Page 157 of Savage Crown

His forehead rests against the back of my shoulder, his hands still gripping my hips, his breath ghosting over my skin. I feel his heartbeat, still too fast, still echoing mine, as if we are still one.

I let out a slow breath, my fingers relaxing, the tension in my body slowly unwinding.

But Rylan?

He doesn’t relax.

Not fully.

His grip on my hips softens, but his hands don’t leave me. His lips press against the curve of my neck, my shoulder, soft now, lingering.

“I thought I lost you,” he murmurs, barely a whisper, his voice raw, broken.

I close my eyes, my heart twisting.

I turn in his arms, my fingers brushing his cheek, my forehead pressing against his.

“You didn’t,” I whisper.

But even as I say it, something cold and unknown lingers in my veins.

Do I mean? I don’t even know if I came back as me.

But right now?

I don’t care.

I kiss him again, slow this time, deep.

I let him own me for just a little longer.

54

RYLAN

Seraphina is still asleep when I wake.

Or, at least, I think she is.

Her body is curled against mine, her bare skin cool beneath my fingertips. Too cool.

My heart pounds as I stare at her—memorizing every breath, every faint movement, every slow rise and fall of her chest.

She is here.

She is alive.

And yet, something inside me twists, unsettled.

This isn’t the same woman I brought into this cave.

She is something else now.

Something different.

The book is still beside me.

Still blackened, burned, lifeless.

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