Vexxion,she croaked in my mind. Her eyes glistened with the tears I’d forced from her, and it was all I could do not to sink down into the wallowing agony I’d made myself face when I saw what I was doing to her.
Fury. My fury.“Will you do one thing for me?”
“Yes.”
“Walk through my mind.”
54
TEMPEST
“That’s a horrible thing to do to someone you love,” I said. “Why do you want me to do it?”
“I want you to see and know everything. I’m vulnerable and wide open to you, but for trust to exist between us, I need you to sort through my thoughts and memories. Then you’ll see all I am and all I’ll ever be.”
“You expected me to kill him, knowing you’d die as well. It was wrong to keep that from me.”
“I knew you wouldn’t be able to do it if you knew,” he said.
“Did it ever occur to you that killing you would destroy me? How can you think I’d be able to go on without you?” My eyes bled from my heart, and each word I barked at him made my throat swell tighter. It was all I could do to suck in air. “Ineverwant to go on without you.” I poked his chest with rising fury. He’d named me well, and I was lashing my storm upon him. I poked again. “You had no right to keep me out of that decision.”
“You’re right.” He nodded as if his verbal agreement wasn’t enough. “Walk through my mind.”
My lips twisted. “Is that a command?”
“A plea.”
I slumped against his chest, and his arms went around me where they belonged. “You have nothing else to hide?”
“Nothing. This I swear.”
“Then I don’t need to do it. I believe you.”
He lifted my chin with one finger, making me meet his eyes. “Do it, Fury. Only then can we walk forward together.”
I didn’t harbor doubts. Nearly losing him again had swept them away. I didn’t need to sort through his memories or his thoughts to know he was being completely honest with me.
But I did as he asked.
If I said no, a thin wall would remain between us, and I wanted all our barriers down. Only then could our souls entwine. Only then could we feel the full love we were destined to find together.
“Alright,” I whispered, closing my eyes.
With magic similar to traveling, I stepped into his mind.
Everything about this man was charged, suffused with something vibrant and undeniably loving. I could feel his warmth drift around me, enfold me in the tenderest caress. His adoration washed over me, tugging me down into his never-ending embrace. I stepped into the memory of when he first saw me. How much he’d craved me even then. How frightened he was of the feelings inside him that were already beyond his control. How desperate he was to feel my love but how equallydesperate he was to make sure I didn’t fall for him only to have to kill him.
I could feel the weight of my name lingering on his tongue, like it had been there before time began. It would be there when time ceased to exist.
Each of his heartbeats reverberated through me, syncopated to moments we’d shared—silent glances that spoke louder than words ever could. The lingering touch of his hand. His almost feral need to protect me and love me as no one else ever could.
His thoughts wove around mine in swirls of passion and joy. They didn’t just accommodate, they welcomed me as if they'd always reserved this space for us. Indelible marks left by our fleeting touches had been etched within him. Seeing all of him was both raw and undeniably perfect. He loved me deeply, desperately so.
I touched each of his memories with my mind, weeping as one torturous thing after another was done to him. If only I could reach out to the boy he’d been and hold him, whisper to him that things would get better, that there would come a time when my boundless love would enfold him.
I took on the thrill surging through his heart when we first made love. He’d loved me with an almost reverent joy that was so big and throbbing that it pulsed through me.
I stepped past it to when he strode through the sandy ether with only one goal in mind: to reach me even if he’d die trying. I saw a building there, plus a huge, gleaming onyx altar with words inscribed along the top.
