Page 75 of Fae Reckoning

“Now that I’ve satisfied you that nothing else is going to eat you,I want to eat you.”

She dragged her teeth across her lower lip, wove both hands behind my neck, and pulled my mouth hard against hers. For long minutes, we lost ourselves to our kiss, before she pulled away to press her forehead to mine.

“You haven’t even started to satisfy me yet.” It was only then that I noticed my choice in words. “But, by sunshine, I literally can’t wait for you to get to it. I’vewanted you inside me since the moment you left my rooms at the palace.”

The ardent fervor that had flooded my body stuttered as memories washed over me like a bucket of ice water. I’d been made to forget her—her, my mate—I’d had to fuck Talisa and allow her ladies to put their hands and mouths all over my body. I’d betrayed my mate and myself, and all for what? I hadn’t achieved anything, not really. I hadn’t protected a single person I loved, not in any lasting way.

El’s hands were cupping my cheeks, her thumbs rubbing gently along my chin. “No, Rush,” she whispered as if even in this glade what we shared was too precious to extend beyond the two of us. But that preciousness was precisely what I’d endangered by giving in to Talisa. By?—

“Rush,no,” she repeated more firmly. “Don’t you dare blame yourself.Don’t you dare. Not even for a second.”

My eyes stung with unshed tears when I hadn’t allowed myself to cry over anything since Ramana’s supposed death, when I thought my heart had hardened forever.

“Look at me,” Elowyn urged with a tender gentleness that burned my eyes. I’d been staring off, looking at nothing in particular in an attempt to wrangle my emotions.

She pulled my face down into a soft kiss. “You did what you had to do to protect those you love, to survive to fight another day. There’s no shame in that.If anyone should be ashamed, it’sher,” she spat. “What you did took more courage and strength than I’ll ever have.”

When I next kissed her, I tasted salty tears on my lips. “You’re wrong. I’ve never met another female as brave as you.”

“That’s only ‘cause none of the females are taught to fight.”

“No. It’s because none of them is as fucking incredible as you are.”

One side of her lips slanted up. “Ah, well. Maybe that’s true.” Her eyes danced, and she giggled. “You could always show me how ‘fucking incredible’ you think I am. I think we’ve done enough talking given how little time we’ve got.”

The reminder of what was at stake was like another slap of frigid water.

“Oh no you don’t,” El said. “We’re doing this to bring back the map, remember? We’re actually trying to save lives here, so no guilt for enjoying each other along the way.”

“How I love it when you make such fabulous points.” Even so, some of the tension remained, stiffening my spine for the fight that was still to come.

“Rush.” The way my name rolled off her tongue sounded like a reverent prayer. It spread along my skin like warming fire. “Erase those memories. Let’s make new ones to replace them right now.”

For several beats I hesitated, but was there anythingI wanted more than that?Not a chance. Against her lips, I answered. “Yes. Please.”

Staring into her eyes, I saw them pulse with understanding. She knew how much I truly did require this. I needed my mate to imprint herself over the sacrilege ofher. My body and my mind needed to experience only Elowyn. Only my mate.

She trailed her tongue along my bottom lip. “So … what was it you said about eating me? ‘Cause ya know, I could be down with that kind of eating.”

She opened her mouth for more of that witty banter I’d wished for myself, only for her mouth to remain that way, gasping as I tore into action. Not with the countdown to our final battle against Talisa, but with the fervent desperation to join with her, I ripped apart the snap-shut clasps of her leather top in a single jerk of the wompa fabric. Her nipples instantly hardened as cool air touched them.

When I was able to drag my stare from the incredibly enticing swells of her breasts, after my thumbs already toyed with her nipples and her back arched in a silent plea for more, I finally took in the extent of the damage to her body.

Arctic chill replaced the heat that had cycled through my veins. My tattoos flared in a surge of light brighter than both my lumoons combined, and that was with most of my body covered. Myriad slashes of shiny, new pink skin scarred her perfect body. There were so many of them, mostly patterned in parallel lines, indicating ferocious swipes of claws. Given the width ofthe blemishes, the creatures who’d sliced her open had been huge. Where still-healing lacerations didn’t cover her flesh, it was discolored. Bruise after bruise in a varied array from yellow to red to blue to black dotted most of the rest of her torso. Her actual skin color appeared paler than usual against them.

And these were just the superficial injuries, dammit!

If whatever had attacked her had managed this level of damage to her outer layer, what had they done to her insides? Had they shattered bones? Shit, had they done worse?

A growl rumbled deep in my chest that wasn’t my bond-beast, it was all me. I examined a patch of pink skin as large as a lemon that was puckered tautly. It had to hurt.

“Tell me something didn’t take a bite out of you.” My voice sounded like that of a changeling, like my creature was about to take over and burst through my skin. Fuck, hadn’t she just finished telling me how worried she was that everything wanted to bite her? I hadn’t realized she’d meant it quite this literally and to this fucking degree.

“I’d love to tell you that,” she said with a quick grimace, “but I can’t, ‘cause something big and nasty absolutely did. And not just there, other places too.”

The growl that ripped through me next was all animal. “Where?” I barely got the word out. “Where else are you hurt?”

She sighed in resignation and pulled her open toploosely closed. “I can’t lie to you. I don’t want to. When I walked through the queen’s—Talisa’s—doorway, this is what was waiting for me. A mass of snarling, horrible monsters ready to shred me to pieces.”

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