“A binding is usually of the tongue, but it can be something that provides a little more incentive to keep secrets. Whereas Nimeyah’s vanity was enough to make losing a tongue too horrendous to break her promise, I imagine Boral here would go on with life simply fine without one. It’s the promise of his heart I want before we say another word to him.”
Geez… that’s a big request. It’s a lot to think about. I imagine—
“I accept,” Boral says, and all of our heads snap his way. He didn’t even need to consider it at all, and that confirms that my gut instincts were right about him.
Boral is looking squarely at his son, though. “I’ll gladly give Carrick my heart if I betray your secrets.”
Something about that actually warms my heart a little, although Zaid merely scoffs and turns his back on his father, fiddling with the coffee pot instead.
“Deal,” Carrick replies, and just like that, the spell is enacted. “But it’s going to have to wait as I have more important things to handle right now.”
Before I can even comprehend what’s happening, Carrick grabs my hand and bends distance, my stomach flipping at the sudden movement and the stretch across space. He doesn’t bring us far, though.
Merely to the library. It takes no time at all before he pulls me into his body and hugs me hard.
CHAPTER 6
Finley
I return the hug, wrapping my arms around his waist and pressing my face into his chest. He smells clean and comforting, and every bit of anger I’d been harboring while he was gone evaporates as my overwhelming relief pushes it out.
Carrick’s hand goes into my hair. He grips and pulls my head back so I’m staring at him.
His eyes are burning like pots of molten gold. “I have thought about doing this every minute of every day.”
It’s all the warning I get before his mouth comes down on mine, and even though it steals the breath right from my lungs, I sink into that familiarity with no hesitation. The kiss speaks to me in so many ways. Carrick is saying he’s so deeply sorry for laying such heavy stuff on my doorstep, only to get whisked away before we could discuss it.
The kiss speaks loudly to how much he missed me, and I even taste worry on his tongue.
The relief I feel from him at the mere claiming of my lips is overwhelming, and my heart even hurts a little for his worry. If he’d been somewhere where he couldn’t get any information about what was going on back here, he must have been going mad.
With a sigh of regret, he pulls his mouth from mine. With my hair still wrapped in his hand, he just holds me immobile, taking the time to let his eyes roam over my face and then finally to my eyes.
There was a time when I thought the color of my eyes angered him, and, given the despondency he had felt at times upon my subsequent reincarnations, I can understand it. But now he regards them as if they’re the most precious jewels one could possess.
Finally, he relaxes his hold on me and smiles. “I need you to fill me in on everything that’s happened since I’ve been gone.”
“I will,” I assure him. “But where have you been?”
“Doing a little job for Rune is all,” he murmurs and I know it’s a lie. There’s no doubt in my mind he was with Rune and had no choice but to do whatever it was that Rune demanded, but it wasn’t just a little job of no consequence. I can hear the slight tinge of anger in Carrick’s voice. Given all that Rune has done to him, I know if Carrick ever had the ability to kill a god, he’d take Rune out in a heartbeat.
I do as Carrick asks as we stand closely, face to face, his hand still at the back of my head. His forehead creases several times with worry as I give him the watered-down version of events.
That I’ve been working on tapping my powers, but it’s been a big bust, although I’ve got the cutest little bubble shield I can pop up around me. That we’ve found no information on the demi-god who wrote Libri Mysteria, nor any further info on the specifics of the ritual other than Boral’s report today that Kymaris now has eleven original fallen Dark Fae.
“What’s this I hear about a wraith attacking you?” he asks, his frown at its deepest.
“Clearly, you got some information wherever you were,” I hedge.
He just stares at me, refusing to let me slide by.
With a sigh, I tell him about our trip to Hungary to search for the relic that could help get us to Micah’s realm, then all about the wraith.
In the end, he’s not all that angry at me for going. With a thoughtful expression, he bolsters my confidence that I might have at least had some good ideas while he was gone. “We do need Boral to do more for us so it’s a good call to give him more information. He’s our best source so far.”
I don’t tell him about the two things that I really want—to make another attempt at reaching Zora and that I suggested to Maddox and Zaid that I go head-to-head with Kymaris.
The Kymaris issue would only serve to make Carrick think I was an idiot and no kind of leader, and the Zora issue is moot at this moment. I will, however, bring it up to him again when the timing is right.
It only takes us about ten minutes to catch up on my end, then both his hands go to my face. He bends, peering into my eyes. “And how are you holding up? Especially with everything I had told you before Rune took me away?”
The tender words threaten to undo me because I’ve had a spine of steel since he’s been gone. Now that he’s here, I just want to melt into a puddle of indifference for a while and let Carrick take complete charge of everything.
I really, really want a break.
So, I answer by snaking a hand to the back of his neck as I go to my tiptoes, and stare into those honeyed eyes. Life is too short, so I kiss him.
And it’s an amazing kiss when he responds, but it’s also short-lived as he pulls away. His eyes on mine, he chastises, “More of that later. Now I want to know how you’re holding up.”
I sigh, part irritation that he stopped the kiss, part avoidance of something I’ve been trying not to think about but mostly because I know I’ll have to comply because Carrick won’t let this go.
I finally admit, “I have a lot of jumbled-up feelings and a million questions, but I really just want you to take me to your bedroom and let’s get lost in each other for a while. We can talk later.”
Carrick doesn’t reply. I can tell part of him wants to force me to talk.
But the greatest part of him is more intrigued by my request to go to his bedroom. He merely bends distance to his room, swirls me in a pearly gray tornado of magic that divests us of our clothing, and deposits us squarely under the sheets of his bed.
“Very convenient,” I manage to giggle before his body rolls over onto mine and his mouth starts to tell me the story about how we’ve loved each other through eternity all over again.
* * *
I’ve had moments throughout my life that have been impactful. Events I wish I could revisit and live over again. People who have made my life complete.
But lying here in this bed, Carrick spooned at my back and his arm holding me close to him, I can’t think of anything in my life that has ever felt better. In fact, if I were to die, I hope it’s just like this.
Except, given what I know so far about my fate and prophecy, it’s not going to happen in bed with Carrick but in a battle to the death with Kymaris.