To my surprise, she didn’t fight me. She obeyed and turned to look me in the eyes.
Tears streaked her face, and for a reason I couldn’t explain, I took her face in my hands and brushed them away with my thumbs.
She shuddered and looked startled by the intimacy—by my unfamiliar touch that wasn’t sexual or rough. I could feel the heat of her body as I pulled her in close.Where she belonged.
I stared into her arctic pools of icy blue, knowing all too well that by looking this deeply into her eyes, I was extinguishing the very essence of my own flaming soul. In my mind, I stood on the precipice of giving in to what I longed for. I tried to hold my ground, but then…I surrendered, and willingly submerged into the icy blue unknown.
I let my healing light flood from my fingertips into her. I pushed it out with all the sincerity and remorse I couldn’t say aloud. I allowed my magic to softly caress and comfort her. I forced it out so passionately it felt like I was filling her with my very soul.
From the look on her face, I knew she felt it too.
Her head tipped back. She closed her eyes and parted her lips, and softly gasped—and I hadn’t realized mine were dangerously close to hers. I shouldn’t have felt the way I did as my power threaded through her veins. And worse, I should not have enjoyed it so much.
I felt my magic sink deep, pumping through her body, correcting the inflammatory response, and bringing her back to normal. Amber, sparkling light illuminated her body, making her look ethereal… and even more powerful than she already was.
I meant to give her only enough to counter the reaction. Instead, my power poured into her like it had found where it belonged.
With our souls entangled, I felt something unusual—yet familiar—and I sensed it was the root of why I was sodrawn to her.
She let out a soft moan as I focused my power through every inch of her body, making sure I fixed everything I had done.
The angry red patches faded away.
When I felt the last of the reaction disappear, I called my magic back.
It resisted.
As if it wanted to stay infused with her.
I couldn’t tell if that was my own hesitation… or her pulling from the other side somehow.
I focused my will and pulled harder until the last of my healing light merged back with me. The absence of being threaded in her warmth hit me harder than it should have.
I knew my magic was back. She knew it too. And yet we remained perfectly still in the same close embrace, my mouth so close to hers I could feel her warm breath brush my lips.
There was a silent conversation happening—not mind-to-mind, but body-to-body.
If I leaned in a fraction of an inch more, I could have her.
Her stillness was an invitation: kiss her, take her, make her my mate for real—not just for a mission.
I had fought battles that depleted me physically and magically. I had tamed and killed colossal beasts. But none of it took as much strength as it did to pull away from her, decline her invitation, and release her from my hands.
She stepped back, gave me an accepting, bitter nod, and turned for the lake’s edge in the distance.
I waited until she was out of view. Then I collapsed to my knees.
My mask shattered. The High Lord. The composure. All of it slipped through my fingers like sand. My hands braced against the cold dirt as if the ground were the only thing keeping me upright. The aftermath of being infused with her left me hollow and aching. I knew I had crossed a line…one that could not be redrawn.
This was the cost of being a ruler. Of being raised to choose duty over desire. I had done the right thing. I knew I had.
So why did it feel like I had just destroyed the only good thing left in me?
I fisted my hands in my hair and ground my jaw so hard I was surprised my molars didn’t crack. The pain encompassed me entirely like a cocoon of torment and unrelenting torture.
I wanted her, and I hated it. I hated myself.
I hated being High Lord. I hated the responsibility and the weight of it all.
