This was something different. It was raw and vibrant. His veins thrummed with energy as his skin prickled with awareness. His gaze fell on his marks on her shoulder. They didn’t glow in the sunlight, but they were vivid against her flesh.
Is this influx of power because she’s my mate andit’s been a while since I’ve fed, or is it something more?
Her head came back down, and she gave him a small, sultry smile before it vanished and her eyes flew to his chest.
“Are you okay?” she demanded.
He grinned at her. “I’m better than okay.”
“Your wounds—”
“They feel better than before. I told you, you would help to heal me.”
Her fingers rested against his chest. “It does look a little better.”
“It is,” he assured her.
When she continued to look worried, he clasped her hand and pressed it flat against his chest. It was time to reveal to her the one thing he still hadn’t told her… that he’d never shownanyonebefore. It would help to ease her apprehension, or at least, he hoped it would.
“Do you remember when we were in the canoe on the lake by your manor?” he asked.
“I do.”
“Do you remember when I said there was one more thing I had to tell you, but it would be easier to show you?”
She bit her bottom lip before replying. “Yes.”
“It’s time to show you.”
* * *
Lexi bracedherself as Cole stared up at her from eyes that were once more a vibrant blue. She loved that striking color, but the tinge of uncertainty in them alarmed her. He was never uncertain about anything.
Then he grasped her hips and shifted her so she slid off him. She instantly missed the feel of him inside her and the connection between them, but he was already moving away. Before she could stop him, he swung his legs out of bed and rose.
“Cole—”
Her protest died when, as he rose, black ciphers materialized across his back, his ass, down his thighs, and to his calves. She forgot how to breathe as she leaned forward to discover more of them spreading across his feet.
She’d heard the dark fae concealed some of their ciphers and only allowed a certain amount to be visible to the outside world, but she’d never expectedthis.They covered his entire back.
When he turned toward her, the breath she’d forgotten about hitched into her burning lungs. Not only did they cover all of his backside, but they also covered his entire front too, including his face.
When her gaze fell lower, her jaw dropped at the flame-like markings encircling the head of his penis. They wereeverywhere.There wasn’t one inch of his skin that didn’t have some kind of marking on it.
It was amazing, and beautiful, andterrifying.How much power did he possess? What exactly could he do if pushed to the absolute edge of his control?
She hoped never to learn the answer to that question. If he hadn’t lost complete control when the Lord killed his father, it would take something horrific to shove him over the edge.
He’d spent centuries keeping this power locked away and controlled. He’d already possessed more ciphers than any of the other dark fae, except maybe his father, but she hadn’t seen much of his father’s markings.
And she realized now she’d only seen the tip of the iceberg when it came to Cole’s. Had it always been like this, or had the trials created this? Maybe he hadn’t spent centuries learning to control himself; maybe, he’d only spent the short time they’d had between the trials and now.
Chapter Twenty-Five
When she tippedher head back, she discovered his eyes—which were an impossiblybrighterblue against the black ciphers beneath his eyes—latched onto her.
“How…? I… I… This is amazing. Have these always been on you, or did the trials do this?”
