Page 172 of His Darkest Desire

Her sweat. Her blood.

Without thought, his feet carried him across the room. Each step built his anticipation. His chest swelled with it, close to bursting, as he neared an open doorway leading into another chamber. A bedchamber.

“Oh, my God,” a woman breathed from within as Vex stepped into the doorway.

But he did not see the woman. His eyes fell upon the bed, and for a moment, he could do naught but stare.

His Kinsley reclined upon the bed with a blanket draped over her legs. Her skin was pale and glistening with perspiration, and her hair had been woven into a thick braid that rested over her shoulder. Kinsley’s eyes, those beautiful, violet-blue eyes, locked with his.

“Vex,” she rasped before breaking into sobs.

He rushed to the bedside, cupped the back of her head, leaned down, and kissed her hard. All the longing and pain of the last seven months, all his heartache and guilt, all his love, flowed into that kiss.

Kinsley slipped her fingers into his hair and grasped it. She leaned into the kiss, returning it just as fervently even as she quietly wept.

Blue light pulsed through his closed eyelids as the wisps excitedly danced over the bed.

She tightened her grip on his hair, sending a sting across his scalp sharp enough to make him hiss. “Don’t you ever fucking send me away again.”

“Never,” he growled. “Never again, my moonlight.”

Kinsley pressed her forehead to his. “I missed you so, so much.”

The ache in his chest intensified, constricting his heart, and tears burned in his eyes. He kissed her again before drawing in a ragged breath. “I shall spend eternity earning your forgiveness, Kinsley.”

Something lightly struck his chest.

Vex drew back from his mate to look down. There, wrapped in a blanket and cradled against her breast, was their babe.

The breath fled from his lungs. He’d never dared let himself hope he would find a mate. It had seemed so far out of reach. And this? This precious child, created from their love, was something he’d never truly thought possible. This feeling spreading through him, filling him, warming him, was beyond anything he could ever have imagined.

A means to an end… How could he ever have thought that about either Kinsley or their child?

“Our daughter,” Kinsley said, lifting the baby toward him.

With all the care he could muster and more, Vex took the baby into his hands. She was so tiny, so delicate, so perfect. Green skin a few shades lighter than his own, pointed, black-tipped ears, short black hair, little claws on her fingers. He could feel small wings on her back through the blanket in which she was wrapped.

And her eyes…they were mesmerizing. Vibrant blue on black—her mother’s blue, tinged with a hint of violet. He brushed the pad of his finger over her chin. Her tiny hand shifted, catching his finger, and squeezed.

Vex smiled, and the tears fell from his eyes as he whispered, “At long last, I am home.”

The wisps gathered around his daughter, casting their blue glow upon her.

“Oh, magus,” Flare said, running a tendril across the baby’s head.

Echo’s ghostfire sparked. “She is beautiful.”

“And already this one sees the flame of her spirit, strong and bright,” said Shade.

There was movement from the corner of Vex’s eye. He turned his head to see a woman step closer to the bed. Her brown eyes were wide as she stared at Vex and the wisps, and despite their color, he could not miss their similarity to his mate’s. She settled a shaky hand on Kinsley’s shoulder.

Vex fought back his instinctual urge to growl in warning. The woman looked bewildered enough as it was, and she did not deserve such treatment.

“Kinsley,” the woman said, “is this…”

“Vex. My mate.” Despite how tired Kinsley appeared, she was radiant as she beamed up at him and placed her hand over the woman’s. “And these are the wisps. Flare, Echo, and Shade.”

Each wisp offered a little bow as they were introduced.

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