Page 76 of The Time Of Queens

All the restraints I had encased my temptations and lust into exploded, now releasing it all. Which was why, this time, when I went running, it wasn’t away from him…but towards him.

I barely had time to register the shocked look on his face, morphing from one of anger and frustration to surprise. Because he must have questioned what would happen next and running towards him was, no doubt, not what he was expecting. And the second I was close enough, I threw myself at him.

His reactions were on point, and he caught me at just the right second so I could wrap my legs around his waist as I held onto his shoulders. My hands then found his hair, grabbing fistfuls of it so I could pull his head down to meet my own. Then just as his mouth opened, only a single name escaped before I kissed him.

“Keira.”

A name I consumed as I opened up to him in a way he had, no doubt, never experienced before. For this time, there was no white light blinding us both. No, there was just… raw, physical need.The type of burning lust that ignited an all-consuming fire within the core of us both. The taste of him, the feel, the scent and the sound of his growl, all of it was like being cocooned in the most delicious spell. It was my safety. It was my shelter.

It was my home.

He was my everything.

As I moaned in his mouth, I felt his response, and instantly he held me tighter to him, as if not a force in all the realms could take me from him. And in turn, I held him to me with the same feverous intensity, as all I wanted now was to feel every inch of his naked skin against my own.

It was as if something in me had cracked. Being so close to him all this time and being forbidden to be with him this way had been torture. To not be with the man I loved like this had indeed felt as if I was going against the Gods. But then, I had alsowallowed in my own self-pity, allowing old fears to resurface. And Draven might have failed the test I set him, but he had also passed it shortly after. For he may have cast me out at first, but once he had realised his true feelings for me, he had forsaken the chance at finding his Chosen One for me.

For the love he felt for a mortal.

For his forbidden love.

Meaning he would have gone against the very Gods themselves to keep me, breaking the laws that he himself had enforced. I knew that now. And it filled my heart to the brim to know that finally my unspoken question had been answered, my unfounded fears were set to rest. Because it wasn’t a Chosen One he had fallen in love, after all.

It was me.

It was mortal me. For all my quirks and clumsiness. For all my faults and rash actions. For my joy found in the silliness and my snorts of laughter… for my faults.

He had fallen for the girl, not the prophesy.

Which was why I was going to hold on to this profound moment and keep it with me like a gift my own Draven didn’t know I had ever needed. Because I had kept this insecurity from him, knowing that he would have no way to prove it. Because the answers were only ever to be found in the past.

In this past.

“Gods,”Draven hissed, pulling back enough to do so, and he placed his forehead to mine as if also marvelling in this moment.

“Don’t run from me again,” he said after pulling back, making me blush before telling him,

“Technically, I just ran towards you.” Then I winked at him playfully, making him grin.

“I see then that this form doesn’t frighten you?”

I shook my head, telling him no.

“Then I can assume you have seen it many times before?” he asked, confirming that he knew I was from the future. Although showing me his coin had hinted at it already.

“I have.”

“Good, then there are no more walls between us, for now neither of us have anything left to hide,” he stated, making me sigh against him. Because as much as I should have taken this moment to tell him that I intended on getting home, I knew now was not the time. Although I gathered he already suspected as much. Especially, considering my whole reason for being here and deceiving him, was to give me the chance to steal from him. And, with it, the means of getting home.

Which meant the words remained left unsaid from both sides, like a cloud hanging over us. And speaking of clouds…

“Come, we must return, for it will soon rain,” he told me, gently lowering me to the ground and prompting me to unhook my ankles from where they had been resting above his perfect arse.

Without another word, he took my hand in his and led me back towards his horse, who looked impatient with his reins hooked to a tree.

Once we were close enough, Draven rid himself of his other form as he unwound the lengths of leather from the branch. His wings disappeared like black vapour evaporating into the air.

After this, he stepped up behind me, but before lifting me to his horse, I felt his face at my neck. Then without explanation, he breathed me deep before lifting me up onto his horse. After which he joined me like last time, settling in behind me and tugging me even closer.

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