Her lingering fear.
Her thirst for revenge.
Her grief over her fallen legion.
Veda, Signe, and Idunn.
She had not let herself feel their deaths. As the pain of it gripped her chest, her hand flew to clutch at her aching heart, like that could soothe the wound that would never heal. She wanted to rip it out.
So as to not alarm anyone, she dropped her jaw open in a silent scream, her eyes clamped shut. The rain outside intensified as the storm picked up.
Flattening her palm over her heart, she wept for them.
She welcomed the tumultuous feelings, let their waves crash over her, tears streaking down her face, mirroring the rain on the windows. She let them move through her body, recharging her magic. It wanted more—she needed more. So she let herself feel.
Her relief at Gerrie’s safety.
Her gratitude for Conalle’s friendship.
Her love for Koa and Aelfsi.
Her pride at her own strength.
These emotions chased the darkness through her veins, giving light to her soul.
She was two sides of the same coin.
One in shadow, where she felt most at home, feeding a small part of her she had long forgotten.
And the other in the sun, where she chose to live. She chose to breathe in the light, even when the darkness threatened to win.
Raw energy overwhelmed her senses until something new blossomed—a tidal wave, recharging her magic until her hands began to glow. Lightning cracked outside her window.
Her passion for the prince.
As soon as she allowed it, it overtook everything else, even the feeling of the bed as the weight of the emotion buckled her knees, bringing hercrashing down onto her mattress. It consumed her. Her need drove the blood through her veins, pumped through her heart, settled in her lungs.
She ached without release, withouthim.
His words on the beach came back to her.
Alarm and then a wave of pain crashed into her, shaking her out of her lust-filled fog only for a moment before it was cut off. Solveig took three breaths as that unfamiliar pain lingered until she understood.
He thought she was with another.
She smiled.
Westley’ssistersdidn’tstirin their sleep. He focused on their breathing, trying to distract himself.
North’s head rested on Easta’s shoulders, with Easta’s stacked on top of hers. He was grateful he’d managed to find an abandoned closet for the night. They had to regroup and figure out how to get out of this labyrinth of a keep.
The lingering effect of Solveig’s passion still rattled his bones. It had come on so suddenly, he hadn’t expected it. There he was, minding his own business in his hiding spot with his sisters, waiting out the night, when her arousal had charged through him, emptying his mind of everything but her.
For a moment he thought maybe she’d sent it to him, but it was so wild and visceral that he knew she hadn’t meant for him to feel it.
She was with someone.
Shock and jealousy burst out of him unbidden before he could cut the feelings off.
