Page 2 of Taloned Heart

She left the siren’s side and walked down the ship. Closer and closer to him, where he stood still and watched her as a predator watches prey. A few of the sailors walked away, muttering with jealousy under their breath as they realized what was about to happen.

No one ever interrupted them, though. Almost as though it was rude to interrupt gods when they greeted each other, even if it had only been an afternoon.

She was the moon, finding herself in the sky with the sun once a month. She wouldn’t let him go for any moment of their time together.

Lore stopped a few feet from him, drinking in the sight of him. His wide shoulders, sharp features, the way his eyes heated when he realized what she was doing.

“Come here,” he growled, his voice sending a slow shudder through her whole body.

That tone of voice always danced through her entire body. She wanted to drop onto her knees before him and do whatever he asked. Or maybe she wanted to grab a fistful of his hair and send him down onto his knees before her. They never figured out which one of them wanted to be more dominant, and she supposed that was their life. The push, the pull, and the inevitable giving.

“Good hunt?” she asked, not taking a step closer to him at all. In fact, she made him stand there and wait, wondering what she was going to do next.

“Always.” Somehow his voice had deepened even further until it scratched at the inner part of her brain that screamed for his arms around her. “Lore.”

She knew what he wanted. But she was having so much fun denying them both. “Umbra is almost upon us.”

“I am aware.”

“You know neither of us can guess what waits for us there.”

“I do.” His hands clenched at his sides, then forcibly loosened as he restrained himself. “Do you really want to talk about this right now?”

Breathless now, she shook her head and bit her lip. “Not particularly.”

“Then come here.”

She jolted forward as though prodded with a hot iron. Lore flew into his arms, her own wrapping around his neck as he caught her against him. A low growl rumbled through his chest and he kissed her, his teeth biting at her bottom lip.

“I don’t like to wait for you to be in my arms,” he said against her lips, and she couldn’t help but grin.

“I know.”

“Then why do you insist on making me?”

“Because I like your reaction when I don’t.”

He gave another sharp nip to her lips. “You wouldn’t know how to behave if you were held at knifepoint, now would you?”

She tried her best not to smile. If she could stare at him very seriously, perhaps he would understand how important her words were. But Lore grinned all the same, knowing that he’d see her smile and roll his eyes. “No, I do not. Especially when you are involved.”

And there it was. The eye roll that always made her laugh because she already knew what he was thinking. She was ridiculous, his woman, and he was the only one who got this side of her. Their children weren’t here, so she had to always be the strong, powerful woman who could take out the world with a blink of her eye. Other than with him.

With her dragon, Lore knew that she could say or be anyone she wanted to be and he would love her all the same for it. No matter who she became or how powerful she was.

To him, she was just Lore. The girl in the forest who had convinced him to find a blue butterfly but who stole his heart instead.

All those months ago, they were both so different. She sighed into his lips, pressing a kiss firmly there one more time before she leaned back in his arms.

“But we do have to talk about what we’re expecting,” she mumbled. “I don’t know if Margaret knows we’re returning, or if she sensed that I’d been in the room with Zephyr.”

“We cannot plan for what we do not know.”

But she wanted to. Lore would spend the rest of the few days she had left trying to think of every possible outcome and how they were going to face them. Even the smallest detail needed to be considered for her mind to rest.

Abraxas drew their foreheads together, winding her tighter in the comfort of his arms. “Lore, listen to me. If you run yourself ragged thinking of everything that woman might have planned, then you will not see what is right in front of you. There is nothing we can plan for. Nothing we can fix. Not until we stand in the center of Umbra and find out for ourselves what she has done.”

He was right. Of course, he was right.

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