Total pages in book: 247
Estimated words: 242728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1214(@200wpm)___ 971(@250wpm)___ 809(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 242728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1214(@200wpm)___ 971(@250wpm)___ 809(@300wpm)
Aktor glanced at Darro before ducking closer and whispering in my ear, “He can look all he wants but he can’t touch. He can’t hurt me without hurting you. He’s only torturing himself by staying now you’re mine—”
“I’m not yours yet.” I swayed away, only for him to go with me, his lips tickling my cheek. “If you don’t want to cause a scene, Runa, I suggest you get up, take my hand, and come with me. Otherwise, I might just yank you up right here and kiss you. Dive my tongue past those tempting lips of yours and show him just what I plan on doing to you once you wear my bone bangle and are officially my mate.”
I leaned farther away, almost tumbling into Niya’s lap.
His voice lowered to a hiss only I could hear. “I’ve given you time, Runa. Plenty of it. We’ll be mated in a month. It’s about time you crack that ice around your heart and stop being so frigid. I expect you to open your legs on our matrimonial night.”
Leaping to my feet, I shocked Natim awake and made Hyath and Niya gasp.
Ignoring the fawn and my friends, I spun and snarled at my betrothed, “If you think I’ll let you touch me on that night or any night, Aktor, you’re deranged. Perhaps the knock to your head when Darro threw you into the sky with his shadows rattled your intelligence.”
Anger poured out of me; I stabbed him in the chest with a finger. A finger that I set on fire, pouring all my heartache and frustration into the flame so it glowed brighter than the sun, absolutely blinding in the dense darkness of the night.
My fire couldn’t hurt him.
He’d proven that Quelis had bound us into one spirit and what I conjured, he felt no pain, but it still gave me a tiny bit of joy as his face slipped from shock into rage. Rage he couldn’t hide beneath the mask of doting, committed mate.
“Runa...” Niya stood and cupped my elbow. She glanced around at the clan as all eyes ended up on us. “Perhaps this isn’t the best time.”
My heart crushed.
I threw her a dismayed look just as Aktor snatched my burning finger and yanked me into him. I fell over the log and into his arms.
Wrapping me tight in his unwanted embrace, a wolf snarl sounded as Aktor whispered hotly into my ear, “The night of our matrimonial, I’ll finish what I started that night by the river. You will welcome me into your furs as your mate. I won’t hurt you or be a bad husband, but I will expect obedienc—”
He jerked and groaned.
His arms loosened as he tripped backward.
A moment later, I felt what he did.
A spear of agony to my side.
I clamped a hand over the non-existent wound, and I knew.
I knew who’d delivered the pain and why it was in the exact same spot as the spear that Aktor had thrown into Darro the night he’d tried to save me.
The agony faded as swiftly as it’d appeared.
I looked up.
Darro stood with his arms bunched and face distraught. He shook his head as if unable to believe that he’d struck Aktor, and in doing so struck me.
I didn’t know how he’d used one of his shadows as a weapon that caused pain but no wound. I didn’t know when he’d learned the finesse required to wield such a perfect arrow of torture.
But I didn’t care.
I was glad.
Grateful.
So, so happy that he’d finally decided to fight for me.
I stepped toward him with my first genuine smile in so long.
Self-hate clouded his eyes for hurting me, and he shifted on the spot to leave.
He couldn’t go.
Not now.
Not ever.
“Don’t!” I shouted just as an idea came to mind that made me curse myself for not thinking of it sooner.
I’d been so busy with lessons and learning the Nhil’s customs and gifts that I’d completely forgotten to study my own. I hadn’t opened my heart to another creature since the night Tral had come for me. I hadn’t dared nurse a magic that had the power to turn creatures and mortals into my obedient puppets with a single command.
But now...now I opened my heart.
I sank deep inside myself and found that stillness, that presence where everything else faded. I no longer listened to the noise of the world but the silence beneath the noise. The silence that cushioned every heartbeat, breath, and smile.
The fire’s crackle hushed. The many energies of the clan disappeared. The emotions within me and the fear of the future all quietened until I was nothing more than aliveness in a fog of emptiness.
“Thank you,” I whispered in my mind, blowing the words to Darro on a breeze full of silence. I shuddered as a different kind of heartlink to the one we’d felt during the blood bind unfurled.