22. Kiaran
Kiaran
I t was taking her too long to return.
She left only an hour before lunch and now was about to miss dinner. Our nightly show of lights was about to begin so I propped a chair in the door frame, back far enough to not earn myself any broken bones, and waited for any sign of my girl.
I told myself over and over again that if something had happened, Ethel would’ve been by already. But what if whoever took Amelie took Ethel too? Who else would be so kind to come tell the strange Witch that couldn’t leave his home the news of his two friends’ peril?
Ethel said Amelie broke so many bones in Adan’s body that he’d be laid up for a long while.
However, last night in her dream, he was fine.
No broken bones. Aside from his nose, a result of my fist and not Amelie’s fury.
What if the healer back home had mercy on my evil brother and was perfectly fine now to finish what he started?
My heart was pounding in a calamitous beat, my palms were sweaty and the knots in my stomach were loosening and tightening with every one of my breaths .
Where are you? I pleaded to her but was met with no response.
Visions of her with her insides splayed out on the forest floor poisoned my mind, her crimson blood muddying the dirt. The gremlins coming out of their caves to feast on her remains. Adan sitting back and watching the Forest reclaim her body.
Knowing that death between a bond like ours would sever a tie so deep in my soul I would be feeling more than just anxiety, a different scenario played out in the previous one’s place.
Amelie, sitting in front of the High Table in Avonya, my mother sinking her claws through each untainted ridge of Amelie’s mind.
Making a deal with her to save her life over mine. Telling her all of the ugly parts of my soul that no woman should be bound to.
Soon, my heart would stop. Amelie would go on and my mother would get the ultimate revenge for me taking her daughter’s life.
A life for a life, she’d said that afternoon before the Adjudication Ceremony.
I hadn’t known what it meant then, but I believe I understood it now.
The torture of spending two hundred years in a prison, only to find the meaning of life in my fated mate, all to have it taken away.
Sitting in my own dark cloud of work, I caught a glimpse of swishing skirts in the distance.
Narrowing my eyes to tunnel my vision through the thick of the Forest, Amelie and Ethel were slowly moving along their path back to our home.
No rush, no danger, just two friends enjoying their evening stroll.
“Where have you been?” I shouted, Amelie’s head snapped up to the cottage and she and Ethel shared a knowing grin.
They made their way to the clearing and kept their slow paces, somehow making my heart do the opposite.
It was infuriating being forced to just stand here and wait.
It would be a really good time for her to veil my curse right now.
Then she’d be locked away safe in the cottage. Nearly dead, but safe.
I couldn’t have gone after her had she not returned. Being tethered to this cottage had never bothered me as much as it did now.
The women crossed the bridge and finally, Amelie spoke, “I went to visit Ethel. I told you that.” Her voice like sweet honey.
“You’ve been gone all day and you didn’t answer me when I called to you.”
Amelie narrowed her eyes at me and popped an eyebrow, seemingly looking for a hint of sarcasm in my controlling words that she absolutely would not find.
“You’re not her keeper, boy. I live a good distance from here and we had a lot to talk about,” Ethel explained, but my eyes were trained on Amelie.
She’d stopped where Ethel had continued to the front door. Showing the amount of power she had to not reenter the cottage since I couldn’t leave it. She could stay there all night and not fully return to me.
“I didn’t hear you calling for me. I would’ve responded if I had.” She popped a hip, her hands landed on her waist.
“Bullshit. You left earlier out of spite and you kept your whereabouts from me with the same intention.”
Ethel began twiddling her thumbs, clearly uncomfortable between the tension I was creating between me and Amelie.
“No, I left earlier because I planned on visiting my friend yesterday but your family had other plans, so I went today. I tried to call to you during the attack yesterday but Adan said it wouldn’t work out here.”
My mouth popped open, threatening to tell her she was lying yet again but I hadn’t heard her calling to me at all yesterday.
“It’s true. She was calling for you the whole time. Out loud and between that little bond you two share. ”
I wasn’t aware that the Dwarves held magic, but I knew that Ethel could speak to my thoughts. We called them Whispers back home, they were rare, but Amelie’s friend seemed to be one.
The bond between fated mates was the strongest bond that could be created.
It was unable to be snapped unless death fell upon one or the other and no one, not even the High Priestess, could veil it.
Especially the part that allowed us to speak without words, it was the most organic part of the bond.
The first thing that sprouted when it took root and the last thing to go when it was severed.
“Maybe it’s just the distance, I’m not sure.
But I didn’t ignore you and I chose to believe you didn’t ignore me yesterday either.
” Amelie’s voice begged for a truce between us and I wanted to lower my walls to shake her figurative hand but the rolling in my stomach from the strange happenings was too chaotic.
“Yeah. Maybe.”
Ethel clapped her hands together and spun toward the bridge again. “I’d better get going,” she called over her shoulder, then pulled Amelie down so she could whisper in her ear. “Remember what we talked about.” Then like a breeze through the trees, she was gone.
When I looked back to Amelie, she was still standing on the little patch of grass that grew before the bridge to the other side, hip still popped and a massive attitude growing across her features.
“Apologize,” she demanded.
“Excuse me?”
“Apologize.”
“For what?”
“For being an asshole.”
I tilted my head, stunned at the bold words coming from her perfect mouth.
“You first,” I taunted .
“What would I need to apologize for?”
“Well, for starters, your tricky little move of kissing me in order to leave earlier.”
A playful smile stretched across her face.
“Then, for making me sick with worry over your late return.”
Her brows raised and she nodded slowly in a condescending spirit.
“Last, for calling me an asshole.”
She pursed her lips and chewed on her cheek to tamp down a smile.
“I don’t think I’m interested in apologizing for any of those things,” she purred as she sauntered toward the door.
When she got to the steps she took each step carefully,
One
“I think,”
Two
“I’d rather,”
Three
“You show me how mad you are at me,” she whispered into my ear as she topped the stairs and pressed herself flush to my body.
My skin heated and static rippled through each pore sprouting goosebumps all over my arms. My traitorous dick grew in an instant and Amelie’s hand traced the imprint, effectively killing me.
“Oh?” Was the only thing I could choke out.
“You think you’re so big and tough?” she nipped at the lobe of my ear, then flicked her tongue out to trace up the side of my neck.
“I am very big and tough,” I replied, willing myself to believe it before I melted into her.
“Then punish me.”
Then, just as she did earlier, she distracted me with her onslaught of seduction and had already spun us so she could enter the cottage.
She walked backward toward the stairs to the attic, looking at me with playful, hungry eyes. Her soul was summoning mine.
I took long quick strides toward her, she squealed and sprinted for the stairs, taking two at a time before she reached the top floor. I caught her around the waist before she got two steps into the attic and hoisted her over my shoulder then threw her on the bed.
Hungry eyes stared back at me and the mischief in her smile was enough to make my dick pulse.
“You are nothing but trouble,” I said, leaning down to press light kisses around her jaw. Wrapping my hand around her throat and adding the slightest amount of pressure.
She tilted her head back and moaned, sending vibrations through my palm.
Crushing my lips to hers, she wasted no time exploring my mouth with her tongue. Her arms locked around my neck as she pulled me closer, deepening the kiss. With her, it was never enough. She always wanted more and I’d search every corner of my soul to give it to her.
However, if she wanted to feel like a bad girl, then letting her have control simply wouldn’t do.
Breaking our lips apart, I grabbed her wrists from my neck and held them above her head with one hand, using the other to palm her full breasts.
“Keep your hands up here,” I commanded.
“Make me.” A dare hung in her voice. Her magic fingers laced through my curls.
Bringing her arms back to where I wanted them, I snapped my fingers, casting two pieces of rope to the far posters of the bed and tied her wrists together.
“What– ”
“Keep your hands up here.” I told her again, cutting her off. Desire raged behind her eyes.
Another snap of my fingers and her clothes disappeared. Out of instinct, she tried to shy away from her sudden nudity.
“Kiaran!” she shouted.
“Shh.” I kissed my way down the toned center line of her stomach, stopping right before one of my favorite parts of her body.
Amelie’s legs were hanging off the bed so I put both of them over my shoulders and gave myself perfect access to her most sensitive spot.
Running my tongue over her slit, she quivered and fought the restraints on her wrists.
Using my middle finger, I teased at her entrance.
“Kiaran…” she breathily choked out.