Total pages in book: 247
Estimated words: 235897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1179(@200wpm)___ 944(@250wpm)___ 786(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 235897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1179(@200wpm)___ 944(@250wpm)___ 786(@300wpm)
“She’s worried.” I look over at his freshly salved wound. Good, the swelling has decreased a little already.
“Worrying isn’t in her nature. She likes to solve the immediate problem and handle consequences later.” He leans over and plucks a cinnamon-sprinkled dried fig from a crystal bowl, then studies it. “Of course there’s fucking sugar on it. Like somehow remembering that one little fact from when I was seven years old is going to make up for the last thirteen years.”
He leans again and drops it onto the empty plate, and I remain silent, hoping he’ll continue. He’s never really talked about his mom before.
“And all this time I figured she was living in Poromiel. She never even told me she was from Hedotis. Neither of them did.” He leans his head back against the wall. “Makes sense now—why she never had family visit, why she was so infatuated with all things colorful, the bedtime stories told with arinmint tea when she would whisper about people with purple eyes who lived without war.”
Waves crash against the beach below, and Sgaeyl turns, pacing back toward us.
“You should see if she’ll hunt with the others,” I suggest to Tairn.
“Feel free to ask. I’ll watch. Be sure you’re near the water so you can put yourself out when she sets you on fire,” he replies.
“It’s a mineral called viladrite,” I tell Xaden as he flicks the sugar off his fingers. “Dad wrote that it’s so prevalent on the isle that it’s in everything they eat and drink. It turns paler eye colors purple.”
“I love that you know that.” He drops his hand to my knee. “Did your dad’s eyes change?”
“Not that I know of. They were always hazel like mine.” I smile at the memory. “Guess he wasn’t here long enough.” I still can’t figure out when he had time to study the isles, but maybe my grandmother knows, if I ever get the courage to speak with her like Mira did.
“We’ll only be here long enough to search the isle for Andarna’s kind and speak with the triumvirate”—the bruise on his jaw ripples when he clenches his teeth—“and my mother is married to one of them. The irony is poetic.”
I twist toward him and wince when my ribs object. “She wants to have dinner tonight.”
“Fuck that.” His expression shifts into the same impenetrable mask he used to wear around me last year.
“Xaden.” I cradle the side of his face and stroke my thumb over the edge of his scar. “Don’t shut me out.”
His eyes flash to mine. “Never.” Sliding an arm behind me, he grabs hold of my hips with both hands and carefully lifts me into his lap. “I can think of far better ways to spend my evening than dinner.” He grazes his teeth along the shell of my ear, and a shiver rolls down my spine. “Can’t you?”
I gasp at the sudden rush of heat that flares low in my stomach when he kisses the side of my neck, flicking his tongue at the spot he knows turns me into a puddle.
“No magic,” he reminds me, sliding his hand down my stomach. “No danger of losing control.”
A whimper escapes my lips as his fingers dip beneath my waistband, mostly because what he suggests sounds fucking fantastic, but partially because I want all of him. I miss the heightened rush from our signets, his shadows flaring, my lightning cracking, the intimacy of lowering every barrier and hearing his voice fill my mind. I need to feel him unravel under my touch. Losing control is part of what makes us…us.
“No lumpy bedrolls,” he continues, slipping his hand into my pants. “No squadmates ten feet away. No awkward dinners. Just you and me and that bed.”
I groan, instantly remembering what we’re supposed to be talking about. “As utterly delicious as that sounds…” My fingers dig into his thigh as his mouth toys with my earlobe. “Sex is not going to fix the real problem.”
He sighs, then lifts his head. “I know.”
I scramble out of his lap before I change my mind and drag him to our bed. The quick motion has me hissing through the sharp sting as I stand and grasp the railing with both hands, facing the water.
“Fuck.” Xaden jumps to his feet and wraps his arms around me gently. “I’m so sorry. I forgot about your ribs. You shouldn’t be flying, let alone have me crawling all over you.”
“Not flying isn’t an option.” I breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth as the worst of it passes. “And never apologize for touching me.”
He drops his chin on the top of my head. “I hate that we can’t get you mended.”
“In a life without magic, the best medicine is time,” I muse, a smile curving my mouth as I spot Cat and Trager walking down the beach, hand in hand. “Look at that.”