Page 96 of Brawler

The great bird banked once, and for a heartbeat she swore she saw him, impossibly beautiful, that boyish grin transfigured into something vast, eternal, blazing with destiny.

Her hand pressed to the glass, trembling.

Suddenly, he was there behind her, heat rolling off him, his breath hot against her ear, his body pressed against her.Guardians are waking. The war isn’t over. The world needs you, Killa. But I need you more.

She cried out at the cruelty, dropped her head into her hands and wept. Her heart reached for him wherever he was.

“I need you too,” she whispered. “But it’s not meant to be.” The words tore out of her like glass, each one cutting her raw. Her shoulders shook, grief and desire tangled so tightly she could hardly breathe.

“I’ll die before I let my soul be destroyed.” Her voice cracked, fierce and trembling, her fist pressing hard against her chest as if to hold herself together. Then, softer, aching, the truth she had never spoken aloud. “Youare my soul.”

Her tears blurred the night sky, but in the silence that followed, something stirred. A whisper, low, ragged, undeniable, brushed the edges of her mind, of her heart.

You are mine.

The words shuddered through her, as real as the breath she dragged into her lungs, as impossible to deny as the bond that chained them. She pressed her hand harder to the glass, trembling, as if she could hold him there, hold him forever.

Then another echo came, fierce and certain, threaded with fire.

And, sweet owl, I’m coming for you.