Page 86 of First Ritual

This was great!

Wild’s quiet laughter echoed in my ear, and I grinned at him, noting the way the shadows in his dark eyes danced with humor.

“That’s my cue to leave for whatever tense conversation you have lined up next.” Rooke rose from the water. I really should just gift the one-piece swimsuit to my cousin. I loved her tie-dyed stuff, but she rocked black with her pastel-purple hair and porcelain complexion.

I quickly stood, and torrents of water poured off my body. “Bye. Might see you guys—”

A hand wrapped just above my knee. His hand. I hissed at the pleasure that spiked from his touch, feeling warmth pool low in my stomach.

“This is the perfect time,” Wild murmured. He looked past me. “Sven?”

Sven barred the exit from the secluded chamber with an arm. Rooke peered down at him. “Would you like to move by yourself?”

“That’s big talk for someone who doesn’t have a battle affinity, Rookie,” he drawled.

The air sucked in, and a hypnotic quality entered Rooke’s voice. “I don’t need a battle affinity,” she replied. “Any ghosts in your past, Sven? I can introduce you to some.”

Wild’s hand slid higher on my thigh, and my legs shook from the feeling that was so intense in its pleasure that it was almost painful. He went higher still, and I glanced back at him. My voice caught. “Please stop, Wild. It’s too much.”

No person could feel that and not quail at the hugeness of it.

He jerked, blinked up at me, then whipped his hand away. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t—” Wild frowned. “I didn’t realize I was doing that.”

I collapsed to sit next to him again. “Do you feel that too? The pain with the pleasure?”

His answer was terse. “Yes. At least as much.”

“More?”

Wild closed his eyes and sunk into the water until only the tops of his shoulders were out. “Since our kiss… there’s been a new development.”

“Of course there has. Tell me.”

“More of a show thing.” He waved a hand over his lower torso. The disguise charm he’d placed there lifted, and I stared through the water at his X rune.

A match for mine.

“Gift,” Rooke blurted, then flushed as we all looked her way.

Corentin sent me a smirk as if to say I told you she wouldn’t know more than me.

“You did that yourself?” my cousin continued. “I was speaking to a Viking ghost last week about a few runes. He told me a story about that one.”

I smirked at Corentin, who’d chosen that moment not to look my way. Typical.

“What was the story?” Huxley demanded as only Huxley could.

Rooke glanced at the exit, then to me.

My exhale was heavy. “Better sit down, cuz. I have a few things to tell you.”

“The Viking said you would.”

My grandmother used to say stuff like that all the time. Affinities had their different quirks. Divination affinities’ was to say that dead people told them things. “He was right. What did he say about the rune?”

“The line was patchy, and I’m still at a crossroads on a few of his meanings.” She looked once more at the exit, then next to Sven. “He said something about an animal bringing a gift to a woman. That part seemed clear.”

Sven grinned. “He did that and more. She was screaming with it.”

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