Page 56 of The Missing Sentinel
“You told me you loved me. Did you hear my returned vow?”
“Yes. Did my words make you cry?”
Nuzzling closer to Ducarius, Drexley clung to him. “No, it is your heart. I feel it. Words are one thing, but this bond—it is so beautiful that I can feel what is resonating within your soul.”
“I have already grown addicted to this connection. How will I ever convince myself to leave a room if you are in it?”
“By consoling yourself with our ability to speak like this to each other,” Drexley said through their new mindlink.
“Use this power for good, Drexley, and do not allow mischief to guide you. The last thing I want is to find myself humming some tune in your head or have you painting me a picture of how aroused you are while I am engaged in a task like training. Remember that the blades I carry are poisoned and sharp, and if I accidentally cut off my shaft because you have distracted me, it will displease us both.”
Chuckling through his tears, Drexley ran his fingers through Ducarius’s tangled hair. It was sticking up thanks to Drexley’s habit of yanking on it as they made love, and that did not suit his handsome Skeleton Lord.
“I will do my best not to irritate you or remind you of how much you have grown to appreciate my body.”
“I worship every inch of you, but there is a time and a place for everything.”
“Let us not speak of the kitchen again today. I am in far too good of a mood.”
“Hush, Drexley.”
“Thank you for agreeing to bind our souls.”
“It is I who should thank you for suggesting it,” Ducarius replied as he coasted his hands along Drexley’s back. “Do not be surprised if the Darays insist we have some kind of ceremony so they can celebrate our matebond with us.”
“Do we need to do the long ceremony you described? I do not want you to be bored during the event.”
“We may have to negotiate for something far quicker. More emphasis on a party and less on what I consider stodgy tradition. I will insist that we wear rings. That was started by dragons, and I believe I would like the look of it on our fingers.”
“It is a good thing I know you to be a secret romantic or I would despair that you had no tender feelings in your heart. At least you want these rings you speak of.”
Ducarius kissed his earlobe and jaw, and a fresh burst of joy swept through Drexley. “Plus, you can feel what is inside me.”
“Your happiness is rewarding.”
“I already knew you were sweet, but I did not know it reached straight to your soul. Experiencing your emotions reminds me how important it is to care for you and do nothing to cause you pain. I wonder if that is why Fate gave this power to sentinels. We were trained to kill and follow orders we could not refute. Perhaps if I had not been locked in a cage and kept from my mate, I would have held on to some fragment of my humanity in those years when my skin was stripped from my bones.”
The import of Ducarius’s words made Drexley stiffen. “Adney is over two thousand years old.”
“Yes, older than the Sentinel Brotherhood. You were assigned to him the minute we were created. Like you, I was one of the original sentinels created the day our spell was first cast.”
“You and I lived in the same building for centuries. Longer than I even spent here in Adney’s realm,” Drexley exclaimed, outraged at the thought of Ducarius being so close while simultaneously being hopelessly out of reach.
“But each sentinel was confined to a single cell and never encountered another of our kind, which ensured we did not meet as long as we were at the compound.”
Drexley’s head spun as his fury raged. “The thought of being robbed of nearly two thousand years with you is no easy thing to endure.”
“Be grateful that is how it worked out. If not for that decision, your necromancer would have summoned you, andI would not have been able to follow. Either way, we would have found ourselves separated at some point in the last two millennia.”
Although Drexley wanted to argue that Adney would not have kept him in his realm if he explained that his mate was back at the compound, it was no use. Both Drexley and Ducarius knew that Adney did not approve of their relationship. Adney would have been no less understanding five centuries earlier.
“I must not think about what could have happened,” Drexley stated aloud, more to remind himself than anything else. “What is important is that we are together now.”
“And no one will ever fucking separate us again.”
“No. No, that cannot and will not happen,” Drexley said, gratified by the surge of protectiveness and confidence pouring into him courtesy of his mate’s emotions. They mirrored exactly what Drexley was feeling.
Ducarius cupped Drexley’s face in his hands and gave him a firm kiss. “Neither of us would allow it. I adore you and am committed to being at your side.”
