CHAPTER THIRTEEN
With the rare occurrence of soulbinding, some couples have taken to air oaths, binding themselves to their choice of mate by breath, rather than soul.
—Bonded Magic, 18thlevel, Living Library.
It took all my strength to keep from sprinting into his arms. He stalked toward me, closing the distance between predator and prey. A role I loved to play with him. He let a bit of that brilliant light out as he moved through the distracted crowd, easily disguised among the flashes of colored powder and bodies writhing around us.
I scanned his body as I searched for injuries or changes, my heart easing after finding none. His scent hit me like a bucket of water as I took a deep breath of cool pine and salty sea. My heart galloped against my ribs as his eyes roved from my bare feet up to my face and back down, filthy with dirt, sweat, and six different types of nebulis powder.
He crossed the distance in an instant and had my face in his warm hands a heartbeat later. His nostrils flared, scentingeverything happening to me in an instant. I opened my connection to him and let it pour from me. The love, theneed, the happiness.
“I didn’t feel you coming,” I murmured.
His mouth, inches from mine, quirked up into a wicked smile. “Surprise. Happy Awakening, Angel.”
He brought his lips to my forehead, planting a soft, tender kiss in its center. My mouth found his in an instant as he pulled back to look at me. His lips…Gods, I missed his lips. They were soft and hard, burning and cooling, smooth and claiming all at once. I opened my mouth to his, and his tongue slipped against mine, smooth and practiced. I devoured him as my hands slid through his dark hair, gripping him harder against me. I pressed my body against his, and the shimmering powder smeared against my chest.
Home. This was home.
As if sensing it, he pulled his lips away from mine and murmured, “I’ll always come back to you.”
“Bayne!” A drunken Isla skipped through the crowd and danced around our forms.
“Happy Awakening, Isles,” he said, flashing her a smile and sliding his hands to my waist.
She continued her skipping, now drawing the attention of the elves surrounding us. Their eyes widened as they took in Bayne. Several of them bowed or placed their fingers to their brows.
Bayne frowned, taking it in. He was used to the elves’ respect, but he wasn’t seen as nobility. He looked back at me, a question forming on his lips.
“I’ll fill you in later,” I murmured, eyeing the elves near us. I let out a sigh. “I have a lot to fill you in on, actually.” My thoughts drifted to my air oath with the queen, the failed attempts with the ashen…
His fingers found my chin, and he gripped it with his thumb and forefinger, bringing my face an inch from his.
“Me too, but not tonight,” he whispered, shaking his head. “Tonight is about life. Dance with me.”
His fingers snaked down my arms and twined with my own as he twisted me around, crossing my arms in front and pressing me into him. He leaned in close, head tucked above my shoulder. I sagged into him, breathing in his scent and falling into the rhythm he set with his hips against my back.
I’d never danced with someone like this. The frenzied beat of the music had subdued, pressing the bodies of those matching its notes closer together. His fingers released mine, and my hands slid along the back of his neck as he moved behind me. His hands found my hips and torso, still slick with sweat from the muggy day.
“Gods, I missed you,” I breathed, the words barely audible over the heavy beat of drums.
“I missed everything about you. Your scent,” he murmured into my ear as he sucked in a deep breath.
The hard length of him pushed behind me, and a rush of familiar longing skirted down my abdomen.
“Your taste.” He bent his head, his tongue sliding along the line between my shoulder and neck. I shuddered, my skin pebbling in its wake. He let out a chuckle that reverberated through my bones.
He spun me to face him, and his eyes shuddered, a darkness I’d grown to love dancing within his forest green irises.
“Let me show you how much I’ve missed you,” he whispered, the plea on his breath brushing softly against my lips.
Please, I mouthed.
A soft growl escaped his lips. His hand slid down my arm, and he laced his fingers with mine, turning and leading us through the writhing bodies and boisterous celebration.
A network of small caves and underground rivers flowed south of the Eye of the Wood, connecting to a labyrinth of sinkholes dotting the southern end of the forest. The sound of distant celebration disappeared in the rushing of waterfalls as we entered a cave a mile away. Soft moonlight slithered in from the various openings in the stone ceiling, rippling along the shallow, clear waters.
Bayne dropped my hand and dove into the spring. The water stripped the glittering nebulis from him and fanned out in a cloud of silver and gold. He kicked, aiming for the opposite wall, where his dark head breached the surface, and he shook his hair, white droplets of water spraying off the chiseled body his wet clothes clung to. He turned to me, lips tilting up into a mischievous, beckoning grin as those piercing green eyes devoured me where I stood.
