As she walked away, she heard her brother growl at Xavier. “Wait? What did she just say? She seduced you?”
“Damn right. Best thing that ever happened to me,” Xavier said with a grin in his voice. “Later, A.”
Amalie was barely down the path when Xavier came up behind her and scooped her up in his arms. She let out a squeal of delight.
“Where are you taking me, mate of mine?” she asked, grinning up at him.
His smile was wide and hungry, and his eyes glowed blue fire in the moonlight. “Home, Beautiful.”
“Mine or yours?”
He leaned in and kissed her, growled against her lips. “There is no mine or yours anymore. Only ours. So says the mark on your sexy hip.”
Her skin tingled with his words, and her heart squeezed. She’d hoped and wished for this for so long, and now he was finally hers. The love of her life.
“You don’t have to rush, Xavier,” she giggled as he stalked through town toward their house. “We have so much longer than three days. We have forever. We have a lifetime.”
But he didn’t slow. In fact, he quickened his pace. “I need you now, Beautiful,” he rasped. “I need to carry you home and get you in our bed. I need to strip you bare and lick every inch of your skin.” He growled. “That quickie in the swamp only wet my appetite.”
Her entire body flared with heat. “That was a quickie?” she nearly choked out.
He chuckled, low and sexy. “Oh, yeah.”
She sighed and snuggled deeper into his chest as he rushed through the gate of their house, their home. “Oh, I have so much to learn, Xavier.”
“And I can’t wait to teach you, Beautiful.” With a fierce snarl, he kicked down the door. “Don’t worry, I’ll fix that later.”
“Much later,” she teased.
“Tomorrow,” he rasped, stalking down the hall.
She grinned when he entered their bedroom. “Next week.”
He tossed her on the bed and growled. “Next year.”
And then he was moving over her, kissing her, and neither one of them spoke for a very long time.
As a seer, a shaman, a human with extraordinary powers, Chayton knew instinctually what he was capable of and what he was not.
But that didn’t matter.
Not today.
The Pantera had gathered in the square, the square where only a few nights ago, the birth of their kind had been celebrated. Ashe had told him all about it, regaled him with stories of dancing and feasting, then begged him to help her—help the Pantera—preserve their wonderful tradition. And perhaps their very existence. They all wanted him to stop what was happening on their land, and they believed Shakpi’s power was to blame. He didn’t know if this was true or not. But he did know that he played a part, and that if he didn’t attempt to fix what might have been broken by his hand, his daughter would suffer the stigma forever.
He wouldn’t let that happen.
His eyes lifted to look at her. Isi, and beside her, a very pregnant Ashe. So beautiful, their hands clasped as they watched him. They looked so hopeful. A shock of pain went through him, weakening him, his resolve. He had failed them in the past. He wouldn’t fail them now.
He slammed his eyes shut, and called upon the spirits of his ancestors. Dark thoughts and needs and wants snaked through his blood. Yes, she was here, below his feet, wanting to rise, wanting to be released. His hands balled into fists, but he forced himself to relax. Air moved over his skin, and he allowed himself, his soul, to leave his body. Sound ceased to exist, even his heartbeat, and he fell. Down, down, down, below the surface of the Wildlands, down to where she was imprisoned. Instantly, he felt rage and heat and sadness burden his mind, but he once again forced himself to relax, to be like water.
The portal was not visible to the eye, only to the soul, but Chayton knew well where to look for it. Power surging into him, granted by those who shared his blood, by those long dead, he pressed against the gaping hole, the wound, in Shakpi’s prison. As expected, it pushed back.
Remaining at peace, a wave on the water of his subconscious, Chayton pressed once again. But this time, something strange happened. It was as if his soul crackled, as if lightning exploded inside his mind, and he was thrust upward, out of the ground and into the sky.
He felt the magical connection to his body break. But it was too late to do anything to repair it. He could only watch from above as tiny particles of light rose from the earth.
The crowd of Pantera gasped, some drawing back, some inching forward. Then the particles of light let out a shattering scream, surrounded Chayton’s body and entered it.
Staring down at the chaos below, Chayton could only grieve his failure. That is, until he saw the eyes of his physical body open and his mouth curve into a wicked smile.
“I am free,” came an otherworldly voice.
Once again, the crowd gasped. But over the din, Chayton heard the word, the name, he feared above all others, uttered by a single Pantera voice.
“It’s Shakpi.”