We have the clue that’s going to lead us to the heart.
Who exactly the fuckthe hearteven is, I don’t know. But we’ve got our best chance of finding them, and we’re that much closer to a big, juicy payday.
I laugh.
Quietly, at first, then whooping and half-hysterical. I stumble a few steps ahead and rest one hand on a tree-trunk, doubling over at the waist.
“Seren?” Callum asks tentatively, in a tone which sounds like he’s not quite sure about my sanity right now.
“I’m okay. I’m okay.” I wave him off and brush at the tears leaking from the corners of my eyes.
Unhinged.
I’m certifiably unhinged right now.
There are too many emotions coursing through me, too much that’s happened in the last half-hour for me to be even remotely capable of processing it all.
But we’re alive.
We’re alive, and we’re here, and we just got one step closer to getting that damned treasure.
“Seren,” Callum tries again, stepping toward me.
I turn to face him, and all those emotions get even more tangled.
Goddess, he’s handsome.
And strong. And fierce. And the best partner I could have asked for back there.
And my mate.
He rests his hands on my shoulders. Maybe to steady me, maybe just so he can get a better look at me and make sure I’m not losing my mind completely.
Whatever the reason, it makes it easy for me to sway into him. It makes it easy to rest a hand in the center of his chest.
Light. Tentative. Experimental. Maybe just to see if he’ll push me away.
Maybe just because I want to.
And when he doesn’t push me away, when the fierce heartbeat beneath my fingers starts to pound and his mouth falls open on a silent inhale, when his pupils blow wide, I lean up and kiss him.
Callum freezes, and for one horrible moment I’m certain I’ve made a mistake.
Maybe I’ve read this all wrong. Maybe he’s already sick of me, already decided I’m more trouble than I’m worth, that he’d prefer I wasn’t his mate at—
Callum growls, slants his lips across mine, moves his hands to my waist, and crushes me against him. Something snakes around the backs of my thighs, pulling me even closer, and it takes me a moment to realize.
That damned tail again.
Heat pools low in my belly, and I part my lips, swipe my tongue against the seam of his. He groans and opens for me, and the slight bite of pain when the tip of my tongue brushes against his fang stokes that heat even higher.
I didn’t really think about all the logistics of this, of kissing a demon. I didn’t let myself imagine all the ways it would be different from locking lips with a human man.
Maybe if I had, I would have done it sooner.
Because his fangs, his tail, the heavy press of his wings as he sweeps them forward and envelops me within them, all of it really… does something for me.
Something hungry, feral, unhinged. Something that makes me bury my hands in the shaggy dark hair that’s come loose around his face, fingertips brushing against the curve of his horns, and pull him to me.
