“I don’t know how to wake up, Heath. I want so badly to look at you. To say your name for the first time. But I’m too deep.”
Heath lifted his hand, knowing he couldn’t touch her when he was awake, but he cupped her chin as best he could. “This is the last dreamscape, Asherah. I want you to see the real world now. Your sister is waiting. Life, with me, is waiting. I won’t leave you behind.”
She shook her head. “Even awake, I told you I can’t leave this place.” Asherah pointed to the runes spanning the archway above her head. “They are tied to my blood. Once I passed them, I never could again.”
“Can they be broken?”
“Not without killing me. It is why Skuld was able to leave me alone so many times. It didn’t matter what I did, I couldn’t get past them. And my death would …”
Her voice trailed off, but he knew. She didn’t mean her physical death. She meant her consciousness. If she passed those runes, she’d be what Skuld had always wanted: retribution on Silva and anyone who tried to protect her. She’d raise the sea and send it crashing down on the residents of Encantado.
Blood … she was tied by blood.
Just the thought forced his fangs to elongate in his mouth as he hissed. Heath wanted her taste, to mark her, to make her his. She’d given so much of herself within their dreamscapes, but this would be different. She’d be his for all to see.
Blood.
Blood!
“Asherah, what if you had different blood?”
She blinked, confusion marring her face as her brows furrowed. “Impossible.”
“But it’s not. Show me your teeth, baby.”
“I have long thought you odd, Heath, but this is lunacy.”
He liked the way she talked. The odd turn of phrase she always used because she hadn’t been modernized.
Heath smiled. “Do you trust me?”
“With my life.”
Asherah’s instant response made his chest swell with pride. He’d done so much wrong, fucked up in more ways than he could even name. But this small Fae, a princess in her own right, trusted him. She didn’t have to think, didn’t have to ask, and she knew his entire life.
She’d given Heath his truth and had faced it with him.
“Then show me.”
She rolled her eyes, something she’d picked up from him, and bared her teeth. As a Seelie, her canines were nowhere near as sharp as his, but they were slightly pointed. Would it be enough? There had to be some way when she was meant to be with an Unseelie.
Taking a deep breath, he began to reveal something he hadn’t shared with her. “You know I’m Unseelie and we can survive by feeding.”
She nodded, and he continued. “When we Fate, we only need to feed from our partner. I have … wanted to feed from you since the moment we met.”
Asherah blinked, a slow motion as she took in what he said. He stood rigid, holding on to hope that she wouldn’t be disgusted. That her Seelie ways, much lighter compared to the darkness of the Unseelie, wouldn’t color her view of him.
Humans had always been infatuated with the idea of daywalkers who lived forever and sank their teeth into veins, bringing untold pleasures to the humans. Even some paranormals loved it too. But the Seelie, they’d always been different. They had looked down on the Unseelie for their need to feed. That base instinct was below their more intellectual pursuits of knowledge and expansion.
Unseelie were warriors and not above violence in any way.
When Asherah opened her eyes, a pink swath dusted her cheeks. “You want to drink from me?”
“Fuck. Yes.”
She sucked in a breath, her chest quaking, and Heath fought not to take the heavy weight of her breasts into his hands. Neither of them would be able to feel it here, anyway.
“And you want me to–” She froze, jerking her head back on a cry.
