Chapter 24
THALRIC
It’s been a long day’s journey. We’ve traveled far, and while I’ve scented no danger nearby, I must be sure. Our camp is deep enough in the woods that I don’t anticipate any trouble, but I will not risk Aurora’s safety. It’s nearly dark and I must be sure.
It doesn’t take me long to sweep the surrounding forest, checking for any sign of more tracks. Thank the gods, I found no fresh prints. No sign of Ogres, and no scent of beasts.
Relief flickers through me until I return to our camp and find it empty.
My heart slams in my ribs. Aurora is not here.
I told her to stay at camp. To stay where I could protect her.
My nostrils flare as I inhale deeply, scenting for any intruders, but all I detect is her—the smell of honeysuckle and lavender, faint and heading toward the water.
Panic ripples through me. She should not be out of my sight. Not when danger can wear a hundred shapes.
Rushing toward the water, I scan the riverbank until I see her boots abandoned near the reeds. Bare footprints vanish into the shallow water.
A sharp scream rips through the air and my wings snap wide as I lunge forward, crashing into the current without a second thought. The river swallows me in a surge of cold, but I don’t care as I see her, waist-deep, stumbling back, hands flailing.
I’m on her in an instant, curling my hands around her waist and dragging her against me. She wraps herself around me without hesitation, arms around my neck, legs circled tight at my hips.
“What happened?”
Her eyes are wide with fear as she trembles in my arms. “Something touched my leg.”
I bare my fangs in a feral snarl as I search the water for signs of a Kelpie or something else equally as dangerous. Whatever it is that tried to harm her, I will end it swiftly and without mercy. A flash of blue light ripples beneath the current before breaking through the surface.
It’s a pixie. It zips around us before darting back into the river.
“It’s alright, Auri,” I speak softly. “It’s only a Water Pixie.”
She relaxes in my arms, but she doesn’t let go as I carry her back toward the riverbank.
Mine. The thought burns through my veins as she clings to me, her warmth searing through the wet fabric of her shift that does nothing to hide the lush curves over her body.
My control frays as I struggle to fight the intense need to sink my fangs into her neck to give her my claiming mark, to brand her as mine forever.
But I cannot. Not if it means risking her future… allowing her to fall into an enchanted sleep with no way to break her curse.
When I haul her from the water, I cannot make myself loosen my hold even when we reach the campfire. Her entire body is shaking from the cold. I snatch a blanket, wrap it around her shoulders, and pull her against my chest, holding her close.
“You should have told me where you were going,” I rasp, scanning the woods around us. “This forest is not safe… there could have been a Kelpie in the water. We’re not in Oakvale anymore, Auri.”
“I know,” she murmurs, nestling deeper into my arms.
And gods help me, the only thought pounding through my head is the same relentless vow: Nothing will touch her. Not while I still breathe.
“You could have been taken.” My voice comes out a bit rougher than I intend, the predator’s edge that slips out when she is in danger. “You are not to go off by yourself.”
She twists her wet fingers into the blanket and looks up at me with that same stubborn expression I’ve seen dozens of times before. “I’m not a child, Thalric. I only wanted to wash before bed.” A small laugh, wind-broken, leaves her throat. “I didn’t think doing so would be dangerous.”
“You didn’t think it might be dangerous?
Even though you know there are people hunting you?
” I ask incredulously. I glance toward the dark line of trees.
“There are tracks. Heavy prints. Ogres were in these woods only a few days ago. I barely managed to get you away from them when we were ambushed.”
I clench my jaw at the memory of her terrified scream. I’ve never been more panicked in all my life than when I saw that Ogre standing over her with a sword.
I fold my wings tighter around her as if that could somehow shield her from every threat. “I want only to protect you, Aurora, and it’s harder for me to do that when you insist upon taking risks.”
The fire leaves her eyes and she looks down at her hands. She leans forward and presses her forehead to my chest, nestled in my arms and wings. “I’m sorry, Thalric. I just… hate that I’m such a burden to you.”
“You are not a burden, Auri,” I whisper into her hair as I smooth a hand down her back. “Never think that, because it is not true.”
“Why would the witch do this to me?” she asks, voice raw with emotion. “I was just an infant. Why would Malvara curse me?”
“Monsters take what hurts the most or serves the darkest ends. And when they have that much hate and anger, they target what shines brightest because the light is the enemy of the darkness that lives inside them.” I clench my jaw.
“She wanted your parents to suffer, so she threatened you—the one they love above all else.”
Silence hangs heavy between us, broken only by the crackle of fire and the distant sounds of the river. I can see the storm in her eyes—fear, grief, and something bright that refuses to be extinguished. “What if there was no curse?” she asks.
My brows draw tight. “What?”
“What if we could be as we were? Just you and me.” Her voice trembles, but her gaze doesn’t waver.
Pain slices through me. “We can’t.”
“Why not?” she presses stubbornly. “I’m still me, Thalric. And you’re still you.”
Gods help me, her words threaten to unravel my resolve.“Because we cannot,” I rasp, clinging to the only shield I have left.
Her fingers lift, feather-light, catching my jaw. “I love you.” The words are steel wrapped in silk. “I’ve loved you for so long, and nothing will change that.”
My heart fractures. “Auri—”
She cups my cheek. “I’d rather risk a hundred years of cursed sleep than live a lifetime without you.”
Fierce possessiveness surges through me as something dark and primal unfurls from deep within. My tail winds around her calf, sliding higher to her knee as need burns through me like fire. “We can’t.” I force the words past my lips, fighting to hold onto my resolve.
“I will not let a curse tell me who I may love.” She cups my cheek. “I will not allow a curse to dictate my future.”
I think of Prince Ryllen—her betrothed—and my vision turns red. My tail lashes, first in warning, then in a reflexive, possessive curl around her calf.
“How can you pretend to feel nothing, when we both know the truth burning between us?” Her eyes search mine. “I love you, Thalric. I choose you and only you. And I know you love me. Can you truly stand by while I wed someone else?”
The question is a knife.
Fierce possessiveness surges through me at the mere thought of another male touching her. A low warning growl rises in my chest as my restraint crumbles, and I wrap my arms tighter around her, dragging her flush against me as my mouth crashes down on hers.
The world shatters into fire and need, nothing left but her lips on mine and the raw, burning demand that I take what I’ve craved for so long.
The first brush of her mouth steals every breath I have. Wanting to be gentle, I struggle to retain some semblance of restraint.
“Thalric,” she whispers my name. “Make me yours.”
Her words erode the last of my control, and I slant my mouth over hers, hungry and desperate to claim her as mine.
My claws flex into the dirt as if anchoring me from devouring her whole.
I lift her in my arms, turning her to face me, her thighs straddling my hips.
A small whimper escapes her lips as I splay my hands against her back, pulling her tighter as her body molds against mine.
A rough, pleased sound rises in my chest as my wings snap around us, a cocoon of stone and shadow, sealing her away from the world. She is mine to shield. Mine to hold. Always mine. Only mine.
She clings to me, and my heart stutters as she melts against me in complete surrender, her entire body so soft and giving.
“Auri.” Her name leaves my lips like a prayer as her want surges against mine.
My stav is hard and erect, and she moans as it presses against the heat of her center, only the scrap of silk between her thighs separating us.
The last thread of my restraint snaps as a soft moan leaves her lips, and I crush my mouth to hers, needing her to feel every vow I cannot put into words.
My nostrils flare as the scent of her arousal grows stronger.
Every stroke of my tongue, every desperate press of my body into hers, screams the truth: mine.
She answers me with equal fire, kissing me back with a hunger that scalds my soul.
And gods help me, it awakens something dark and primal deep within—the part of me that is not made for gentleness.
I want to mark her, to lower my mouth to that small, vulnerable place at her throat and sink in, branding her with my fangs so the whole world knows she is mine.
Only mine. Always mine.
I coil my tail around her thigh as need tears through me like a blade, savage and healing all at once. There is no thought left, only the instinct to claim her, to worship her… to keep her.
I am completely lost in her arms. The need to claim her is sharp as a blade and just as devastating, cutting me open and remaking me in the same breath as an undeniable truth burns in my soul. She is my savryl, and I will never be whole without her.