Page 245 of A Flame of the Phoenix

His hand slammed down on the handle, and he tumbled inside with her name on his lips.

Yet Tarly wasn’t welcomed by a warm embrace of fire and the bright smile of his angel.

Instead he stumbled over debris, unable to catch himself before tripping, crumbling to his knees. Tarly’s head bowed, staring down at the splinters of charred wood that surrounded him.

His confusion started to clear, recalling the day they’d come across this home and found Nerida’s friend murdered inside by the hands of thugs who’d wanted to capture Nerida for her Waterwielding ability.

Before they’d left, Tarly had set fire to the home rather than leave the body to rot.

Tarly couldn’t even hold the weight of his upper body anymore as he fell over the burned wreckage. Asari whined but didn’t howl to summon Nik for help. He was glad to be spared ofthat humiliation. That is until the wolf took off, perhaps going to retrieve him instead.

Then he didn’t know what the wolf was thinking when it returned within a minute, more boisterous than before. Tarly was about to yell at it for nudging his side and face and sniffing his body.

Until the most exquisite voice called his name.

“Oh, Tarly, what have you done to yourself?” Nerida said.

He must have fallen unconscious after his delirious vision, but he didn’t care. This was the most beautiful dream he could have fallen into. Two wolves circled him now. Katori had come back.

“I was ready to be very mad at you, and yet I have to find you like this.” Her tone was irritated, and he loved that. Loved her voice in every emotion. “It’s hardly fair.”

She was right beside him now, lifting his head and slipping her knees under him.Gods,her scent was bliss in his misery. He reached his good hand up, and before he could touch her thigh, her hand slipped into his.

Their eyes met, and he was home. He’d never known what that truly felt like until right now.

“I’ll…I’ll make it up to you,” he answered. His words were slipping away from him, but he grappled at them desperately, wanting her to keep talking to him.

“Yes, you will. The more extravagant the better. Drink this,” she instructed, bringing a small bottle to his lips.

The liquid eased down his throat, but he was only focused on her. Next, the gentle blue glow of her magick over his chest lifted a crushing weight he hadn’t been fully aware of. He was so immeasurably beholden to her in this moment.

“Nerida…” he said, letting go of her hand to attempt to reach her face.

“Yes?”

Her brow was tightly pinched in worry, and he wished he could take it away. Her gentle fingers brushed the loose locks of his dark blond hair from his eyes. The full clarity of her attacked his soul. So powerfully that he had to say his next words, as mad as they seemed.

“I think you’re my mate.”

She drew a shallow gasp before her brow deepened more. Her eyes glistened. “I think so too,” she whispered.

Tarly stiffened, not expecting the agreement. He blinked, slowly realizing this was no dream. Nerida was really here. She’d found him.

“I don’t know how it’s possible,” he confessed. “Maybe I just feel for you that strongly it’s like a mating bond, but…I haven’t felt this way before, and I’m confused. So painfully happy but confused.”

His thumb brushed her tear before it fell.

“I don’t know either. But in a life as fragile and uncertain as this one, I don’t really care how.”

He swallowed hard. “Do you…do you want it to be true?”

A smile broke wide across her face, and she laughed through another falling tear. “Yes, Tarly Wolverlon. I want to be yours. So long as you stay alive for me.”

His eyes closed with the warmest, brightest wave of reprieve he’d ever felt in his existence.

“I really,reallywant to stay alive for you.”

“Good. Because I’ve said it from the start, you’re not going to die.” She sniffed, adjusting her position and assessing his wound. “It’s spread a lot more since you left me. Why did you leave me?”

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