14. Vexxion
14
VEXXION
I woke Tempest early in the morning and brought her to the meadow, encircling us with my threads while we trained.
I’d almost lost her love, and I’d do everything within my power to make sure she knew she could trust me even if I held back some secrets. Revealing them would unwind everything I’d worked for since my mother’s death. Knowing everything could result in Tempest’s death. This woman was threaded into my past, my present, and she held my very future within her strong hands.
“Are you sure you don’t want to roll around in the pretty purple flowers?” she asked. A smirk played at the corner of my mouth, and her eyes danced with joy, sparkling with unspoken challenge. I lived to make her laugh. Each was victory and sweet surrender wrapped in one .
“Again,” I said, thrusting against her mental guard while slashing out with a blade as if I’d swipe it across her throat.
She deflected my blow with a snap of her arm as easily as she blocked my invasion on her mind.
We’d have to leave soon. She was due to begin her service as Brenna’s lady-in-waiting within an hour. I wanted more time with her and not solely to train. I craved this woman with every breath I took, with every beat of my raging heart.
“We only have six days until the wedding,” she panted, sweeping out with her foot, trying to twist her leg between mine to send me to the ground.
I dove to the side and came up in a crouch, straightening while sending her a smile. “You’re getting good.”
“Only good?” She flitted, landing against my chest with her legs around my waist and a blade at my throat, sending me toppling backward.
I slowed the fall, landing neatly, my arms wrapping around her waist. “Such skill with a blade, my storm. Soon, you’ll sink it deeply.”
“Why not do it before the Claiming? You said I’m good.”
“You need to be better, and you won’t do it with this knife.” I pinched the tip and dragged it to the side.
“With magic, then?”
“When it’s time, you’ll know.”
“That’s vague.”
“I’m sorry. It’s all I can tell you.” I’d revealed some secrets only to pile new ones on top of those remaining.
“Alright. I trust you.”
“Good girl. ”
Her lips curled up slyly. “Only a good girl?”
“You’re perfect.”
“Maybe I want to be a bad girl.”
My laugh burst out, stunning us both. “You can be as bad as you want.”
“Later.”
“Definitely.” I drove a wedge into her mind, and she gasped, slashing at it with her magic.
With a huff, she flitted off me, reappearing a short distance away. After a glance overhead, no doubt taking in the slant of the sun, her posture relaxed.
I joined her with a flit. Since she’d given me a bit of her power, plus let me mark her the second and final time, I’d felt different. Not exactly changed but . . . better. That was the only way I could describe it.
Just being with my fury made me feel as if I could conquer the world, though that wasn’t anything I’d ever strived for, to the utter dismay of the man I’d almost never called my father.
I teased my fingertips across her hips and to her back, pressing her against me, enfolding her in my embrace. “We need to return to the castle, but we’ll train again soon.” A snap of my fingers and she wore a dress in deep green. Her hair was swept up in a simple arrangement, and I’d used the combs I gave her before the Claiming to hold most of it in place, leaving only a few tendrils to brush against her shoulders.
Her eyebrows lifted as she took in her appearance. “When did you become a lady’s maid?”
“When I entered your life. ”
“Stomped into it with a snarl ripping up your throat, you mean,” she said with a purse of her lips.
“You adore my snarls. They turn you on.”
Color rose into her face. “There’s no denying it.”
Heat flashed through me, and like always, I wished we had more time before all of this fell apart.
“Why does Brenna need me or anyone else to be her lady-in-waiting if she could snap her finger and someone could magically dress her and arrange her hair as easily as you do for me?”
“I do it because I love you.”
“Ah.” She sighed. “Even though I haven’t met her yet, I feel bad for her. I hope she doesn’t love him .”
“I told you he could be charming.”
“Something I’ve yet to see. I find him gruesome.”
“You see who he truly is. I doubt she does.”
“She will. It’s inevitable.” I sucked in a breath and released it, gliding my fingertip along her jawline, something I could never resist doing. I wanted to wrap myself around her and never let go. Touch her every single second of the day and night. “Are you ready?”
She stared at my right wrist. “What’s . . .?” Her hand snapped out, grabbing mine, reminding me of how far this woman had come with her training. Movement like this had become natural. “Huh.”
“What?” I delicately removed my hand from her grip and reinforced my magic, though I dropped the threads surrounding us.
Drask soared over and landed on her shoulder, a welcome distraction. He’d come with us, though he’d roosted on a branch inside the woods while we trained. Only now could he see and hear us, but she’d told him to wait when we arrived.
“I thought I saw something on your wrist. A pretty pattern.” Tempest’s face smoothed and she stroked Drask’s spine, straightening his feathers. “It must’ve been the way the light hit it or shadows from the woods.”
“Must’ve been.”
Holding her tight, I flitted us to the hallway outside Brenna’s rooms.