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I pulled my injured arm closer to my chest, dislodging a femur bone at my elbow that went rolling down the small hill. The creature jerked its giant head in my direction and opened its jaws with a terrifying hiss. It knew where I was. It coiled its body upward ready to strike.
Blessed Mother of the Wood, protect me.
Then the beating of huge, black wings dragged my attention upward. Vallon dove through the opening like a falling star, his sword poised above him. The beast was so intent on me that it looked up too late.
Vallon landed on its head and sank its sword into its eye up to the hilt. The creature screamed so loud I covered my ears. It shook back and forth, trying to dislodge Vallon, but my shadow fae was stabbing over and over, gouging out one eye then moving to the other.
When I thought the monster had kicked him off balance he’d actually leaped to the floor of bones, dragging his sword across the creature’s throat. It hissed and screamed, black blood spewing as it scrambled backward to flee into its den. But Vallon had already given the death blow. Before the serpent completely withdrew into the shadows, it collapsed onto its pile of bones, black tongue hanging from its mouth.
Suddenly, the gray haze was gone and Vallon had me in his arms. Then we were airborne, and he flew us back through the crevice above. His wings scraped the edges as we passed through the opening and shot straight up then down the small incline to where the blue coal-fire was burning. There was unwrapped cheese and bread scattered on the ground.
He set me on a large stone next to the stream, the soft babbling water a sharp contrast to the suffocating silence of that den.
Chest heaving, Vallon bent over the stream and splashed the water on his hands and arms where the blood of the creature had splattered. I watched him stalk back to his satchel, yank out a cloth, and frantically wipe the creature’s remnants off him, swiping the towel across his face as well.
“Your wings,” I murmured as I gulped in the fresh air, no longer stifled by the oppressive stench of death and evil down below.
“My wings?” he huffed with exasperation, his voice trembling as he finally turned to me.
Tossing the cloth onto the rocks near the coal-fire, he strode toward me, his expression tight and stern. He gripped me by the shoulders and hauled me roughly to my feet. Then, very gently, he cupped my face, his hands shaking. I instinctively covered his hands with mine, needing to comfort him. So strange it was what had been running through my mind—that Vallon needed me to soothe him, and it was my place to do so.
“You hurt your wings on the rocks,” I whispered dumbly as he held me so intimately.
“Fuck my wings, Murgha.” He pressed his forehead to mine. “I almost lostyou.”
“You didn’t,” I whispered, tilting my face closer to his.
Then we were sharing breaths, and that deep, aching longing for the affection of another hit me with ferocity. He didn’t bridge the tiny space between our mouths, so I dared to do it myself.
Lightly, I brushed my lips across his. “I’m here.”
He stiffened for a moment, then ever-so-gently he grazed his mouth against mine. The sensation was divine. Pure loveliness.
He coaxed and teased my lips apart then sank into my mouth on a groan. When his tongue touched mine, I kissed him back with desperate need. I stroked mine against his, slowly sliding my tongue along one of his fangs.
One of his arms came around my waist, lifting me against his hard body. I felt his stiffened cock against my belly, and my reaction wasn’t at all what I would’ve thought. It shocked me that I wanted to open my legs and take him inside me.
I had the uncontrollable urge to touch him, to feel him. I glided my hands up his broad shoulders and clasped them beneath his hair at his nape.
He moaned into my mouth, pressing me closer. With one hand, he encircled the back of my neck, his thumb resting on the pulse at the base of my throat. His other hand slid down my spine to my backside, cupping me firmly. I rocked my hips forward, a gasping moan escaping my mouth, breaking our kiss.
He eased back, his feral gaze intent on mine, full of heat and want and determination. He held me hard in his arms, my feet not even touching the ground. I’d never been so brazen, but I pressed my breasts closer, easing forward to capture his lips again. But he didn’t let me, keeping just out of reach.
“Murgha.”
“I love the way you say my name.”
He set me on my feet but kept his hands firmly on me. “You’re hurt.” His gaze shot to my arm, his scowl deepening. “I’m sorry.” He let me go abruptly and stepped away, taking his warmth with him.
Knees shaking, I sat on the stool, reeling from the erratic sensations still buzzing through my body. I’d never felt desire like that before, not even with Dellyn. Nothing even close.
Was it because I was so desperate for someone’s affection? I’d promised myself I’d only give myself to one male, the one who’d vowed himself to me. Because no male had ever even considered me worthy of more than a bedding, I never thought them worthy of my body either.
But seconds ago, all of that had flown from my mind. I was a creature of pure sensation and desire.
It wasn’t as if a husband couldn’t leave his wife either. That happened all the time. But I thought, at least, if my future husband and I made a vow under the gods’ blessing to honor and cherish one another, then it would be harder for that male to leave me. That’s why I’d made that promise to myself. I was ashamed how readily I was to forget that.
Vallon snatched the cloth off the ground and dipped it in the stream. He returned and kneeled on both knees in front of me, sighing as he pulled back the torn sleeve of my coat. “This didn’t protect you much, did it?”
