A River of Golden Bones (The Golden Court, #1)(60)

I met Grae’s hooded eyes. “Thank you for bringing me here.”

“I promised you I would.”

Plumes of steam whorled between us like little clouds. I wiggled my toes into the silty bottom of the hot pools, wondering if the story about the lake’s creation was true. Faery magic was a powerful thing. Vellia hadn’t torn down a mountain, but she’d raised us for twenty years. Food, clothing, shelter—it probably took even more magic over that long span of time. It didn’t look as epic as a massive crater in a mountain, but she had given us both a life, all because my mother wished it so.

Not everyone got to make a last wish. The Goddess came too swiftly for most, reclaiming them to the earth, but for those lucky souls who lingered with one foot in the afterlife, sometimes a faery would appear and grant one final wish. I wondered what my father would’ve wished for if he’d had the chance.

“Have you ever thought about what wish you’d make?” I peered from the dunes of snow back at him. “Your last wish?”

Grae’s brow furrowed. “Sometimes a person’s only wish is for it to end.”

I blinked at him, rolling his words around in my mind. It was clear he was speaking of someone, though I didn’t know who. There was a sorrow in his words that surprised me. I wanted to ask more, but he carried on.

“I suppose I’d wish for you.” His words were so low I strained to hear them. Those umber eyes drifted down my face to my lips. “I’d wish to break the mating bond and let you survive without me.”

Pain stabbed through my chest. My body responded as if our bond was being threatened, even by that confession. It felt so unsettling, so wrong. I didn’t know what it was I wanted from Grae, but I knew for certain it wasn’t that.

I could barely get the words out. “I pray you never have to make that wish.”

His hands swirled idly by his sides. “Me too.”

I stepped closer, dipping lower, even though I knew he couldn’t see my breasts beneath the cloudy water. “Do you ever wish we could go back in time? To when we were just Calla and Grae?”

“We are still just Calla and Grae.”

“No. We’re not.” My voice thickened. “Not like then.”

I squinted as the thick clouds parted, sunlight brightening the snow until it was nearly blinding.

Grae slicked a wet hand over his hair. “Who we are to each other is infinite. Our bond will only ever grow and strengthen. It will always be you and me. Always.”

“You don’t know that.”

His fingers touched my chin, lifting my gaze as water dripped from his hand. “I do.” The certainty and stillness in his words made me shudder. “I know it more than my title, or my pack, or even my name. I know I was meant to be yours.”

My hands trembled as I reached up to touch his cheek, searching his eyes. The words I wanted to say were so close to the tip of my tongue. My thumb skimmed his bottom lip and his mouth parted. It would be so easy to claim him, with my words, with my body.

I lifted up, shoulders breaching the surface of the water as my breasts brushed against Grae’s chest. His hand curled around to the back of my neck and he watched my lips with hooded eyes, waiting for me to bridge the distance between us.

A keening howl rent the air.

Our heads snapped toward the sound.

“Is it—”

“It’s not Sadie or Hector,” Grae whispered, instinctively gathering me tighter to him as we both lowered deeper into the water. The brush of my skin against his was electrifying, even as my ears strained toward the sound.

“Ice Wolves?” I whispered as another baying howl echoed across the crater.

“No,” Grae growled. “They’re Silver Wolves—Hemming, Soris, Aiden. They’re my father’s guards.”

“Shit.” I wrapped my arms around him tighter, remembering those guards from the palace in Damrienn.

He tilted his head toward the sound and we watched as five dots darted across the lip of the crater and past to the far side of the mountain.

“They’re not going to Hengreave?”

“They probably don’t think we’d stop in a human town,” Grae said, staring at the horizon as if they might reappear. “I’m guessing they’re heading to Taigoska to speak with the Queen.”

We both remained still, watching the ridge line. Another howl echoed up, more distant than the last.

“I think we’re safe,” I whispered, though I didn’t release my grasp from around Grae’s neck. His arms remained tight, holding me flush against his naked body.

“For now. We should head back to warn the others,” Grae murmured, his eyes drifting back to my mouth.

“Yes.” I nodded breathlessly.

His arms loosened around me, letting me go, and a flicker of disappointment flashed through me.

Before I could give it a second thought, I tightened my grip around his neck and lifted, my mouth landing on his. He didn’t miss a beat, hauling me back against his muscled chest, his lips meeting mine in a hot, burning kiss. I claimed him with my tongue, the frenzy building in me as he groaned into my mouth. The hard outline of him pressed against my belly, spurring me on.

A deep hiss circled the hot pool.

I released Grae at the sound, searching the crater for the telltale line of mounded snow. Ice creaked as we scanned for the monsters, probably driven back over the mountain by the thundering pack of Wolves. I hadn’t spotted any ebarven burrows on the trek up, but this would be a perfect place for the snow snakes to hide. I shuddered, thinking of the paintings of their long white bodies and beady blue eyes.