He swallowed, meeting my gaze, touching my face. “My sweet,” he whispered. “It will be different. The only thing I want you to feel with me is pleasure. My love,” he said, kissing my cheek. His lips moved to the corner of my mouth. “My lovely dragon.” He pulled back a little.
Tentatively, I moved forward until our lips met again, and his hands fell, going to my waist and back, pulling me tight against him. His mouth left mine a moment later, kissing my chin, my jaw, my throat. His hands pulled up to slide under the coat and slip the garment off me. I shivered against him, and he kept kissing me.
I had never had a desire to touch Calix, but now my hands were restless and busy, trying to touch as much of Galen as I could. I pushed off his jacket and ran my hands over his shirt, feeling the firm knots of muscle as they moved and twisted and leaped up to meet my fingers. I loved how he couldn’t seem to catch his breath, and I felt his heart beating hard under his skin, everywhere I touched.
He loosened the cords keeping my dress together beneath my breasts and around my waist, and as he pulled the knot, his fingers brushed my stomach and he stilled. He kissed his way down my covered body as he knelt in front of me, parting the cloth to show my stomach to him. His hands covered my child as he kissed me.
“You can feel her,” he breathed, covering the spot where my skin had turned from soft to firm. He pressed a chaste, earnest kiss there, and stood up, looking at me. “You’re a miracle, Shalia. And this child—it doesn’t matter to me who her father is. I will love her like my own every day of my life. You know that, don’t you?”
I ran my fingers through his hair and pulled his mouth to mine to keep from crying again, and I started tugging ineffectively at his clothes.
He broke our kiss to pull his shirt over his head and looked at me again. “You’re sure?” he asked.
Nodding, I let the cloth of the dress slip off my shoulders.
He stared at me for many long moments, and then leaped into action, shucking his clothes in seconds and coming to me, wrapping his warm arms around me as he led me to the bed.
The threads crackled around me, but I let them slide away from my fingers. Galen was right; I had to put my faith in my heart, in my power, in him. I let it go, and I felt the power shimmering around us, soaking into everything that was of the earth as he touched me. I didn’t have to try to control it; it was just there.
I couldn’t help but think of Calix, and the way he touched me when I didn’t want it, the way it was never my choice. Twice I stopped, touching Galen’s face until I was sure it was him and not his brother, and both times Galen waited, halting until I asked him to continue.
The second time I felt embarrassed tears in my eyes, and I tried to laugh them away. “You have excellent self-control, you know,” I told him.
He frowned at me, kissing me gently. “What control would I need? There’s nothing exciting about the idea of hurting the woman you love, Shalia.”
I stroked his back, pulling him closer to me. “You love me,” I whispered.
He grinned, a sweet, bright smile. “I love you,” he said.
I knew then what my mother meant when I was first married, when she told me that this was wondrous, the most intimate act that two people could share.
It had nothing to do with the closeness of our bodies. It felt like he saw everything I was, full of hope and scars and faults and love. He let me see him the same way, without his armor and masks. Open, and whole.
He continued when I asked him to, and as our lips met, everything seemed to shift inside that kiss, a new future spinning out in each other’s arms.
Over the Edge
We woke in the night to shouting. My heart seized for a moment, the terror of the past few days overtaking me, but Galen caught me. “Hush,” he said gently. “Something’s happening. I have to go see what it is. Stay away from the windows and don’t open the door.”
He rushed out of the room, and I put my palm to my racing heart. Light caught my attention, and though I tried to stay away from the window, I saw the remains of a hot, fast flash of fire burning the leaves of a tree.
It wasn’t long before Galen came back into my room, but I had guessed what he would tell me—Danae was gone, and by morning Calix would know where we had been.
We were all awake before the gray dawn, quiet and efficient in our preparations to leave. Ten horses had arrived in the night for us, but it meant that not everyone could come with us. Considering that Calix would never let me go willingly, it didn’t put me at ease to have a smaller group.
The remaining men readied the Elementae to travel due east for the coastline and a ship to take them to the islands. Iona was trembling as she hugged me good-bye, but I told her I would see her as soon as I was able.
Galen hadn’t spoken to me at all, but every time I caught his gaze—which was often—it felt like it was obvious in his eyes what had happened between us, and it made me feel hot and ever so slightly dizzy. He came and put his hands on my waist to help me onto my horse, and I couldn’t breathe as he did.
“Let’s go,” Rian called gruffly.
I smiled at Galen, and he nodded at me and went to mount his own horse.
The ride was uneasy. It took us most of the day to make it to where the land bridge used to stand, and as we rode, I stretched my powers, clearing rocks from our path, piling up dirt when we were too exposed.
My power had shifted. It wasn’t like reaching for threads anymore; it was like my body was made of threads itself, all part of the same fabric. Using my power was as simple as thinking, as wishing, as breathing—it was there with me, responding to me, part of me.
I didn’t know if it was my growing relationship with Galen, or my child, or my freedom, but something within me had settled into my self, and my power grew exponentially for it.
When we saw the castle that Vestai Atalo lived in, we slowed, and I looked at its tall, strong walls with a shiver.
Kairos sent Osmost flying into the air to scout ahead of us, and I watched him, watching the bird, seeing how he turned and shrieked.
“You’ve gotten better at that,” I told him.
He grinned and lifted an eyebrow. “Indeed I have.”
He waited a few moments more and called out to Rian and Galen, leading the line. “No one’s ahead, but if men are in the castle, Osmost won’t be able to see, and we won’t know until it’s too late.”
“Can we go north?” Galen asked. “If Shalia’s building a bridge, can’t we just do it anywhere?”
“It’s not the bridge,” I told them. “That shouldn’t be too hard. It’s the pass—this tunnel is blocked, but there’s one about a hundred feet down in the cliff. If I can forge a bridge to that, we’ll be in much better shape.”
“An alternate exit in case of cave-ins,” Rian told Galen. Then he seemed to remember they weren’t on good terms and frowned.