“Yeah, baby, you’re alive.” Micha kissed my forehead.
Lyrian’s throat worked, and then he pressed his forehead to my shoulder and let out a ragged breath. Anguish blasted into me, and my breath caught. His pain and his emotional turmoil were suddenly mine. They were chased by the cool blast of relief, and then my eyes were blurring as I tucked in my chin to kiss his crown.
“I’m okay. I’m here.”
He raised his head, and the ice storm in his eyes stabbed at my heart. I cupped his cheek, pulled him up toward me, and kissed his hard mouth. The connection between us flared and pulsed, and the desire to push it, to take it further and deeper, rushed through me, but Lyrian pulled back with a shuddering breath.
“I’ll give you two a moment.” He slipped from my arms, from the bed, and was gone, leaving my heart aching for something I didn’t understand.
I turned to Micha, who was watching the door with a strange look on his face, but then he transferred his attention back to me.
“We thought we’d lost you,” he said softly.
He wasn’t the only one. “I thought I was dying.”
“You were.” He stroked my cheek. “You almost did.”
“Then how …?”
He brushed my lips with his. “The arcana was able to heal you … eventually.” He pulled back. “After Emory inked you.”
Inked me? “What?”
Micha gently gripped my wrist and held up my arm. For a moment, what I was seeing didn’t compute, and then my brain caught up. Swirling, intricate patterns covered my skin from wrist to elbow.
“Emory’s ink …”
Micha frowned. “You know what this is?”
“Protection. Armor.”
“Yeah, he mentioned something about that in between growling at anyone who dared to get too close to you. Damn, the man was insane.”
I sat up, using Micha as a crutch. There was no more pain, but my limbs were weak. “I need to see Emory, and I need to see the council. They need to hear what happened. Did Lyrian tell them what I showed him?”
“Showed him?” Micha looked puzzled.
“I showed him what happened through our mental connection. I opened the door between our minds and spoke to him in images. I was too fucked up to speak in words.”
Micha was very still for a long moment. “You can do that with him?”
“It’s like that with him, and with you”—I touched my breastbone—“I feel you here.”
Micha’s expression was contemplative for another beat, and then he helped me up. “I don’t know if Lyrian spoke to Harker, but I can sort a meeting with the council for you while you speak to Emory if you like?”
“Thank you.” I wrapped my arms around my kindred and brushed the side of my nose to his. “Can you help me get dressed?”
His large hand was on my back, pulling me close. “Of course.”
“How long have I been out?”
“Four days.”
Urgh. “I need to shower.”
His gaze heated. “You need a hand?”
My stomach flipped hard and desire rushed through me. But even though my mind was all for the idea, my body wasn’t strong enough yet.
“Bad idea.” I grinned at him. “We only get five minutes, and I doubt that will be enough.”
He chuckled low in his throat. “True.” He climbed off the bed and then scooped me up into his arms. “But I can help you get there and back.”
Micha was back, and the piece of me that had been missing was found. But by inking me, Emory had given away an essential piece of himself. I needed to see him. I needed to thank him for saving my life, and there was more … Things I needed to admit, not just to him, but to myself. Because the woman who’d believed that she could only love one man was dead, and this woman knitted of arcana and death wanted it all.
I found Emory in the Protectorate lab, poring over some samples of something or other. His silver-gold hair fell across his forehead artfully, and the urge to brush back the tendril had me curling my fingers into a fist.
“Emory?”
He looked up, and his twilight eyes widened in surprise. “You’re up.”
I walked toward him. “I was dying.”
“You were lucky. So fucking lucky.”
There was a growl in his voice now. One that was more Gideon than Emory. He squeezed his eyes shut, as if composing himself. “You were hit several times by the lasers, but we believe the arcana shielded you. You must have needed to recharge, because it wasn’t able to prevent damage, just minimize it. Any more hits and even the arcana wouldn’t have been able to knit you fast enough to stop you from bleeding out.”
“No. I wasn’t lucky. You saved me.” I pulled up my sleeve. “You did this.”
He’d used the ink. The ink that was almost depleted, the ink that was supposed to keep Gideon in check. I grabbed his wrist and yanked his sleeve up. His tattoo was faded against his skin.
My fingers tightened on his arm. “You used it all on me, didn’t you?”
“You could have died,” he said simply, as if this were all the explanation that was needed.
“And what about you? What will you do now?”
He closed his eyes. “I’ll manage. I’ll figure something out. I just … I’ll have to stay away from you.”
Stay away from me? A pit opened inside me. “No.” I slipped between him and the counter so I was facing him. “You’re too important to me. I won’t lose you. There has to be another way.”
His smile was resigned and tired. “There is no other way. Gideon is waking up, growing stronger. I’ve kept him trapped all these years, and now … Now he wants his time on the outside, and I can’t trust he won’t hurt you.”
I held up my tattooed arm. “Yeah, well, that won’t be happening anytime soon, will it?”
He blinked at the markings on my skin, and then his gaze locked on mine, warm with revelation. “He can’t break you.”
“No, he can’t. And if he wants time on the outside, he’ll need to play by the rules.”
Emory’s gaze dropped to my lips. “Rules?” His mouth twitched. “There are rules?”
God, he was beautiful, all angles and planes, and that mouth, that luscious mouth. Shit, what was I thinking?
“You only take what’s freely given.” My voice was husky.
He stepped closer, leaning in, so his breath fanned across my face. “Gideon doesn’t ask. He takes what he wants, and he wants you.”
Yes. He wanted me. He’d shown me how much. My core tightened at the memory. “And what do you want, Emory?”
Our lips were inches apart, and damn, I needed him to kiss me. To press his beautiful mouth to mine. I needed to taste him.
He closed his eyes. “I want you to be safe.” He tucked in his chin and took a deliberate step back. “I want you to live.”
I wanted to pull him back but checked myself. “I won’t let him come between us, Emory.”
There was no us, and yet neither of us said that because the us was an unspoken thing, something we’d been skirting for the longest time, something that I needed from him, and it was time to show him.
“I won’t allow it.” I pushed off the counter and walked right up to him.
His gloves were a shield, and Gideon had shown me how it worked when he’d slipped into my mind with a touch. Maybe it could work the other way. I pressed my palm to his cheek and showed him what I wanted. Lips and hands and skin on skin, and then I released him, leaving him wide-eyed, dark-eyed, and panting.
“Only what’s given freely.” And this time I was talking to the beast inside the man I was desperate to get closer to.
Emory’s irises bled to yellow, and his lips curled in a wicked smile. But I was already turning away, because I’d come to speak to Emory, and right now I was done.
Right now, I had to tell the council what had happened. I needed to tell them about my father, and we needed to figure out what Genesis’s plan was. There could be no more sit
ting back and riding it out. The game had changed, and we needed to climb off the bench and start playing, because if we didn’t, then there was no hope in hell of a win.
And me? I didn’t like to lose.
Join Echo as she continues her journey in Dead Sea:
Grab your copy of Dead Sea now!
Other books by Debbie Cassidy
The Gatekeeper Chronicles
Coauthored with Jasmine Walt
Marked by Sin
Hunted by Sin
Claimed by Sin
The Witch Blood Chronicles
(Spin-off to the Gatekeeper Chronicles)
Binding Magick
Defying Magick
Embracing Magick
Unleashing Magick
The Fearless Destiny Series
Beyond Everlight
Into Evernight
Under Twilight
The Chronicles of Midnight
Protector of Midnight
Champion of Midnight
Secrets of Midnight
Shades of Midnight
Savior of Midnight
Chronicles of Arcana
City of Demons
City of the Lost
City of the Everdark
City of War
For the Blood
For the Blood
For the Power
For the Reign
Heart of Darkness
Captive of Darkness
Bane of Winter
The Oblivion Heart
Deadworld Series
Deadworld
Dead City
Dead Sea
Dead End
Novellas
Blood Blade
Grotesque – A Vampire Diary Kindle World book
About the Author
Debbie Cassidy lives in England, Bedfordshire, with her three kids and very supportive husband. Coffee and chocolate biscuits are her writing fuels of choice, and she is still working on getting that perfect tower of solitude built in her back garden. Obsessed with building new worlds and reading about them, she spends her spare time daydreaming and conversing with the characters in her head – in a totally non psychotic way of course. She writes High Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Space Fantasy, and Reverse Harem. Connect with Debbie via her website at debbiecassidyauthor.com or twitter @authordcassidy. Or sign up to her Newsletter to stay in the know.
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