“Now,” she whispers. “Please?”
Reaching down, I press myself against her and ease into her slowly. We both groan at the sensation, and the flutter of her muscles around me nearly undoes me there and then. I hold still, giving myself a moment to regain control, and let her adjust to my presence. Her legs wrap around my waist, her hips tilt up, and her hands come up to frame my face.
“Move, please.”
I do. Slow, deep strokes that make her gasp with each one. This isn’t like before, this is something else entirely. Her hips rise to meet mine, finding a rhythm that fits us both. I brace myself on one arm, and use my other hand to tilt her face up, holding her gaze as I move inside her.
“Say my name.”
Her lips curve upward. “Luchairn.”
I kiss her, and move faster. She meets me stroke for stroke, her nails raking down my back, her moans muffled against my lips. When she breaks this time, I follow her over. Pleasure crashes through me in waves, and I bury my face against her throat, my hips jerking as I spend myself inside her.
For one long moment, the room is filled with nothing but our rasping breaths. I’m still inside her, my weight braced on my arms, my breath coming in ragged gasps. Her fingers stroke through my hair, gentle, like we have all the time in the world.
I roll to the side, taking her with me, and we end up tangled together, her head on my chest, one leg hooked over my hip, and we lie there, her fingers tracing idle patterns on my skin.
I’m talking before I even think about it. “I should tell you something.”
Her head lifts, eyes finding mine. “That … sounds ominous.”
“When you bargained a truth for a truth, I … did not tell you everything.” I keep my voice even. “The blood bond I forced onto you. It was meant to be temporary. A way to see through your eyes while you were inside the Dell. It should have lasted only as long as I needed it, and then faded away.” I look at her. “It didn’t. It changed, became something else. Two-way instead of one. Permanent instead of temporary.”
I run a hand along her arm, fingers finding the scar left by the knife attack. My eyes narrow and it disappears as my fingertip runs over it. “I felt it when you were attacked at the palace. Your terror and pain.” My jaw tightens. “I told myself I was retrieving you because if you could send me your emotions without thought, mages could use you to find me.”
“Is that the truth?”
“It’s what I wanted to believe.”
She’s quiet for a moment. “But it wasn’t the only reason?”
“No.” The word comes out rough. “It wasn’t the only reason.”
Her breasts brush against my chest as she takes a breath. “What were the other reasons?”
I should shut this down. Add it to the list of things I won’t explain. But she’s warm against me, and I’m tired of the walls between us.
“The thread you feel. The one that pulled you toward me on the hill, when I called for Kaelith and the others. That has nothing to do with the blood bond.”
Her brow furrows. “Then … what is it?”
“The Nightwild magic. The same magic that binds the Guard to me. It’s been weaving itself around you, claiming you the way it’s claimed Therin and the rest.”
“What? How? I don’t have magic.”
“I don’t know. It’s never happened before. But the magic doesn’t appear to care about that. It wants you.”
‘What does that mean? For me?”
I shake my head. “I can’t answer that. A human has never been taken by the magic before. What I can tell you is that if you accept it, then you’ll be tied to me. To the Guard. Permanently. And … I don’t know what that means for someone who is human. I don’t know what that might do to you if you accept it.”
“If I accept it?”
“You don’t have to. You can deny it.”
“What will happen if I do that?”
“The thread will keep pulling for a while, but eventually it will fade away.”
