Page 136 of Stars in Umbra
‘You OK?’ he rumbled.
‘It’s cold and you’re too warm to let go.’
He chuckled. ‘Careful,mi kaya,’ he murmured into her hair, ‘keep talking like that and I might never leave this bed.’
Her smile curved up. ‘Oh, I wasn’t referring to tonight. I meant for the rest of your natural life.’
‘Fokkyeah.’ He grunted in approval, pulling her even closer.
She smiled against his chest, her pulse slowing and becoming even. She turned her back to him and, after a few quiet breaths, slipped into a light doze beside him.
Mo stayed awake.
Words rose, unbidden, from some marrow-deep place.
‘Kai ne masoyina na har abada.’
Seconds later, its meaning parsed through his mind.
You are my forever love.
Echoing the sentiment throbbing through his heart, the runes on his arms shimmered in the darkness, alive with residual power.
Yet it wasn’t his markings that disturbed him.
It was hers.
He’d caught a glimmer. As she curled against him, her bare skin brushing his, he saw a flicker across her belly.
It was subtle, but unmistakable. A soft lattice of light below her dermis, in a runic pattern that was not human in the least.
His brow furrowed.
What the hell was it? A side effect of their bond? A dormant potency within her? A mark left by him?
His heart ticked faster, unease coiling in his belly.
Rina stirred and whispered in a breathy hush, ‘Sleep, baby.’
So he did, eventually.
But even as slumber dragged him under, a thread of worry sat curled in the far corners of his mind, a quiet pulse of dread.
A force was awakening between them, and it wasn’t just their shared passion; it was more.
RINA
The next morning, the soft dawn air filled with the scents of fresh-cut citrus and steaming tea.
Rina stood in the kitchen, helping Hanna slice oranges for breakfast, in shared domestic calm.
Reth was in the barn feeding the livestock, and Mo was still in bed, a rare indulgence she was happy to allow as he continued to recuperate.
A hum from a descending flyer stirred the quiet.
Rina glanced up from the cutting board and stepped onto the veranda.
She peered up just as Mirage’s sleek, cobalt Corvette touched down with polished precision in the paddock beyond the citrus grove.
