A fact I proved to myself with my hand on my cock. I may be volatile, but I didn’t risk any woman’s life figuring it out.
Now, I want to step away from Thyra, from this peace she seems to have found, but I can’t. When I try, the thread between us pulls taut and pain jabs again through my heart.
Greater pain than before, making my eyes water.
I hunch my shoulders, preparing for more discomfort, when I notice something…
The icy air wafting around Thyra…
It isn’t rising from Thyra like I thought.
It’s floatingtowardher.
My focus flies to Stellen and my eyes widen.
The frost building between them is coming from him.
I don’t give a fuck about Stellen, but how is this not hurting Thyra?
The runes start turning again. Like a shifting puzzle, their sides rotate until they stop in unison.
My heart sinks to see what they’ve become.
Flames. Black fire blazing across the ivory ribbon.
Pain jabs again at my heart and my knees buckle under the force of it.
The thread pulls me even closer to her, dragging me nearer just as it pulled me in the bloodlands, but now flames lick at my chest and arms, heat radiating from me to her, shimmering waves building across her body.
I can’t believe the heat doesn’t wake Stellen, but it looks like frost continues to pool on Thyra’s other side.
I don’t know exactly what the runes are doing, but I can’t let this go on.
“Wake up.” My mouth moves, but my words seem to fall into a chasm, the sound gone as soon as I make it. “Thyra, wake up!”
She doesn’t respond. Her breathing doesn’t change.
“Wake the fuck up!”
Thyra doesn’t stir. Neither does Stellen.
And there’s nothing I can do about it.
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Stellen
Ijolt upright, disbelieving of the early morning sunlight gleaming through the open door into the main room.
It can’t be morning.
If it’s morning…
I don’t censure my quiet disbelief. “I slept through the night.”
I haven’t done that since before I took the throne.
Thyra’s hand presses to my naked back, her touch soothing, circular rubs, demanding my focus.
