Page 36 of Master of Storms
Nudity wasn’t somethingdrekiwere ever shamed by, but this moment—when they slipped into mortal skins—was typically a vulnerable one. It was the only timedrekicould be easily killed, and manners insisted he look in the other direction.
It didn’t help.
He could see her painted against the back of his eyelids; a storm in mortal form. Tall, lean, her olive skin kissed by sunlight even as her thick black hair draped over her breasts. He’d caught a glimpse of the dusky tips of her nipples between threads of her silky hair, and his cock roused as he groaned under his breath.
Perfect. Fucking perfect.
Here he was in mortal form with the king of all erections, and if she saw it, she’d murder him.
“You had a head start,” he called over his shoulder.
“You’re just slow.”
Hauling his travel pack open, Marduk shoved himself into his leather trousers, wincing a little as he was forced to stuff his eager cock behind all that leather. He’d just finished buttoning himself back in when she appeared around the corner of a standing stone, wearing little more than a man’s white shirt loosely buttoned.
Torture.
The woman was trying to torture him.
Well, it’s better than murder, I guess.
“Where are your trousers?”
“I’m not bothering to get dressed. We’re going to return to the sky within minutes,” she replied, glancing up toward the watchful circling of adrekiscout. It was one of theIkkibuwatchers who was guarding the portal, though Marduk had hailed the scout when they first flew in. Solveig scowled. “Is he going to watch everything we do?”
“Most likely.”
“Well? Can you feel anything.”
Fine. He didn’t bother with his shirt.
“Ishtar opened the portal,” he murmured, circling the stones. “I can still feel it buzzing. It’s closed, I think, but it’s awake now.”
Solveig passed her hand over the stones, studiously ignoring his bare chest. “I can’t feel anything.”
“Chaos magic is like a song on the edge of hearing. I feel like I should be able to hear it—as if I closed my eyes and tilted my head just so, I’d be able to finally catch the notes of it—but I never can. I’ve spent years chasing after that song. At first I thought that maybe it was my true flame. Maybe she was out there, somewhere in the world, and I only had to find her.” A part of him had hoped, even as a tight fist squeezed around his heart. A true mate would mean a gilded cage. Surely the goddess wouldn’t tether him to a female who desired hearth and home and littledrekibabies, but there was a part of him that feared she wouldn’t know his inner heart. “But I was wrong. It wasn’t my mate. It was my twin sister instead, and the second I found her, I could finally hear the song. Chaos. Pure Chaos magic. Ishtar’s magic, bound to me in the womb we shared.”
His vision came back into focus, only to find Solveig watching him with those dark eyes. “What?”
Solveig’s entire expression shuttered. “Nothing.”
She stalked around the runestone.
To the untrained eye, there was nothing about her that should have indicated her mind was anything but focused on the runes, but he could see the stiffness in her spine and the way her head tilted, as if she was listening to him—aware of his response. When Solveig turned her mind toward something, her focus was so absolute, her stare so piercing, that nothing and no one could come between her and the object within her sights.
Marduk prowled after her. “Oh no, that wasn’t nothing.”
What had set her off?
He’d been talking about Chaos, and the song, and how he’d hoped….
My mate.
The other half of my soul.
There it was.
He crossed his arms over his chest. Legally, they were bound as mates within the eyes of thedrekiworld until one or the other of them cast the tie asunder.
