Page 21 of A Vow of Wrath and Ruin

Chests heaving, their breaths mixed. Words escaped him, so instead, he tilted her head, planting a passionate kiss on her lips, savoring the taste of his seed on her tongue.

A whimper echoed in her throat.

He ran a hand over her collarbone and down her breast to her perked nipple, thumbing it gently.

“I don’t want to leave you.”

“I don’t either,” she said through heavy breaths.

“I’m going to have our finest weapon makers work with our spell weavers to make it so we never have to be apart for long.”

She lifted her head, brows knitted in confusion.

“A spell of sorts. So we can communicate over long distances.”

“As long as I’m not drinking any more blood.”

“No, my darling. Never again.”

“Good.” She laid her head on his chest, eyes heavy with exhaustion.

Combing his fingers through her hair, he watched as she drifted off to sleep in his arms. A glimpse of their fleeting future should they fail to stop Gideon and Erissa. Tharan pulled a wool blanket from the back of the couch, covering them both. Snapping his fingers, he extinguished the candles. Only the light of the crackling fire remained, casting a warm glow over them. He counted the freckles on Aelia’s cheeks before drifting to sleep.

5AELIA

“Come child,lay down, and let me take a look at you.”

Elrida straightened a pair of thick glasses on her crooked nose as she ushered me toward a cot. Deep inside an oak tree, her workshop smelled of fresh-cut wood. Herbs hung from the rafters, lending their scents of sage, barley, and others I could not name. Low-burning candles cast a golden hue upon the workshop.

I laid down on the stiff cot next to a suspicious-looking jar of tentacles, still sucking on the glass.

Elrida cracked her ancient knuckles.

“Alright, lay still, this won’t hurt.”

I sucked a breath into my lungs, trying to still my racing heart. Tharan stood beside me; hand entwined with mine.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he said, placing a kiss on my forehead.

“I’m afraid of what she’ll find.”

His gaze softened. “Whatever she finds, we’ll face it together.”

Elrida chuckled.

“What?” Tharan asked.

“I knew you two would fall in love. I’ve never been wrong about a match.”

Tharan smirked, making a heat light in my chest.

“I shouldn’t have doubted you, Elrida.”

“I’m older than you. Almost older than your father. I think I know a thing or two about love.”

Just how old was Elrida? Could she also be an original? Or was she something else entirely? Her short stature and signs of aging marked her as something other than a sylph, exactly what, I did not know.

“Alright, I’m going to start. You may feel some heat coming from my hands, but that’s just the magic searching for a matching signal in your body.”

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