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“Switch to ice.” Wes ground his teeth as he widened his stance. “We’ll freeze it.”
Slowly, we began cutting through the smoke, freezing it in blocks of ice that shattered on the hard forest floor. The curse swirled, desperately trying to reform as we closed in on it. With one final push, we froze the last remaining tendril. A scream tore through the air, raising the hair on the back of my neck. Then nothing. As if it had never been there at all.
I dropped my arm, unable to hold it for a moment longer.
“Is that it?” Wes asked. “Did we beat it?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so, but I think we gave ourselves a well-deserved break. It’s not even at full power yet, but I’m pretty sure it spent whatever stores it had built up. I think we’ve got a few days, maybe longer, before it tries again.”
“If it comes back stronger next time, we’re fucked.”
“Not necessarily.” I turned my gaze up the road. Devastation crushed my heart as my gaze snagged on the place where my grandma’s house should’ve stood. It had taken too much today. “You need to talk to Finn and Donovan. Cole too, if he’s willing. I’ll talk to Violet and Brooke. We can’t keep fighting this thing alone. The others need to step up.”
I felt bad for Finn. Truly. Seeing Thora again had wrecked him, and that was at a distance. Working with her would be worse, but we were out of time. The curse was done playing head games with us. It wouldn’t bother coming back until it could take on a physical form, and with that, we couldn’t afford to let the others off the hook anymore.
“I know. We’ll deal with it tomorrow though,” Wes said. “Right now, all I want to do is get you home and sleep for a week.”
The hike down to our side of the island was brutal. I wanted to stop by the cave again, just to make sure the curse really was spent for the time being, but Wes flat out refused. Which was for the best. Neither one of us had anything left to deal with it if I was wrong.
The trip took us twice as long as it should’ve since we both needed frequent breaks. If we tried this again, we’d need something a lot stronger than trail mix for energy. My thighs burned and my feet were completely numb by the time I stumbled into my shop. Wes kept a firm arm around me as I locked up for the day and proceeded to have the hardest conversation of my life with my grandma.
She squeezed my face between her hands. “It’s just a house. We’ll build a new one. The only thing I care about is your safety.”
“I’m sorry.” Tears filled my eyes once more as I hugged her tight.
She stroked my back. “Never apologize for coming back from a battle.”
Wes gave her the keys to his place, since he didn’t have any open rooms at the hotel. Then Wes and I went upstairs and took a shower where we actually just showered for once, and fell into bed. I passed out the moment my head hit the pillow and slept for sixteen hours. My dreams were restless. Dark. I woke to the lingering sound of snakes hissing in a black pit as a man with a forked tongue paced and planned.
I woke with a start, my heart pounding in my throat. Another dream about a forked-tongue man howling in a cold cave hovered on the edge of my consciousness before disappearing altogether. I rubbed a hand over Wes’s chest, needing the feel of his solid warmth against me. I’d come so close to losing him to the darkness.
But we beat it back. It couldn’t penetrate our minds anymore and it couldn’t break us, despite the enormous effort it put forth. Even when it destroyed my grandma’s home, I still fought and won. That’s what I had to keep remembering.
The curse hadn’t come at us again in the last few days, as expected. The black smoke hadn’t made an appearance since we stopped it from raining down fire. Temperatures returned to normal, making residents on the island less antsy, and there was no sign of its influence in the forest. Flowers bloomed along the trails and plant life was once again lush and green. Save for the dead zone, but there was no helping that area.
Wes’s palm glowed a golden green in his sleep, and I let my magic go just a little, taking comfort in the way our lights shined with the same hue.
Two halves of a whole.
I kissed my way down his chest. Taking him in my mouth was my favorite way to wake him up. By the time I licked him down to the hilt of his shaft, his hands were in my hair and he was groaning. He tilted his hips, and I sucked him harder, letting him know it was okay for him to fuck my mouth. The head of his cock hit the back of my throat and my eyes watered, but I loved it. Loved the sounds he made and the way he barely maintained control. My clit throbbed and I reached a hand between my slick thighs to ease the ache.
“No, you don’t. That’s mine.” Wes flipped me over and kissed me down to my center. Spreading me open with his thumbs, he breathed me in deeply before licking me until I was shaking and shuddering beneath him.
Once I came back down, he flipped me over again and kissed the curve of my spine. “I love this ass.” He nipped one of my cheeks with his teeth, and I moaned. “You’re still so wet, baby. How bad do you want my cock?”
I shook my head, refusing to answer, even as I tilted my ass into the air to give him easier access. He chuckled as he gripped my hips and slid into me from behind. I tightened around him, and he paused, breathing through his clenched jaw.
“Almost lost it there. Jesus, your pussy feels too good.” He slowly slid out of me before ramming back in, hard, knowing exactly what would drive me over the edge.
I pushed back against him, my breath coming out in short gasps as my pulse raced and my orgasm slammed into me. A few pumps later, Wes followed. He rolled us both over and gathered me against his chest, in that place that felt like it had been made just for me.
He gave me a sleepy and sated smile. “You should close your shop today.”
I laughed as I pushed off from his chest. The sheets pooled around my bare waist and his eyes lit with hunger. While the way he looked at me had me seriously considering his request, I had less than a week to go before the summer solstice festival, and I couldn’t afford to lose the hours. Especially because I’d already lost half my Sunday when fighting off the curse had wiped us out for the rest of the day and night.
I leaned down and kissed him. “Are you going to ask me to close every day?”
“Yes.” He buried his hands in my hair. “One of these days I’ll get to keep you in bed for at least twenty-four hours.”
