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So they knew.
‘ — andlook at us. How are we supposed to…’ he trailed off. ‘After everything we’ve been through… We’re here because Seb has it in for Thea, not us.’
His words cut deeper than any blade. Every dark thought she had had about herself, they thought, too. She was their curse. And they had finally realised it.
‘She nearly died rescuing you,’ came a deep voice from within the room. ‘If you’re looking for someone to blame, blame the bastard who bound you and left you there to drown. Don’t you dare lay the blame at a friend’s feet.’
Hawthorne.
‘Where —’ Cal spluttered. ‘Where did you come from? Er, Sir.’
‘This ismyhouse,’ Hawthorne snapped.
‘Right, sorry, Sir.’
Thea heard Hawthorne’s measured intake of breath. ‘Had she not been there with me, saving your sorry arses, you would have died. Plain and simple.’
‘He didn’t mean —’ Kipp started.
‘I have been a tolerant man, more so than usual lately…’ Hawthorne said slowly, as though he were struggling to rein in his temper, his control. ‘But I will not tolerate disloyalty.’
Thea’s heart fractured.
‘We’re not disloyal, she’s one of us, she’s our friend.’ Kipp argued.
The Warsword’s final words had a dangerous edge to them. ‘Then fucking act like it.’
There was the slam of a door and the heavy silence that followed told Thea Hawthorne had left the room by another exit.
‘He’s right…’ Kipp said eventually.
There was a long sigh. ‘I know, believe me, Kipp, I know it. But I… I can’t help what I feel, I can’t help this… anger.’
Eyes burning, Thea took a step back, her knees buckling beneath her, the cabin suddenly too small for them all.
Her chest was tight, pressure building within, threatening to break through. The walls seemed closer than before, the air thinner. She scrambled for the door.
And when the icy winter gale hit her face, she didn’t stop.
She ran from the cabin and kept running.
WILDER HAWTHORNE
Althea Zoltaire had stolen all the air from his lungs and lit him ablaze. Wilder couldn’t speak, couldn’t think of anything other than her; her body against his, her heated skin beneath his touch.
Gods, there had been far too many clothes. How he’d longed to peel away those layers of fabric, to put his hands – his mouth to those curves, to touch and taste every glorious inch of her.
Even now, hours later, he was in knots, unable to stand the feverish feeling of his own skin without her on him. The moment he’d kissed her, the rest of the world had fallen away – there was only her, only Thea.
He had denied it for months, how much he wanted her, how thoughts of her consumed him. And now…Fuck, what now?Now his heart pounded at the mere memory of her; her soft mouth, her hands at his belt, her waist and hips and the heave of her breasts against him. At his name on her lips, gasping and wanting.
Desire made his cock throb, and he swore quietly, pacing his now empty cabin, wishing she were back here, wishing they could finish what they’d started. He’d waited for the chance to talk to her, to explain that were it not for the others’ arrival, amountain drake couldn’t have stopped him taking her against that porch wall…
But she’d gone, without saying goodbye, leaving him to help Farissa tend to the two shieldbearers and send them back to the fortress. He couldn’t blame her for that. He’d fucked it up twice before.
Alone once more, he stewed in his thoughts, trying to focus on something other than the need for her, which only seemed to intensify.
Instead, he forced himself to think back to what he’d witnessed on the clifftops. That brilliant bolt of lightning carving through the night’s sky had hit Thea… Or nearly hit her…?
