Page 100 of The Source of Storms

“You came as soon as you could.”

“Not soon enough.”

“Yes, soon enough. Just in time. I am here with you now. I survived.” I put my hands on his face and kissed him.

“You never should have suffered through what you did. Never. I would have torn that place apart for you, stone by stone. I used to dream of it. Every day, every night I dreamed of it. I would have ripped that place apart with my bare hands, would have killed every man and woman in that temple to get to you. I would have burned down the entire city, the entire world for you.” His voice was barely more than an animalistic growl.

“I know.” I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him close. “I know.”

“There were days I couldn’t take all their talking, their planning. I could hardly be in those meetings. Without you here, knowing you were trapped somewhere, suffering. That there was nothing I could do about it. It… I went mad with it, Hal. Crow had to drag me from the Council meetings more than once. He had to fight me, physically fight me, to stop me from going back in and screaming at them all to go fuck themselves. El stopped me from going alone to Avanis to get you a few times.”

There was nothing I could say to ease the pain in his voice. Tears began to slip down my cheeks.

“She begged me to be patient, to hang on. Told me the only way to get you back was to make sure we played it smart. And she was right. But gods, it killed me, Hal. It killed me. I still see it. Every time I close my eyes, I see them dragging you away. I can’t – I can’t forgive myself for that."

“It wasn’t your fault,” I said.

“I never should have gotten so far from you.”

“It was me that went too far from you, Byrgir. It happened so fast.”

“And it will never happen again.” He twisted his fingers gently into my hair, just above my neck, and pulled my head back so I could look at him. His ocean-green eyes blazed with intensity behind tears, with promise. “I will never lose you again. I’ll never leave you unprotected. I swear it.” He said it with all the reverence of a holy vow.

He kissed me with such emotion I thought my body would ignite, float into ash on the surface of the bath. His hands wove around me, pulling me into him.

His touch was the water, a force as deep and unshakable as the ocean, washing me clean wherever his fingers wandered. The memories of darkness, of pain and fear, dissolved beneath his hands, turning to salt on my skin and rinsing away. Every caress purified me, rebuilt me. He touched me as if he revered every fractured piece of me. And if he just kept touching me, kept holding me close like this, maybe I would not fall apart.

I leaned back, meeting his gaze again, and in his eyes I felt alive.

I had imagined this moment a thousand times in that cell. I kept myself alive picturing what it would feel like to be held by him, to have him inside myself. Even after everything the Dark One had tried to take from me––my power, my agency, my connection with my own body––miraculously, he had not ruined this.

I pulled Byrgir close and kissed him, and he answered, heated and insistent, neediness and desire suddenly consuming us both. I felt him grow hard and thick beneath me. I shifted to straddle him, his hands gripping my rear. I slid down and ground against his cock, hungry for the hard, impressive length of him as he rubbed delicately, teasingly across me. He pulled my hair again, tipping my head back, and kissed my neck, then moved tantalizingly down. He lifted one hand to cup my breast, running his thumb over my nipple. It peaked beneath his attention, and a deep, needy ache spread between my legs, reaching up into my core. I ground myself against him harder, and groaned as he kissed down to my breasts. He flicked his tongue across my nipple, then took it into his mouth and kissed it deeply. I moaned, working my hips into his, made myself moan again.

“I have dreamed of all the things I would do to you when I had you back,” he growled against my skin, his voice heavy with desire. It made my breath hitch.

“Then show me,” I insisted.

He looked up and met my gaze, as if he needed to brand this moment into his memory, into his flesh somehow. Then, holding my eyes captive with his, he lifted me slightly and slid into me, slowly. I cried out at the full, stretching pleasure of it. He paused, allowing me to adjust to him, and I lowered myself further. His size made the position nearly overwhelming at first, but I began to move, working my hips slowly in a languid roll. The sound he made with his exhale was a breathy groan, dripping with hunger.

“Fuck, Halja, you are… this is…” he growled as words were lost to him.

I could only moan in response as the ache within me grew, already yearning for release.

He leaned in and kissed me, holding me close as we breathed together. The intensity of it, the fullness, was almost too much to bear.

“Good girl, nice and slow,” he murmured into my mouth.

The sound of his voice alone threatened to unravel me, and I slowed my pace. We moved like that for a while, holding each other and savoring the depth of our union at long, long last.

Finally Byrgir stood, lifted me from the tub, and carried me to the bed, laying me back carefully. Then he descended, kissing his way slowly down my body until he was kneeling before me. He pulled my legs up over his shoulders and lowered his mouth to me, kissing softly across my inner thigh. My skin quivered beneath his touch.

“I meant what I said, you know,” he murmured. The depth in his voice made an ache more potent than lust crack and bleed within my chest. He kissed my thigh again, higher now. “I will be your Keeper, Halja. Your protector. The guardian of your heart, your soul.”

He kissed me again, softly, carefully, so close to where I was longing, begging, screaming for his touch.

“If you’ll let me earn it. If you’ll forgive me,” he added.

I sat up, my eyes met his. The pain in them, the hope, the longing. All the invisible wounds he had suffered since I was taken laid bare in his eyes now. There was a haunted hollowness in them that I know mine reflected. The ache in my chest became a sharp pain, spreading to meet the roar of lust lower in my core, twisting together inside me so tightly I didn't think I could unravel them. This hunger inside me was not just lust, no, this was the feeling of my soul reaching out for his.

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