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With a soft moan, I squeezed him and sucked harder. His hips twitched, feeding more of his length into my mouth.
“I feel what you’re thinking, Runa.” His fingers tightened in my hair, pressing himself deeper into my mouth as if to punish me. He stroked my cheek as I sucked him, ran a finger around my lips as they stretched around his girth. “Why won’t you tell me what scares you?”
Tears sprang from nowhere, trickling past my eyelashes. The droplets ran into the corner of my mouth, flavouring his dark taste with another layer of salt.
“You’ll shed far more tears if you don’t stop!” Quelis shouted.
My heart stumbled, struggling to find its regular beat.
“You feel it, don’t you?” Quelis whispered. “The blood bind is calling to you, Life Bringer.”
I didn’t care.
My heart could pound and flounder all it wanted but I wasn’t going back. Not yet. Not ever.
“Silly, silly bee. Stupid, stupid moth,” Quelis lamented.
The fire fell quiet as Darro drove upward into my mouth, wrenching my attention back to him. “I could make you tell me. I could pin you down and tear into your mind.”
My fingers shook around his hard length. Could he do that? Was he capable—
“I’m capable of anything,” he whispered coldly. “I’m death, but it seems that is merely the beginning.” His hips rocked again, setting his own brutal pace. He grunted as my teeth scraped his sensitive skin. “Every memory brings another one. And each one hints that I have far more power than any monster should ever have. You’ve said as much. Our forgetfulness hints as much. And one day, Runa, I promise you, I will walk in your mind as if it were my own. And you will walk in mine because I have nothing to hide. We will share everything. Because I’m so sick of you hiding from me. Of dealing with hardships on your own. Of refusing to trust me.”
With a snarl, he tore my head up with his handful of hair, holding me upright on my knees.
Our eyes locked.
Silver to gold.
His shadows slithered and tangled around us.
My glowing light beamed and glittered.
And in his feral-passionate hold, my heart dared to falter.
Not a skip this time or a gentle warning flutter, but a breath-gasping, blood-wrenching halt.
For the briefest of moments, I feared I would die.
That this was my end.
And part of me was grateful that at least it would happen in the arms of the man I loved, but then it struck up its rhythm again, slightly quieter, less determined, debating on whether or not to keep me breathing.
Darro’s gaze scorched mine, melting with love. “What do you see? What has that fire element done to you?”
This was the perfect moment.
The only moment to tell him the truth.
I opened my mouth to speak—
The dust of so many burned bones wafted around my ankles as I walked.
I’d walked alone for so long.
Hoping, begging, pleading.
But there was nothing.
Just me. And my sins. And the ash of what I’d done.
Only I existed and that was the greatest punishment.
I stopped walking.
My eyes fell upon a wolf fang.
An aching sob tore through me.
I made a choice.
The only choice.
I fell to my knees.
I snatched the fang.
I drew it firmly over my throat.
Blood sprang.
Golden nectar, immortal ichor, ethereal toxicity.
I grew cold, dull...lifeless.
I closed my eyes—
The vision disintegrated as Darro’s mouth captured mine.
I shivered as his hands cupped my cheeks, cradled my jaw, and held me firm as he kissed me back into this world. He kissed me as if he’d sensed how despairing I was, how broken and lost and...dead.
“Fuck, Runa.” His tongue traced my bottom lip. “Come back to me. Stay with me. Just stay with me and everything will be okay.”
I moaned as he kissed me again.
It started sweet, mingled with my taste and his.
But then, it changed.
It darkened.
Deepened.
Became bitter and sharp with danger.
It kept me locked with him.
It overshadowed the visions. It muted my failing heart.
I threw myself into the kiss.
I flung my arms around his shoulders and pressed my bareness to his.
In his taste, I could stay. In his overwhelming love, I could ignore the warnings and pretend that the breaking in my heart would never become real.
But the cracks in my already failing heart widened a little more.
Another flutter.
Another ominous cautioning.
I needed to return.
I knew that.
But...I couldn’t do it.
Maybe this was the way it had to be.
To die so no one else had to.
“More,” I commanded through our heartlink. “More. Please...give me more.”
Darro obeyed with reckless ferocity.
If he’d felt my distraction, at least he didn’t know what caused it.
He didn’t know that the longer I remained, the closer I tiptoed to death.
He didn’t know that I chose him over life itself. That I’d rather stay here than return to an existence where we were forbidden.
At least here, I was safe.
I was whole.
“More,” I begged, kissing him back, nipping at his tongue, driving him to the edge.
