“You don’t have to do that.” She eyes me hungrily and kisses me slowly, making my body go rigid.
She wants us again.
Correction—she wantsme.
You don’t have to be so snotty about it,Nightmare grumbles.
When the kiss ends, I murmur, “You keep kissing me like that and I won’t have a manor left.”
Chelsea laughs and wraps her arms around my waist. I wrap my arms around her and let myself drink in this moment. Never have I been so…what’s the word?
Happy.You’re looking forhappy.
Nightmare is right. I’ve never felt like this before. This woman, what she does to me, it’s life-changing.
I should tell her, let her know. But something inside me resists. It’s still so new. She’ll think I’m only saying it because of what just happened, and not because of how I really feel.
I plant a small kiss on her mouth. “Tell you what—why don’t we get dressed, I’ll clean up this mess and we’ll go down to the kitchen for something to eat?”
She eyes me warily. “What about your wounds? You need to rest.”
“Somehow I’m feeling a little better.”
Because of her,Nightmare murmurs.
Because of her,I agree.
Chelsea grins and my pulse kicks into high gear. “That sounds perfect.”
Chelsea sneaks back to her room so that the servants don’t know that she’s, um, roaming the halls half-naked, and I approach the destruction.
I save all the roses, obviously, and fix as much of the stone as I can, making a mental note to tell Stave we’ll need stonemasons to fix the worst of it, where the stone crumbled to dust.
Dust? Actual dust?Nightmare asks.
See for yourself.
I scoop up a handful of powder and let it fall between my fingers.
Eryx, this isn’t just power. This is pure creation and destruction in one breath. In one combined magic.
I know.
It’s lethal.
I know that, too.
What are we going to do?
Divorce her.
WHAT????
I’m joking. But the last thing I want is to rein her in, or reinusin.
Nightmare quietly says,Because she’s spent a lifetime being reined in?
I don’t know about that, but I know she hasn’t had many choices lately?—
