Page 96 of Tales of a Monstrous Heart
He was here.
A weak sob clawed its way up my throat, but there was no relief as my palms continued to burn with the evidence of what I’d done. Ash rained down around us, gathering on his broad shoulders and in his hair. I could have killed him. I’d allowed my nightmare to ignite the chaos in my veins. Allowed it to consume everything. I would have killed him for nothing more than childish fear.
Murderer, that voice hissed and I felt tears slide down my burning cheeks that he caught with his thumb. He leant forward, gathering me closer to him. As if his body was a shield against the horror of this world. Against that darkness behind him.
‘It’s not real, Kat,’ he whispered against my skin, the ghost of a kiss against the side of my ruined hair. His hands gently moving down my stiff back, still tender with those phantom pains, but I didn’t pull away.
Couldn’t.
I trembled, unable to stop shaking, holding him tighter as I let the comfort of his magic soothe my flushed skin.
‘It’s all right.’ His hand moved to the back of my head, a reverence in his touch that I leant into.
I never thought it would be okay again. I thought I’d die, my magic continuing to churn viciously in my stomach.
Emrys pulled back gently to root around in his pocket for something, a cylindrical crystal he tossed carelessly to the ground.
‘Come on.’ His arm went beneath my legs, another around my waist as he scooped me up easily. My arms looped around his neck in fear he’d drop me once he fully gauged my weight.
His foot came down on the crystal, a dark grey smoke rose and with another step we weren’t in the dank darkness anymore. Both slightly breathless and covered in mud, we were greeted by the comforting smell of old books. The study of Blackthorn Manor.Home.
Emrys tried to put me down gently, but the moment my right leg touched the ground, a hissed breath left my lips. My calf burned with pain as I felt a wetness running down my ankle, and I was back in his arms.
He moved to his desk, sweeping the contents to the side as he placed me on top of it. Books, pages of notes and samples clattering uselessly to the ground.
‘You shouldn’t—’ I began but the pain in my chest made me stop. Heat flared in my veins and stole my voice. I leant forward, hands curling around the edge of the desk as the agony of suppressing my magic came over me again, forcing me to tense every inch of my body to keep it contained.
‘You’re trembling.’ His hands came to the side of my throat, trying to see me, but I couldn’t raise my head. Couldn’t be distracted by him.
‘How did you bring us here?’ I asked through clenched teeth.
‘Portal stone,’ he answered dismissively. Of course. A stone that had been banned in one of the first centuries, but he was in possession of it.
‘The—’ I began before I clamped my mouth shut, another wash of pain coming over me. Breath hissed between my lips, and I wondered if I could make it to the hearth.
‘Beings die from suppression, Kat.’ There was a warning in his voice, but I was in too much pain to contemplate it.
Suppression. Restricting wild magic until it consumed a being from the inside out. Usually starting with their mind.
‘It will pass in a minute.’ I shook my head and tried to drag in another deep breath through my tight throat.
He took hold of my wrists, pulling them from the desk and gently forcing my burning palms to lay flat against his own. His gloves missing. The strange irregular thumping of his pulse and the magic deep in his blood. Wild and waiting, just like mine. Cooler, stranger, but the same.
The pain faded on that realisation, my magic too curious to attack, to even remember what had unsettled it as I felt Emrys’s pulse beat chaotically against my skin.
Something about it, the ancient part of my own magic recognised. Recognised it enough to go silent. My head tipped back to see his handsome face. To see how worry creased his brow, and how those storm-grey eyes were focused on nothing but my lips. As if every breath that passed through them mattered to him.
‘Better?’ he asked, so softly.
I could only nod.
A stillness passed between us as his gaze moved to focus on my eyes, his jaw tightening on whatever he saw there. Yet he didn’t break his focus on me, not until he was satisfied, I wasn’t going to hurt myself.
‘Let’s get you cleaned up, Croinn.’
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Emrys released me slowly, making certain I was settled enough before he moved about his desk. Pulling off his filthy ruined coat and dropping it onto his chair. Dislodging some books as he rummaged for something.
