“Are you sure?” he whispers. “Are you certain you want me?”
“More than anything,” I breathe.
He remains still for a heartbeat and then threads his hand through my hair at the back of my neck. He grips the long strands between his fingers as he tips my face up to his. His eyes search mine for a moment before he captures my mouth in a claiming kiss.
Fire burns brightly within me, igniting the flame of my desire as his tongue finds mine and deepens our kiss.
“I need you,” he breathes between kisses. “Tell me you are mine.”
“I’m yours,” I whisper.
He lifts me into his arms and takes me to the bed. He lays me down gently beneath the comforter, and then moves over me. He crushes his lips to mine in a searing kiss. I moan as he rolls his hips against me, and his hard length presses insistently to my core.
I reach down to cup him through the fabric of his pants, and he groans.
“Make love to me, Cael. I want to be sealed to you in this life as we were in the one before.”
He stares down at me, his gaze full of fire and possession.
“You are certain?”
“Yes.”
A shimmering light catches my eye in the corner, and I turn toward it. Cael does too.
“What is—” he starts, then stops when Lynx and Astra appear, seemingly out of thin air.
I smile at them, but Cael drops his head to my shoulder and groans low in frustration. He moves off of me and sits up to shoot Lynx an irritated look.
“Now you choose to show up?” He grumbles at the fox.
Lynx gives him a sly grin. “I take it you didn’t miss me?”
Cael rolls his eyes. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Where were you?” I ask them. “We were worried about you both.”
Astra looks to Lynx, and something unspoken passes between them.
“Forgive us,” she says solemnly. “We had to wait until you were ready.”
“Ready?” Cael asks. “What do you mean?”
“After we took care of the dark mages who came for you, we knew we had to give you time.”
“Time for what?” I ask incredulously. “We had no idea what was going on or even where we were.”
Astra arches a brow. “And if we had merely told you everything instead of letting your memories slowly return on their own, would you have believed us?”
I lower my gaze. She has a point. To be honest, I probably would have doubted most of it.
Lynx’s eyes dart between me and Cael. “We apologize for the interruption of your activities but—”
“We must go,” Astra finishes his sentence. “You both need to get dressed.”
“Go? Where?” I ask.
“You have not retrieved the fire gemstone,” she says. “Now that you have returned, the dark mages will be coming for you. You will need its power to defend yourself. We cannot afford to waste any time.”
“But we only just got back here,” I protest.
She gives me a pointed look. “You must trust me.”
I look at Cael. “All right. Let’s go.”
Chapter 31
Cael
Holding the crown in her hands, Kyra closes her eyes and concentrates her magic on locating the gemstones that are missing. Astra said each of the five stones controlled a different element, allowing the queen to harness and wield her powers to greater effect.
As we stand before a full-length mirror, our images ripple and distort; finally fading away to reveal a desert. With Kyra’s hand in mine, we step through and find ourselves ankle-deep in red sand.
The sun burns brightly overhead and the air is warm and dry. Not even a hint of moisture is carried on the wind. Wisps of dust and mica sweep across the dunes, flowing through the canyons and around the large rock formations like water in a desert sea.
As my gaze sweeps over the stark and barren landscape, I notice it is full of varying shades of red, orange, yellow, even a bit of grayish-blue. Some might consider this place beautiful, but I can think only of the dangers. I worry about the lack of water and heat of the sun overhead.
I turn to Astra. “How far do we have to go?”
“Not far,” she says. “Only two days travel at most.”
My eyes drift over the sand once more before I glance at her. “Is there a reason the portal placed us so far from our destination?”
She sighs. “This is the best I could do. The gemstones are not meant to be easy to find. The magic that keeps them hidden is the same magic that prevents me from creating a portal to their exact location. This is the closest I could get us.”
“Who hid the stones originally?” I ask.
Astra frowns. “I do not know. Or if I did… I do not remember.”
Lynx steps forward. “I have no memory of it either. It is strange that neither of us knows this information, is it not?”
I nod.
I lift my gaze to the sun again, then look back at Astra.
“It will be a long two days.”
“Yeah,” Kyra adds.
“We can stop there for the night.” Lynx points in the distance. A tiny island of trees, like an oasis amidst an ocean of sand, appears so far away, I wonder how long it will take to reach it.
Lynx scans the terrain and then looks to us. “We must remain on the rock at all times. We should never travel over the open desert sand.”
“Why?” I ask.
“Because there are all manner of predators that hunt beneath the sands.”
His words fill me with fear. What kind of creatures could do something like that? Even as I think it, I know I do not want to find out.
As we move through the canyons, the wind howls around the towering rock formations, creating an eerie sound in the otherwise silent terrain.
I study the area and notice a small network of caves nearby. If we have to camp for the night, I’d rather be in a more permanent sort of shelter than out in the
