Chapter 20 #2
“Oh, I would love to see that, but unfortunately, there are no cliffs around,” He tells me. “Or rather, there is no ocean around. But there should be… Yes.” He breaks off when we reach a riverbank. “I can lift you over it, if you're afraid to get your feet wet,” he offers.
“I’m not afraid,” I snap back, but any discussion is cut short when there are shouts behind us. Tate's grip on my hand tightens, and he pulls me after him and into the floods. I gasp. The water is freezing.
“Keep breathing,” he tells me.
“Can’t,” I wheeze. The water reaches up to my chest now, and I swear my ribs are frozen. After a short moment of prickling pain, numbness creeps into my limbs.
“What are you doing?” Solaris screeches in my head.
“Taking a damn ice bath.” And I swear even my mental teeth are chattering.
“Get out of there now,” my bird commands.
“I’m on it, I swear,” I croak back. Finally, the water level sinks, and we stumble to shore just seconds later.
“I can't feel my legs,” I complain. Then the pins and prickles set in. “Never mind, I wish I couldn't feel my legs,” I mutter.
An arrow whizzes past us, our pursuers already scrambling down the riverbank.
“We have to keep moving,” Tate tells me. And I know that, but there is no chance I’ll outrun them in this condition.
“Or we have to stop them,” I say when an idea strikes. I concentrate on the stream. And just like I practiced with fluid in a tea mug, I channel my gift into the water, heating it. Steam billows over the surface. And one of the men, who was just about to step in, yelps and jumps backward.
“What are you doing?” Tate barks, pulling me behind a boulder, and throws up a shield just in time to stop another arrow midair.
“Discourage them from following,” I say.
“Are you crazy? Do you know the amount of energy that takes?”
Well, yeah, I feel it. My gift is depleting rapidly.
“I only have to keep it up long enough so they turn away.” I grit my teeth. By now, the water is boiling. Steam rises, hiding us from sight. Tate scans our surroundings and pulls me with him, while I observe with growing unease as my gift weakens. I won't be able to hold it much longer.
“Don't use all of it,” Solaris warns just seconds before my gift sizzles out. I’ve run empty.
“Too late,” I answer.
“Get somewhere where I can get you,” Solaris demands.
“I’ll try.”
“Come. I’ve found something.” Tate pulls me to some brushes, and I want to protest, but he slips behind them and tugs me into what seems to be a small cave.
I hunker down, shivering, leaving room between us.
“How much did you use?” Tate asks calmly, and I bite my lip.
“Ara,” he warns.
“All of it,” I whisper.
He curses. “You're cold.”
“Very observant of you,” I snap back.
“Get out of the armor. It will take too long to dry,” he instructs while stripping out of his, leaving him in a wet tunic plastered to his skin. I tug on mine, but the soaked leather is stiff, and my shaking fingers don’t help either.
He sighs. “Would you stop being stubborn and come here already?” I inch closer. “You slept glued to my body last night. Do you think now is the moment to keep your distance?” He helps me with the last straps and pulls me into him. The moment my body hits his, I sigh.
“So warm,” I hum and wrap my arms around him.
He chuckles and pulls me closer, then slides down the wall so I end up in his lap, straddling him, his magic settling around us.
Slowly, I stop shivering, and with the returning warmth, I realize just how intimate our position is.
Awareness hums between us and prickles over my skin. There is an unnatural stillness to Tate’s body, like he is afraid to even breathe. My head rests against his shoulder, facing away from him, and I don't dare to move either.
It’s like both of us feel that one move could change everything. And it would, because if I look at him now…
An aching need unfurls in my core, and he’s not unaffected either. I can feel him harden beneath me. Our breaths pick up speed, but still neither of us moves. This is absolutely the wrong place, the wrong time. But damn, I’ve never felt for anyone what I feel for him, with him.
“I’m sorry—”
“No need to be sorry.” I cut him off. “It's me who's plastered against you like ivy.” I pull back, but that's a mistake.
Now I can see his eyes. And they are filled with such longing, such …
pain that I lean in without thinking. I know there are like 100 reasons I shouldn't do this, but at the moment, I can't even think of one.
“Whatever you need, sunshine,” Tate rasps, and I crash my mouth to his. Despite his words, he's not passive. He doesn't surrender but takes as much as he gives.
“You're going to be the death of me,” he whispers between kisses. I hum. This feels so damn right. My body is on fire, the cold forgotten. I move my hip against him and moan when the length of his cock hits my throbbing need.
His hands tangle in my hair and tug to expose my throat, where he places nipping, hungry kisses before his mouth comes back to mine. I know we should stop, but at the moment, I don't care. All I want is to taste him, feel him close, against me, inside me, his magic around me, filling me.
“Shh,” he whispers against my lips. “You have to be quiet, baby.”
I wasn't even aware I made a sound.
He grabs my hips, grinding up against me, helping me to get the friction I seek.
“I need you inside me,” I moan, and he crashes his lips back on mine, swallowing the sound.
“As much as I would love that,” he rasps, “here is not the place nor the time.” How can he be so reasonable? How can he even think?
A sound of pure disagreement leaves my lips, and his lips curl into a grin against mine.
“Whatever I need, was it?”
“You are such a demon.” He bites my neck and sends sparks shooting through my body, but then pulls back. “But we still have a competition to win. So as much as it pains me, not now.”
His words sober me quicker than anything else could. The competition. The egg. The reason he took me with him. How badly he wants to win.
I scramble off his lap so fast I nearly fall, since I forgot for a moment I’m still chained to him.
“Get that off me,” I snarl, gesturing at my hand.
“Whoa, what happened just now?” Tate’s eyes search mine.
I step back, but of course, he follows.
“I forgot for a moment whose lap I was riding,” I spit.
“Nice try, but you were cold, not drunk, when you cuddled into me, so I’m not buying this shit. Try again.”
“Was that your way of softening me up, so I would play your bloodhound for this damn competition?”
“What the fuck are you talking about? You kissed me, remember?” His gaze jumps between my eyes, trying to read me.
“And you played me … again,” I mutter.
“I … what?” He grabs my chin, bringing my eyes back to his.
“Now listen closely, I have no idea where all of this is coming from, but I have no time for this shit. I have exactly two goals at the moment: keep you alive and win the flight games, and you are doing your damned best to sabotage both.” He runs a hand through his hair.
“And still I’m here, still I can’t stay away from you, still I—” He shakes his head, releasing my chin as he steps back.
“If the thought of helping me win this competition is so abhorrent to you, then don’t.
It’s not like I worked years for this.” He laughs humorlessly.
“Stay here and don’t move.” He grabs his armor and leaves, and because I want to follow him, I do for once as he asks, and stay where I am.
It’s only when he is gone that I realize he cut me free. And somehow, that hurts.