Page 134 of Tales of a Deadly Devotion
‘I’m here,’ he reassured him, loosening his hold but only to press his fingers into Emrys’s hair and lay a kiss at his temple. ‘You’re home, Emrys.’
Home.
Emrys seemed to sag with exhaustion. A calm settling as we held him between us, as light slowly seeped back into the room. The hearth warmed with orange flames, chasing away the icy chill. Yet, Emrys shivered, muscles still twitching with whatever had haunted him, his eyelids drooping with fatigue. Gideon released him gently, movingto the bed and pulling a blanket free to drape over his brother’s prone form.
Crouching there to assess every one of his now steady breaths before those concerned eyes met my own where I still knelt. Then his eyes darted to the doorway. Of course. William wasn’t well.
‘I’ve got him,’ I smiled, letting the magic flare in my palms to try and warm Emrys where they pressed against his skin beneath that blanket.
‘I know you have.’ The words were soft from the healer’s lips before he ran his hand through his hair and let a long breath escape him. ‘Call me if you need me.’
He hesitated a moment longer, as if the last thing he wanted to do was leave. Until his shoulders slumped in defeat and he left Emrys in my care. I brought the blanket further over his shoulders, pushing the dark hair from his brow.
Then tentatively his hands moved over me – curious, as if trying to remember every part. To make certain I was real. My thighs, my waist, my arms and up to my hands where I held him.
Those dark-tipped fingers traced the edge of my jaw and the arch of my ear, his head ducking ever so slightly to the curve of my throat. Right over that scar made by the galmoth, a dark sound rumbling from him as if in displeasure at the sight of it.
A sudden stillness consuming him. Making me worry he was overrun again by that darkness. Only his touch was still soft, his breath even where it brushed the side of my throat.
‘You smell like you’re mine,’ he spoke in that dark tongue. The words difficult to understand as his lips grazed the side of my throat. It was such a strange, delicate and primal thing.
‘I am.’ I answered without hesitation. Verr were territorial beings. Lustful and primitive in their hunger.
Loyalty came first and Emrys had already given me his loyalty. I knew that in my bones. Just as I knew he’d crawl across that cursed earth to make certain I wasn’t alone. Even if it destroyed him.
Perhaps then I understood the Kysillians’ hatred for Verr. Kysillians valued their honour, their blood and their pride. They were loyal to only the ancestors that had come before – to keeping the purity of their name.
I knew in my heart, Emrys would forsake everything for me. For those he loved. No matter that I was marked, no matter the danger in my blood or how it would ruin us both. Even if all those Old Gods awakened and commanded him not to.
He’d told me as much.
‘Kat.’ He brushed my name against the curve of my cheek and emotion burnt in my throat, stopping any answer as I caught his beautiful face between my hands, pressing my lips against his, quick and chaste. He’d come back to me. Just as he promised. Tears dampened my cheeks, and he caught every one. In all this darkness, loving Emrys was the easiest thing. The only part that made sense. So essential to me, like my own breath or the company of my flame in my blood.
Home. One I’d been searching for where all the grief and hurt slipped away. His fingers curled into my hair, his magic still sharp and dragging down the arch of my back. Making me move further into his arms, almost onto his lap, as the chill of him brushed against the inferno in me.
Only for his breath to catch, for the muscles of his chest to tense beneath my palm.
‘Let’s get you into bed,’ I offered, pressing those words to the underside of his jaw, laying my palm flat over his mark beneath that blanket. Before gently untangling myself to get to my feet, hoping he’d follow or ready to help him if hecouldn’t. To stand before him. Just like one of those offerings in the tales of old. Of foolish girls and Old Gods.
That wildness still too close to the surface in him. His eyes flashing that brilliant ethereal white before retreating to jet-black once more. ‘This is a darkness said to devour this world.’
My smile didn’t falter. Nor did my affection for him. ‘Then you can devour me first.’
He wasn’t the monster those stories and nightmares forced him to believe and I wouldn’t make him feel that he was. Even if he was consumed. Even if it ended that way. He’d ruined me too, and I wished for no other fate.
A strange dark rumble came from his chest. Almost a growl of disapproval with the distance between us. His hands took a teasing trail around the back of my bare calves where he still knelt. Those eyes didn’t leave mine as his lips pressed so devoutly against the inside of my knee.
‘I could have hurt you.’ His magic bit playfully as if it wished to form claws. To claim me in the ancient way our ancestors would have. In a way I wanted him to mark me now, so he could always see that devotion on my flesh.
I ran my fingers through his hair. ‘You think I would have let you?’
No. Because we were equals in the forbidden nature of our power. He’d taught me that. There was no fear here. Not between us.
He stood slowly at that challenge, reminding me how much larger he was than me. The light grey shift in his eyes, the mortal quality returning to his features. Yet those shadows remained, two pieces of his crafted so beautifully. The strange makings curving around the muscled contours of him fading but not fully dispersed.
My hand found his own, the metal of my father’s hilt still at his finger. The ring so warm against his skin. Content.
‘Come on.’ I pushed up onto my toes to lay a kiss against his lips and then I coaxed him into the bed as another tremor moved through him.
