Page 86 of A Tempest of Shadows

I didn’t learn all I could do until I was eleven. Before then, my parents were pleased by my ability to wield the three weathers everyone knew about—rain, wind, and snow.

Then, a week after my eleventh birthday, I realized I could also create fog while playing hide-and-seek with Scarlet. I was so excited that I forgot about hiding, so I ran to my parents to tell them.

They were also pleased, but I’d seen the apprehension on their faces. The ability to control four weathers was a rare gift, and even though things were far better under King Leonidas’s rule, they worried it might somehow lead to me being taken from them or used in some way. They made me vow to keep it a secret.

Two weeks later, my lightning bearer ability manifested as small bolts zapped between my fingers when I rubbed them together. There hadn’t been concern in my parents’ eyes then… there was terror.

To this day, no one, other than my parents, knew I could wield more than three weathers. As far as I knew, I was the first and only amsirah with the ability to control all five.

The fact that I could publicly control three was a blessing many amsirah didn’t possess. I’d used my ability for lightning and fog around Ryker, the two powers I kept hidden from the world; if he were ever to ask what I could do, I’d have to tell him about the three everyone else knew about… and it would be one more lie between us.

I hated myself for everything I’d caused and yearned for it to be different, but it couldn’t. Sleeping with him would be a disastrous idea anyway, given his status in this realm, but at least if I weren’t lying to him so much, I wouldn’t feel so guilty about it.

But I couldn’t deny our physical connection; my desire drew me closer with a magnetic pull I couldn’t resist. Maybe that pull was because we were both lightning bearers and our bodies recognized it and sought more.

Whatever it was, though my brain screamed at me to stop this, my body didn’t move when his mouth lowered toward mine. Instead of trying to break away like a sane immortal whose head was on the chopping block, I tipped my head back and rose to meet his kiss.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO

Ellery

His kiss seared from my lips to the tips of my toes. I felt it in every fiber of my being as its warmth spread through my cells, encompassed my body, and turned me into someone else… someone mindless and driven only by my need to connect more with him.

I didn’t think about it; my body simply reacted to him as my hands slid up his chest to around his neck. His arm was like a vice as it cinched around my waist and pulled me closer.

Our bodies were flush against each other; no space separated them, but I had to get closer. My fingers slid into his hair, and my mouth opened to the gentle prodding of his tongue.

The firestorm his tongue created when it caressed mine buried the guilt and uncertainty I felt. Like the tornadoes I could make with wind, I felt one swirling inside me, enveloping me, and rising to ensnare me in the maelstrom of passion he created.

My secrets stopped mattering, and everything became right in his arms. This man was everything I’d ever wanted, and everything I could never have, but none of that mattered either.

When his hand slid down to my ass and he pulled me against his erection, I moaned. How could any of this be wrong when it felt so good?

He lifted me off the ground as if I weighed no more than a speck of dust dancing in the air. My legs wrapped around his waist as he carried me over to the mattress, settled me onto it, and went to his knees.

He never broke the kiss as he knelt between my legs. With tender movements, he pulled my shirt from my pants and slipped the buttons free before removing it.

His hands slid up and around me as he touched and explored until he found the clasp on my bra, undid it, and tossed it aside. When his calloused palms found my breasts, I bit his lip as more electricity fired through me while my nipples hardened beneath his touch.

When he broke the kiss, cooler air brushed my skin before he bent his head to my breast. I gasped, and my body arched at the unfamiliar but oh-so-amazing sensation of him touching me in such an intimate way.

When he nipped one of my nipples, I cried out as my fingers tightened in his hair to keep him close. I relished the heat of his mouth against my flesh while the cool air caressed us.

While he continued to kiss me, he undid the button of my pants, and the zipper slid down, but I didn’t experience any apprehension. I was too far gone to be scared by it or the awful fallout that could follow.

When he leaned back, his eyes were nearly the black they became when he harnessed the lightning. I knew what it felt like to pull the lightning from the sky—powerful, consuming, a rush unlike any other… until him.

Is he feeling the same? Is that why his eyes have turned color?

Have mine changed too?

A bolt of terror shot through me at the realization I might have given myself away, but no… his eyes weren’t entirely black like they became when drawing lightning. And he wasn’t staring at me in loathing or disgust, so mine must not have changed.

The reminder of all that lay between us was almost enough to knock me back to my senses, but not quite. I didn’t want to return to the land of sanity; I’d lived there far too long. It was difficult, and I was eager to delve into insanity with him.

He placed one palm against my face, and his thumb stroked my cheek before moving to my bottom lip, which was swollen from his kisses. I was lost in his magnificence, the breadth of his shoulders, the power he emanated, and the tenderness in his eyes.

When he bent to kiss me again, I knew I was a goner… possibly forever.