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And Aktor...
My teeth ground together.
He was the only one who didn’t watch me with poison arrows but only because his smugness had become his weapon.
He thought that Runa avoided me because she’d chosen him over me.
That I was yesterday and he was tomorrow and Runa had finally figured out what she wanted.
I refused to sit in the dark like I’d done every night, waiting for Runa to come to me, nursing my bleeding heart when she didn’t.
I’d done my best to withstand it.
To swallow down my pain and rage.
I was so close to losing control.
Far, far too close.
So, I’d done the only thing I could.
I’d summoned Rivoza and flown Zetas and myself across the grasslands to the only place I could find sanctuary.
Salak had welcomed us back as if we’d never left and, as I curled up with Kiu and her adolescent pups, I’d fought for patience, for control, for understanding.
I was grateful for the distance.
Relieved to be away from the Nhil.
Glad that I was too far away to march into Solin’s lupic, snatch Runa, and take her for myself.
The only thing stopping me from returning and stealing her was that cursed blood bind—
Wait.
I narrowed my eyes and looked at her carefully. She was still breathing, still standing. “How are you feeling being so far from Aktor?”
She stilled and sank within, testing the parts of her that were threaded with Aktor’s heartbeat. “I...I feel fine.” She smiled tentatively. “Better than fine.” Stepping into me, her fingers touched the back of my hand where I held her wrist. “I’m better now I’m with you.”
Her eyes clouded with pain again but whatever sadness she felt couldn’t stop the hum between us.
The burn of our marks.
The snapping, searing, blistering awareness that crackled through my blood and made me groan.
“Il lapinzana nu,” she whispered.
A grunt fell from my lips as if she’d punched me. “What did you say?”
“Il lapinzana nu, Darro.”
Memory after memory of her saying those three words in a different lifetime bombarded me. I gasped as my heart suffocated with drowning, dangerous love. “You remembered something.”
“I remembered something big.” Her eyes hooded. “That’s why I came. To tell you and see if—”
“Is that the only reason you came?” I growled softly. “No other?” I lowered my head until our noses touched. “You tell me you love me in a language only we know—using a phrase that was forgotten. A phrase that doesn’t just mean I love you but means we are one, we are each other’s, we are the sun and moon and every fucking star to each other—and expect me to just...talk?”
She shivered. “I also remembered the word vanzaari. It means—”
“Fated.” Every bone in my body shattered. “My fated other half. My perfect opposite.” Lust tangled with temper; I couldn’t fight it anymore. Everything she’d revealed could wait. Whatever she’d seen would still be there later.
She was remembering.
Like me.
And that made me want to kneel before her with relief and sweep her away from whatever consequences would appear.
Because they would appear.
They always did.
But right now...I needed.
I needed so fucking badly.
“Do. You. Trust. Me?” I asked again, slowly, deliberately, glowering into her eyes.
She stiffened and glanced at Salak.
The two of them shared a look I couldn’t decipher.
Finally, the alpha bowed his head as if she were his queen, then padded toward Zetas and nudged her toward the trees. I had no doubt he’d mount her. She’d left his pack, but while she shared his den, she would share her body too.
A full-body shudder wracked me.
“Runa...you either need to leave or answer me.” My voice resembled thunder and rust. “I’m at my limit.” A thread of shadows escaped my control. Death slunk through my veins, but I choked it back. “Runa.”
She jolted at my bark but slowly nodded, and with a fierceness that matched mine, she said firmly, almost coldly. “I trust you, Darro.” Her voice broke a little. “I choose you. Rightly or wrongly...you are my vanzaari and I choose you.”
“Thank the cursed stars for that.” I spun and broke into a march, pulling her with me.
She tripped and trotted to keep up. “W-Where are we going?”
“Keep your wolves out of the cave, Salak,” I snarled as I leaped up the small incline and yanked Runa up a moment later.
An answering growl chased me, and the scattering of paws disappeared into the treeline.
Runa tripped again as I dragged her unceremoniously into the sun-shadowed den.
Chapter Fifty-Five
. Runa .
DARRO WAS POSSESSED.
I’d never seen him so wild, so reckless. A tinge of silver lit his skin from within, and the faintest cloud of shadows followed us, barely there as if they weren’t permitted to escape but he didn’t have the strength to pull them back.
He didn’t stop as he dragged me to the back of the cave where we’d slept side by side, shared a meal, and I’d touched him for the first time.
