we must to avoid her.”
“That won’t work forever.”
“We could tie her up,” Jyn suggests. “Bind and gag her? Allow the villagers to find her a few days from now, when we’re already gone.”
I grimace, not knowing if she’s serious. I couldn’t bring myself to do that, even to Feng—she’s a friend, albeit one with horribly misguided intentions. “I doubt she’ll make her move while there are so many witnesses present. But she’s keen on slaying you herself.”
“But why? I’ve never wronged her.”
I take a deep breath. “She claims you killed her parents.”
Jyn stiffens. “I didwhat?”
“Ten years ago,” I explain. “She said her parents were hunting. They apparently crossed your path, and… well.”
Her eyes grow distant as she loses herself in thought. “Ten years, you say?”
“Do you remember something?”
She nods slowly. “Yes. Distinctly, in fact.”
“What happened?”
She frowns as she searches her mind for the exact details. “A pair of hunters stumbled across my home in the jungle. It’s why I moved out to the Wastelands after. To avoid any more run-ins with humans. There was a pack of fei attacking them. It tore them to bits. I tried to scare the beasts away, but they must have mistaken my own actions as hostile or even thought I was in league with the fei somehow. I didn’t harm anyone. I swear it.”
I hear the truth in her voice, nothing but honesty in her words. Jyn may be prickly at times, but she certainly doesn’t strike me as a senseless killer. Time and time again, she’s come to my rescue. And she is certainly no friend to the fei.
“We should tell her,” I reason. “Feng should know what really happened.”
“But is she levelheaded enough to listen?” Jyn sighs, her exhaustion heavy over our bond. “Mortal hearts are so unpredictable.”
I reach out and wrap Jyn in my arms. “For now, will you just… lie with me?”
She nods with the sweetest of smiles. “As you wish.”
A delightful warmth floods my body, a thrill jolting through my veins. In this life, I’ve known her only a couple of weeks, yet a love from past lifetimes surges forth.
It’s enthralling. Pure bliss.
I comb my fingers through her hair, my lips only a whisper away from hers. Her cheeks are flushed, her pupils blown wide within sparkling green. She clings to me as if I’m a lifeline in stormy seas.
“Sai,” she whispers, the expression on her face almost resembling agony.“Please.”
I lean in and kiss my Fated One like my life depends on it.
In some ways, I feel as though it does.
28
Ihave never known a cravinglike this before.
Every single one of my senses is attuned to Jyn.
They overwhelm me: the smell of her hair, the impossible softness of her ivory skin, the taste of her lips, the sound of her languid moans, the sight of my want reflected in her own glowing gaze.
I slowly peel away the layers of her robes, memorizing every dip and curve. As I undress her, I can’t help but wonder in how many of my past lives I have had the privilege of knowing this feeling. Being able to admire her for the first time, possibly the first of many—I’m convinced there is no better blessing.
