Page 102 of Of Mischief and Mages

I tried again. “My heart is burned.”

A muscle flinched in his jaw. Kage closed his eyes, and a glimmer of a tear of his own slid down his face. “Burned with your name.”

“My soul is owned.”

“Owned . . .” His voice came low, soft, broken. “Owned by you.”

“Through the brightest days.”

“Through the darkest nights.” His shoulders slumped.

“Forever, I am yours.”

For a few breaths he stared, then whispered, “Forever, I am yours.”

Before the moment faded, somewhere in the back of my mind was a voice, soft and gentle. It sounded like my own, only distant. “Adira Ravenwood, blood mage, welcome home.”

CHAPTER 33

Kage

Air rushed backinto my lungs like a crashing wave. I gasped and snapped upright, heaving deep draws of cold damp between my knees.

My head was spinning, but through the haze, I heard her cough, saw her shoot upright much the same. Adira was on the opposite side of the well, trembling. I knew the feeling. But my mind was clear, my pulse rapid.

In the deepest sinews I knew everything I’d seen was true. Was real. It was my past. Our past.

“Did you . . . did you see?” she asked, her voice as familiar as my own.

My reply was my desperate steps to reach her. I scrambled to her side and devoured her in my arms. Adira let out a broken sob and choked my neck in her embrace.

“You’re mine,” I breathed out. “You’re mine. You’ve always been mine.”

“Kage.” She speckled kisses along the runes on my neck. “I feel it . . . my magic.”

By the skies, so did I. Power, fierce and beautiful, practically radiated from her skin, eyes, the tips of her hair.

Adira inspected her hands for a breath, then clutched my arm. “And I remember some of the sacrifice, why I went.”

Still, on my knees, I brushed hair from her eyes, holding her face close. “As do I. That day you left.”

Adira’s chin trembled. “For you.”

She touched the corner of my eyes. I’d not realized a tear had slipped out.

“For you,” she said again. “To stop the war caused by Valandril, meant stopping the cruel ones from seeking you.”

By the goddess, this woman. My mind might’ve forgotten her, but my heart had not. Every beat, every drop of blood in my veins, belonged to her.

Adira rubbed her fingers over her head. “I can see bits and pieces of it. I-I think I was wounded, Kage.” She shook the thought away. “It doesn’t matter. I know to my core, I agreed to give my blood at the sacred tree to stop an attack against you.”

“I want to hate you,” I admitted, pressing my brow forcefully against hers. “Two days, and you were to bemy wife.” I held up my shaking hand. “These are yours. Two days, but you made schemes without me. You did not want me to die, but you forced me to watch you do exactly that.”

Adira broke, tears fell. “I know. I know what I did, but back then I knew we’d return. I thought it was the only option for us to remain together, even if we were parted for a time.”

My hand dug into her hair. I crushed her against me as though she might be torn from me all over again.

“It was you,” she whispered.

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