Her hand came up to brush against his forearm. "I will."
They floated in silence for a long time after that. His hands brushed over her body, soothing aches and pains she hadn’t even known were there. When the water cooled, he warmed it again with magic.
“We need to understand this illness,” he said.
“It’s not anything strange, Kailorien. I’ve told you before. This reaction is something I’ve gotten used to.”
“I won’t let this go, Auryn. We need to find the cause. The voice said it had something to do with the Bond. But even now, you are still—”
“It’s just another nuance of my body,” she insisted. “Neither of us truly knows what I am. The reason could be any number of things.”
He thought on this, his hands brushing through her damp hair, undoing her braid and letting the strands float in the water.
“Let me do what I can. I won’t lose you to something just because I don’t understand it,” he concluded at last.
She turned in his arms, legs curling up beneath her as she faced him. The water undulated between them with their movements. When she reached up and brushed wet strands of hair from his brow, the tension on his face relaxed.
“Youdounderstand,” she promised. “You’ve always understood my needs before I do.”
“And what is that now?” he asked, thumb stroking the slope of her jaw, voice husky.
She shivered when he grazed her mouth, her answer given in the parting of her lips—in the way she let him slip inside to graze the tip of her tongue. Their lips melded together in a dance that lingered, the steps slow, deliberate, practiced. First, he guided. Then she took the lead, her thoughts blooming with her need.
I’ll always be with you.Even if this body disappears. Even if the world ends.I willalways—always—be yours.
She opened to him with a sigh, curling her arms around his neck, pressing her body to his. And though the water was warm, it was nothing compared to the whole of him—to the fire he ignited inside of her.
“You are not allowed,” he whispered between kisses, “to disappear. Not your body, not your soul. If you do, I will search all the Nine Rivers to bring you back.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” she promised again.
He kissed her shoulders like apology, her collarbone like a vow, her lips like a prayer. And it broke her to feel it, for she knew—the Resh’Agar did not pray.
Not to the Destroyer.
Not to anyone.
Humbled, she pressed her lips to his forehead to show she understood. That she felt it too. That shewashis wish, and she was here.
With him.
In this warmth.
In this breath.
As they parted, he shuddered.
“Turn around, sweetfire, before I forget why I put you in this bath.”
She smiled but did as he asked. His fingers moved through the water, trailing down her arms. He guided her legs to stretch out in front of her, her back pressed to his chest, his thighs bracketing hers beneath the surface.
“Tell me where it hurts,” he said, brushing his nose along the curve of her neck. “Even if it’s small. Even if it’s only your pride. I want to kiss every wound.”
She leaned her head back against him, breathless. “My pride hurts quite often around you. The Sokâr surrenders to her Resh’Agar tooeasily.”
“Then I will kiss that last,” he rumbled, mouth tilting into a small smile. “It’s in the most difficult place to reach. Though, I disagree. It is your Resh’Agar that is undone the moment his Sokâr looks his way.”
A laugh bubbled from her, breathy and light. But when he slid a hand beneath the water to cradle her shin, lifting her leg to inspect a scrape along her knee, the humor in her died down, replaced by that hush that always came when he turned serious.
