Page 104 of In Her Own Rite

“If your dad reallywasthere, in the ring…”

“He couldn’t survive for more than a week,” I say, shaking my head. “I had to do a plant unit for my healer training. The cliffs are too high up for larger plants to grow. All he’d be able to eat would be weeds and the unprocessedkattakaplant. If he reallywasthere during your rite, he would have died within a week if he didn’t come down.”

Kieran shakes his head, thinking.

“I’m sorry I didn’t believe in you,” he says finally.

“I’m sorry I got so angry,” I say, climbing onto his lap, taking his face in my hands. “I know you were just trying to keep me safe.”

He nods, kissing me, pulling me close. I feel his mouth on mine, the scratch of his beard against my skin; his hands slipping up the back of my sweater. I grind my hips lightly against him, feeling his body respond with desire.

“Mm. Em,” he groans. “God. It’s been too long.”

“We have the rest of our lives,” I whisper, kissing my way down the column of his neck, to his throat.

“I want you,” he groans.

I smile, kissing the side of his neck, running my teeth lightly against the place where my mark would go.

“Agaayu,” he says. “I want to mark you. I want you to claim me.”

“What happened to all those promises of a candlelit dinner?” I say sweetly.

“I’ll do that too,” he breathes, pressing his erection up against me in a way that makes me moan. “But we’ve wasted so many goddamn years. I don’t want to waste another second.”

I pull his face close to mine.

“They weren’t wasted to me,” I whisper, kissing him. “I’m not in any rush. We have time,kiyyuni. I promise.”

And with that, he throws me down onto the couch, and we desecrate the library for a second time this year.

37

KIERAN

We spend the next few days in something that feels like heaven. Every night I get to sleep next to her, and every morning I wake up with her in my arms, the soft scent of cardamom and rose water reminding me that I’m home. Saga expects Em’s rite to be in just a few days, but a cold snap freezes over Moon Lake, and the elders determine that the path up to the cliffs will be too icy to be safe for another week.

I don’t mind. More time means more days for her to prepare. In the mornings, she goes to the gym or to be coached by Seb, and I head to the woodshop. She doesn’t have to work in the afternoons—those training for the rite who aren’t self-employed have a reduced workload during the preparation—so a few days after the group comes back to Saroe, she starts joining Seb and Maren in touring newfikarigsfor us.

I’m grateful for it. I didn’t feel any pressure to get our own place soon, but ever since we caught the Remnant members, tensions at thefikarighave been high. If it’s not me arguing with Saga and Viggo, it’s Seb or Gabe. It’s gotten so bad that, five days after the group returns from Halluk, Gabe asks if he can spend the afternoon at my place instead of being stuck at home with them.

“Make yourself comfortable,” I say, letting him through the front door of the apartment.

“Thanks.” He limps through the front door, his leg still immobilized by the full-length cast.

“When do you get that thing taken off?”

“Officially, full recovery is at least twelve weeks, even for shifters. And sometimes as long as a year.”

“Damn,” I say, shutting the door behind him as he walks to my small dining table. “And unofficially?”

“Unofficially… Em’s been trying some stuff.”

I glance over at him. “It’s a bone break, right? What can she do?”

“You should talk to her about that,” he says, lowering himself into a chair. “I know she wants to tell you, but she needed to figure some stuff out first.”

“Okay…” I say. I want to ask, but I see Gabe lean over the table, looking at the scattered books and papers.

---