Page 16 of Black Sea

The soldier returned, stuck his weapon next to mine, and delivered fierce strikes at both ends of the hilts, causing the blades to pierce deeply into the tree. Then he grabbed his dagger and jerked his cunning gaze toward my weapon.

I glared at him, then held onto my weapon tightly.

Rain started pouring heavily, turning torrential in an instant. Large waves began to rise and crash against the tree. Lightning and thunder tore through the thick clouds, so low that they appeared to loom over us.

The fierce currents grabbed the tree, spinning it continuously. The waves crashed around it, submerging it again before we could catch our breath.

And rather than gripping his dagger with both hands, that foolish human attempted to wrap an arm around my waist to keep me close, believing I needed his help to endure the water hell we were in.

Therefore, when a wave hit us with full force, his fingers slipped off the hilt.

But my hand found him at once.

I grasped his forearm and pulled him up, guiding him back to his dagger so he could grab it again as he coughed and gasped. Then, I seized his tunic collar, pressing him against the tree.

“Stop trying to protect me!” I shouted in his face to break through the loud whistle of the wind and the roar of the sea. “I’m stronger than you.”

I wrapped my legs around his hips and moved his hand away from his dagger to replace it with mine. Imprisoned in my arms, he looked at me as if I had lost my mind, then a ravenous spark flashed in his eyes when I tightened my thighs to keep the currents from pulling him away.

“Bind yourself to me,” I told him, glancing at the rope around my waist. “ I will protect you.”

For the tiniest sliver of a moment, I thought I saw anger shadow his face.

Then he reached for my rope. It took a while because the water had made the knot I’d tied even tighter, the waves battered us from all sides, and the rain blinded us. When he finally managed to untie it, he wrapped the rope around our waists, pressing our abdomens together. Then he attached the remaining length of my rope to his.

We were once again terribly close. Holding the daggers, I loomed a few inches above him. My long hair fell over my face, forming a sort of curtain that shielded us from the storm.

He lifted his arms from the water and clasped his large hands over mine, as if to reinforce my hold on the hilts.

His eyes locked onto mine.

And they never once left them.

8

As the sea began to calm, I let go of the daggers and untied the rope connecting me to the human, avoiding his gaze, which felt like flames on my face as he studied me closely. I drew my blade from the tree trunk and hoisted myself on it, moving toward the roots to let the soldier climb up near the branches. Then, I used my weapon to carve a small cavity into the wood to collect rainwater before the rain ceased. The man waited a few moments before mirroring my actions.

At each end of the tree, we stared at each other as the storm gradually passed.

When the sky was clear and the water was still, he let out an exhausted exhale and leaned his back against the tree trunk.

I watched him rest until noon, replaying every single moment we shared in the last few hours in my mind.

Every look. Every touch. Every breath.

What had I been thinking? How could I have even let him touch me? And how could I have felt such visceral and . . . carnal emotions?

He was a human; I was an elf. Not only was I forbidden from feeling attracted to him, but it was also impossible for me to be. Aside from Mornon the Abomination, our kind had never been contaminated, as the Spirits assigned every elf a mate to share their life.

Or, at least, nearly every elf.

So why was I still here? What was it about this man that kept me from leaving?

But above all, why did I senselessly believe my place was beside him?

“You know, if you’d stopped staring at me for even one fucking second, maybe I could have taken a damn nap,” the soldier complained suddenly. “Your eyes feel like a volley of blades on my body.”

I immediately looked away, embarrassed that he’d sensed me gazing at him the whole time. But despite my efforts, as if I couldn’t help myself, I found my eyes drifting back to him again the very next moment.