Alarm spiked in me anew. Kyllen and I never spoke about love, though I now knew I loved him with all of my heart.
I took a step back, grateful for the wards. “Kyllen never called me that.”
He dropped his hand.
“I should have. I should’ve told you I loved you every day. Because I do.” He leaned with his shoulder against the window frame, looking exhausted. “I love you, Amira.”
I wrapped my fingers around the mechanical dragonfly clipped to my braid. My chest tightened. Oh, how I’d longed to hear these words from him. To see him again.
Only how could this be real?
“Nothing is what it seems…”
“How are you alive?” I managed with a shaky breath.
“Amira, please.” He shook his head. “It’s me. I survived a wound from a weapon laced with poison. They struck to kill, but I lived thanks to Hapon. It took me a while to recover. But as soon as I was able, I rushed here, to you. I spent days on the board, hardly stopping for rest. I brought an entire army here to fight for you. Great Serpent…” His chest rose heavily. “How much I missed you. Seeing you in my dreams could never be enough.”
“Did you dream about me?” No one knew about my visions. I never told anyone. “Do you remember what happened? What we talked about?”
“No.” He sighed with regret. “The hag who healed me spoke of letting my spirit visit you, but I don’t remember much. Just your pain and your loneliness. I know you screamed for me, and I wanted to come to you. So much. I needed to hold you. I still do.”
His last words came with a groan. He lurched my way. The pale green lights flared around his chest where it touched the ward barrier, and he jerked back again.
“Please let me in,” he begged. “I fear I’ll die if I don’t touch you right now, my sweet pea.”
A strangled sob tore from my throat at hearing my nickname.
Could any illusion feel so heartbreakingly real?
“Please, let me hold you,” he pleaded.
If this was an illusion, then I wished to lose myself in it for as long as it lasted.
I reached out the window. “Come to me.”
He grabbed my hand, as if I’d thrown him a lifeline, and I guided him through the ward barrier into the room.
“Amira…” He gathered me into his arms.
Burying his face in the folds of my veil around my neck, he breathed in greedily, as if desperately wishing to fill his lungs with my scent, to soak it up with his entire being.
Right then, I knew he was the man I loved. I had no doubts left. No one had ever held me like Kyllen, as if his life depended on each and every hug he gave me.
I knew, even if I still couldn’t believe it.
He slid his hands under the robe I was wearing, and my body lit up with life. My skin glowed wherever his hands touched me.
He kissed my face through my veil—hot, hungry kisses. He’d been starving for my touch as much as I had been for his.
“Kyllen, Kyllen…” I kept repeating his name. This wasn’t me screaming into the darkness. He was right here… “Wait.” I took his face between my hands. “Let me look at you.”
His golden eyes met mine. I stroked along his high cheekbones with my thumbs, taking in his familiar features after so many months. He parted his lips with the glint of his fangs.
“It’s me.” He grinned. “And it’s real.”
“It’s you…” I breathed out, my body melting into his. He and I—two parts of a whole.
He shoved the robe off me, kissing my bare shoulders, my collarbone, my chest. I arched my spine, staggering backwards under the onslaught of his affection. The back of my legs hit the cushioned edge of the nest, and we fell, sinking into the soft, blush-pink sheets.
Gathering my veil, he lifted it to my eyes. Then he took my mouth with his. His kiss was a drink of cool, clean water, and I was the woman lost in a scorching desert for months. I couldn’t let it end. Ever.
I gripped the back of his head. His senties spiraled up my fingers and wrists, binding me to him.
Hold me.
Kiss me
Love me.
Don’t let go.
With my eyes closed, I couldn’t see him. And it terrified me that he might just disappear again.
I wrapped my legs around him, anchoring him to me.
“Stay,” I begged when he let me come up for air.
“I’m not going anywhere, Amira. There is no life for me without you, no place I’d rather be but next to you.”
He let the veil slide over my face again as he trailed his kisses lower. Desperate in his hunger, he covered my chest with hot, messy kisses. Finding my nipple with his mouth, he sucked at it through the thin fabric of my nightdress, then yanked at the neckline impatiently, ripping the flimsy material to get to my naked body.
Desire zapped hot through me as his lips connected with my bare skin. His senties circled my breasts, peppering them with tantalizing nibbles.
I reveled in every sensation. Each touch was physical proof that Kyllen was here with me. He had come back to me. He was alive. He was…
Oh, God. He was kissing lower now. His senties snuck in between my legs, gliding, rubbing, exploring.
“Oh, how I missed this,” he murmured, kissing below my belly button. “Your scent, your taste. The feel of you…” He kissed the tender spot between my thighs, making me whimper in pleasure and need.
My senses had been lying dormant for so long, only now truly awakening under his touch. I gripped handfuls of his senties, lifting my hips to his mouth. I needed his lips, his tongue, his fingers, and senties. But I also needed more…
All of him.
“Kyllen…”