Page 48 of Sustaining
She urged me to embrace average. I just could accept it. And that rebelliousness of my magic caused my peers not to accept me.
Until very, very recently when I met a few true friends.
Sinister lowers himself at my side, his thigh brushing against mine as his hands push so slowly over my arms. His touch shivers down my skin until his fingers push through mine. I look over my shoulder at him, our noses nearly touching.
A hint of a mysterious smile tilts his lips. As I stare into his bright, mischievous crimson eyes, all I want to do is ask him what he’s doing.
Until cold metal slips into my hand and his fingers press into mine, forcing me to hold the object. And then a gasp sneaks from his lips, fanning against mine. Warm liquid slides between my fingertips, and I stare down in surprise to find that he’s sliced a perfect line diagonally across his left palm, using my other hand that’s holding a sharp dagger I’ve never seen before.
“Sinister,” I barely get his name whispered from my lips when his mouth presses firmly to mine, his tongue slipping between my parted lips as his blood continues to warm my hand. The wound pulses against my touch until the tingling sensation of his magic smooths the skin into a thin, healed line.
“I love you, Arrie.”
When I look up at him, long dark lashes flutter as he seems to force himself to keep his eyes closed. It oddly feels like he’s afraid to look at me right now. I’ve never in my entire life seen the strong demon appear anything but composed. He said he loved me and now he’s afraid.
I hate that.
I drop the dagger from our hands and turn until I’m pressed fully to him, his hands taking my hips in a firm grip as my damp fingers thread through his soft, inky hair. My heart’s pounding as hard as his is against my chest. But when I speak, those gentle, whispered words are all that matter.
“I love you, too, Sin.”
His lashes flutter but never open as a slow smile pulls wide against his lips. Then he’s kissing me again. It’s a hard press of his lips on mine, and it reminds me of the delicious night we spent together on the ship in the middle of the dark ocean.
Everything about this man is everything I’ve always wanted. He’s strong and fierce but gentle and caring.
He’s…everything I never let myself have for so long.
And now he’s mine.
“Ah, to be young and in love.” Her voice is airy and accompanied by a frosty chill that settles in around us.
My gaze lifts, and there, standing in the mud, surrounded by snow that seems to radiate off of her rather than the sky above, is the Solstice Queen. A pale-white gown makes her skin flawless and porcelain-looking. A heavy white cloak covers her delicate shoulders, and she seems entirely out of place among the forest.
“You summoned me. I’m impressed by your growing magic.” A small smile tilts her lips, but it only softens her features a little.
Slowly I stand, my dress covered in dirt and demon’s blood. We study one another for several passing seconds, and I can’t explain why I know without a doubt, she and I are the same. Something in us, aside from that brooding magic, is the same.
It’s an unexplainable connection.
“You want to know why,” she says quietly. Her hands fold neatly in front of her, and she watches me closely as I nod to her. “It’s a long story, Arlow.” She pauses, but it seems it’s a long story she’s ready to tell. “Decades ago, King Barron was determined to chase out people like us.” She smooths the front of her pretty gown and tilts her chin back up. “I’m getting distracted and I need to be precise in delivering what the summoner wants. I met a charming demon named Kreedence Savoy.”
When I realize she’s telling me exactly what I feared all along, anger claws deep into my stomach. She knew him. All along.
“I told him I just wanted a single ally in this world. That I needed someone young. Someone who could match my strength and help us get back all that we’d lost.”
Vomit burns up my throat.
“He searched the entire continent.” Her bright-green eyes beam with pride as she stares at me. “There’s only a few of us here and there. You’re the youngest. You’re the final one, Arlow.”
Seconds pass while she looks desperately at me, and I stare astonished at her. Her hand lifts just slightly, and that small move brings Rime closer. He stands just inches from her, and the amount of poised regality it must take for her to pretend like he’s not growling in her face is amazing.
She waits for my response. I honestly don’t know what she expects me to say to that. So I go with brutal honesty.
“You fucking sent Kreedence after me?”
It was her. I didn’t meet the one man who both made me stronger and pitifully weaker by happenstance. He hunted me. He hunted me the way three dragon shifters did, except when he found me, he never once cared for me. Not even when he lured me in with all that charm and all those lies.
“Did you know? Did you know how much he hurt me? He made me afraid to even live. And even after he’d died”—my voice chokes on the last word because I strangely can’t admit that I murdered him out of pure rage—“even after he was gone, he still hurt me so badly I couldn’t even trust myself, let alone another man.” Dampness runs down my face, and her attention lowers to the feel of the emotions streaking down my cheeks.
