Page 88 of The Warlock's Kiss

He’d been tempted many, many times to use his magic to latch onto her mana song and force her awake…but he’d learned his lesson by now. He understood that such things exacted prices far too high, caused more damage than he was willing to knowingly inflict.

Merrick squeezed her hand a little tighter. “Please.”

Her finger twitched. Merrick’s heart skipped a beat.

“Adalynn?”

Her fingers twitched again, and her eyelids fluttered.

Merrick sat on the edge of the chair he’d pulled beside the bed, cupping her cheek in his palm. “Yes, wake up. Pull yourself out of it. Waking up is the easiest thing you’ve had to do since you arrived here.”

Her resonance flared—both within her and within Merrick—and he sensed her struggling, fighting, clawing her way up from unconsciousness.

“Wake up, Adalynn,” he growled. His magic crackled to life on his skin, thrumming along his limbs, and he rose, knocking the chair back as he did so. “Come back to me.Fight. You are not to waste another moment, do youhearme?”

Excitement and desperation swirled in a chaotic storm within his chest, which felt like it would burst if the pressure continued growing. She needed a jolt, a push, but he dared not use magic. He dared not risk harming her.

Merrick leaned forward and slammed his lips over hers. Their mana song surged, sweeping through him to set his body ablaze with heat, lust, and need and forcing his eyes closed. Her lips were warm and pliant beneath his, and he ravished them, claimed them,devouredthem. And she…parted them.

Something touched the side of his face—her free hand.

He drew in a startled breath and began to pull away, but the air was flavored with her taste, with her essence, and the rightness of it lured him back in. He shifted his hand into her hair and deepened their kiss, slipping his tongue between her parted lips.

Every moment he’d spent with her was dear to him, each bit of intimacy they’d shared was powerful, special, and memorable, but that kiss was the sweetest he’d ever experienced by far.

It took all his willpower to break that kiss after several euphoric seconds; he had to see her face, had to look into her eyes, had toknowshe was okay. He opened his eyes and met her gaze.

Merrick’s breath hitched; Adalynn’s eyes were glowing a soft teal, the same color that had been produced by their combined mana songs, the same color his own magic had taken on since the soul binding.

She smiled up at him, her thumb brushing over his cheek and rasping through his beard. “I’m alive.”

He couldn’t stop himself from laughing, and it felt so, so good. “Glad you finally noticed, Adalynn. We’ve been waiting awhile.”

Her smile slipped as fast as it came, and the glow faded from her eyes, returning them to their normal beautiful brown. “Did you…did you do it again? Did you push it back?”

He would gladly stand here and stare into those eyes for three whole days after being denied them that long. “No. No, I didn’t push it back. But it is gone now.”

Her brow furrowed. “How?”

“I bound our mana songs together. Our souls. They are now one.Weare one.”

Her featured smoothed out with blossoming wonder as she searched his eyes “I hear it. Ifeelit. I mean, I’ve always felt it before, coming from you, but now…it’s inme.”

“As it was always meant to be. Your song was a part of mine before I even met you, Adalynn.” He released a shaky breath and tucked a rogue lock of her hair behind her ear. “You were meant to be mine.”

She raised her other hand and slipped her fingers into his hair, tugging him into another kiss. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean what I said. I…I don’t just want a physical relationship.”

He tipped his forehead against hers, shaking his head slightly. “And I told you it wasneverjust that. It never could’ve been just that. I love you, Adalynn. That’s what it was always meant to be.”

Her fingers tightened in his hair, producing a light sting on his scalp that only heightened his need to pull her closer, to gather her in his arms and never let her go.

“I love you, too,” she said.

He pulled his face away and stared down at her; that glow had returned to her eyes again, so different from what he was used to seeing there, but soright. “I think you may be immortal, Adalynn.”

Her breath hitched, and her eyes widened. “What?”

“Your soul is tethered to mine. Yourlifeforce. My immortality…I believe it’s part of you now, too. I cut your palms three days ago, but look at them.” He leaned back, took hold of her hands, and gently guided them down from his hair, turning her palms toward her. “Not a trace. The wounds were healed completely by yesterday. And I can no longer sense any trace of your cancer.”

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