Kiss of Fire (Imdalind, #1)(98)

“Are you okay?” he asked softly, his hand growing warm as his magic filled me.

I could only nod as my magic lurched again; I jerked with the energy.

“Focus, Jos,” Ryland whispered, bringing me to rest right against him. “Jeez, how long have you been awake?”

“A week,” I whispered. It was becoming harder to keep the energy restrained.

“Ilyan’s an idiot.” He pulled me against him, his cheek against mine. My heart sputtered and I heard Ryland laugh deeply. I suddenly felt very uncomfortable, not being able to see him properly.

“I need to see your eyes.” I pulled away from him, trying to keep my body moving in the odd dance.

“You don’t have to worry about that, Jos; you’ve already walked right into his trap. You saw all the men that swarmed in here, and there are only about ten times more surrounding us.” He smiled, trying to break the fear that gripped me, but it only grew.

“Besides,” he mused, “he’s already so far in that it’s a miracle I can remember you at all.” He smiled, but it was so sad, so heartbroken.

“You need to come with me,” I begged. “We need to get out of here right now.” I pleaded my case to him, but he said nothing. He only smiled sadly at me and pulled my body to press against his.

I should have fought him, begged him further, but my heart was lost in his touch, his smell. I leaned into him, my soul swelling with joy. He pressed his cheek against mine as we moved. He held me so tightly that it felt as if we simply could not get close enough. I welcomed the contact; it felt so right. I felt so whole in that moment; my magic so close to its other half, my heart beating right next to his. We slow danced among the manically dancing pairs, lost in our own little world.

“I’d sacrifice anything,” he sang softly in my ear, the Frank Sinatra song blending with the loud club music. His voice broke; I could tell he was crying. “Come what might…” I pulled my head away to look at him. The glistening tears streaked down his cheeks. “I will not let anything take away what’s standing right in front of me.”

I reached up, my fingertips softly wiping away the wet tears from his face. As my fingers traced the lines of his cheek, the bruises and cuts swam into view. I gasped as I saw him up close; his face, his agony, making everything that much more real. My hand flew to my mouth, my own tears falling down my cheeks.

“Don’t cry,” he whispered. “Please, don’t cry.”

“But, Ryland,” I spoke through my tears, “what has he done to you?” The tears came fast and hard as I placed my hand against his face, the ridges of his swollen jawline hard against my skin.

“It’s okay. You’re here now. Don’t cry.” His voice was soft. He held me tightly and I felt the warmth of his magic surge into my back. As he had for almost every day of my life, he comforted me, even though he could barely move. Even through his pain, his agony, he helped me.

I let the magic in, pulling it into me. It filled me in a way it had never done before, as his warm tendrils blended and moved with my own, intermingling in a familiar way that I never wanted to lose. The energy inside me continued to build uncontrollably, my skin prickling as the surges fought their way out. I knew he felt it, too; his smile was so triumphant, so happy.

“Now, I can never leave you. No matter what happens, no matter where I go. You will always be mine.”

“Forever,” I whispered through the tears.

Ryland leaned toward me, his eyes boring into mine, searching me. In that moment, I didn’t care about the hordes of people surrounding us. I didn’t care about Ilyan frantically yelling at us to stop. I needed him like I needed oxygen. I closed the gap between us and pressed my lips firmly to his.

That’s all it took for my magic to explode.





ThirtyOne


I had been waiting for this kiss for months, dreaming of the way it would feel to have his lips against mine, our bodies pressed together. My fantasies weren’t even close to the reality I was now experiencing.

A warm tingling began in my toes and spread rapidly at his silky touch. His hand trailed up my spine to get lost in my hair. My magic expanded; his, still intertwined with mine. Our magic bubbled together like a pot overflowing. The two separate powers became so infused that I couldn’t tell where mine ended and his began.

He pressed me to him roughly, a deep groan issuing from the back of his throat. I sighed at the sound, the touch, the pressure. My hands wrapped around him, clutching at his hips and elbows in a desperate effort to be closer to him. He answered my call. I gasped as our magic became a white hot heat that rocked inside our bodies with a violent force. The white heat grew, his touch tingled, the kiss deepened. My body became limp in his arms as the magic within me reached a point I could no longer control.

Our combined energies exploded out of us in a blinding, white light. It was the same light as when Ryland had touched my kiss for the first time, but now, it had more force and energy. It whooshed out of us as the ground shook violently in an explosion of energy, fire and wind. Flimsy human bodies were flung away from us as a result of the blast, slamming them into tables and walls with such force that I couldn’t imagine many of them surviving.

Ryland held on to me tightly as screams began to fill the room. Teenagers ran for the exits in a wall of people that clogged the doorways, which resulted in yelling and fighting as the drunken crowd attempted to escape. I didn’t dare move from Ryland’s embrace; he held me in place, his arms shielding me protectively.