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I didn’t want to think about Isiah. His death cut me more than I let on.
“It stopped bleeding,” she whispered, her attention gliding across the expanse of exposed skin. “Must not have been as deep as I thought,” she mused, absently sucking at her lower lip. I held back a groan at the sight.
This damned woman.
“But it needs to be cleaned and properly looked at to make sure it doesn’t get infected. And the cut on your leg,” she added, her eyes falling to my trousers.
Making a hasty grab for my jacket, I eased it back on, hating that she saw me in such a feeble state. I was exceptionally effective at what I did, but with little food and rest, even I couldn’t fight off eight men at once.
Her fingers played at the collar of my shirt, her head cocked to the side as she traced my skin with bright eyes. Her gloved touch sent a current zapping straight across my hardened heart, shocking it to life.
I cleared my throat, the nearness of her too much. “We need to continue and find shelter,” I bit out, an uncharacteristic pang of fear slicing through me. Whatever was happening with Kiara and me, it was changing. Morphing into something more. I’d alwaysseenher, and she was dangerously close to seeing me. All of me.
She felt it too, that pull.
I hated it. Fought it.Failedto fight it.
Just like the sun that only visited me in my dreams, Kiara was addictive.
Forging ahead, my steps leaden, we made it another hour into the Mist—hopefully in the correct direction. That damn map was older than my great-grandfather, whoever he was.
I didn’t know much about my family, and when I’d asked my father about my mother, he’d told me she was just some girl from the village brothel who’d dropped me off on his doorstep when I’d been two months old.
It wasn’t until I’d grown up that I’d realized the story of my mother was a lie.
“I think I see something!” Kiara’s face lit up in the most luminous of ways, her full lips slightly parted, a rosy hue on her cheeks. Even her unusual eyes seemed to glow from within. They were a whole shade lighter than usual, actually.
Focus.
How on earth could she see anything at all in this blasted blue fog?
I couldn’t wait to get out of it. I despised not being in control, not being able to spot an attacker until they were nearly upon me. Getting caught off guardtwicewasn’t anything to be proud of.
Kiara bolted into the obscurity, forcing me to grunt out a curse and stumble after her.
“Up here!” she shouted, her hair flowing behind her in a tangled red blur. She was like a sprite, a forest nymph, and I wanted to catch her. Steal some of that wonder, that spirit. Not to keep forever, but maybe just to borrow some of her magic.
Kiara let out a breathy gasp, stopping so abruptly that I collided with her back with athump. Her feet lurched forward at the impact, but before she could fall, I wound my arms around her waist, holding her steady.
“Sorry,” I mumbled, my mouth at her ear. Soft hair tickled my jaw, each strand shining like a burning flame.
Kiara jerked in my embrace, her breathing growing heavy, slower. “Thanks,” she rasped, her hands lowering to rest on my arms. Even through the leather, I felt the shock of her caress.
A minute passed, and neither of us moved.
If anything, my hands tightened. My restraint was loosening.
Fast.
“Jude,” she breathed, her voice a whisper of a thing.
My head dropped so I could inhale the scent clinging to her hair, my nose tracing the shell of her ear. Kiara smelled like pure wildfire and open forest, and I greedily committed it to memory. She let out a barely audible hiss.
But still she didn’t move.
Right now, I wasn’t the logical, unfeeling commander I’d been molded to be. Before I could second-guess myself, I flipped her around in my arms, a startled gasp leaving her lips. Lips I couldn’t stop staring at like a starving man.
She noted where my eyes fell, her tongue peeking out to wet them. I wanted to taste her again more than I wanted anything. That kiss in the Pastoria Forest wasn’t nearly enough. I wanted more, so much more. Never in all my life had a woman affected me in such an intense way. Kiara was strong, witty, fearless, and impossibly stubborn.
