Page 61 of Mated to the Mad Marquess

She kicked and tried to wrench free, but his grip expanded, winding a dark tendril up her leg, then around her thigh.

“Stop, Malcolm,” she said.

The darkness whispered back. A tendril encircled her waist. He pulled on her, offsetting her balance. Hrafn beat her wings, but she was still losing air. They drifted gently toward the ground. He caught her in his shadowy arms when they landed.

His lips moved; words she couldn’t make out escaped in a low murmur.

Hrafn touched his velvety cheek. “I know how you feel,” she said and her voice broke. “Flying away from you that night was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I didn’t even make it very far, and now I feel like I’ve been torn in two. I’m like you. Here and there at the same time.”

Solis held her tight to the dark expanse of his chest. He touched his temple to hers.

“Horse,” she whispered, her voice thick. Her eyes and throat stung with feeling. She’d underestimated how terrible a second goodbye would make her feel.

Murmuring softly, he set her on her feet and let her go, just like he promised they would when they played together. She felt the loss of his touch. A hollowness grew in the pit of her stomach.

“I don’t want to be in a cage.” Her chin trembled. Just looking at him put an ache in her chest. “But I don’t want to exist ripped in two, either.”

He leaned in closer and nuzzled her neck, his murmurs soft and soothing in her ear.

She laid a hand on his chest where his heart should beat. There was nothing there but warmth and gentleness. She touched her own chest and felt the bond thrumming, not just beside her heart, but through it. She wanted her mate to know exactly how important he was to her, exactly how much he meant to her, and then she remembered that he’d already given her the answer.

I need to be chosen first,he’d said.

“I choose you, Malcolm,” she told him. “I love you.”

I couldn’t let you go again, he said, the words echoing through the new link forged between them. The bond had settled, imprinting in her heart.Once was too much already.

Hrafn wrapped her arms around his neck. “But you did let me go, and that’s why I choose you.”

Chapter 14

Malcolm

With help from Hrafn and Solis, Malcolm brought the little balls of broken shadow back to the fortress to eat hot coals from the fire and to sleep in the sunlight.

“The monster is really gone?” Hrafn asked. She’d kept to the balcony, arms folded, looking uneasy.

Malcolm reassured her. He showed her the tiny bit of soul he’d salvaged from the shadowy remains. It appeared to be as harmless as a piece of stone. “It’s truly over. Your cage is gone and so is your monster.”

Hrafn bit her lip.

Perhaps because of the true mate bond settling between them, Malcolm understood exactly what it was that made her shoulders tense and her eyes dim without her having to speak a word.

“You intend to travel tonight.”

Her eyes widened in surprise. Then she sighed. “I need out of this province before I scratch my skin off,” she said. “I’m restless, Malcolm. Restless, but completely and hopelessly in love.”

Malcolm laughed, but there was no humor in it. “I knew you would need to travel. How long will you be gone?”

“Just a couple of days, I think. I’ll come back to you. You believe that, don’t you?”

“Of course,” he said, and he knew he’d failed to conceal the pinch of grief that edged his voice. He took her arm at the elbow and spoke with more confidence. “I wish I could go, is all. Don’t fret over me.”

“We wouldn’t be gone long,” she said. “I haven’t visited the living trees of the Seelie just north of the river since the war. I’d like to see them again. Are you sure you can’t tag along this time?”

Malcolm gestured at the little nuggets that circled his feet. Another was rolling up the wall so that it could lick the gas lamp. “I need to look after all of them, and I haven’t been to Reedholm in too long. I can’t keep neglecting my estate. I have to go home now, but I’ll wait for you there.”

“All right.” Disappointed but not deterred, she added, “Good—”

---