“It’s not a virtue.”
“She’ll be all right. She’s been staying with Obsidian. She’s not alone.” Anayla had checked on her. “But she came here because she missed us. Not to cause trouble. Not with any agenda.”
“I know,” I said.
“And that cost her something.”
“I know that too.”
Anayla nodded, once, with the quality of someone closing a subject she had not fully resolved but had decided to set downfor now. She was good at setting things down. I wished more of Bismyth would learn that from her. Dairen would’ve argued me into oblivion.
“Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to leave my wife in the care of my worst enemy.” I hated returning Cara to Ander.
“He’s not your enemy.” Anayla shook her head. “Ander’s a good man and you are too.”
“If only that were enough to keep people from being enemies. You’ve solved war, Anayla.”
She pushed my arm and laughed. “Ass. Go claim that wife you don’t deserve.”
It was strange to hear Ander’s words echoed by Anayla. Cara’s superiority seemed clear to all.
When I reached Cara’s side, she was laughing with Dairen and Kiegan, and I felt a sudden rise of jealousy that was soothed as I came to her side and she looked up at me, her eyes crinkling at the corners as if she was happiest when I was present.
I needed to get her safely into Ander’s hands and investigate Obsidian’s plans for the queen’s mission, but the thought of keeping her with me was tempting.
“May I see you to Clan Amber?”
She nodded, and renegade disappointment grew in my chest, even though I had been the one to ask.
I took her in my arms and walked away from the crowd, my wings spreading from my back.
I flew her up and then found I could not bear to put her down.
My hand found her face, my palm gently cupping her cheek. My lips pressed hers in a kiss that should’ve been slow and tender and rapidly tipped over into feral.
She kissed me back the full-hearted way she did everything. Her hands were in my shirt, on my throat, then on my bare skinbeneath my collar. She let out a little sound of frustration against my mouth.
“Put me down,” she murmured.
She was right, we should stop, so I put her down.
Then her hand was behind my neck, tugging my mouth down to hers. Her lips were soft, lush; she pressed against me, her breasts against my chest, her hips against mine, the two of us seeking every bit of contact, every inch of frustrated friction.
Her back hit the wall with a soft impact that I felt through her body more than I heard, the stone cold behind her. I adjusted without thinking, one hand sliding to her jaw, my thumb brushing along the line of her cheekbone, tilting her face to deepen the angle of the kiss. I could feel the echo of the bond threading through it, alive and insistent, as if it approved.
I barely managed to pull away, resting my forehead against hers. “Cara.”
Her eyes were closed. When they opened, they were very close to mine, catching the corridor light, and I could imagine that gaze on mine for the rest of my days.
“I know.”
“I want to be sure you understand why,” I said.
Her hands were still in my shirt. She had not let go. I had not let go either. Even though the point of this conversation was that we had to let go.
“The bond.”
“When we complete the bond fully, you move from Amber to Bismyth. You become mine completely.”
