Stare stabbed at the room’s only exit not far from the foot of my bed, I bring her tight, trembling fist up to my mouth and nuzzle my nose against it, easing it loose as I draw on the rich, spicy scent of amber sweetened with a floral pinch. “Once upon a time, there was a boy who had everything,” I rumble, then kiss the tip of her thumb. “Until someone he cared about found an unbreakable love that broke her.”
Broke everything.
I swallow and clear my throat before kissing the tip of Orlaith’s pointer finger as another whimper splits apart her trembling lips.
“The boy learned that love destroys.”
She nuzzles deeper into my chest, her tremble melting away when I drag my nose up the length of her middle finger.
Kiss the tip.
“That boy became a man with nothing left to lose,” I murmur, planting a kiss on the tips of her two smallest fingers. “Until he did.”
Her sobs lose strength, as if part of her is listening.
I think back tothatday—when I replaced Baze in the training room to knock some sense into her. I remember her cutting through my shirt with her blade. The look in her eyes when she thought she’d wounded me, like it mattered to her.
Something more than just protective instinct sparked inside me. A flame I wanted to immediately douse.
I hate you.
Oh, precious. You don’t even know the meaning of the word.
I look down at her face tipped to the side, her warm breath skating over my thin shirt. “He did what he knew best.” Brushing the hair back from her cheek, I watch her lashes flutter. “He destroyed.”
Destroyed it before it could destroy her.
But …
“It didn’t change her fate like he’d hoped,” I dredge out, dragging my thumb across her lower lip. “Didn’tsaveher. And though she was tied to him inexplicably, he lost her in all the important ways.”
I thread my fingers through her hair, tip her head the slightest amount. Pretend she’s looking up at me with those heartbreak eyes I want to piece back together again.
“But that didn’t stop him.”
It wouldneverstop him.
“Because he was hers—forever—even though he knew his love was lethal.”
He was hers.
Aharshtap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tapagainst my ribs rouses me, and I groan, rolling over, nuzzling into mounded furs that smell like the raw musk of our lovemaking. ‘Go back to sleep, Zyke.’
‘Wake. Mate gone. Zykanth trapped in little man chest.’
My eyes pop open, and I scan our nest …
Empty.
Shit.
‘Why didn’t you wake me earlier?’ I blurt, heart lurching, scales prickling to the surface of my chest, spreading across my shoulders, down my arms. ‘And get back in, or you’ll rip apart her home and destroy her treasures. She won’t like your scales so much then.’
‘You have weak skin. Need strong scales. Protect soft little mate who thinks big strong.’
‘Calm down,’ I groan, leaping up while Zykanth churns inside me.
‘Go. Find. Move fast little feet.’
