CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Istared into the cavern’s dim expanse, but sleep remained a ghost I could not catch.
The mattress was too soft compared to mine, the air too heavy with the scent of rain and mountain earth.
Talon and I had been bound for less than a sunrise, and yet we were already hunted, running from laws as old as the stone around us.
Restless, I pushed back the heavy furs and let my bare feet find the cool floor. I wandered toward the front of the cavern where the air grew damp and musical.
A subterranean river cut through the stone, its water glowing with an ethereal blue light that cast dancing reflections against the ceiling. Mushroom-shaped shadows glowed across the dark bank, dancing with the same cobalt that emitted from the river.
My eyes widened and I walked closer, my breath catching in my throat as the shadows resolved into a cluster of Aura-Crest mushrooms.
They were beautiful, their caps translucent blue and veined with pulsing silver light that seemed to breathe in rhythm with the water.
I had only ever seen them in the crumbling botanical sketches of the foraging association.
I reached for my satchel that sat lazily by the entrance and retrieved my small silver foraging shears.
My fingers trembled as I knelt in the damp moss and traced the base of a healthy adult mushroom.
I carefully snipped the glowing cap, and a faint, sweet fragrance like ozone and honey filled my senses.
“Why are you awake, little flame?”
“Could not sleep,” I mumbled, my focus staying on the delicate stem in my hand.
Talon stepped beside me, his large shadow falling over the moss.
My eyes momentarily flicked up to notice he was half-dressed, his broad chest bare. The dark ink of his tattoos seemed to drink in the cobalt light of the river, glowing faintly.
He seemed at one with the cave surrounding him. Like he was carved from the very stone around us.
I dropped the glowing fragments into a clean vial, placing a cork into the opening to contain the magic. I gave the tube a small shake and gasped as small, glowing motes floated around the glass. “Beautiful.”
“Indeed,” Talon echoed, but he was not looking at the vial. His gaze was anchored to the curve of my neck.
I bit my lip to suppress a smile, but a sharp click startled me. A dozen wispy fragments tore free from the ink on Talon’s chest, weaving together with a hiss until they formed a small, levitating basket.
The shadows let out tiny, ethereal squeals as they swallowed the vial into their forms and solidified into an opaque structure.
“Where are they taking it?” I asked, watching the levitating basket.
“To Hera’s home,” Talon said. He watched the shadows depart toward the tunnel’s mouth. “All herbal medicine used to heal a mortal after the severance of a Lunthra bond comes from Umbral soil. Those mushrooms have healing tendencies that can knit a shattered spirit back together.”
I blinked, my throat tightening with a mix of relief and awe. “You are healing her.”
“I do not wish for her death to be the ghost that sits at our table, Kaelia,” he said, his blue eyes pinning me to the spot. “I told you I would help her. I am a man of my word.”
He looked down at my hands, then took them in his. He turned them over, his thumbs brushing over my palms, which were stained with dark earth and the glowing blue dust of the moss.
“I will run some warm water so you can clean up.”
I gave a nod and moved toward the private washroom tucked beside the sleeping quarters.
The space resembled a natural hollow, the dark stone smoothed only enough to serve its purpose. The air was perpetually damp, carrying the faint metallic tang of subterranean earth mixed with the lingering musk of Talon’s scent.
I stripped off my clothes, letting them fall in a weary heap, and stepped beneath the cascading water.
The intense heat sank into my skin, a blistering relief that did little to soften the ache stretched across my bones.
I braced my hands against the slick obsidian wall, my forehead resting against the cool stone as the torrent poured over me.
I let the water beat down, closing my eyes and trying to imagine it could wash away the truth pulsing in my veins—and the blood that was surely still under my fingernails.
There was no turning back now. Even if I had not spoken the words aloud to my parents, the High Court would speak for me.
They would not let a breach of the Archives and the assault of a Keeper go unpunished.
By morning, the silver-clad criers in the streets of Isvale would be shouting my name, branding me a traitor and a thief of forbidden power.
With a heavy sigh that was lost beneath the fall of the water, I sank to the floor, pulling my knees to my chest. The deluge became a wall of white noise, muting my thoughts until they dulled to a low, insistent thrum.
My eyes closed, the heat, the isolation, and the sheer exhaustion coaxing me toward a fragile moment of peace.
Just as I thought I may become one with the water and filter down the drain, the current shifted, breaking against a shape. My eyes snapped open just as a pair of thick, inked thighs materialized in front of me, partially obscured by the spray.
“Kaelia? Why are you not answering me?”
I looked up, my throat constricting. Talon’s broad frame loomed above me.
He was sheened with moisture, droplets clinging to the intricate, dark ink that mapped his skin.
He wore nothing but a pair of black briefs that clung to him, radiating a masculine confidence that made my breath stumble in my chest.
Heat prickled my face. I ducked my gaze, trying to hide behind the fold of my legs.
“Talon,” I whispered, my voice betraying me with its crack. “This is all so wrong.”
Anger and grief tangled until tears blurred my sight. Without a word, he crouched down, his movement fluid despite his size. He slid behind me until his massive body caged mine, his thighs bracketing me against the slick stone. The heat of him wrapped around me like a furnace.
His arms came around me, pulling me back until my spine was pressed firmly against the hard, wet plane of his chest. One large, calloused hand swept my wet hair from my face, slow and gentle. His touch was so tender it made my heart ache.
“Look at me,” he murmured, his breath hot against my ear.
I turned my head slightly, caught in the gravity of his gaze.
My hands, which had been balled into fists, slowly unfurled. My fingers brushed against his forearms, tracing the ridges of muscle and the raised lines of his tattoos.
“We will never be safe,” I breathed, the truth tasting like ash. “The High Court will continue hunt us.”
“Let them come,” he growled, his lips grazing the curve of my shoulder. “I have waited centuries for a soul that hummed the same frequency as mine. Do you think I will let a few robed judges take you from me?”
He turned me in his arms until I was facing him. The water fell between us, a shimmering curtain, steam thickening the air until every breath felt heavier, warmer, like the room itself was closing in around us.
His gaze dropped to my lips, and my stomach tensed with a want so desperate, I was not sure I could deny it.
I leaned forward, pressing my forehead against his chest—not in surrender to the bond, but in surrender to the man who was currently the only thing keeping the world from swallowing me whole.
“I am afraid,” I whispered into his skin.
“I know,” he said, his voice dropping to a low vibration. “But you are mine. And I am yours. Fear is for the unprotected, Kaelia, and I will never let you stand alone.”
He lifted my chin, his thumb brushing over my lower lip until it parted. When he kissed me, it was slow, deep, and devastatingly possessive.
He pulled away and the water ceased with a soft click of his fingers, the cavern plunging into silence but for the dripping stone.
He wrapped me in a thick, fur-lined towel, his movements surprisingly careful, cocooning me in overwhelming warmth before lifting me into his arms as though I weighed nothing at all.
The scent of him clung to me as he carried me out, past the heap of discarded clothes, and lowered me onto the bed.
The mattress was firm, the fur quilt and satin sheets swallowing me whole. He handed me a plain black cotton shirt. “For you to sleep in. Unless you would prefer to sleep nude.”
Heat flooded my cheeks as I snatched the shirt and pulled it over my head. I buried myself in the blankets, shuffling into the center of the bed.
“Move over,” he commanded, dropping his own towel.
I was much too exhausted to offer even a whisper of an argument. I shifted, my limbs feeling like lead as I conceded the center of the expansive bed to him. He slid in beside me, his large frame instantly radiating an intoxicating heat that seemed to seep into my chilled skin.
I tried to remain at the very edge of the silk sheets, but his hand found my hip with a firm grip.
He anchored me against his side, pulling me back until my bare skin pressed into the hot expanse of his chest. A soft, weary sound slipped from me—part surrender, part relief—as the tension finally began to bleed out of my muscles.
He let out a long, strained sigh, his hand trailing up from my hip to rest possessively on the small of my back.
“Sleep,” he said, his lips brushing over my forehead. “We will speak when the sun rises.”
As sleep finally dragged me under, I felt him shift, his breath stirring my damp hair. He pulled me closer, his chest molding to mine.
“You are the very other half of me, Kaelia,” he whispered into the dark. “You make me whole, and I will not let them touch you. I would rather lose my soul to the deepest depths of the abyss than let them have yours.”