His mouth pulls into a grimace. “I just want so badly to touch you. With this body, I mean. To know what you feel like. Even if it’s only once. Even if I can never fully have you. Even if it’s just a kiss.”
The plaintive tenor of his voice cracks my heart wide open, all the blood in my body coursing toward him like a river seeking the sea. “You want to kiss me? Right now?”
His throat bobs soundlessly. “If you’d let me. I don’t think I could stop, but the sun will rise in a few seconds and take me away, and I just… A kiss, Princess. It would mean everything to me.”
My teeth dig into my bottom lip. He’s saved me so many times over. Proven himself safe, and loyal, and most of all, worthy. And really, I’ve kissed him already. Twice. Just not in this form.
And goddess help me, he’s so beautiful that looking at him nearly blinds me.
“All right,” I say huskily.
He blinks a few times, as if certain he misheard. “Really?”
“Yes. Just…let me come to you, all right?”
A swift nod. “Of course. Anything.”
I push up out of the grass and cross toward him, my eyes tracking every flex of his forearms. His shoulders tremble, his tongue sweeping across his bottom lip, the glow of his eyes burning like an invitation. And even though I haven’t touched him yet, I swear he’s somehow pulling me back to that dream place, the one I touched so briefly and still feel as though I’ll miss forever.
The morning brightens around us. I hover over him for a moment, my stomach collapsing to an achy flutter, every molecule in my body bending toward him. Then I lower myself, straddling his lap like I did earlier, only this time for a very different reason.
A purring moan escapes him, but he keeps his arms at his sides, even while the rest of his body strains toward me.
I take his face in my hands, the tips of my fingers grazing his cheekbones. My chest spasms at the contact, breath stuttering in my lungs as the bond tattoos his feelings across my heart.
Good goddess, heneeds. So much that I pause, my forehead tilted against his, the tips of our noses brushing. His breath fans across my lips, sweet and warm and pleading, his inhales so rapid they drown out the burble of the stream.
“Sariah,” he whispers, just an inch from my mouth. “I l?—”
“Shhh,” I say, and lower my lips.
But light spills over the horizon, gilding the willows around us, and my mouth never makes it to his. The Shadow dissolves, leaving nothingbetween my hands but empty air. My knees sink into the cold, dewy grass as I pitch forward against unforgiving ground.
A roar rises in the distance, coming from the castle, different than any I’ve heard before.
Not sharp with rage, this time, but hollow with loss.
Chapter 19
I’m hungry. So hungry my stomach feels like it’s turning inside-out.
I swat aside a magenta sparkle and glance at my bracelet again. I’ve managed to keep myself alive for most of the day without the Shadow’s help, but my time has dwindled to less than a third. And still, the castle hovers on its distant pinnacle, out of my reach. Forever out of reach.
I can’t even say with certainty that I’ve gotten closer. I can barely think over the sharp gnaw in my belly. Meanwhile, my tongue has glued itself to the roof of my mouth, despite my best efforts to swallow.
I’d give anything for a sip from the golden vial right now. For a biscuit, or even a mouthful of water. My throat spasms at the thought, my midsection cramping around nothing.
But in the hourglass, the sands continue to fall, so I force myself forward, striding across the moss. This part of the Wildwood should prove relatively safe, considering I’ve just navigated a bog full of quicksand—using my trusty pebbles, of course—and haven’t yet found a door to my next challenge. But?—
Ah. There.
I swerve toward a painted red door set into a sturdy oak. The frameis barely wide enough for me to slip through, but it should get me closer to the castle, at least.
I open the door, then back out and close it again. I do that a dozen more times, littering as much of the labyrinth with my scent as I can. Which seems to be working—the Shadow hasn’t found me yet.
When I turn the knob again, the door opens to some kind of hole in the ground. A rough-hewn wooden ladder leads upward, and I crane my neck, trying to see where it ends. Light pours in from the opening above, obscuring my view.
Huh. This is new.
