“The bond is broken,” he growled, stepping nearer still and making goosebumps speckle my skin with nothing more than his proximity.
His eyes were so dark that in the dim light I couldn’t see any difference in them, but I needed to know if it really was true, so I twisted my fingers and cast a Faelight into existence beside him which flared and lit his features in an orange glow.
The light glinted off of his deep brown eyes and my breath caught as I hunted for the black ring surrounding his irises and found it missing.
Darius’s gaze burned into mine as he devoured the sight of my clear, green eyes too and for the longest time we just stood staring at each other, trying to adjust to the fact that our fates had suddenly altered and all the things we’d been aching for were right here for the taking.
“How?” I whispered, afraid to break the silence as if I thought the stars might be listening, ready to steal this gift as fast as they’d offered it.
Darius hesitated for a beat too long, his brow pinching as he expelled a short breath which fogged the air between us. “Gabriel took me to an ancient palace that has long since been forgotten by our kind. There was old magic there and I convinced the stars to change their mind about the bonds,” he said in a rough voice. “It looks like they agreed.”
“Agreed to what?” I murmured, my heart beating so hard that I could barely make out the sound of my own voice over the tumultuous pounding.
Darius’s brow lowered and he reached out to cup my cheek in his palm, sucking in a sharp breath as the heat of his skin met the freezing coldness of mine.
“Why are you so cold?” he demanded, pushing the warmth of his fire magic into my skin as a shiver which had nothing to do with the temperature ran through my body. My flesh hungered for him with the desperation of a soul who had been starving for his touch for far too long and my body reacted to his instantly, my spine arching, nipples hardening.
“Fire makes me think of you,” I said.
“And that’s…bad?” His voice was rough and his dark eyes seemed to look right into my soul as he demanded that answer from me and I was unable to deny him it.
“Only because I know I can’t have you. Or couldn’t have you, I guess…”
I glanced up at the quiet sky with the stars twinkling far overhead and my thrashing heart only picked up the pace as I realised they weren’t doing a single thing to force us apart. No storms or earthquakes or Griffins flying by and taking a shit on top of us. Nothing.
“Darius,” I breathed as he leaned forward, about to close the gap between our lips but my hand landed on his chest. “If you kiss me now, I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to let you go again. So if this isn’t it for you, if you can’t handle my stubborn, selfish ass then please just walk away. Because I can’t have you for this moment if I don’t have you for every moment after it-”
“I’m yours, Roxy,” he growled against my lips. “For every single second I have in this world, I’m all yours. And after that I’ll still be yours, wherever I end up after I’m gone, I’ll belong right here with you.”
His mouth met mine and silenced any other objections I may have been about to make, and I melted into his kiss as his lips moved against mine.
A moan escaped me and his tongue pushed into my mouth, caressing mine as he kissed me slowly, savouring every second of it now that we could. The stars weren’t going to force us apart, there was no reason for us to rush and the way he was kissing me said he had no intention of doing that.
I wound my arms tight around him and the Phoenix in me rose up to the surface, driving against his body in a demand which I followed without thought as the creature in me took control and dove beneath his skin, burning a path inside of him as it sought out the shadows and forced them out of him in a trail of blazing power which left us both panting in each other’s arms.
“Holy shit, Roxy,” Darius growled against my lips. “How-”
“I’m done letting Lionel or his shadow bitch or anyone else control us. They can keep their fucking shadows – we won’t be tied to them by their damn power anymore.”
Darius gazed down at me like he was seeing something in me for the first time and I raised my chin as he pushed his fingers into my hair and studied my face with a hungry, aching look.
“You’re incredible,” he said softly, drinking me in and making my skin tingle with the intensity of his gaze as he leaned forward to capture my lips with his once more, making my knees quake and butterflies erupt in my stomach.