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My eyes flick to him, stomping off into the brush, the rainbow sheen on his stunning skin flushed rosy pink with furious anger. At me. Man, I havereallyfucked up.
Edith rolls her eyes at my panic. “Exactly.” Edith’s blood red smile is smug, a little swagger in her hips. She really enjoys being right. “So why don’t you stop being a self-involved ass and go kiss some instead? You hurt his feelings. He thinks you thinkhedid this.”
There is another sharp crack from where Tor treks ahead, now just out of sight. I pull Edith to a standstill, my blood running hot with shame and fear through my veins.
“No! That’s not what I meant! I—” I cut myself off, chewing at my lip, staring anxiously at the gap in the path Tor had disappeared through.
With a delicate laugh, Edith releases me, giving me a little shove in his direction. A violent jumble of feelings flows from that connection to that place inside me. It feels weird. But also… right.
“No shit. Go on, time to go kiss and make up.” She shoves me again, harder this time, and my feet finally get with the program. “I’ll take getting to watch as my thank you.”
I barely hear her over the thundering in my ears, but I do, so I flip her the bird with both fingers and keep on running ahead to catch up to Tor. I have some explaining to do.
***
“I’m sorry.” My breath comes as pants by the time I reach Tor. I try to reach out to catch his elbow, but he easily evades my grasp. I mean, I know he’s angry, but he ispoweringthrough. At least we are makingreallygood time. Gotta find those silver linings. Tor just ignores me and vaults effortlessly over a raised tree root.
I scramble over and race to catch up. When I finally catch him, I grab onto his shoulder. I can feel him flinch under my touch, and man, that hurts. My heart goes a little crazy in my chest with anxiety. “Please, Tor, look at me.” He lets out a huffy grunt. But he does turn to look at me, arms folded across his chest like armour, his beautiful face harsh and stony.
A hard lump fills my throat. Now that I have him I kind of don’t know what to say. I cannot believe I accidentally accused him of force mating us. Even unknowingly.Especiallywhen I know he fears being seen as manipulative or shitty as his parents.
I must take too long because he shrugs my hand off his shoulder and rolls his eyes, turning his back on me again. Man, I am really blowing this. I hurry again to catch up to Tor, anxiety gnawing at my guts. I manage to catch up and race around to stand in front of him, pinning his shoulders with both hands this time. Unshed tears stain his blue eyes red, breaking my heart more than a little.
My hands move to cup his neck, never breaking contact to free him. One tear breaks free from his restraint and I wipe it away with my thumb.
“Tor, I’msorry. I misspoke. I didn’t meanhow could you do this?I meant, how could you dothis?” Under my fingers, I feel his jaw flex, his eyes no longer sad, instead flashing with rage. Shit. I am fucking this up. “No! I mean, fuck. I didn’t think you did the mate thing. Iknowyou would never do something like that without my consent. I meant why would you do that withme. Why would you tie yourself tome?” My voice breaks pathetically at the end there. But he finally stops trying to pull out of my vice-like grip.
“I didn’t do it, Caelan. I mean, I don’t think I did. I just got so caught up in it all, and in you, and I didn’t want it to end… I’m sorry.” He sounds so vulnerable, his eyes downcast. Tor is always so big and larger than life. It is wrong to see him so small and turned in on himself. Unable to resist any longer, I haul him into my arms, shoving his face into me.
“Tor, youcouldn’tdo this. Not on your own. This connection needsbothof us to want it. To agree. I amnotmad that it happened. Shocked? Yes. Butnotmad. Not at all.” I whisper fervently into his neck, my lips brushing against hispulse there, kissing my words into his skin. “Tor, you are so fucking amazing. I could live a thousand lifetimes and never be worthy of you.”
His hands, which found their way to my hips during my confession, shove me off him with a harsh jerk. I shrink back at the anger on his face, his brows drawn together in a fierce glower.
“Not worthy of me, Caelan? That is some bullshit, Caelan—” I cut him off with my mouth, pulling him back to me with a possessive kiss. He opens beneath me with a groan, and I take what he offers, our mouths moving together.
Before the kiss can burn out of control and we lose all sense, or the conversation, I pull back, stroking my hand down his cheek, my thumb over his swollen lips. His icy blue eyes dance between mine, like he can’t believe what he sees there.
“Most importantly, Tor.” I take a deep breath and tug him even closer, my arm a steel band around his back. “Being bonded mates, with you? Let’s just say it doesn’t suck. Not even a little bit. Not for me, anyway.”
A tentative smile breaks over his face, and he bites his lip. With one hand, he brushes a piece of imaginary lint from the shoulder of my thermal jacket. “Really?”
I can’t contain my smile. He looks adorably shy. It is a new side to my brazen mate.Huh, I kinda like that.My mate. Leaning forward, I press my forehead to his. I can feel his giddy intake of breath, his sorrow and heartbreak fizzing into excitement and yearning.
“Really, Tor.”
His mouth crashes into mine again, this time so hard my lip bashes into my tooth, cutting it, but I don’t care. After a moment or three, the kiss turns slow and sweet, our tongues tangling lazily together.
“Right then, you two, don’t we have places to be? Brothers to rescue? Quests to complete?” Edith’s cackling laughter as we startle and jump apart truly kills the moment between us. But she does have an excellent point, even if she is smiling at us both like a smug, all-knowing bastard.
For once, it isn’t me blushing from head to toe, as Tor’s pretty purple face lights up with a rosy hue. “Uh, guess you’re right. On we go.” And so, hand in hand again, as it should be, we continue on.
Tor
It’s late, almost night,when we make camp. All afternoon there has been an awkwardness between Caelan and me. That strange over-politeness that comes after a fight, especially because it was ourfirstfight. I am kinda proud of us for working through it so efficiently. Gold star for us, I guess. We’re killing it at this whole “lifetime magical bond” thing.
I am still uneasy about, well,everything. At some point, when I—whenwe—are back home safe and sound, I am going to have a nice little breakdown about this whole adventure. It will be lovely. But right now, we just have to keep pushing through.
Like, literally, because the magic of the Woods is getting out of hand. Each step we get closer feels more and more arduous. Like a magnet force repelling us from our destination. When Caelan mentioned it earlier, Edith hummed cautiously and said that there was Big Magic out here that didn’t want us around. Then she plucked a flower off a tree and ate it, which kinda detracted from the dramatics of her warning.
