Chapter Two
WILDER
T he sight of her shook Wilder to the core.
Not just the raging tempest in her celadon gaze, but the change in her appearance.
She wore her bronze-and-gold hair in the usual side braid, but her fierce, beautiful face was gaunt, savage, battered and bruised.
He could see two of her scarred knuckles were dislocated, and though she moved fluidly, she winced slightly when she twisted. No doubt she had injured her ribs.
Thea hadn’t been looking after herself.
The state of her took him back to the shock of seeing her pitted against the reaper in the Bloodwoods, back to the way she’d been on the cusp of death itself when he’d ordered her to stay with him.
‘Don’t you dare give up now,’ he’d told her.
Lightning had split the sky, had pierced the reaper, but it hadn’t been enough. The fucking monster had still got its talons in her, had still marked the flesh above her heart with its evil, a promise of a fate worse than death.
There had been no question when Wilder had given her his vial of Aveum springwater. If there were ever a reason to use it, that had been it, and he regretted nothing.
Wilder had hoped that the three weeks away from her would stifle the inferno blazing inside him, but he had no such luck. It struck him anew, stronger than ever, like a blow to the chest as soon as he clapped eyes on her.
And now, he was furious with her.
‘What the fuck have you been doing to yourself?’ he demanded, not caring that Torj and the two Guardians still stood within earshot. It was all he could do to keep himself from grabbing her and pulling her close.
Thea’s eyes narrowed, her knuckles paling as her grip tightened around her sword. ‘I’ve been training.’
‘ Training? ’ Wilder gave a dark laugh. The harsh sound was enough to send Torj, Cal and Kipp slinking away from the training ring, leaving mentor and apprentice to withstand the gathering storm alone.
Wilder took in the sight of her once more, rage unfurling low in his gut. ‘There’s a right way to train, and getting yourself into this state isn’t it.’
‘Whose fault is that?’ Thea spat.
‘It’s your fault. Given everything you did to get here, I thought you’d be taking this more seriously. I thought you’d realise that you need to be strong , not broken.’
Thea lifted her chin, defiant. ‘I’m far from broken.’
‘Your dislocated knuckles and your cracked ribs say otherwise,’ Wilder replied coldly. ‘I thought you learnt this lesson when you were a shieldbearer. There are days to rest, and days to fight.’
Thea took a step towards him, her eyes blazing. ‘Every day’s a fighting day when death is closing in on you.’
‘Death comes for us all, Princess. One way or another. You’re no use to anyone if you keel over because a broken rib punctured your lung. And those knuckles? If they’re not set, you could do permanent damage to your hand.’
He watched her suck in a breath, watched as she warred with her temper and the truth of his words.
He wasn’t nearly done with her. ‘When was the last time you ate a decent meal? A full serving?’
‘I eat.’
‘Not well enough. And don’t even start me on your drills. What was that display just now?’ he pressed, gesturing to the ring. ‘Is that how you’re sparring?’
‘I was winning .’
‘You were messy . Undisciplined. What’s worse, you’re not nearly where you should be. I was leagues ahead in my development —’
‘Probably because your mentor actually deigned to teach you , not run off into the wilderness.’
She was suddenly close enough that Wilder could feel the warmth radiating from her body. He could smell the storm on her, a violent sea with notes of bergamot. He couldn’t stop his gaze tracing her curves, curves he hadn’t worshipped nearly enough during their brief time together.
Gods, he was not ready to fight this battle.
‘Where did you go?’ she asked. ‘What was so important that you had to rush off without a word after everything we’d been through? After what we discovered?’
Wilder clenched his jaw. He hadn’t wanted to leave her, ever.
But he had needed to be sure that there weren’t more reapers rallying together and thirsting for her power, that word of the woman with lightning in her blood hadn’t spread.
So he’d left her in his cabin and gone to the closest tear in the Veil in search of monsters and secrets.
He’d found them in droves.
‘My whereabouts are no concern of yours,’ he told her at last.
Thea’s nostrils flared slightly, her jaw clenched as she shook her head in what seemed to be grim satisfaction, as though she had been proven right. ‘So this is truly how you mean it to be between us? Master and apprentice and nothing more. Like nothing ever happened?’
Furies save him, his mind went right back to the moment he’d had her against the tree in the Bloodwoods, plunging his cock into her while she cried out his name, each stroke more intoxicating than the last.
He gritted his teeth. ‘Yes.’
‘Then stop looking at me like that,’ she snapped.
‘Like what?’
‘Like you’ve seen me naked.’
He couldn’t help the blush that stained his cheeks then, but he steeled himself and unsheathed his sword. ‘If you’ve trained so damn hard, if your injuries are so insignificant,’ he said, his voice dangerously low, ‘let’s see what you can do.’
Thea’s glare could have wilted a lesser man, and he didn’t blame her. In fact, it was good that she was angry. Perhaps she’d claw his face off rather than rake her claws down his back —
She got into her starting stance, feet apart and knees bent.
Wilder didn’t wait. He attacked. Containing the brute force of his Furies-given strength, he unleashed blow after blow, hoping to show her just how far she had yet to go, how much there was still to learn as a Guardian, and that there were limits to what she could achieve in such a short space of time.
He was careful of those swollen knuckles, of the obvious pain in her side.
When she wasn’t so headstrong he’d teach her about the importance of self-care, but he knew no words would puncture that hard exterior now.
Thea matched his every strike. He could feel her muscles trembling with the effort of blocking, but she was fast and agile, even as he advanced, forcing her across the width of the training area.
As she moved, he saw her fate stone come loose from the confines of her shirt.
‘I saw you throw that off the cliff,’ he murmured, brows furrowed.
She thrust her sword at him. ‘It found its way back to me.’
‘How?’ He deflected her blade and delivered a swift counterattack.
‘It was on the table after you left,’ she said through gritted teeth.
He dodged another strike. ‘How?’
‘Fate.’
‘And you just put it back on? Without knowing —’
‘You don’t get to judge my choices.’
He could feel the rage rippling off her in waves, and it stoked his own anger, and his desire. The warring emotions tangled into an insatiable drug as they duelled across the grounds, a blur of silver, sparks flying from their steel.
Overhead, the heavy clouds that had gathered across the morning sun broke.
The skies opened up, and rain began to pelt down on them.
Neither yielded.
Wilder moved by pure muscle memory, his thoughts consumed by her as each slice, each thrust of the blade fuelled the tension that pulsed between them. Water flew from their weapons and limbs as they fought in the downpour.
Wilder parried and deflected a vicious cut, locking his blade to hers and forcing her backwards, the heels of her boots digging into the fast-forming mud.
‘Tell me, mentor .’ Thea hissed the last word as though it were dirty. ‘What do you have to be so furious about?’
The steel sang between them, echoing up into the surrounding mountains.
Wilder pivoted, blood roaring in his ears as he flipped his sword and threw a horizontal slash from his stronger side to her weaker side, causing her to falter.
‘What do I have to be furious about?’ he repeated, advancing.
She lunged, messily. He dodged the blow and moved forward into her space, blocking her next strike and trapping her blade with his.
‘You mean besides this situation? The one I never wanted to be in?’ The words came tumbling out. ‘You mean besides Osiris forcing my hand and using my defence of you against me?’
Thea was panting. But he didn’t stop, a fist of rage clamping around him.
‘Or do you mean the fact that you thought so little of me that you imagined I’d discard you upon knowing the truth about your fate stone? About your heritage? And now, to come back to find you —’
Thea surged forward, taking him by surprise and driving him back. ‘But that’s exactly what you did, you bastard. You left . You fucking left me .’
Her words pierced his heart, regret bitter on his tongue. But he wouldn’t apologise, not at the risk of undoing the distance he’d put between them. Distance was good. Distance was safe.
They burst into another heated round of sparring, blades flashing, mud spraying beneath their boots in the flurry of footwork.
He blocked a savage blow and kicked her feet out from under her with an efficient sweep of his leg.
She landed on her back in a puddle.
Wilder’s triumph was fleeting, because Thea was quick, faster than he remembered. In an instant, she’d kicked out, delivering a surprisingly powerful strike to the back of his knees. He buckled.
Before he had registered it, Thea flung herself on top of him, trapping him beneath her. She straddled his waist, the sharp edge of her sword drawn to his throat as she leant in close, her breasts heaving against his chest.
‘You’re a bastard.’
‘You knew that from the start,’ he growled. That tight coil of desire within him unravelled as his focus honed in on every point of contact between them, on the friction between their bodies, on her heat pressing into him.
He could feel the cold brush of the steel against his skin, his throat bobbing as he drank in the sight of her, as he relished her touch, however violent. His cock was rock hard between them; there was no denying it.
Her gaze pierced his. She was so close, close enough that he might just risk slitting his own throat on her blade to lean in and —
Her eyes dropped to his mouth and she bit her lower lip, her breath audibly catching, rage and arousal entwined.
In that moment, Wilder didn’t care what vows he’d made to himself. He didn’t care that he was her mentor and that she was not only his apprentice, but a lost princess of the midrealms. He wanted her mouth on his, he wanted —
She cast the sword aside and kissed him.
Furies save him. This . This was why he hadn’t slept in weeks. This was what he had imagined day after day since they’d parted.
A low, carnal moan escaped him as he opened his mouth to her, her tongue brushing against his, her teeth capturing his lower lip. Wilder kissed her fiercely, uninhibited, unleashed, fighting the roaring instinct to strip her bare and fuck her in the mud.
He ground into her from beneath, cursing the layers of clothing between them, seeking the wet heat of her.
He gripped her backside and crushed her against his erection.
A whimper caught in her throat and she pressed her breasts to his chest. They were starved, desperate for one another.
Those three weeks had been the longest of his life.
He sat up, cradling her in his lap, breaking their kiss only to scrape his teeth down the side of her neck, tasting sweat and rain, eliciting a soft cry of pleasure from her.
Longing coursed through him and the urge to take her then and there heightened, becoming all-consuming.
He cupped her breast through her shirt, her nipple hard against his palm, and she gasped.
‘Wilder —’
Gods, he loved it when she said his name. It caused a vibration in his chest, a storm of his own —
Thea leapt off him. The cold swept in as she snatched up her blade and sheathed it, veering back from him as though burned. ‘We can’t,’ she panted. ‘You made yourself clear in the broom closet. Remember? Do you remember what you said to me?’
‘If you insist on this stupid arrangement, then so be it. We will be mentor and apprentice, nothing more… What happened in the Bloodwoods was a mistake. It won’t ever happen again, Alchemist.’
Wilder was on his feet in an instant, straightening his clothes and adjusting his cock.
‘I remember,’ he murmured. He blinked through the rain, cursing himself and his lack of control.
He was a Warsword of Thezmarr, for fuck’s sake, and he’d caved.
Within mere moments of his return, despite all his vows and good intentions, he’d caved.
And in the middle of the drenched training ground, no less. Anyone could have seen them.
But he couldn’t help himself – not when it came to her.
‘You’re right. This shouldn’t have happened.’ He forced out the words, looking away from the blush staining her cheeks, from the rise and fall of her breasts. ‘It was a mistake.’
‘I suppose you can add it to your list,’ Thea said bitterly. ‘It gets longer by the day.’
Wilder raked his fingers through his hair. He would never put her on any such list, but perhaps that was best left unsaid. He took a steadying breath, gathering himself before he rummaged through his pocket and thrust a blood-stained piece of parchment at her.
‘What’s this?’
‘Drills, weights, endurance exercises and meditations for you to do.’
‘Unbelievable,’ she muttered.
And Wilder couldn’t help but echo a reply he had made to her once before. ‘You have no idea.’
Still fighting to catch her breath, she studied his instructions with a scowl. ‘Some of these look more like dances than combat practice.’
‘I don’t dance. I kill. As will you.’ He met her gaze, unflinching. ‘You’re going to be training hard. Training right.’
‘I have been training hard.’
‘Not with me.’ He made sure the implication was clear: whatever she had experienced up until now was nothing.
The training at the hands of the guild’s masters had only been the beginning.
His anger sparked anew as he thought of how she’d run herself ragged, of how she’d failed to tend to those dislocated knuckles.
He’d put them back in place himself if he could stand the idea of hurting her.
‘You’re to see a healer at once. If we’re going to be living together —’
Thea blanched. ‘ What? ’
‘You’ll be moving into the cabin after the evening meal tonight.’
‘I will do no such thing.’
‘Apprentices share quarters with their masters.’
‘Cal still lives at the fortress,’ Thea argued.
‘Because Torj does,’ Hawthorne ground out. ‘I do not live at the fortress, nor do I wish to. Therefore, you’ll be moving to the cabin. And if we’re going to be living together in my house, then you’ll live by my rules.’
Wilder felt the flicker of lightning from her. He met her incredulous glare with a challenging one of his own.
‘You’re the one who wanted to be an apprentice so badly. This is it, Princess.’