It only took a little over an hour to fly over with one person in tow, but by the time I dropped Doran north of the Marsh, flew back to get Delphia, and returned, I was utterly exhausted. It took everything I had to not slam us into the ground upon landing.
We had a few hours before the sunset and an entire night before their troops would arrive, so Doran and Delphia left to scope the area in the remaining hours of daylight. As they left, I staggered to a nearby tree and leaned against it, trying to catch my breath as my wings sagged behind me. Every muscle in my back was screaming, but the precious time we saved was worth it.
As my breaths slowed, I reached up to rub my sore shoulders and my thoughts returned to Ara.
She would be safe in Draig Hearth, but the thought of her there, alone and without my protection, created a knot of unease in my gut. We needed to return as soon as possible. But the reason we were here weighed heavily on my mind.
She will not welcome my return.
My stomach churned as the irony dawned on me. I had spent my whole life trying to be the opposite of my father, and yet, here I was.
My father murdered her true father, and I’m here to murder the one she has.
I took a deep breath as my chest tightened and closed my eyes, letting my head fall back on the tree.
I am my father’s son.
It hurt to know how desperately I didn’t want to become someone—something—and yet, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t outrun the monster nipping at my heels.
Releasing a defeated laugh, I pushed off the tree, surveying the small clearing we had landed in. There was a large rock face to our back, the shoreline to the left, and the treeline to our front. I had chosen this spot so no one could sneak up on us unseen, but it also gave me a full view of the sky.
I knew her magic wouldn’t reach this far, but it settled some deep part of me to see the sky was still clear.
The last storm she’d caused terrified me. Not because I was stuck in it, but because I’d known in my bones that it was her. Her anguish. Her disappointment. Her regret for what we were. The quickness in which it formed told me she was panicked and when I’d looked toward Draig Hearth, I’d seen her silhouette standing in her window, watching. I tried to get back to her, but it was no use—and then I heard her scream.
My heart shattered hearing the agony in her voice. When the lightning struck me, I knew it wasn’t her fault, and to think she blamed herself pained me.
But the look of relief on her face when she saw me conscious lit a tiny beacon of hope in my chest. I knew it was because she blamed herself, not because she cared for my well-being. I knew that, and yet, I still clung to that hope. Even now, as foolish as it was, a small part of me hoped my mission here wouldn’t turn her away from me forever.
It’s a fool’s hope. She will hate me just as my mother hated my father, I reminded myself. If there was one thing my father ever taught me, it was that nothing kills more than hope.
My jaw hardened and I slung the pack off my shoulder, pulling out my sleeping furs. We opted to forgo tents to avoid notice, but there was no way I was sleeping on the bare ground if I didn’t have to.
Keeping my hands busy, I gathered firewood and was setting up the fire pit when they returned.
“How you’re not already unconscious is beyond me,” Doran said as they strolled into the clearing, dropping their packs by mine.
“Me and you both,” I replied. The exhaustion swept through me again, down to my very bones, and I plopped down on my furs. It was dark now, the ground lit by nothing but the moonlight and the small fire.
Tucking my hands behind my head, I gazed at the night sky as the stars twinkled to life and eased the tension in my muscles.
* * *
I jerked awake, already hard, the urge to find Ara blinding.
She was aroused but dreaming. I don’t know how I knew, but I did.
Chuckling to myself, I laid back down as the memory of our last encounter flashed through my mind.‘Try not to dream of me too much.’
I reached down, wrapping a hand around the base of my length, and stroked it, reliving our last moments. The taste of her on my tongue. The best damn thing I’d ever tasted.
I would fly across these mountains a hundred times if I meant I could spend the rest of my days buried between her thighs.
I imagined sinking down between her legs and wrapping my arms around her hips, gripping and spreading her thighs as I tasted her again. She moaned my name in my grasp and the sound went straight to my cock.
“Say it again.”And she did.“Eyes on me, little storm.”And she followed my command again. I stared into her eyes as I licked her pretty cunt and the thought alone nearly sent me over the edge. When she knotted her hands in my hair, I pulled my fingers from her and pushed them into her mouth. Blazing pride swelled in my chest as she sucked them and I eased inside her, overwhelmed by the feeling of her.
“This is mine.”