Page 161 of Kingdom of the Two Moons

“Itisbad, given that you are surrounded by blood-sucking creatures. You act carelessly when you choose to ignoreevery warningI give you,” he hisses back, even angrier than I am. “And where is Riven? He should have accompanied you.”

“I thought the threat was over. And I can walk on my own, without a babysitter. As you know, I’m not a child anymore.” Hells, I don’t know what’s gotten into me.

Caryan’s eyes shift, a horizon darkening. “You’re not? But you’re behaving like one just now.”

His words hurt, hit me harder than they should. Maybe this is why I snap, “Yeah? Maybe I’ll stop when you stop treating me like one.”

I shouldn’t have said that.Definitely shouldn’t use that tone. Shouldn’t bare my teeth and glower up at him the way I do. But the alternative is breaking down and crying. And I’m not sure I would ever get back up again.

His eyes morph into a blazing amber, his teeth bared right back at me. “You want me to stop? Then I will—”

Before I know what he’s doing, he’s wrenched my bleeding wrist between us, closer to his lips. Then he… licks it. No teeth, just his tongue, running along the inside of my wrist like the flame of a lighter. I hold perfectly still, mesmerized by the sight of his mouth on my flesh.

He closes his eyes, as if he’s enjoying it. For the first time, I have the chance to watch him closely, without a rush, without the full weight of his attention, without it being forbidden.

He’s so supernaturally beautiful. So beautiful I probably wouldn’t even fight it if he killed me right now, just for the sake of watching him a little longer.

The slight mauve of his eyelids, feathery, dark, long lashes. His ears… those perfectly, strange arched ears I find I want to touch as desperately as those wings that are hidden again.

My eyes wander back to his delirious lips. To those cruel, perfect lips and strong, long fingers around my wrist. The sight shifts me.

I know I shouldn’t be feeling this way. I should hate him for what he almost did at the maze. What he did last night. What he’s no doubt going to do.

I gasp when he starts to gently suck at the cut. At the stream of his dark power that emanates from where his mouth lies on my skin and flows into my body, an exchange for the blood running out of me into him. And again, it’s no longer that bristling current, but milder. My own body responding to it, as if it’s made for this.Coming awake. My own blood singing to his. Sharpening every sense of myself in all the wrong ways.

Yet a tiny part in me suddenly startles when I think of the faun chef, Arbor, and what he swore to me in the kitchen. About all my moments alone with Riven. A cold shiver goes through me because that tiny part is terrified of what happens if Caryan sees this.

But then Caryan opens his eyes again, and they’re a hypnotic alloy of gold and red. And yet another, absurd, stupid, dark part of me feels a deep satisfaction when I should probably be frightened. No, I should definitively be frightened. But right now, I can’t bring myself to be.

He lifts his lips away from me eventually. His thumb grazes my healed skin one last time, gently, before he lets me go.

When I can’t stand the intensity of his eyes any longer, I look down again, at my wrist, at the unharmed skin there, and whisper a breathless, “Thank you.”

“My pleasure,” he says, his voice a timbre that unravels me completely.

I shake my head, trying to return to sobriety, to find that earlier anger I want to use like a shield. But there is none, as if he has sucked it out of me. I feel drunk onhim.

I grapple for any clear thought, for words, as I ask, “What did you see in my blood this time?”

To my great surprise, I find a look of frustration on his face.

“Nothing,” he answers eventually.

“Why?”

“I don’t know. It might be that you didn’t give me permission,” he muses, as if to himself.

“What? How?” I blurt out.

He frowns and I can see him debating whether to give me an answer. I didn’t really do anything before. It was just a tiny part of myself begging my blood not to reveal itself. It was barely more than a thought. But then, when I broke through those wards, my body did it all on its own accord too. It didn’t feel hard, but rather,natural.

Caryan says, “We call it shielding. The ability to shield oneself against magical invasions of all forms.” I’m not sure I trust my ears when he adds, “I’ve heard of this happening, but never witnessed it firsthand when it came to my magic and abilities.” He doesn’t sound angry though, but rather intrigued. His eyes are crystal clear as they seem to take in every inch of me then. As if he can find the answer somewhere in my face. As if I’m a mystery, a riddle to solve.

“So… you never met anyone who could shield themself from your magic?” I repeat, not sure I heard him right.

“No, I have not. This isinteresting.” He holds out a hand to me. “Come. I wanted to show you something before you cut your hand.”

I stare at his outstretched hand just like on that night when he found and saved me in that maze. I surprise myself by gently putting mine in his. He keeps holding it as he leads me back into a dark corridor and then further along into another one I’ve never seen before. Steps lead down to a massive door that unlocks on his silent command, opening out into another vast garden, even bigger than the one we were in yesterday.

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