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It was wrong to think about him while being with Ales. What Ales could coax from my body was beautiful, but a part of me yearned for something more, for Logan.
Ales bit the shell of my ear before sucking the lobe playfully, sending goosebumps down my arms.
Did he recognize what was happening? I wasn’t fighting it. I was summoning the aether, fortifying the Valkyrie, and forging Her to Charlie so completely that the pieces could never be torn apart.
His lips moved to the apex of my neck and shoulder. He grazed his teeth against the skin before he bit slightly, then added pressure, slightly harder, then sucked at the spot. My aether pulsed at the area, staying where his mouth claimed. I wanted to scream; his mouth was excruciating, but the aether was unbearable. It went beyond pain.
I whimpered when he raised his lips from my neck.
His mind flashed more images into mine. Men of his world tattooing their mate in the same spot. “Like that, elskan mín?” His dark sated need rocked through my mind.
It wasn’t love or affection; in his world, it was protection—awarning to anyone who would harm the female wearing it. Ales had touched no other like this before. I knew it like I did my own memories because he showed me, linking me to the emptiness he’d experienced on his world. He had no one, and chose no other in his world to mark.
For the people of his world, the mark was better than love. It was the hope to survive, together. He wanted nothing more.
It shattered me and filled me in a way I didn’t understand. Every thought I had wouldn’t compare to what he’d done. I couldn’t concentrate enough to send another thought through the connection, so I leaned back against his shoulder and ran my fingers down his cheek while my hips continued to move to the music.
Ales leaned into me, exploring my movements. He let me rock against him, encouraging each thrust. His hands didn’t stop caressing my body—over my arms, down my torso, through my rain-soaked hair.
Each touch ignited sparks along my skin. I felt like I was kindling with energy, drawing it from Ales, from the stars and the moons. All parts of me were converging and doing things that shouldn’t be possible—the raindrops defied gravity, dancing from the spring up to the heavens. The aether echoed through the forest, intensifying the music, giving it the taste of dark nectar. I was tasing music.
The thoughts Ales flowed to me were of our dreams sprinkled with his past. The loss of Kara, the night he found Leo, when Cri and him first saw Eir, when he found Lana and her brother. He held a terrified Lana in his arms while Kara made her brother, Talon, an Einherjar.
I understood what he felt, what he saw, in those moments.
It wasn’t love he had for Kara, but a duty, even fear in many ways that kept him obedient to her. It was Cri who first taught him what loving a brother was like. It was Leo who taught him laughing was good for the soul. And it was Lana who showed him to hope for something more.
I dipped my hips and turned as I unlaced my hands from behind his neck.
He showed me the image of Talon, Lana’s brother, making my armor the way Ales requested it. Ales choosing the dye for the leather and the exact specifications of the material.
I recognized the man named Talon. He was the one I had danced with the first night on Eir—the red-haired Einherjar. And he was Lana’s brother… she hadn’t mentioned that part.
I sensed Ales’ confusion when he saw the man dance with me, and then he stopped the line of thought. It wasn’t jealousy he felt, but a need he didn’t understand. A need to be the one next to me. To touch me. To protect me.
“I understand your feelings,”I said into his mind.
I wasn’t sure why he had showed me the images at first, but as they continued, I realized they were the moments that defined him. To him, it was what made him human. He was teaching me, and the Valkyrie, what he knew of love.
I felt the surprise in his mind when I faced him and began circling my hips again into his. My hands smoothed up his chest. I looked into his silver eyes. The liquid silver was so bright, it was shining like a beacon in the rain. His pupils had vanished.
I inhaled sharply, still shocked at the sight. I could see his reality through the connection. It was empowering. I would never be able to undo what he’d given me, or look at him as anything other than the man I loved.
“That is all I am, elskan mín,” he said.
I swallowed as the feeling of his words sank into my mind. It was devastating. All of me was rocked by Ales’ memories.
The pressure of his hands against my skin felt like a brand, his lips felt like lightning.
I didn’t know how to return what he’d shown me. I wanted to give him what I knew as love. Charlie and the Valkyrie didn’t have the words or the thoughts yet, but we could express it another way… our body.
It would be intoxicating to kiss him like I had in my dreams.
The thought tangled in my mind. I tilted closer to close the distance between our lips.
Light vibrated through the raindrops beaming up from the spring, making them explode like tiny firecrackers.
“We can’t. Not tonight. You might drown the island in aether if you kiss me,” he whispered.
I froze in place. I had forgotten about everything outside of our connection. The people of Eir must be terrified.
Ales tightened his hold, pulling me against his chest so not even the light of the aether could come between us. “They aren’t afraid of you, but they might be wondering why it’s raining the wrong way.” He scraped his palms down my back. “I need more of this. I don’t want to end this yet. I need you like I’ve never needed another.”
Together, the Valkyrie and Charlie, as One being, spoke genuinely into his mind, “We need you more, Ales.”
