Page 97 of Visions of Darkness

“I would never ask that of you.” Except I had, hadn’t I? My spirit had beckoned him through the darkness. Shouting to be rescued when I’d been trapped.

“You don’t have to ask for what has already been committed.” Fingertips trailed down my cheek, gathering more moisture before barely brushing over my trembling lips.

Shivers rolled, a flash fire that made me shake, and the love I’d forever feel for him flailed from within, begging to be acknowledged.

The brittle ice of his eyes had gone soft, a lapping sea as he stared, though his muscles were taut with restraint as he kept brushing his fingertips over my lips. “How is it possible no one has ever kissed you?”

“Who would want to get close to someone like me?” It quivered out.

The loneliness of the life we lived.

Solitary confinement.

Not that anyone could have gotten close to me anyway.

Not when my soul only wanted him.

“Any man would be lucky to get close to you, and I would give anything for that, but you know I can’t. I’d be a bastard for touching you. I won’t taint you. Won’t take that risk. You have your whole life ahead of you.”

My throat tightened. My heart a riot that bashed against my chest. My mind a spiral of the things he’d given me.

I would give anything for that.

I won’t taint you.

God.Did he somehow think he wasn’t worthy of me? That this man who’d risked everything—his freedom and his life—wasn’t good enough?

I wanted to argue, but I couldn’t make any sounds come from my thickened tongue, and Pax slowly stood, his gorgeous body towering over me, a fortress.

He reached out and cupped my cheek.

“We have to go back.”

Each time I’d slept, I’d done it out of sync with our Laven family, and I had hidden in the sanctuary of Tearsith while they fought.

My nod was weak, but he was right.

Faydor was calling.

And we couldn’t resist it any longer.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Pax

Tearsith

Pax closed his eyes, and he hovered in the nothingness.

Weightless.

Boneless.

He floated higher, where lights flashed and flickered before he emerged at the boundary of Tearsith. A lush paradise that surrounded them.

Aria was already there, standing at the edge and peering out into the meadow like she no longer knew where she belonged.

He eased up behind her.

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