Imiryion itself has bled for us, just like we shattered ourselves for this realm.
And it gave us a second chance.
To find each other.
To love each other.
To restore the balance.
“Talk to me, Killian,” Aimee says, tapping her finger lightly against the side of my face. “What’s going on inside here?”
How can I tell her the fear that tries to swallow me at the thought of ever losing her again? Not because of my own stupid ego, but at the hands of the malevolent creature that broke us apart for almost two millennia. I mourn every second we lost, every kiss we didn’t share, every dawn and dusk that passed without us in each other’s arms.
I grieve a past we cannot change, in fear of a future that seems uncertain at best.
My only certainty isher.
“You have nothing to worry about when it comes to Mael, or anyone else for that matter,” she says, wrapping her arms around my neck and resting her forehead against mine. Her sweet yet dangerous midsummer storm scent floods my senses, making my body stiffen with hunger.
Hunger for her. For her blood. Her lips. Her brave heart.
“I was never truly interested in him, Killian. Just a mere distraction from the heartbreak you were causing me.”
She’s mistaken my silence for brooding over that insufferable human. He’s as insignificant as a speck of dust in the vastness of the desert he calls home.
Puny.
Forgettable.
Just an annoying afterthought.
“I don’t care about him, umbra. He can lust afterwhat is mineall he wants,” I say, capturing her lips with my own. “He’ll never know the pleasure of your affection, of your ruin. Only I will.”
Her breath fans deliciously around my jaw as she drags her nails through my hair.
“Then you promise you’ll be on your best behavior once he arrives?”
“When have I ever not been on my best behavior?” I grin, and she huffs a laugh that I swallow whole with another heated kiss.
“My menacing Vampire King.”
“Your everything,” I whisper against the column of her throat, my fangs screaming to sink into her.
“My everything,” she murmurs back, her back arching until we’re molded together like one.
“Can I feast now?” I ask, nuzzling my nose against the mark I left on her neck.
“Not until you tell me whatreallytroubles you,” she answers with a kiss on my temple, her lips brushing my disheveled locks of hair. “Complete honesty, Killian. I know the irony of me asking this of you, but it’s the only way forward.”
“Complete honesty,” I grumble, the words strained. “The thought of losing youagainterrifies me, umbra. I’ve never held fear in my heart before, not like this. Hell, for a long time I didn’t even care if I had a heart anymore. I had a duty, a responsibility—I still do, now more than ever—but I also didn’t have something so precious to lose.”
I pause, choking on the intense disquietude seizing my insides. Is this how she feels during one of her panic attacks?
“I can’t stop thinking that we lost each other to Morweena—to Arwan, once. She tore us apart for thousands of years. What if we underestimate her again?”
“She won’t, Killian,” Aimee says, placing her warm hands on either side of my jaw. I revel in her soothing touch. “It’s bigger than us, former selves included. We have an entire realm to liberate.”
“We did so in the past too, and we failed. And if you want absolute honesty, umbra, I don’t give a damn about Imiryion, not when I weigh itdown against you. I have half a mind to whisk you away from harm, to let it all perish around us, just to keep you safe.”
