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“You cannot burn a Stonecroft woman, motherfucker,” she growls.
I land with a boom that shakes the forest, and all three of them whip their heads toward me. A roar of fury flies out of me, and I advance on the cloaked figure with death in my eyes. He makes a strange gesture with his gloved hands, and before I can reach him, the horned beast steps up behind him and they both vanish.
Another roar pours out of me, my rage shaking the sky. What kind of a coward runs from a fight?
“Xander!” Rowan cries.
I spin toward her, shifting as I go. By the time I reach her, I’m back in human form. The fire has burned away the ropes tying her ankles, but it hasn’t reached the ones at her wrists, which are bound high above her head. She’s hanging, all her weight on them, her skin chafed so raw it’s bloody.
Her magic envelopes me as I step into the fire to untie her. Two kinds of heat, from both the flames and the spell she cast. It sizzles against my skin, which is also now bare because of my shift. “Are you okay?” I ask, barely trusting myself to speak in the wash of emotion running through me.
“I’m fine,” she says softly.
My fingers work at the knot. “For a moment there, I thought…” I can’t even finish.
She trembles against me. “Me, too. But then I called on my magic, and I remembered that I have Sybil’s blood. And Sybil was a fire witch. That’s why she couldn’t be burned, either.”
The knot comes loose, and Rowan falls into my arms. We stand there for a moment, chest to chest, skin to skin, the flames raging around us. Fire witch. Her magic wraps around me and I realize in that moment I would tear the whole world apart to keep this woman safe.
And that’s exactly what I need to do now. Before this evil comes back.
I put one arm under her legs, scooping her up so I can carry her, and I take off into the woods. I’m not sure where I’m even going, just somewhere away from here. Somewhere she’ll feel safe. I run and run and run, trees whipping past in a blur, until I’m far away from the place where the beast took her. Her head rests against my chest, her long, silky hair soft against my skin.
Twenty minutes later, I finally stop. I realize, blinking as if awakening from a trance, that we’re in the meadow with the waterfall, the place where I first saw Rowan. I’d known instantly she was a witch, and yet if I’m being honest with myself, I’d been a goner from that first moment.
I set Rowan carefully in the soft grass near the creek. We stand face to face, neither of us saying anything. We’re both covered in soot and completely bare to the elements. To each other.
Her green eyes burn into mine. “Thank you. You saved me.”
“You looked like you were holding your own pretty well there,” I say. I reach out one hand and run my fingers through her hair, cup the side of her cheek in my palm. “I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t been okay.”
She shivers beneath my touch. “Xander,” she whispers, her voice low and smoky.
Her hand snakes around my back and she presses herself into me, like she can’t get close enough. Magic pulses off of her again, a lash of heat that sears my skin and my soul.
I couldn’t have resisted her if I tried. And I don’t want to try anymore.
With a growl and a rush of my own heat, I crush my mouth to hers. She tastes like smoke and fire. My tongue tangles against hers and I wind my hand deeper into her dark hair. Her arms wrap around my neck and she jumps up so that her legs encircle my waist. I grab her ass with my free hand, pressing her against me so she doesn’t slip.
Just a half moment of her hot center pressing against my groin makes me hard as a rock. Rowan kisses me furiously, desperately, burning against me like a million suns, like the fire goddess she is. My dragon surges below the surface. It has found its mate, and there will be no other. Not ever.
I drop to my knees, holding Rowan as I do, and guide us down into the grass.
