"Winter."
I looked back to find him standing exactly where I'd left him, the red thread between us pulled taut but unbroken.
"I do feel it." The words clearly costing him. "But feeling something doesn't make it wise. Or safe."
I stared at him, his perfect posture, his immaculate suit, his face that struggled to maintain its practiced neutrality. All the careful barriers he'd built over centuries of existence, threatening to crumble when faced with something as simple and as complicated as desire.
The red thread between us pulsed brighter as I walked back to him, drawn by something beyond my understanding. Bureau employees moved around us, none of them aware of the connection that bound us together, visible only to our eyes.
When I reached him, I leaned in close, the scent of his cologne filling my senses, clean, precise, with undertones ofsomething ancient and magical. My lips nearly brushed his ear as I whispered:
"You don't have to be scared of wanting something impossible."
I felt rather than saw the shudder that ran through him, the carefully constructed walls finally giving way. His silver-blue eyes darkened as he turned to me, his face transformed by a hunger I'd never seen there before.
In one fluid movement, so unlike his usual measured gestures, Fenric took my face in his hands and pressed his lips to mine.
The kiss was electric, shocking in its intensity. There was nothing hesitant or tentative about it. His mouth moved against mine with desperate certainty, as if he'd been imagining this moment for far longer than he would ever admit. I gasped against his lips, and he used the opportunity to deepen the kiss, his tongue sliding against mine.
Before I could fully process what was happening, he had backed me against the nearest wall, one hand tangled in my hair, the other at my waist. With the solid surface behind me and his body pressed against mine, there was nowhere to retreat, nowhere to hide from the raw emotion pouring from him.
I'd never imagined Fenric could kiss like this, hard, demanding, almost rough in his need. His teeth caught my lower lip, drawing a moan from me that should have embarrassed me in the public setting but only seemed to drive him further.
The blue markings on my skin flared in response to my racing pulse, and the red thread between us glowed so brightly it cast shadows across his face. I could feel him everywhere, his chest against mine, his fingers gripping my hip, his leg pressed between my thighs in a way that made heat pool in my core.
When he finally pulled back, we were both breathing hard, my hands somehow having found their way to his chest, his tiedisheveled for perhaps the first time since I'd known him. His eyes were wild, pupils dilated, the usual silver-blue barely visible around the edges.
"Everyone else has gotten to taste you," he said, his voice rough, almost unrecognizable.
Before I could respond, a loud alarm began blaring throughout the building. Red lights flashed, and Bureau agents began rushing toward the security stations.
"What's happening?" I looked to Fenric over the noise.
He was already consulting his tablet, his expression shifting from personal conflict to professional concern in an instant. "Level One emergency. There's been a Veil breach at the eastern containment facility."
The urgency in his voice made my heart race. "Is that bad?"
"Very," he was already moving, all personal matters forgotten in the face of duty. "We need to go. Now."
I nodded, falling into step beside him as we headed for the Bureau's transport area. Whatever was happening between us would have to wait. Again.
But as we rushed toward whatever new crisis awaited, I was acutely aware of the red thread still connecting us, pulsing with a rhythm that matched the beating of our hearts. Whatever Fenric might say, whatever walls he might try to maintain, this connection between us was real.
And from what we'd seen in the Archive, it might be more important than either of us realized.
Chapter
Thirty-Two
Winter
Iwoke with a gasp, my body drenched in cold sweat. The darkness of my bedroom pressed against me as I tried to orient myself, heart hammering against my ribs. Something was wrong. I couldn't remember dreaming, but my hands were glowing faintly blue, casting eerie shadows across the walls.
When I pulled back the blanket, I found a spiral burned into the fabric, a perfect coil that smoldered slightly at the edges. I stared at it, trying to make sense of what I was seeing.
"What the hell?" I touched the pattern with trembling fingers.
The mirror on my dresser caught my attention with a flicker of movement that shouldn't have been there. I turned more toward it, freezing when I saw not just my reflection but something else. A version of myself with a bleeding mark over my left eye, there and gone in an instant when I blinked.
