Page 75 of What Whispers in the Dark
Blinding light erupted.
Blazing white heat tore between them as her entire body reformed of starflames, licking her up until Garrik fell on the empty settee cushions in her place. Alora stepped out of her firestorm on their porch, inches in front of the front steps—she’d meant to go further, but with so little success in training …
With a coaxing grin, her flames fully receded, and steam danced from her shoulders. She slipped her heel backward, toward the edge.
Something wild flashed in his eyes as he whipped his head over his shoulder, beholding her.
Then, Airatheldra … the dawning sun … it darkened.
Smokeshadows whorled around him, ripping him from where she’d left him and leaving nothing but a tendril of shadow to prove he had existed.
Then. Cold.
Icy, frigid cold. It pressed into her like a solid wall as shadows inched up her legs like souls escaping Firekeeper’s realm. Solid hands spun her to face Airatheldra’s horizon and pulled her against his front, caging her against him. From the border of her vision, gray hair waved in the breeze moments before his icy breath murmured against her ear, “Then, clever girl … you better start running.”
And she did—fast and without turning to see if he chased.
Straight for the lake and its shores and the dock?—
But Garrik’s shadows were faster. Appearing before her with raw power that made her very bones shiver in a fury of excitement and awestruck fear. Made her slide to a stop mere strides in front of him.
“That’s cheating,” she snarled at him. Vicious and playful. Determined. An edge settled in her eyes.
She wanted to wipe that irritating, enchanting smirk off his face as he dawned a tree—a fuckingtree—beside him and leaned his shoulder into it, folding his arms over his chest. “You forget, I rather delight in these things. And I do not recall any rules in this little game of yours.” Icy calm rippled off him. The smug bastard pulled his fist from his crossed arms, examined his nails like he couldn’t be bothered. Like chasing her was someeasything. “Unless you need a head start?” A smirk twitched his lips.
She would never accept an advantage, and they both knew it.
Fine.He wanted to play it that way?
Alora didn’t deign to give him a response and scanned the horizon darkened with dancing shadow. Scanned the homes of all their friends and the mountains in between. The tall trees and … and that sky again?—
Mighty wings of starfire unfurled from her back and shot her skyward.
He’d spent hours training her to fly. Now he would regret it.
On the lawn, Garrik vanished again.
In the sky, her stomach tightened with anticipation.
She whirled, spreading her wings wide to hover amidst the clouds of darkness. Her heartbeat was so wild she could hear it bouncing off every bone in her body, felt it in the pulse thrumming through her ears.
The house: a mere grain of sand against the dirt. The lake: nothing but a blot of dark blue. But Garrik …
She waited. Scanning and scanning. Expecting him to appear. To reform of mist and ash and shadow. To hurl himself out of?—
Before she could cry out, darkness raged around her. Out of the storm, shadowy likenesses of his hands parted the whorls and hoisted her legs around his middle, gripping her thighs. In an explosion of Smokeshadows, unfurling from his back in whorls, the night itself transcended.
Incredible wings of darkness spilled into the air behind him. A mighty manifestation of her male’s magic spread wide as a wall of frigid cold enveloped her the moment he wrapped his considerable arms around her waist, one hand traveling up her back and the other … the other with a claiming palm on her rear.
She couldn’t even be mad as she angled her eyes up to find Garrik smiling down at her. Alora offered him a slow, elated shake of her head as her starflame wings extinguished and she toweled her arms around his neck. “I love when you look at me like that.”
“Good. Because I intend to continue looking at you for the foreseeable future.”
Alora rolled her eyes. “Garrik.” She giggled, enjoying the smile widening on his face when she said his name.
His silver eyes gleamed despite the darkened sky. “I will never tire of hearing that. Above all else, it is my favorite thing to touch your lips.” His gaze flickered down, narrowing. Never removing his eyes from her mouth as he said, “I would be … most unfriendly if it were not my own name.”
Alora beamed.My jealous male.She thought she might be dying from the way her heart swelled. It joyed her more than she could say—his envy, his hostility toward others, for such a simple thing.
