“Liessa,” he rasped.
Eather erupted from my chest, shooting into the air in a spinning, sparking funnel. The stream of eather slammed into the sky. Time felt as if it stopped once more.
Arms tensed around me. “Oh, shit.”
The surge of power throbbed, and I saw the shockwave before I heard it, rippling in waves through the air, extending in every direction. With a massive, deafening boom that shook the land in all the realms, the intense silvery-gold light rippled across the skies, stretching as far as the eye could see and beyond. That shockwave reached us—
He was torn from me, thrown back into the trees as I was lifted into the air. The water of my lake flew out and up, halting as shadowstone cracked beneath us and gave way. Tall elms groaned as they quaked, bending back and then pitching forward, their roots ripping free of the ground. They began to slide and topple, sinking into the rushing water as the eather returned to its vessel.
To me.
Essence wrapped and churned around me, crackling and spitting sparks, encasing me in its light until it was all I saw.
All I became.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
I slept.
And I dreamed.
I was at a lake, floating in the cool water. It was so peaceful. Tranquil.
I was never alone.
A silver-white wolf sat on the bank of the lake, watching and always alert, keeping guard while I floated and…
Listened.
Someone was talking to me as I slept.
The voice was full of silky shadows and smoke. There were others, too. A raspier one. Softer, feminine tones. Quiet murmurings. But his, the voice of midnight…his I tuned into. It soothed me. Meant something to me.
He meant something to me.
“The first time I saw you—really saw you? You were just a child, but I didn’t look like this. I’d taken my wolf form.”
I looked at where the silver wolf sat. The wolf…it was him.
“Not that being in that form makes it…how did you say it?” A rough, low laugh traveled across the water, bringing a smile to my lips. “Any less creepy.”
I…I’d said that?
“You were this little thing carrying your weight in pebbles, your hair a pale tangle of moonlight. When you saw me, I thought you’d scream and run away. Child or not, most sensible mortals would do that when confronted by a wolf. You did neither of those things.”
I didn’t think I… I was known to be sensible.
“You just stared at me with those big green eyes.” There were several moments of silence, and I feared he wouldn’t speak again, but he did. “It was a long time before you saw me again. Not until the night you turned seventeen, but I saw you between then.”
I had the strange impression that the night he spoke about had once been important to me. Life-changing and haunting. A source of bitter failure that had once felt like it would never go away. But I also sensed the event no longer meant anything to me.
“I never told you about the dream I had of your lake before I even laid eyes on it,” he said. “I can’t even say it was a dream. It was…yeah, it was something else. But for years, I told myself that was all it was. Convinced myself until I no longer could. It was a warning, one I heeded.” Heavy regret filled his voice. “But I did so in the worst way possible.”
He fell quiet then, and I was grateful. I didn’t want him talking about things that made him sad. I wanted him to laugh as he had before.
Time passed as I floated, and I heard other voices. Ones I didn’t recognize. Some I thought I would know eventually. They talked about the past and the future. They shared ancient knowledge, speaking of magic and power until his voice silenced theirs.
He spoke more, mentioning the night he saw me in a Temple. He told me how he tried to distance himself from me. Talked about how he saw me again when he stopped me from attacking some gods.
It sounded like a completely insensible thing for me to try, but it made me smile.
“I already knew by then that you were brave,” he said. “I just hadn’t realized how brave you’d become. How fearless and passionate you were.”
I liked that part.
“And I wasn’t prepared for how much I’d feel… How I’d feel alive just being in your presence.”
I really liked that part.
“After I had my kardia removed, I was still capable of feeling. Caring. I was still myself, I just didn’t… I don’t know.” His voice sounded closer.
As I floated, I felt the ghost of a touch on my cheek. My eyes closed. I really, really liked that.
It struck me then that I always liked when he touched me. Loved it.
“I just didn’t feel things strongly. I was no longer capable of doing so,” he told me. “Until you. You made me feel things strongly. Everything, liessa.”
Liessa? Was that my name? I didn’t think so, but my heart skipped at hearing it. And it wasn’t a bad feeling. It was pleasant. I loved when he called me that. It had a special meaning.
“From that very first damn kiss, I should’ve known.” He sighed.
Known what?
Better yet… I wanted him to tell me about our first kiss. I wanted to remember it.
And he did, much to my happiness. “You knew I was, at the very least, a god, and you still threatened me.”
Well, that happiness was incredibly short-lived. Why had I threatened him? I had a feeling I’d been justified.
“You warned me that if I tried anything…”
Go for that weapon on your thigh again? I heard his voice—not then, but in my mind. He’d said that to me after I threatened him, and I had answered with a yes.
“When I shushed you, I really thought you were going to hit me,” he said with another low chuckle. “I never knew a mortal to be so…wonderfully belligerent to a god. It was refreshing.”
That was an odd reaction, but it still made me grin.
“I could’ve done so many damn things to make sure we weren’t seen. Telling you to kiss me should’ve been the very last thing I suggested.” I felt that whisper of touch again, this time on my jaw. “But your threats provoked me, and damn…it shocked me. Even before Maia removed my kardia, I’d learned to control my temper. To not let things rile me. I knew better.”
He…he did. Because he…he’d had to learn that.
“But a few minutes with you and I was responding to your every word and every move without much thought. Just instinct. I wanted to challenge you. I didn’t think you’d kiss me. I figured you’d more than likely hit me. But you did.” His voice was a sigh against my skin. “And it shocked the hell out of me.”
But I… My brow wrinkled as I opened my eyes to the empty, dark sky above. I had…I had bitten his lip. Then he’d kissed me back.
“Fates, liessa, you tasted of warmth and sunshine,” he said. “Life. It left me feeling off balance for days. I was so damn pissed at myself for engaging you like that. I knew better. I fucking knew better. You didn’t realize who I was to you yet, and I knew the kind of danger I was putting you in. I knew what could happen. But you were in my arms after all those years of avoiding you, and you…you…you felt like you were mine.”
Mine.
Some knowledge arose that the idea of belonging to someone would enrage me, but not him. He was different. I did belong to him. And he belonged to me.