Tears pooled on my lower lids, and I blinked through the blurred vision, dropping to my knees before him. I surrenderedto the feeling that had ignited months ago, allowing it to at last see the light of day, to blossom in its full glory.
Bonscaíh.My shadow.
My fingers twined with his. Our fists filled the space between our chests, and I lifted my gaze to his, never more certain of the words that rose to my lips.
“And I’d go through that gate over and over again, not caring what realm I landed in so long as it took me to you,” I finally admitted to him and to myself, allowing a tear to slide down my cheek. “There is no regret. There is no confusion. I followed you to hell… I came for you because I love you, Kellan Astraeus.”
The soft breeze that seemed to mingle in the crystal chamber stilled as the words left my lips.
The marbled gray in Kellan’s eyes swirled against his dark irises, and he dropped my hands before slipping one around my waist and sliding the other over the crook of my neck and to the back of my head. His fingers twined in the knotted waves of my hair. His eyes dipped to my lips and snapped back to mine before he leaned forward.
His full lips crushed against mine in demand, and my arms wrapped around his neck as I sucked a sharp breath in through my nose. A gust of his intoxicating scent fueled the growing surge of warmth that swirled next to something more tender.
Power erupted from Kellan. Water rose from the small pools in the chamber in a spray of mist, joining the wind spiraling around us.
The Transcindiel and Obscura rose from their chasm, surging to the surface and spilling from the pores of my body. A wild array of golden shimmers and velvet shadows leaped to join the cyclone of power that danced around our forms.
My tongue slipped through my mouth and slid over the scar cutting through Kellan’s lower lip. He parted them, meeting my tongue with his own in a desperate, yet unhurried, wandering.
The pressure of the stone against my knees eased as an intoxicating wave of something gentle and fierce melded against my chest, and the wild squall of powers spinning around us slowly lifted our bodies off the ground.
His arm wrapped around my waist, his hands grazing my ribs as he pulled me closer, and I pressed my chest into his. My hands speared through his hair, driving his lips closer to mine as I sucked his lower lip into my mouth before he claimed mine once more with his own.
Our tangled hair flew through the air and whipped past our faces as the world itself disappeared, and all that existed was us. Every empty, scarred piece of my heart seemed to awaken, like a small, desperate, unspoken call reaching from my own soul to his. Kellan responded, placing a calm, healing hand on each of them, stitching them up, and dropping a kiss upon them one by one.
Kellan’s feet hit the ground before mine, and he slid his hands to my back and hips as he eased me down, keeping his lips locked onto mine. His wind slowly stilled, little streams of water trickling back into their pools as my own powers happily wandered home.
I blinked my eyes open as Kellan gently slowed his lips, bringing them a breath away from mine. His nose grazed my own, and his dark eyes scanned mine as he ran a tender thumb over my cheekbone.
“Say that again,” he breathed against my lips.
My lips tugged upward, tingling, full, and yearning to connect with his again.
“I love you, Kellan Astraeus.”
Kellan’s dark brows pinched, and his eyes closed as he leaned his forehead against mine. Memories of his pained past edged their way into my thoughts. I’d only experienced a few years of his hell in the Abyss… Those early days in his life that were toopainful for someone so young. I willed the powerful force in my heart to ease that lasting pain, to mend the lingering wounds inflicted on the bloody Islands of Votruvia.
“I love you, Kellan,” I repeated, letting the force rise to my chest and willing it to lay a soothing hand on his soul with each word.
Kellan’s forehead rolled against my own, his lips parting as his hand cupped the back of my neck.
“I love you,” I said again, pulling my head back as he blinked his eyes open and straightened. A slow smile graced his face, and we stood there in the silence of our breaths for several moments. His hands clasped together around my waist, wrapping a profound sense of completion over my entire being.
His gaze skipped to my hair, his scar whitening as his lips kicked up on one side. My chest constricted in a euphoric warmth at the sight of that smirk.
“What?” I asked, arching my brow as his eyes brightened in amusement.
“You have spider guts in your hair,” he murmured, his dark eyes darting back to my own.
My nose crinkled in disgust, and I sucked in a sharp inhale, the rancid stench of the creatures’ blood and body fluid impossible to ignore now.
“We reek,” I said, suppressing a gag.
Kellan threw his head back as he let out a loud, deep laugh, the dark, snaking claws of his tattoo moving on the strong column of his neck. The sound rippled across my limbs and through my bones. My grip around him tightened, and my smile widened.
“Still love me?” I asked as he brought his face down.
“Always,” he answered, scanning my face before sliding to my hair. “Every bit of you. Spider guts and all.”
