“She is spending herself too easily,” Tor’en said through a half-hearted growl, the wide sleeves of his robe snapping as he crossed his arms over his chest.
“She is,” Er’it agreed with a calm he didn’t share with the others. He’d tucked away some of the remaining jerky, the heavily spiced kind that Aida enjoyed so much. She might be upset he’d denied the villagers that much, but he would see her fed well for all that she poured out to aid these people.
Shrugging off Ath’asho’s cautioning hand, Er’it made his way to where Aida crouched in a circle of women. He cared little for their fear and startled eyes as he knelt behind his Omega, pressing his chest against her back to see what she did now. Snarling a vicious curse, he slapped the rough leather from Aida’s hands to grip her wrists, bringing the raw ruin of her palms up for his inspection.
Her delicate skin abraded, nicked, and smeared with blood and dirt in places, she had the good sense to lower her head and submit. Er’it turned her small hands this way and that, not daring to run his thumbs over the livid red marks marring her perfect flesh.
“Enough of this,” he said, rising and pulling Aida up with him.
“They don’t have enough people to bear all the packs! Braiding the straps together means they can each carry more.”
“Enough.”
“No!”
Dark and malevolent, the rumble filled the air, shaking loose the smaller debris to clatter and tumble through the remains of the village. The people screamed and turned fearful eyes toward the remaining peaks piercing the sky around them.
“Er’it!” Tor’en shouted. Warning without daring to look away, his gaze snagged on the mountains just like the others.
“Calm yourself,” Er’it ground out, gripping Aida’s shoulders hard as he tugged her to face him.
The sapphire blue of her power stained her skin, already crackling in miniature lightning strikes into the charged air. It was a warning of the vicious storm to come if she lost control once again, and this time, they would all pay the price. The stars caught in her eyes brightened, soaring through the midnight blackness in glorious comets that matched the fury he felt pounding in his chest. Her anger, her fear, far exceeded his own. Aida tore her gaze away from his and looked to the rocky giants, her lower lip quivering.
“Kou’vera, breathe,” Er’it whispered, demanding her attention as he stepped close. Lowering his head, he brushed a kiss against the side of her trembling mouth. Her gasp at the electrifying contact was as good an invitation as any. Gripping her nape with one hand, he invaded.
Violating her in the most delicious of ways, Er’it rumbled his pleasure as his tongue delved inside the warm sweetness of her. Lapping up her startled moan, he breathed in the shuddery sigh that followed. Swallowing her very essence as his hands moved to pull her closer, crushing her against him, he sought to distract her.
This helped neither of them. Her power sizzled through the air, arcing out in violent bursts. The crack and boom of thunder filled the valley. Tangled through the icy blue, the flickering gold of his magic soared. The depth of his years and the knowledge he’d acquired melded with her, turning the untried slashing of her youth into the fatal strike of a well-seasoned soldier, honing the savage strength of her into something awesome.
He heard the shouting and screaming of everyone around them, knew he must do something, yet he drowned in Aida’s dainty whimpers and the scratch of her nails at his neck as she tried to pull herself up his body. She yearned for him in a way he never dreamed she could or would, not after the way he had treated her, not after he’d felt the endless depths of the thrice-cursed abyss residing deep in her heart.
It began as a rumble as low and deep as the shuddering of the peaks above them, a deep growl resonating through his chest and becoming louder as Aida squirmed and whined within his crushing embrace. He had to do something… something other than nipping at her swollen lips just to hear her decadent hum.
It was an easy thing to reach out with that other sense, touching Aida where no one before him had dared ever tread. The frozen sapphire core of her power pulsed behind his eyes, ricocheting around his skull in a furious rhythm that continued to grow faster, stronger. Er’it felt it. Shards of ice in his veins, tearing him apart from the inside, stilled his lungs even as Aida breathed warmth back into them.
He couldn’t believe the rawness, the endless expanse of it. He’d felt a mere hint of her power before when she’d helped heal his wounds from the arrows. Even during her rages, when she lost all control, it was nothing compared to the sensation of holding the biting core of it in his hands. Cold as the starshine in her eyes, it did not like his heat, did not care for the fire of his blood.
It wanted out.
Er’it couldn’t hear a thing above the roaring in his ears, not realizing it came from his lips until Aida screamed against his open mouth and raked her nails down his nape to dig deep into his shoulders. She clung to him as he forced the weighted length of his arm to move, his clenched fist quaking with the roiling blue glow that was Aida. Hauling her up his body, he sealed their mouths together once more, feeding her the vicious sound erupting from deep within him as he guided all her strength toward something that couldn’t be harmed.
A sound akin to the hard snap of leather, the crack of wood, pushed through the decimated village. An invisible force, it distorted the air in sultry waves that held the razor-sharp edge of winter. It knocked everything to the ground except Er’it and Aida. The source of it all, they remained untouched except for a chilled breeze smelling of snow and spring that ruffled her curls and tickled Er’it’s cheeks. He moaned against Aida’s lips as the energy flowed from his fingertips. Surging, flaring, it dimmed the sun to nothingness as its glow filled the clearing. Deepest midnight shading to the brightest sky, flecked white and tangled with red-gold, he could see it in his mind’s eye, though his gaze remained shuttered with the agonizing rapture of it.
Dragging a wheezing breath into his lungs, Er’it pried his eyes open to find them both kneeling, a dense ring of flowers nodding around them with lush grasses creeping along the hard-packed dirt. The scrubby stems and thick-leaved greenery of his dry desert home were interspersed with delicate ferns and buds. Standing tall among it all were the heart-shaped flowers he’d long ago associated with her. Deep plum petals shading to brilliant yellow and streaked with a pure sky blue, it was the oddest combination of colors he’d ever witnessed yet one of the most beautiful. Er’it’s hand trembled with the strain to reach out and caress a delicate bloom, the warmth of it a sigh against his roughened skin. The same sigh Aida feathered against his shoulder where her lips pressed against the mark she’d placed there.
Dragging his head up, he looked around to see what damage had been done. All the hard-earned breath left his lungs in a hard whoosh when he saw it. Clutching Aida tighter, he could only gape at the scene unfolding before him.
The land was healed and more. Old growth and trees stood as silent sentinels over the space once littered with rubble and ruin, and thick grass cushioned the feet of the aghast villagers as they stumbled about in awe. Every boulder gone as if it never existed, what rocks remained were nothing more than a natural part of the landscape. Even the raw edges of the sheared mountainsides had been rubbed smooth and worn, shrubs and trees spotting their hills. Flowers of all kinds still pushed their way free of the rich brown earth, passing from tender seedling to ripened seed within the space of a single breath. The process repeated again and again, fields of the blooms bursting into existence as they all watched on. The road remained clear yet no longer had the dusty appearance of misuse. It seemed as any other well-used road, sprigs of grass and stubby weeds sprouting from the edges.
None of it cared that it was the dead of winter and that snow blanketed the world beyond. Within this space, it was spring and summer, and Er’it was certain it would remain so for some time to come.
“Incredible,” Er’it breathed against Aida’s temple, gathering her against his chest until she relaxed in his embrace. Tipping his chin aside to give her access to the space her mouth worked against, her faint purr resonated through his bones.
The loss of that quiet sound startled Er’it from his shocked state. Aida hung limp in his arms, her head lolling against his shoulder. The smallest shift sent her clutching arms to flop boneless against his sides. His roar echoed to the sky, a denial so vicious it had the villagers screaming and his soldiers drawing their swords.
“She’s only unconscious, Your Majesty,” Maruk said through panting breaths, a livid bruise decorating his cheek as he leaned closer to inspect Aida without touching her. “She’s overspent herself is all.”
“Do something,” Er’it demanded, hearing his voice crack and not caring a whit about it as he struggled to his feet. Just directing such energy had sapped him of his physical strength. The very idea that his sweet, tender Aida could even contain such power was horrifying.
