I closed my eyes and hung my head. “I feel you.”
“The mate bond.” The corner of his lips wryly tilted up. “Good thing we didn’t meld. I’m happy knowing you will survive and live your life.” My bottom lip trembled as his hand reached up and cupped my face. “I love you, Rae.”
I fell on him as his hand slipped away. Coldness spread through my chest, spreading through my every cell. I wanted him to heal. I needed him to be okay. There was still so much more I wanted to say to him, and I wasn’t done fighting with him.
He jerked under my hold, and a hiccupping sob drew out of my chest. I blinked through my burry eyes and realized I’d wrapped myself around his body. The ache ate at me, swallowing everything else. Pressure filled my chest and built to an excruciating extent. When I exhaled on a sob, the sensation flooded out of me. The release similar to whenever I dipped into the well like Ty had taught me.
I wasn’t sure how long I clutched him and sobbed—feeling nothing but the writhing in my chest. I couldn’t believe he was gone. It was as if my limb was lost, no not just a limb, but potential. It was a possibility of absolute and true happiness. The loss of the person that was my other half and would love me the perfect way. In every way I needed.
A hand buried itself in my hair, and I froze. With stuttering hiccups, I looked up and tried to make sense of what I saw through the blur. Roark was alive. He stared up at me, amazement written in his wide eyes. I gasped and shot away from him, shaking my head. God, now I was going crazy. The inky lines had receded completely as if they’d never been there.
“R-Roark?” I rasped. I ran my hand over the wound, feeling smooth skin under the crusted blood. “How…?
“You healed me.” At the sound of his deep voice, I shuddered and shook my head, numb. Squeezing my eyes, I rubbed them. My eyebrow furrowed and I looked down at my dirt crusted hands. Now that I wasn’t drowned in pain, I registered my hands were burning and hot. As if I’d held my hands close to a fire. I blinked at him on the ground disbelievingly. I inched forward, brushing his torn shirt aside and the wound and spidering iron was completely gone. How was he whole? This had to do with my powers… I squeezed my fists tight.
Emotions overwhelmed me and brimmed to the surface. In the next moment, I threw myself at him and wrapped my arms and legs around him, clutching him to me. He laughed and squeezed me close. For that moment, I let my reservations go and just enjoyed the feeling of his arms around me.
28
Roark being alive settled within me, but as it did, reality came with it. I wasn’t even sure how long we were there, clutching each other. But as the adrenaline slowly faded away, fear and skittishness settled in. I pulled away and cleared my throat, avoiding his prying gaze.
So many feelings coursed through me, and it was overwhelming. I felt myself withdrawing as I tried to make sense of all of my emotions. Everything that had just happened replayed over in my head.
His head tilted as he observed me. “You’re pulling away.”
I swallowed hard at his candid observation and said nothing. If I did, I knew I’d just want to drown in them and screw any thoughts I had on it.
His lips twisted bitterly. “I feel it.”
It wasn’t figurative. He truly felt me pulling away, just as I felt him reaching for me through the bond we had. Squeezing my eyes shut, I built a fortress around me, the way Ty had taught me to shield. Had Roark felt Sabine like this?
A sharp shot of irrational jealousy took root in me, the same kind that simmered on the edge of my emotions every time I was with Roark. After the night I had cried myself to sleep in his arms, it had seemed to have gone away, but seeing Sabine again, hearing the way she spoke to him, had brought the pain back to the forefront. Added to that, his words about fidelity replayed in a loop.
I didn’t want to hurt, so I stuffed my emotions back into a little compartment and flicked my eyes up to look at him. He stood there with an inscrutable look on his face. I took in his restored body and swallowed hard when a needy ache built in my core. I wanted nothing more than to jump on him, take him down, and have my way with him. I wanted his long length inside me as he made me his in every way possible.
Pursing my lips, I stifled a moan at the images. He must have felt my desire because his eyebrows flew up. I turned from his probing glance.
Dawn approached. With it, the suns peeked out, shedding light over the woodland. Even with my roiling emotions, the sky continued to lighten. Yellow caressed the top of the trees and incrementally spread. The multicolored leaves spanned the viney trunk tops—their colors enhanced.
Magic was free. More importantly, I was no longer connected to it. A flash of red caught my attention. Up in the sky, a large ball of flames swirled. Squinting, I focused and saw the flames had a shape.
“What the hell is
