Page 87 of An Empress of Earth & Darkness

She managed to shove him off. Eyes would be on them for sure, and she was just as much a warrior as him. “It is not a special honour to see me this way. You have never seen me this way because no one ever does.”

His eyes narrowed as he stumbled back, caught off guard at her sudden movement. But then his full lips parted and his soft golden eyes warmed. “Just talk to me. Let me see if there is anything that I can do—”

“There is nothing you can do,” she hissed.

He flinched.

Oh fuck, she could feel her claws sharpening under her skin.

Waylen’s words hardened around her heart.

You’re a lost cause.

She was a mess, but Artem was good, warm, and stable. He was a Hunter of Thorin.

What the fuck was she doing? She wasn’t going to drag him into her mess. She was a wolf and he was a hunter from one of the wealthiest and most powerful clans in Caledorna. What did she think was going to happen? As much as she knew he liked her and couldn’t get enough of her, he would marry a high-ranking witch and Breighly would find a mate.

She was a girl who found it hard to run a tavern in the city. She struggled to feel anything but rebellion and a thirst for trouble. She liked to bite off more than she could chew and said horrible things when she was hurting. She was a girl who liked to challenge the world, yet couldn’t handle it when her heart challenged her head.

Artem reached for her again, but she withdrew like a viper that felt threatened. And like her, when vipers felt threatened, they spat poison. She couldn’t let Artem Stryker into her heart anymore. Somehow, he had managed to wiggle in a little, and it was time she shut it down and lived up to her reputation.

“Stay the fuck away from me,” she said, feeling the poison of her self-hatred turning her heart dark. “I mean it, Artem Stryker. Get away from me. And do not lay another hand on me.”

His face was a mix of hurt, anger, and confusion as he looked at her, a little gulp tracking down his throat.

“You need to stay away from me.”

She turned from him, the memory of his face burning in her mind, and didn’t look back as she walked along the beach of Tolsah to find a moment alone.

Artem made his way along the white sand of Tolsah Bay looking like he just had his heart ripped out. Torin had watched as his brother had tried to speak to Breighly, but it had not gone down well. Something had happened back in Ashdale, but Torin didn’t have the time right now to figure it out.

Maybe she was having second thoughts about being a guard. If she was, Torin would need to know; it was Emara’s life that was at stake should she falter. Emara had taken a risk asking for Breighly to be a part of her cluster; the wolf wasn’t a trained hunter or guard, but she had great potential.

He would have to watch the wolf closely.

Emara had also watched the altercation between them from a sand dune. Men were still coming through Sybil’s portal, and he could see Gideon herding everyone towards the dock.

Torin hid a smile from his brother as he moved towards Emara. “What do you think that was about?” he asked as he approached, nodding at Breighly.

Emara’s shapely eyebrows pulled together, and she rolled her lips. “What they have…it’s complicated.”

“Like ‘us’ complicated, or like ‘ancient magic of Caledorna Gods’ complicated?”

“‘Ancient magic’ complicated.” She stared out at the glistening sea that met the blue sky in a profound embrace. “I didn’t know what they had was quite so deep until…well, I caught them in my bed a few nights ago.”

“You what? You caught them in your bed? They should both be punished for that, Emara.”

“They are already punishing themselves by feeling the way they do for each other.” She finally looked up at him. “Why would I add anything else on top of that?”

Torin hummed. “So you think there are feelings involved from both sides?” He took a seat beside her in the sand.

“Mmm.” She hummed.

He could see that something was lingering below the surface, waiting to get out. He wondered if her darkness was scratching under her skin for release.

Torin leaned in. “Why is it that when people stare at the sea they always seem to be contemplating something serious?”

She let out a small laugh and looked down at her hands buried in the sand. “The first night you agreed to stay in my bed in the Fairlands, I had a dream about this place. But the dream that I had was about Cally and I.” She paused as she let grains of the soft sand filter through her fingers. “She always wanted to come here. She said she would start up a business dressing the merchants’ wives and that she would be rolling in the coin before she reached cronehood. Callyn claimed no one would look better in a bathing suit than her and that she would make a line of swimsuits so scandalous the women of Tolsah Bay would beam bright red when they saw them. But now I understand why she wanted to come here.” Emara looked out to the calm waves once more. “It wasn’t because of all the things she had said, but because of the water element in her witching blood. I think the ocean would always call to her. She would have been a vision on this beach with her smile and her golden hair. And she would have lived in every moment, sparkling like the sun herself.”

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