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I ran my fingers through her hair, keeping her trapped in my hold. My forehead kissed hers as the world dissolved into shadow, private and hidden. “I will never stop fighting for you, Runa. Do you hear me? I will do whatever it takes to keep you safe and make you happy. That is my never-ending vow. No matter what happens. No matter if we succeed or fail. No matter what I have to do to finally call you mine, I will do it. I will kill, lie, cheat, and steal. I will embrace parts of me that I’m afraid of if it will mean I’ll finally have the power to free you.”
I sucked in a haggard breath as my heart galloped with furious promises. I kissed her again, swift and hard, feeding my truth onto her tongue. “I love you.”
She moaned and wrapped her arms around my head, holding me prisoner as she deepened the kiss.
Her tongue entered my mouth.
I kissed her back.
Viciously, violently.
Water waked around us as my hands roamed her body, squeezing, cupping, caressing. Her hands followed mine, grazing down my chest, my belly, wedging between us where our hips collided.
I grunted as her fingers circled my length.
I lost my mind as she kissed me and touched me, driving me into mindless savagery.
My mouth opened wide, and our kiss turned frantic, wild.
My hips drove into her hand, thrusting into her palm, not caring if it was the smaller fire mark or the large bee scribed into her flesh that stroked me.
It wasn’t enough.
I would never get enough when it came to her.
Kissing her with every pent-up fury inside me, I snatched her wrist and yanked her fingers from my pounding flesh. She moaned in frustration but then cried out as I grabbed her hips, hoisted her higher, and searched for the part of her that I’d hungered for ever since I’d watched Salak mount his females.
I was nothing more than a beast as the tip of me found her wet, silky heat.
Her head fell back. Her nails pierced my shoulders.
Shadows poured out of me as I snarled and went to thrust—
Gone.
In a single heartbeat, Runa was downstream, and I jerked with agonising irritation. She tried to swim back to me, but the water gleamed blue. Not just a gentle shimmer this time but a blinding light that made us wince and shield our faces from the glare.
“We said brief goodbyes, not forbidden pleasures,” the watery melody sang. “Be gone.”
I punched the water’s surface, my head throbbing and shadows blotting out the sun. A cloud of moths hovered just above my head as if they’d descended from the hidden moon and fluttered with whispered messages.
The white one with its black-banded legs and silvery wake flew close. “You want to know why you compelled every spirited thing to keep you apart? I’ll tell you with no riddles or mystery. She will die, and you will be the cause. You will feel her spirit pass through you and go where you cannot follow.”
Every heated, frantic part of me froze.
Was that true?
“Darro...” Runa fought against the water’s current, suddenly keeping us apart. “Let’s go. We can talk elsewhere.” Her eyes still burned with the same need that’d infected me, but a wariness also existed. She glanced at the billow of moths above my head. “D-Did you summon them?”
Almost as if the moths didn’t want to be seen by any other, they broke out of their tight formation and drifted back into the sky. My shadows faded too, flowing downstream as I forced myself to let go of the passion from before.
The water stopped glowing blue.
The melody ceased into tense silence.
Zetas barked from the shoreline, prickling my back with worries.
Runa reached for me as she fought against the river acting as strict chaperone, but I parried backward. My need for her and the many promises I’d just uttered sat like rocks in my belly.
I loved her.
That much was true.
But I couldn’t stop the echoes of what the moth had said.
“She will die, and you will be the cause. You will feel her spirit pass through you and go where you cannot follow.”
Nausea tangled with my headache.
I needed to be alone.
To think.
To remember.
Before it was too late.
“We...we need to leave.” I turned my back on her and swam with curt, cutting strokes toward the shore.
* * * * *
We walked side by side but didn’t touch as we returned to the Nhil camp.
We hadn’t said a word as we’d swiped away as much water as we could, avoided each other’s stares as we dressed, and walked stiffly through the grasslands with Zetas escorting us.
Runa’s wet hair dripped down her back, darkening her deerskin as we broke through the tall grass and slammed to a stop on the edge of the central clearing. “Are we going to talk about what happened?” she asked finally, quietly.
