“Stars-damned.” The curse came out in a low, gravelly tone. “At least tell me you’re heading back to your place, please.”
“Y-you don’t get to t-tell me . . .” I replied sweetly. “What to do. Especially when you aren’t here.”
I heard a growl from his end as Emberly shouted for me to hurry up before our food got cold.
“Raelyna, for the love of Aeternus, please head home. It’s notsafeout.”
I sighed dramatically, stumbling over a crack on the sidewalk. “Fine,” I whined. “But j-just know, it’s n-not fair you get to tell me what t-to do, when you aren’t here.”
My mind drifted in a drunk fog, thinking back to the other week, replaying the moment we nearly kissed, the feel of his hands along my body, the way his eyes consumed me entirely . . .
Especially when you won’t kiss me. Wonder what else those?—
I cleared the thought from my head, remembering where I was as I focused on my friends chasing each other through the sky, never straying too far from me, dipping and gliding while shouting out their favorite foods.
A century of living, yet you’d think we had just marked.
“Raelyna,” I heard my name growled in a dangerous tone, and I glanced around. “Raelyna, answer me.” I gave a quickglance before catching sight of the call . . . still live, on my phone.
Oh shit . . . how long had I been on the phone with him?
Another low, frustrated growl sounded, and I answered the phone, half distracted as Emberly shouted from overhead.
“Listen, would love-e-e to chat—got to fly—” The words were a muffled mumble as I raced after my two friends, tugging my wings from my back, ignoring the itch of very-much-still-present sand that was stuck between my feathers.
“Raelyna Kingsley.” My name was a perfectly menacing command from his lips. “Under no circumstances should youflydrunk . . . and especially not inthatdress.”
“It’s fine.” The words slurred as my wings gathered momentum and I rose into the air. “—do it all the time.”
“For the love of Aeternus—” I heard his voice in the distance, but I was focused on the air brushing across my skin as I glided through the air.
“Have a—” The wind howled in my ears as I flew. “—night, Sergeant,” I finished, before hanging up the device and tilting my wings as I headed toward Emberly’s apartment, a few blocks from my own.
31
CALLUM
4 Days Until Mission
She hungup the stars-damned phone.
She was fucking drunk, flying through the most dangerous district in Solis Quarter.
And she was drunk.
I slammed the phone down on the table with enough force that I heard the glass crack, frustration rising in me that I couldn’t ensure she was safe. I rubbed at that starbound mark on my wrist more fiercely. Ever since I’d returned to Aurum Quarter, the mark had been causing more issues than I believed it could. There was a constant pressure at the center of my soul—a demand to return to Solis and claim Raelyna as mine.
To be there for her, to protect her. Not that I needed the starbound mark to want to go after her and ensure her safety.
She wasmine, starbound mark or not.
But I couldn’t go after her . . . Not yet, at least. And every second apart was slowly killing me from the inside out.
“You okay?” Eleana asked as she watched me carefully from the other side of the war room. We had been scanning thedisplays, studying the minimal number of access points to travelsafelyacross The Rift with a large number of soldiers.
“Yes,” I bit out the word as my fingers drummed against the table before I picked up the blade I’d left on the surface and began twisting it through my fingers. I sat back, leaning my head back against the leather and closing my eyes as I bit back another groan of frustration.
Icouldn’tget her out of my mind. Her stars-damned smile, the brown curls that hung across her face, the scattering of freckles that danced along high cheekbones, the intoxicating scent of jasmine?—
