Page 105 of A Dance of Water

To find answers.

To discover how she could wield the tempest inside of her—do more than control the weather, but fight back against her enemies.

She huffed, blowing tendrils of hair away from her face as she expertly tiptoed down the hall leading to the library. What felt like lifetimes ago, in a rose garden of deceit, Vale had said just that, warning her in his subtle way of what was to come.

Wars are not won with might alone, but with cunning and charm to win the masses and trickyour enemies.

She neither had charm nor cunning, but she—finally—had power. And that was the most important of all.

35

ELEMENTAL TRAINING

THAREN

"Where are you going?" Tharen’s voice echoed in the dark halls as he saw the cloaked figure. Dainty and lithe—no coverings could ever hide her from him.

She stilled, caught, and Tharen smiled.

He stalked forward, gripping her by the elbow.

Luella whipped her head to him, the hood of her cloak falling back to reveal moon-touched hair and porcelain skin. The corners of her biteable lips turned down. "To find answers," she said.

Tharen arched a brow, letting his fingers release her arm, one by one. "Don’t stop on my account, little lamb." He stepped back, letting her go.

She did so carefully, like prey knowing they were being played with before being eaten.

He ran a tongue over his lower lip, following her closely as she walked into the library. Her head brushed his chest. He resisted the urge to throw her down onto one of the plush chairs and peel the cloak away from her body.

The soft drip of water from the fountain seemed to distract Luella. She grew still, then shook her head, steps determined as she made for the towering stacks of tomes.

The light was dim tonight, the moon covered by the thick, dark clouds. He could barely see his lamb’s pretty face.That wouldn’t do.

With a mere wave of a hand, flames sparked to life, bathing them both in amber light. The shadows under her eyes were deep from lack of sleep, but she was no less enticing. The godsdamned call of their bond roared like the thick fall of rain outside.

"Why did you follow me?" she asked softly, venturing deeper into the stacks.

"Why not?" Tharen taunted. "What’s a little nightly tryst… Scared Vale will be pissed that you’d give your pleasure to me first?"

"N-no!" Luella turned away from him, grabbing a book and flipping through it, studying its contents with intent.

But it was upside down.

He smirked, plucking the book out of her hands and turning it the right way. "Little hard to read it like that." He hummed.

There was a charge in the air, crackling like lightning, and maybe it was just the fire in Tharen’s palms, but he swore that her blue eyes seemed toglow.

The scent of paper and her made his cock fucking ache, and he copied her footsteps as she walked into the deeper parts of the library.

"What kind of answers are you looking for?" he inquired; though, he had his suspicions.

She paused at a divergence in the path before she turned to the left, body winding through the thin stacks. He watched the back of her pale hand as it trailed over wooden shelves and book spines, pushing his tongue into his cheek with every moment she failed to respond.

Tharen tangled his fingers in the back of her cloak. "I asked you a question."

"Your mark is not on my chest, T-Tharen… I do not o-owe you an explanation."

"Stuttering little thing. You’re so intimidated by me, hm?" He leaned down, breathing over the back of her neck. Her steps faltered only slightly before she resumed her determined, hurried pace through the shelves. "You haven’t seen the half of what I can do. Don’t test my limits, lamb, you won’t like the result."

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