Bound by Forever (True Immortality 3)

First all those people on the plane … “KIYO!”

“I’m here!”

Relief flooded her as she turned. Kiyo was swimming the front crawl at a rapid pace toward her. Niamh swam to meet him. A human would have struggled in the choppy water but they reached each other in good time. Fighting the urge to throw her arms around him in relief, knowing he wouldn’t welcome it, Niamh gave him a tremulous smile. “Sorry. That gift has its limits.”

Kiyo’s narrowed eyes flew above her head, and it was then she became aware of the terrible, mechanical whining sound. She turned in the water, kicking to keep afloat, and stared in horror as she watched the plane come down in the distance.

“It’s gonna hit the water and we’ll probably feel it,” Kiyo said, his voice urgent.

“Waves, you mean?”

“Yeah.”

That wouldn’t be a problem for her but werewolves weren’t immortal. They could drown. At least, if Kiyo was worried, she assumed he could.

The wolf was a giant mystery.

“Okay. I might have another bout of traveling in me.” She pointed to the coast. “I can get us there.”

“Do it.”

Niamh moved into him, her body hyperaware this time of being pressed tightly to his. His hands had just settled on her hips when she gathered her energy around him.

The blackness of traveling was quick.

They fell onto the beach, this time not separating.

Kiyo’s grunt reverberated through Niamh’s body since he’d taken the brunt of the fall and she was straddling him. Their eyes locked, and a thrilling shiver cascaded through Niamh that had nothing to do with the soaked clothes stuck to her skin.

He was still holding on to her hips and she felt his fingers flex, squeezing her.

Heat pooled in her belly.

His dark gaze dropped to her mouth.

The sound of something making terrific impact in the water broke the electric moment, and Niamh was brought crashing back to reality. She pushed her exhausted body from his and stood to turn and face the sea.

Waves rippled, coming toward them. They grew smaller and smaller as they headed for the coast.

“All those people.” The grief hit her anew.

“Why do they keep doing this?” Kiyo asked, irritation lacing his words. “They’ve sent so many coven members after you fae-borne, and you’ve all triumphed over every one of them. Why won’t they stop? Is it idiocy or arrogance?”

“Fanaticism,” she answered. “They’re so obsessed with the idea of unlimited power, they’ll sacrifice themselves to get it.” Niamh looked over at him. His hair had come out of its top knot and fell in wet, thick strands around his face, the ends hitting his chin. He had grains of sand in his hair; his back was covered in it.

His beauty hurt her a little. She wished it were enough to distract from what had just happened, but not even Kiyo could do that. “They killed all those innocent people. I killed them,” she confessed.

“It wasn’t your fault,” he replied gruffly. “You’re not responsible for someone else’s actions.”

“No, I mean, I killed the coven members.”

She could feel his eyes burning into her.

“So? You were defending us.”

“I could have just knocked them out.”

“They’d have died in the crash, anyway. Drowned.”

“I’ve killed people.”

At his silence, she remembered his words on the plane.

“You’re soft. You care about strangers and it makes you weak. That’s not to be admired, Niamh, when that weakness could cause a war. So stop being so weak. You could learn a thing or two from me, and it might just keep us all safe.”

Niamh didn’t want to be cold like him, but she also didn’t want to be vulnerable in front of him. Sucking back her tears, her grief, she turned and made her way wearily up the beach.

Kiyo followed. “You okay? You’re moving slow … for you.”

“Traveling exhausts me. I’ll be fine in a bit.”

Silence fell between them.

She broke it. “What now?”

He studied the cliff tops ahead of them. There was a pathway cut into rock that would lead them off the beach onto grassy fields. “My guess is that we’re on one of the Swedish islands.”

As they walked up the beach, Niamh studied the werewolf. There was something about him she was missing. It wasn’t as though she had a ton of experience when it came to werewolves. She’d run away from a few, either because they were members of The Garm or they sensed she was different and got overly curious about her.

But Kiyo seemed much stronger than most. Definitely faster. Werewolves were fast, but they were generally slower than other supes. Of course, some alphas were exceptions to the rule. Just over a year ago, when she started having visions of one of the other fae-borne, a woman called Thea, she’d seen Thea’s true mate. Niamh never met him in real life but she knew from her visions that he was one of the strongest and fastest werewolves ever. His name was Conall. He was the alpha of the last werewolf pack in Scotland, and he had a gift for tracking. Once he had someone’s scent, he could track them anywhere in the world. He’d been hired to track down Thea by the man who had tortured and experimented upon her.