“Yes and no,” I answered carefully, treading the dangerous line between truth and deception “Yes, for my mother’s sake, but otherwise…” I paused, weighing my words.“I wouldn’t leave.”
I was playing a deadly game.One wrong word could ruin everything.
“My turn,” I said quickly, desperate to shift focus.“Can you tell me the story of Azmik?”
His smile was slow as he backed away, walking deeper into the water.
“I will tell you.”He lifted a dripping hand in invitation, water trickling between his fingers.“But only if you get in properly.”
I rolled my eyes, but curiosity won over caution.Kaseer had told me about Azmik, but I wanted—needed—to hear it from him.
“Fine.”I slid into the water with a sharp gasp as the cold water enveloped me.
Dalkhan wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me against him.His body heat seeped through my soaked clothes.Without thinking, I wrapped my legs around his waist as he waded deeper, looping my arms around his neck for stability.
“That’s better,” he murmured, his hands settling possessively on my hips.“Much better.”
Sunlight fractured across the water’s surface, highlighting his features in gold.
“You’re staring,” he observed.
“So are you,” I countered, feeling bolder.I adjusted deliberately in his hold, his pupils dilating in response.
“You know you don’t have to hold me,” I pointed out, arching an eyebrow.
“Okay then.”
He released me, and I immediately began to sink.With his towering height, the water hardly reached his chest, but if I were to touch the bottom, I would be completely submerged.
I clutched at him frantically, my arms locking around his neck.
He laughed, his powerful arms returning to support me.
“You were saying,” he teased.
I narrowed my eyes.
“Tell me about Azmik,” I reminded him firmly, struggling to keep my thoughts coherent as he traced circles against the small of my back.
“It was centuries ago,” he began, his voice rising over the rushing water as he moved us closer to the cascading falls.“Before the Veil was created.”
He adjusted his grip, holding me more securely.The hard planes of his body pressed intimately against my softer curves.
“I was mounting my stallion and when I’d looked down, he was lying there, crushed beneath a hoof.”
“What did you feel?”I asked.“When you saw him dying?”
Surprise flashed across his features.
“Nothing, at first,” he admitted.
“But something changed?”
He nodded slowly, his thumb absently tracing the line of my collarbone “He was dying—writhing in agony.I was going to end him, save him from his misery with a quick death.A mercy killing.”
His eyes grew distant, but his hands remained achingly present on my body.
“But as I knelt beside him, Azmik struck me with what little strength he had left.His fangs bared, venom dripping.Even crushed, his will to live burned brighter than the pain consuming him.”
