Compel (Rae Wilder #2)

Chapter Seven

At first neither of us moved, chests heaving. The relief in such a reunion was too extraordinary to bear.

Face rapturous, Breandan clasped my neck and pulled my head forward to press his forehead to my own. My hands rested on his chest, balled up into fists. How easily I had been prepared to give this up in the cage.

“Everything you are belongs to me,” he rasped, enveloping me in his arms to crush me to him. “You’re mine.”

His wings flexed behind him, and he glanced over his shoulder, eyeing them thoughtfully. His tail twisted around then flicked side to side purposefully. “Oh,” he said and made an amused humming noise low in his throat.

I briefly remembered how I had reacted when I got my wings and tail. I’d screamed, and it had taken a sharp slap to calm me down. My fairy simply said, ‘oh’.

He set me down on my feet, keeping a tight grip on my waist. His gaze was soft, caressing, and had returned to luminous silver. I gazed up at him, breathless and dazed.

Then my eyes wandered away from his face and I balked, my stomach plummeting.

The human Temple would now forever be only a memory. Devastation. The wall behind me was gone. Sanctuary was gone. The courtyard was … gone … nothing but piles of rubble, some chunks no bigger than my fist.

My mouth swung open as I peered through the settling dust to take in the ruin laid to waste around us. Is this what our love – our bond – had to offer the world, the complete annihilation of everything that dared to stand in its path?

As the haze cleared my actions before our tryst returned to me. Suddenly, I cared again. With a sickening flash of clarity I saw myself, wild eyed and crazed, hurling my magic at Ana as she wavered on her knees, trying to protect people so they could run from us.

So, this was it? I was reduced to nothing more than a battering ram of need and until I got my fix from the bond. How the hell were we supposed to control something like this? What would have happened if Ana, Conall, or anyone had not managed to flee in time?

Oh gods. Such a bond should not be possible, especially when wielded by one such as I.

“We will destroy everything,” I whispered.

Breandan breathed in deeply and seemed concerned as he looked out on what remained of the Temple. “This is not discreet,” he muttered. “We will deal with the consequences, together.”

His grip on my waist tightened and I winced. Lochlann would be … mad. Breandan made a sound of frustration and knelt down to untwist my trousers and help me back into them. I rested my hands on his shoulders to steady myself.

I lifted my head, and the small smile teasing the corners of my mouth at the idea of us together, dropped.

Tomas stood on the edge of the courtyard staring at us. His hands were loose at his sides and had I not been able to see his face, frozen in an expression of wrath, I would have thought him relaxed. His eyes were black, brows drawn together, and lips pulled back to show his fangs. Blood ran down his chin and his clothes were ripped where he had been fighting. He had lost the gaunt, starved look, and his cheeks were plump rather than caved in. He had fed well and looked better for it.

“He just arrived,” Breandan murmured as he tugged my trousers over my hips. He pulled me in and kissed my brow. “He saw nothing.”

“But enough to cause him pain,” I replied quietly.

Stepping around Breandan I took a step toward Tomas, but his look of anger turned to one of anguish and he shook his head. He walked off briskly until he turned and was hidden behind a collapsed outer building.