Tower of Tempest: A Steamy Fantasy Romance (Stolen Crowns Book 3)

Chapter 46

She hung in the air like an ethereal being that had descended from the sky itself.

“You’re magnificent,” I said, unable to tear my eyes away from her.

“Did you hear what I said?” Panic flashed in her eyes. “Your shadow is gone. You came after me, and now it’s gone.”

She looked up at the sky helplessly, searching for it, but I knew it was futile. The sun was out again, the clouds fickle today as they rolled through the sky. My shadow likely was hiding in another part of the forest now, one far away from me.

“It’s okay.” I began climbing down, and she fluttered her wings and lowered to the ground, sitting and crossing her legs, shoulders shaking, tears welling in her big, green eyes.

Oh, spirits below, not the crying.

I finally dropped to the ground, and Poppy looked up at me, eyes now puffy and rimmed with red.

“You came for me,” she said while sniffling. “Now your shadow is gone, and you’re going to have to journey back to the shadow court to get it, and if my gran is here, then I have to try and find her. I might not be able to go with you.”

My heart cracked at the words.

I crouched before her and hooked a finger under her chin. “I came for you, and I’d do it again. I will always come for you. There isn’t a place on this continent you could run that I will not find you. From the pits of the Dragonstone Mountains to the icy plains of the frost court to the marshes of the shadow court. Where you go, I follow. It’s that simple.”

Her crying had stopped, and she stared at me, the shock written plainly across her face.

“But you flew. You did it.”

“No.” She wiped at a few more stray tears. “You don’t need to make these kinds of choices anymore, Loch. You chose me, and your shadow got away, and now, I might lose you because of it.” She parted the flaps of my shirt, staring at the blue lines.

She spoke as if going to the shadow court was a death sentence. I supposed for many it was.

I swallowed. “You just can’t resist getting a peek at my chest, huh?”

A laugh burst from her before her face turned grave again.

“There it is.” I traced her lips. “That smile.”

“Loch, this is serious,” she said.

“I know.”

“We will find your shadow. I will find it.”

I looked up at the canopies. “This is exactly what I don’t want. I knew it would become your sole focus.”

“And what’s wrong with that?” she burst out, then got onto her knees, eye level with me. “What’s wrong with someone focusing on you? Sacrificing for you?” She grabbed the lapels of my jacket and gave them a shake. “You’re worth it, too, Loch.”

I stilled at her words.

“I love you,” she said for the second time. “I love you, Lochlan Aster, and I’m going to save you as many times as you’ve saved me.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever saved you,” I said.

“You’ve saved me in ways you’ll never understand.”

Those had been the words I’d wanted to hear from her lips for so long, and I hadn’t even realized how much I needed to hear them until she’d said it. I placed my hands on her waist and pulled her to me, pressing a kiss to her mouth.

She moaned, and the kiss deepened, stirring something wild and feral inside of me. She wound her hands around my neck, fingers grazing my skin. Fuck. My cock stiffened, and as if she knew what I wanted, as if she wanted the same thing, she flattened her body against mine, letting me feel those perfect swells and curves.

She gasped and pushed back, a growl escaping my mouth at the sudden loss of her lips on my mine.

“Loch,” she said, “I might be a fugitive by now.”

I laughed. “If that’s where your mind has gone while you’re kissing me, I’m clearly not doing a good enough job.”

She ignored me. “The king is probably after me.”

I pulled her back to me and kissed her neck. “Then I’ll go on the run with you.”

She arched into me. “I might have to take a stand against the king of the sky court.”

I trailed a finger down the curve of her wing. “Then I’ll fight with you.”

She pressed her lips together and threw her head back. “I... still have to find my gran... at some point.”

I dipped my hand up under her tunic, my fingers grazing her stomach, her waist. “Then I’ll search with you. Every spirits-damned corner of this continent until we find her.” I trailed my finger around to her back where skin met the bone of her wing.

“Oh,” she moaned out.

“Anything else?” I said in a low voice as I inched her tunic up. “Because we can keep going. But the answer will always be the same: where you go, I will follow.”

I lifted her into my lap, and she wrapped her legs around my back. Above, the clouds once again swept over the sun, the forest growing dark around us.

“I think that pretty much covers it right now,” she said breathlessly, her tongue running along my bottom lip.

Something yanked hard inside of me, making me jolt. Cold swept through my blood, and I knew what it was. The same tug I’d felt in the shadow court many times before.

“Did you feel that?” she asked. “That chill?”

“Can I lie and say no, and you’ll keep kissing me?”

She gave me a look.

“Yes,” I admitted. “My shadow. It’s near.”

She scrambled off of me. “Gran always told me everyone had a connection with their shadows. That if mine was ever taken, I’d be able to sense if it was near. That it would feel like a string pulling me toward it. Is that what you’re feeling?”

She was bouncing on her heels, eyes alight with excitement.

I gestured to my body. “Yes, that’s exactly how it feels.”

“Then we have to get it. It’s not too late!”

“I agree.” I stood, prowling toward her. “But after we get it, we’re coming back to this spot and finishing what we started.”

She trailed a finger down my chest. “Get your shadow back, Prince, and you can do anything you want.”

Other than not dying, that might just have been the best motivation yet. I turned to move toward my shadow, to follow the feeling inside of me.

It turned out I didn’t have to find it. The trees rustled around us. Leaves shook, branches rattled. The ground rumbled.

I stilled, heart pounding in my ears as the hairs on my arm raised.

Poppy slowly turned to look at me. “How is your shadow doing all of that?” She gestured to the forest around us.

“It’s not,” I murmured. “I think . . .”

Slowly, shadows emerged from the canopies, from behind trees. Oh, fuck.

“I think it brought friends,” I finished, right as the shadows attacked.