Chapter 57 Theron
THERON
Fuck! I can’t believe what I just did!
I stare into Elowen’s eyes—her emerald green eyes—in horror. She’s looking over my shoulder and when she meets my gaze I can tell she knows—she’s seen for herself in some reflective surface that her eyes have been changed.
“Oh, baby—I’m so fucking sorry,” I say. “I didn’t mean to.”
“No, it’s not your fault.” She looks pale, her freckles standing out in stark relief against her creamy skin. “You…you tried not to.”
“Tried isn’t good enough.”
I feel like shit—like I failed her. I should have been able to hold back—I should have pulled out sooner. Why the fuck didn’t I?
It just felt so good inside her—she’s so tight and hot and wet. And my Drake was urging me to breed her—to Bond her to us. Of course, a full Bonding can’t take place unless he also mounts her, but the first part of the Bond has been formed.
Not that Elowen seems to notice. To be honest, she looks like she’s in shock.
“Perhaps the two of you would like to tidy up a bit,” Salazar’s voice comes from behind the curtain and suddenly, a silver basin on wheels appears beside us. There’s a washcloth and the water is steaming, sending delicate wisps of mist into the air.
“Um…thank you,” Elowen says in a small voice.”
She dismounts from my lap—if that’s the right word—turns away from me and begins washing herself. When she’s finished, she puts the washcloth back in the water and belts her white priestess robes.
“Are you all right?” I can’t help asking her, though I know she’s not. “I didn’t get any on your, uh, robes, did I?”
She shakes her head, her face downcast.
“No. Not that it matters. I won’t be allowed to wear them anymore—not now that my eyes are changed.” She looks down at herself. “I should find something else to wear, if I can.”
“I can provide you with new clothing if you wish, my dear,” Salazar says, stepping out from behind the curtain. “At no extra charge, of course,” he adds.
Rage fills me. I’m itching to wipe that smug smile off his demonic face with my fist. But I know that Elowen will never get the living coal if I do and then all this will have been for nothing.
“Why the long faces, friends?” he asks, his smile widening. “You got to do exactly what you’ve been craving with each other for all this time without any consequences at all.”
“How can you say that?” Elowen cries. She points to her eyes. “There are definitely consequences!”
“But they’ll all be erased once you work your little Time Weaving spell—will they not?” Salazar cocks an eyebrow at her.
A look of realization dawns on Elowen’s pretty face and I feel it dawning on my face as well. Of course—the Time Weaving spell! She’s planning to go back to the time before we even met each other, so I’ll never have a chance to change the color of her eyes.
This epiphany ought to make me feel better…but somehow it makes me feel worse instead. Now that I’ve formed a partial Bond with her, losing her seems even more unbearable. I know she can’t feel the Bond—it’s barely there since I barely came in her—but I can feel it and so can my Drake.
Speaking of my Drake, he’s extremely upset by the idea of Elowen going back in time to forget us. I’ve tried and tried to explain this to him before but for some reason, he is only just now fully understanding that she’s going to leave and never return.
She’s not just going to forget us, I try to explain. She wants to go back to her peaceful, safe life at the temple.
“Meet her later? After the spell?” he asks hopefully.
She’s supposed to remain celibate—it wouldn’t be a good idea for us to meet her, I tell him—which makes him upset all over again. In fact, it’s all I can do to hold him back from Shifting and breaking out of the mansion so he can fly away.
Meanwhile, Elowen looks almost as upset as my Drake feels, which is strange, since going back in time will restore her virginity and her blue eyes to her.
“I guess you’re right,” she says to Salazar, who’s still smirking at us both. “I will regain what I lost once I work the spell.”
“That you will, my dear,” he purrs. “But for now, a deal is a deal. Here.”
He reaches into his hair and pulls out a living coal once more.
Elowen reaches out her hand to take it, but I stop her by grabbing her wrist.
“Wait, baby! That’s going to burn the fuck out of your fingers,” I protest.
“Oh…I suppose you’re right.” She nods dully. She really isn’t herself right now—I’m getting worried about her.
“Where are those little crystal globes?” I ask her. “The ones you put the feather, the sacred river water and the jewel in?”
“I don’t know.” She shakes her head. “They just seem to appear once I have the element I’m collecting and I need them.”
“It sounds like part of a collecting spell,” Salazar remarks, looking interested. “Perhaps if you hold out your hand and I tip the living coal into it, the collecting vessel will appear to catch it.”
“Or perhaps the fucking coal will burn a hole through her hand!” I growl. “I don’t want you taking a chance,” I say to her. “Let me hold the coal—it can’t hurt me—my Drake’s inner fire will protect me.”
Elowen’s newly green eyes soften as she looks up at me.
“Thank you for being so protective, but I have to collect each element myself or the spell won’t work. I think we’ll have to try what Salazar has suggested.”
I don’t like this but there doesn’t seem to be another way. I watch as she holds out her hand and Salazar tips the coal into her palm.
A fraction of an instant before the live coal lands in her palm, the crystal collecting globe appears in her hand. The coal plunks into it, casting a reddish-golden glow through the crystal.
I wait to see if the intense heat will shatter the delicate container, but it must be magic because Elowen stoppers it and it’s just fine. The minute she puts the stopper in, it disappears, presumably back into some magical inventory she’s carrying with her thanks to the spell.
“Well—there you go!” Salazar claps his hands together cheerfully. “All done. Am I correct in thinking this is your final element—the last thing you need to work your spell?”
“Yes, that’s right,” Elowen says in a low voice. She doesn’t sound happy about it at all, which is strange. I thought she’d be eager to finish up and get back to her safe and happy life as a temple virgin.
“Well then—I will bid you both goodbye,” Salazar says. “Unless you’d like to stay awhile and have supper with me?”
Elowen shakes her head.
“Thanks but…I’m not hungry,” she says.
“Very well then, allow me to see you to the door.”
He hustles us out of the mansion and in no time at all, we’re standing on the front porch again and everything that just happened between us seems like a dream.
The sun is low in the sky, but other than that, nothing has changed. The wastelands still look barren and desolate…almost as desolate as my heart, when I think about losing my curvy little priestess.
“Hey,” I say to her. “Are you all right?”
“Fine.” But she won’t meet my eyes. “Well…I guess we’d better fly to the King’s Court now. The capital city, I mean.”
“I guess so,” I say, my heart heavy. “It’s kind of a long flight from here though. Are you sure you’re up for it tonight?”
“Well, I mean, we can’t exactly stay here.” She makes a gesture, taking in the arid desert.
“No, I guess not.” I give a heavy sigh and run a hand over my horns. “All right—stand back. I’m going to Shift. Oh, and don’t be scared if my Drake acts unhappy—he’s just really upset about losing you.”
“He…he is?” She nibbles her lush lower lip—a habit I’ve noticed she has when she’s nervous.
“Yes, but don’t worry—he would never hurt you. He just feels…upset that you want to leave him and forget him.”
To tell the truth, I kind of feel that way myself. But what can I do about it? Nothing. So I keep my mouth shut.
I take a few steps back from her and let the Shift take me, flowing inward as my Drake flows outward.
I don’t want to think about losing Elowen—about her forgetting me forever. Losing myself in my Drake seems like a good way to stop thinking about it for a while.
But I know the pain will still be waiting for me when I Shift back to my human form.