My mate ignored me and walked on, digging at a wound I hadn’t realized I carried until the moment we returned to Sivy. The Sightkeepers watched us with pointed interest, as they always did. I hurried after her. By now, she knew the way to the healers, so I didn’t have to guide her.
And why the fuck was she in such a hurry today?
“Slow down,” I growled, my long strides eating up the distance between us.
Still, she did not speak.
I probed our connection, but the mental barricade she’d erected was still too strong. Damn Angel mind magic. If we were Demons, I’d slither into her thoughts in seconds. Not that their mating bonds were real, like mine and Sylaira’s was. Their Fates offered them a falsity and called it true.
“You know nothing of them.” Sylaira stopped suddenly, whirling on me.
My brows lifted at the intensity of her words. Her lithe frame vibrated, shoulders set in a hard line, fury dancing across her delicate features. “You believe that they are not like us, truly?”
I blinked at her. “The Demons?”
“Who else?”
A small grin curved my lips. “Were you spying in my head, little fugitive?” This I could work with. It meant she cared.
“You think I’m an intruder, but your thoughts spill into mine without regard. You don’t even attempt to keep up a barrier anymore,” she hissed, her fingers curling into fists at her sides. “And somehow, you barge into my dreams too. Though really, I should call them nightmares from your presence alone.”
My smile dipped into a frown. “So you’re upset because you were snooping when I was speaking with my sister?”
“Answer my question,” she demanded, completely ignoring mine.
I took a measured step forward. She shrank back. I kept coming until her back was pinned against smooth stone. Her attention darted in either direction before landing on me again.
But no one was around to hear us.
I pressed my body against hers. Our bond coiled tight, purring in delight, like it lived for the moments we came undone. We hadn’t touched like this since we’d returned. I hadn’t felt her lips pressed against mine. Hadn’t tasted her divine source. Hadn’t heard her moan as I unraveled her with my tongue.
And my cock was as desperate as our fated connection for me to be inside her wet heat.
“Answer me,” she repeated, but breathiness billowed in place of the bite.
“Their magic is dark. Unholy. It must be eradicated,” I ground out, the cool rock doing nothing to temper the emotionswirling inside me. Nothing to tame the beast that only wanted me toclaim.
“Says who?” she challenged, her tone stronger this time.
“The Goddess,” I snapped, self-control slipping like smoke between my fingers. “It is by Her will that we wage this holy war. I know what you Elessarum think. You are too young to remember what it was like before Stadiel took the throne.”
Memories of my mother rose and sliced between my ribs. She wasn’t the only Angel who lost her life to their violent, greedy hands. Stadiel might have fought off all other contenders for the throne, but he was popular well before that with how he preached defending our realm against the wicked creatures. It wasn’t our fault their land dried up. That rain fell plenty here. That our crops were lush and our seas brimming.
“I know enough,” she spat, furiously tucking her hair behind her pointed ears. “The Elessarum formed long before the change of power took place. Some members managed to survive that long. Not many, though, with how thoroughlyyouhunted us into near extinction. Andweare Angels. I can’t imagine how you treat someone with red irises and black hair.”
The accusation in her expression was undeniable. She thought me a violent murderer of the worst variety. My chest heaved against my tunic as I attempted to rein myself in.
Get a fucking grip, Vaeron, before you lose everything.
“I’d much rather be on the front lines slaughtering those beasts and protecting our realm than hunting your foolish kind down. It is a waste of my power,” I ground out. My fingers dug into the stone on either side of her head. I was losing the battle against my own honed will.
Her tongue flicked out and wetted her lips, my attention immediately drawn to them. “It is, truly. You waste it so often. You could Command the Korona to break off your betrothal and yet you do not. Instead, she tells you to visit Dasha’s bed. Andyou’ll go. Because you think you’re a wolf. But really you’re a fucking dog, obeying his master’s directions.”
The last thread of self-control I possessedsnapped.
My mouth crashed against hers in a brutal claim—if only to get her to shut the fuck up. A moan rumbled out of me as I swiped my tongue against hers. She tasted like a ripe, juicy fruit, and she opened for me just the same.
A whimper escaped her as I raked my teeth over her bottom lip. I ground my hips into hers, hands snaking behind her to capture her waist. Hoisting her up, I pinned her against the wall so she was completely at my mercy.
