“Then why are we still here like this?”
“I’m processing.”
Well, okay, then.She was too curious to let that pass, though.She turned her head slightly, seeing that his face was still rigid.“Processing what?”
“How it felt when I thought you might be grabbed.”
She turned now, staying in the cocoon he’d created.“How did it feel?”
His arms released her but rested on her shoulders once she turned to face him.His eyes shimmered frantically, staring at nothing in particular.“Like dying.”
Those words clamped around her heart.She wanted to touch his face the way he’d touched hers.“I’m okay.I tried to hold in the horror of what I saw, of Marik being taken.And my fear,” she said.“I don’t want to hurt you.”She understood how dangerous that knowledge was now.Someone could torture him on purpose.
“What are you thinking?”he asked.
“Sorry, my thoughts—and feelings—ran away from me.Do you want me to move back?”
His fingers tightened, and she expected him to push her away.Instead, he pulled her against him.“No.”She could hear his breathing, long deep breaths, his hands splayed on her back.“Your heat…” he murmured.
“You’re so cool.”Her hand hovered over the side of his bare chest, wanting to touch him.
“Feels good.”His voice, low and ragged, melted into her.
He seemed to be drawing her heat inside him, and she wanted to give it to him, to warm him.Such pain, so cold.Was this how human females had tempted the angels?
“It wasn’t the humans’ fault,” she whispered.“We’re drawn together, each giving a part of ourselves to the other.Needing each other.”
Lyra was weakening him.Somehow, in her haze, she realized this.The tremors running through his body, so apparent as they pressed close, had to be pain.Pain at his desire.It took everything inside her to step back.
He blinked, as though coming out of a spell.His hand rubbed across his bare chest, where she could see his heated skin.
“Thank you,” he said, but she didn’t know whether it was for giving him heat or pulling it away.
“Is this part of the Thrall, Archer?That I want to go inside you and yank out the curse that makes desire hurt?”
“Not that I’ve heard of.Is that how you feel?”
She nodded, and their gazes locked.It seemed difficult for him to tear his away.He did, going to the wall where the snake had come through.He ran his hands all along the surface.“I don’t feel anything, no portal or even residual magick.The power contained in that snake was tremendous.I could have fought it, and maybe won, but I didn’t want to chance your safety.I’ve heard of Caidos who hold dark power, but I’ve never seen one.”
He knelt down and began scooping the wing dust into his palm.His wings shimmered with his movements.She did the same, until none remained on the floor.The dust felt electric.She poured it into his hand.The glow that surrounded him made her feel as though she were in a dream.He seemed bigger, though he hadn’t physically grown.
Lyra found a dish filled with coins, dumped them out, and handed it to him.
He poured the dust in and set it on the dresser.“Whoever is behind this has taken too many people.We have to get them back.”Then he bowed, planted his hands on his thighs, and retracted his wings.It didn’t look as painful as when they’d come out.He released a breath, his dark gaze on the bowl of dust.
“Could that happen to you, too?”she asked.
“Yes.Sometimes I think it would be sweet relief to die and be free of the pain.”
“Don’t ever do that,” she said, the words tumbling out.
He considered her for a moment, a Mona Lisa smile on his face.“Don’t worry.I have no intention of dying anytime soon.I have a good life when I’m isolated in my world.”
“When you’re not working with an emotional Dragon,” she said.
He took her in with a measure of amusement.“You were trouble.I sensed it from the start.”
“That’s why you were so cold and awful to me?”
