I didn’t think he’d changed his mind about wanting to kill Kobal, and I would still die for my king. Where that would leave us in the end, I didn’t know. And for now, I was content to remain oblivious. We may not have many happy days ahead of us; I was going to enjoy every one of the ones we did have.
When he stopped Zorn near a copse of evergreens, I blinked away the snow falling to coat my lashes and cheeks. The wind had died down last night, and the frantic pace of the snow had eased to lazy spirals dancing on the air.
“What is it?” I asked him.
He slid off Zorn’s back and lifted his hand to me. “I saw something.”
I took his hand and slid from Zorn’s back as I surveyed the woods, but I didn’t see anything out there. Still, I reached over my back to the hilt of my sword strapped there as we walked toward the trees and slipped underneath their heavy, snow-laden limbs. Beneath the thick boughs, the snow was less dense and only came to my ankles.
“What did you see?” I asked.
He bent to whisper in my ear. “An image of you naked.”
His words barely registered before he grasped my waist and turned me to face one of the trunks. Before I knew it, he was unbuttoning my pants and kneeling to taste me before taking me from behind. I forgot all about the cold as our bodies created an inferno that lit me from the inside out.
When we finished, his fangs remained embedded in my shoulder as he held me against him. Then his fangs retracted, and his lips left a tender caress along my throat.
“I can’t get enough of you,” he whispered in my ear.
I knew how he felt as my body already begged for more. However, the cold started to return, and I pulled my pants up. When I turned to face him, his eyes were that spectacular blue color again.
I’d seen that blue often over the past few days, but it never failed to amaze me. It didn’t appear just when we were having sex; I’d also looked up from talking with Fiora to find him watching me with a small smile on his face and those blue eyes.
Sometimes, even when we were in public, he would kiss me, and when he pulled away, his eyes would be blue again before shifting back to black. I’d started to challenge myself to find new ways to make them turn blue and tried to see if I could get them to stay that way longer, and they were.
I questioned if they would one day stay blue, but I doubted it. No matter how happy he was, he was still Wrath, and the burden of his angry, malicious power would always reside within him.
Besides, it was impossible to be happyallthe time, even if I had to restrain myself from skipping around the hotel while singing every day. If anyone else did such a thing, I’d probably stab them to shut them up, but I’d never been this happy before.
I was back with my friends, my sister was alive—something Ineverbelieved possible—and I had my Chosen, a man who I was growing to care for more and more each day. However, the rational part of me kept whispering this could all end so badly.
However, for now, I planned to savor our time together. This was the happiest time of my life, and I wasn’t ready for it to end. A part of me dreaded the day the snow stopped because the battles with the craetons, and possibly Wrath, would resume.
“Pride and Death are hunting me, you know,” he said as we rode back to the hotel.
I roused myself from my happy stupor as, for the first time in days, reality intruded on my joy. “They’re hunting all of us.”
“If they learn I’m here, it will bemethey come for the most. They know I killed War.”
“How could they possibly know that?”
“Few others could have done it, and I’ve vanished off their radar, something I’ve never done before. Once they see you, they’ll know you’re my Chosen. I’ve made that clear.”
That he had, multiple times a day.
“There’s no love between us, but there is the principle of it,” he said. “If Pride had done this, I would hunt him down and kill him too.”
“And they’ll learn you’re with us if they haven’t already. The demons who broke free in Eldorata aren’t going to forget the angels and demons with them.”
I leaned back against him and stared ahead as thoughts of the battle soon to come replaced my happy musings. One way or another, the fight with the horsemen was going to come to an end. I just didn’t know how many of us would remain standing when it did.
Wrath wrapped his arms around my waist. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“I won’t let anything happen to you either,” I vowed.
* * *
Bale
