Chapter 19 #2
Malakai pulls Gravy Boat to a stop just a few yards from the shimmering border.
He turns to me, his expression deadly serious.
"The Seelie creature that attacked you last night was only the beginning.
Wild Fae magic is bleeding through the cracks, Aveline.
If we do not reinforce the threshold, the wards will fail entirely.
" He extends a hand toward the fractured barrier, then looks back at me.
"I can supply the dark, but a threshold requires both sides of the coin.
Reach out your hand. Let the light out."
My horse stomps sideways, restless, dirt clouds flying out under his hooves.
“Whoa," I say, trying to calm him. "I think we're scaring Pickles," I tell Malakai. “I don’t think I can do this while I’m riding.”
“Fine, let the horses graze, and we'll come back here and concentrate."
Great. I've bought myself a little time to try and figure out exactly how this works.
We work in silence, tying the horses' reins to a nearby tree, where they seem content enough to flick their tails and sample the local clover.
“Why are you afraid, Aveline?" Malakai asks suddenly, the directness of his question surprising me.
“What do you mean?" I ask, tossing my braid behind my shoulder. If he's going to call me out, then he better be ready to go all the way.
“You're stalling.” He stares me down, hands on his hips. “There's nothing to fear. The magic has always been a part of you. But you must not let it be your master. You are its master.”
“I'm not afraid,” I lie.
He gives me a long, knowing look, and I roll my eyes and sigh in exasperation.
“All right, fine, I'm a little bit afraid. Mostly, though, I don't have any idea what I’m supposed to do,” I tell him. "I've never had to force it out of me."
Grumpy, I walk back to the shimmering air, studying it like it will suddenly reveal step-by-step directions if I glower at it long enough.
"Let me show you," he says from behind me.
I turn, expecting to watch him summon his shadows and glean whatever knowledge there is to extract from it, but instead, he wraps a strong arm around my waist.
My breath stills, heart beating wildly.
His other arm goes up my back, over my shoulder, and down my arm until my hand is in his.
With one arm around my waist, he bends his head down so that I can feel the warmth of his breath on my ear, and he murmurs, "Reach deep inside you for that kernel of power.
I know you felt it, because I've seen you summon your light, Aveline. "
The way he says my name, the way it leaves his lips sends a shiver down my spine.
He lets out a low chuckle. "Focus, Aveline. There'll be time for whatever it is that's making you shiver later. All the time in the world," he says, as his lips brush the shell of my ear.
I gasp.
His hand splays across my stomach, and butterflies take flight.
"There it is," he tells me.
I can hardly think for how close he is, how warm his big body is behind mine. The way his hands feel on my waist, the way his mouth feels against my skin—
"Reach for your magic, Aveline," he tells me. "Focus. Focus on where it lives deep inside you, that power, that beautiful light, and..." He grips my hand, the strength of it surprising me.
“I don’t know where it—"
"Look," he tells me, and I can hear the smile in his voice. "Look at your hand. Look at your light."
I do. And I stop thinking about his body and focus on the energy pouring forth from deep inside me. It sparkles orange-gold, the color of summer sun rising on the horizon, of afternoons in fall, daylight and warmth.
"There it is," he says, his voice satisfied. "Do you see now what you are capable of?"
Light streams from all five of my fingertips.
"Do you feel it?" he asks, his hand tight on my abdomen, around the bottom of my rib cage. "Right here, do you feel how it's coming from inside of you? Do you feel its heat?"
"Yes," I whisper.
"Are you in pain?" he asks, taking a step back and loosening his grip on me. Almost immediately, the light sparks, then dies. "Does it hurt you?" he asks, a confused look on his handsome face.
I don't know why I do it, but everything in me is screaming to get him back—to get his arms back around me immediately.
I take a step forward, determined to reclaim what he's taken, and I pull his arm back to my waist. I reach up with my other hand for his face.
It's coarse with the stubble of a sleepless night, a delicious feeling against my fingers, and I pull his head down to me, overcome with a heady sense of desire and power from feeling my magic for the first time.
A ragged laugh tears from him.
His hand goes to my face and he bends down, breathing the same air as I. For one long, heated moment, I wonder if I've made a mistake.
And then his lips find mine, and I forget how to breathe.
Any illusion of control I thought I had over this man vanishes the exact second our lips meet.
I expected a cautious acceptance, and I am entirely mistaken.
Malakai lets out a ragged growl against my mouth that vibrates straight down to my toes. The shock of it makes me gasp, and he immediately seizes the opening, his tongue sliding against mine with a desperate, heavy hunger that completely steals the breath from my lungs.
My world narrows to the scent of him.
Ozone, and midnight, and the cool, indescribable flavor of his ancient power.
His hands, huge and burning hot, slide beneath the heavy drape of my traveling cloak and the hem of my overdress, finding the bare skin of my waist. I flinch at the contrast of his shadow-calloused palms against my skin.
Heat spikes right through my core, and I need more.
The kiss changes, hungry, alive, and before I can even register the movement, his grip tightens on my hips. My heart stutters when he lifts me clean off the damp forest floor as if I weigh nothing at all.
Instinct takes over.
Instinct, and desire.
My legs wrap around his waist, locking me flush against his massive, muscular frame. Malakai drives me backward in a single, fluid stride until my spine meets the solid, rough bark of an ancient oak tree.
The impact should jar me, but his body is there to cushion it, pinning me to the wood. My hands tangle frantically into his dark hair, pulling him closer, like I can selfishly demand more of the heat of his mouth with mine alone.
The moment our bodies fuse together against the tree, the orange-gold light that had died out sparks back to life with a vengeance.
My eyes go wide.
It doesn't just stream from my fingertips anymore; it erupts from my skin in waves, pouring over his broad shoulders. A moment later, Malakai’s velvet shadows surge upward, wrapping around my thighs, my back, my hands.
I want him everywhere, and it’s like the magic knows it.
They don't fight each other. They blend.
Gold and darkness twine together like liquid eclipse fire, spiraling up our bodies until the sheer volume of our combined power overflows.
A visible shockwave of golden-shadow energy arcs through the air, throwing a massive blinding light across the dim forest. It slams directly into the pulsing, fractured violet ward right in front of us.
The sickly cracks are instantly overwritten, replaced by a smooth, unyielding wall of gold-threaded darkness. The forest itself echoes with a deep, resonant hum as the threshold locks into place.
The brilliance of the magic flash forces my eyes closed, and when I open them, the frantic rhythm of the kiss changes. It slows.
It’s agonizing.
Possessive.
Malakai abruptly tears himself away with a shudder.
He doesn't drop me. He keeps his hands locked securely under my thighs, holding me pinned to the tree, his forehead crashing against mine as his chest heaves in desperate gasps.
His dark eyes are completely dilated, practically black with the same hunger I feel inside. Still, his grip stays steady, gentle… refusing to slide an inch lower.
"If you keep looking at me like that, Duchess," Malakai pants, his voice a raw, gravelly ruin that sends a final, lethal shiver straight down my spine, "I am going to break every single rule of your courtship right here on the dirt."
I stare at him, my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird, my lips swollen and burning, realizing with a sudden, dizzying panic that I wouldn't have stopped him.
“I think that’s enough magic lessons for today,” I manage, trying to smooth my skirts. Except, I’m wearing pants. Right.
I don’t wait for a response. I untie my horse, and let him run as fast as he wants back to the castle.