35. The Black Sand Beach #2
The world vanishes beneath my feet, and wind whips past my ears as gravity drags me downward.
My stomach lurches violently, but my back… it burns. Like my body is fighting to summon wings that haven’t appeared for so many years.
The burning becomes more intense, and the agony rips a scream from my throat.
Then I feel something wrap around me.
Wings?
The fall stops in an instant.
No.
A startled breath escapes me as Silver catches me midair, pulling me tight against him. His wings beat powerfully around us, the gust of air lifting my hair and sending it flying across both our faces.
For a moment everything else disappears.
The wind.
The drop.
The island.
Even Vulcaris.
All I’m aware of is him.
His arms locked around my waist. The solid heat of his body against mine. The steady strength of his wings holding us suspended in the night sky.
I grip his shoulders instinctively, breathless. “You!” I gasp. “What the hell was that?”
“You’re the only person who could jump off the roof of a fortress and manage to look angry that I’d catch you.” His mouth brushes dangerously close to my temple as he speaks.
I shake my head. “My wings were coming, I could feel it! You didn’t give them a chance!” I pull back just enough to glare at him. “Why would you do that?”
For a moment he doesn’t answer, but I don’t miss how his eyes drift briefly to the distant ground far below us, then back to me.
Eventually, he lets out a chuckle, though he isn’t laughing at me, it’s like he is laughing at himself. “Honestly? I wasn’t planning to.”
“What?”
The wind rushes around us as his wings start to move more than enough to keep us aloft.
“I saw you falling,” he says quietly. “And my instincts made me move before my brain had the chance to stop them, okay? Come on, let’s try again.”
Something warm and dangerous blooms in my chest. “Wait, so your first instinct is to stop me from doing exactly what you have been demanding I do every time I’m out on that turret with you?”
His mouth curves faintly. “My first instinct is apparently to keep you alive.”
The wind presses us closer together as Silver steers us higher into the sky and away from Vulcaris. His hands are still wrapped firmly around my waist and my fingers still curled into his shoulders.
We’re close enough now that I can see the tiny flecks of silver in his eyes, like stars.
Close enough to feel the heat of his breath when he speaks, or merely breathes.
His gaze drifts to my mouth again, and my pulse stutters. I don’t say anything, my mind is too busy reeling that I’d actually felt something in my back fighting to break free.
Silver watches me, and the memory of our last kiss sparks between us. For a moment, neither of us move.
Then his hand tightens slightly at my waist.
And that’s all the warning I get before he’s kissing me.
The moment his lips touch mine it’s like a flint striking steel. His mouth is warm and tastes of smoke and salt and something dangerously intoxicating.
My fingers tighten against his shoulders without thinking, pulling him closer as the world disappears beneath us.
There’s nothing but the warmth of his mouth, the steady beat of his wings holding us aloft, and the air he’s pushing into my lungs.
When he finally pulls back, my heart is racing.
I blink up at him, suddenly very aware that we’re hovering in the open sky between Vulcaris and the black sand beach, above the tents full of soldiers pitched between trees along dirt tracks.
“Someone could see us,” I whisper.
Silver glances back toward the fortress, where orblights and lanterns flicker in distant windows. Its halls are quiet at this time, especially on the eve of a game.
Silver’s mouth tilts into a crooked smile. “You’re right.”
Before I can ask what he means, his wings shift and the world drops away again when he dives.
A startled laugh escapes me as the wind rushes past us, faster now, the fortress shrinking behind us as he cuts across the night sky. “Silver!”
“Relax,” he calls over the wind.
We glide over the harbor, past the dark outlines of ships rocking gently in the water, then toward the beach where soldiers had been running drills while I stumbled off the ship, half sick, half terrified.
Silver slows as we descend, and his wings beat twice more before his boots touch the sand.
He sets me down carefully but doesn’t step away. The waves roll onto the shore behind us, moonlight turning the water a crimson hue against the jet black sand.
“I’m not supposed to leave the fortress,” I say quietly.
Silver’s already looking down at me. “And yet here you are.”
My stomach flips. “If someone finds out…”
“I’m sure you’d be in all kinds of trouble.”
“I would be?”
He nods. “So much trouble.”
I swallow.
“It’s a good thing that I’m the one in charge of your punishment, wouldn’t you agree?”
Heat crawls up my neck. “Punishment?”
His eyes darken slightly. “Leaving Vulcaris without permission…” His voice drops lower. “It’s a fairly serious offense.”
I lift a brow, trying to ignore the way my pulse jumps with it. “And what exactly does that punishment involve, Overlord?”
His gaze drifts slowly over me. Not rushed, and certainly not subtle. Slow enough to make my breath catch.
“Depends,” he says softly.
“On what?”
“On whether you plan to break the rule again when I’m not here.”
My mouth goes dry. “Do you ever break the rules?”
His smile turns wicked. “What rule are you thinking of, Little Nephilim? The one where I don’t fuck cadets?” The way he says it sends a dangerous shiver down my spine.
I nod.
He shakes his head, and a wave crashes softly behind us.
I want to ask if he’s sure about that. Unless I’m reading him all wrong, he’s about as immune to me as I am to him.
Then Silver’s expression shifts slightly, not teasing now, more serious.
“You have just over a week.”
“Two.”
He shakes his head, just once, but it’s final enough.
“You’re not listening, Scar. You have just over one week until the final game. Until then, you will come to me every night until you get your wings back, even if I have to throw you off myself and you have to tie my arms to stop me from catching you.”