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"I fell in love with his soul before I could even touch his skin."
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"OF COURSE not." I said matter-of-factly. "Just because you are my mate does not mean you get a free pass to my 'bullying.' If anything, you'll be getting the brunt of it."
Rhys gave me an unamused, narrowing his eyes half-heartedly. "That's not fair." he laid beside me, head propped up on his hand as he traced my body. His fingers trailing across my skin in languid movements.
"Sucks to suck."
There was a rustling movement and suddenly Rhys was above me, a feline smirk on his face as he cocked his head. His hands were braced on either side of my head, a challenge on his face.
A hand lifted, and Rhys ran a finger through my hair, his gaze tracking the movement of his own hand. And then his eyes met mine, lust shining in those violet depths.
I met his stare with the same fervor, "Are you trying to seduce me, Rhysand?"
"Would you like me to seduce you?"
My lips curved upward, "Possibly." I said, leaning up to him so close our breaths mingled, "But if you think it's going to win you any favors when it comes to demolishing your enormously large ego, you are sorely mistaken."
Rhys rolled his eyes, lowering his arms so that he was on his elbows. Our faces nearly touching. "I think," he said, leaning in so that his head was nudging the crook of my neck. "I fell in love with you the moment you called Amarantha a hot-headed troll. Or maybe the moment you threatened me."
"Which time?" I asked, "I do it quite frequently."
He chuckled against my neck, the sound reverberating against my skin as he placed a featherlight kiss there. My hands reached up to his arms, gliding along them as he pressed kisses all the way to my temple before pulling back. I watched him roll his eyes, "The day you threatened to chop off my hands." he clarified, "It reminded me so much of Cassian. For the first time in decades, I wanted to laugh."
"You fell in love with me," I said flatly, "because I remind you of your brother?" Friend. Brother. He considered them family either way.
Again, he rolled his eyes. "I fell in love with you, smartass, because you were one of us—because you weren't afraid of me. I felt Cassian's spirit beside me in that moment, and I could have sworn I heard him say, 'if you don't marry her, you stupid prick, I will.'"
I grinned, huffing a laugh as my limbs moved of their own accord. Suddenly I was straddling Rhysand's waist, watching as his smirk grew tenfold. I grinned down at him from where he lay below me.
I slid a paint-covered hand over his tattooed chest. Paint—right.
We were both covered in it. So was the bed.
Rhys followed my eyes and gave me a grin that was positively wicked. "How convenient that the bathtub is large enough for two."
My body heated, and I pulled myself away from him and off the bed, only to have him move faster—scooping me up in his arms. I yelped—half laughing—as he hoisted me into his arms.
Rhys was splattered with paint, his hair crusted with it much like my own, and his poor wings...those were my handprints on them. Naked, he carried me into the bath, where water was already running, the magic of this cabin acting on our behalf.
He strode down the steps into the water, his hiss of pleasure a brush of air against my ear. I might have sighed a little myself when the hot water hit me as he sat us both down in the tub.
"I do know how to walk, you know." I said, though practically rejoicing in the way the heat felt against my skin.
"Yes, but I'm just so much better at it than you are."
I arched a brow at him, "You're better at walking?"
He opened his mouth, looking confused at his own words. "Yes?"
I snorted, "You truly have a way with words."
Pushing away from him, I sunk deeper into the water. The steam wafted between us, and Rhys picked up a bar of soap—that pine-ash smelling soap—and handed it to me, along with a washrag. "Someone, it seems, got my wings dirty."
I ticked up a shoulder, "Couldn't have been me." I said but took the soap, "I was too busy being bad at walking."
Rhys glared lightly, "I hate you."
"You love me."
"I'm rethinking that." he grumbled.
I scrunched my nose, "Awe, such a romantic." I twirled my finger, motioning for him to turn around. He obeyed, spreading those wings enough for me to find the paint stains. Carefully, I soaped up the washcloth and began washing the colors away.
The candlelight danced over his countless, faint scars—nearly invisible save for harder bits of membrane. He shuddered with each pass, hands braced on the lip of the tub.
Silence engulfed us for a moment, blanketing us with its cool hands in a peaceful quiet. I interrupted it, "I think I fell in love with you a while ago," I murmured, "But I knew on Starfall. And I was..." I paused, searching for the right word, "scared. I've never been one for sentiment, not since I was young. And loving you was—new. I couldn't give in."
"Why?" he asked. No judgment. No blame. As though he merely wanted to know. Maybe he did.
I inhaled, lightly rubbing away another paint stain. "I told you that things I care about have a tendency to be taken from me." I breathed and he nodded. "My mother betrayed me when I was very young, sold me away as though I was an object. I..." I gulped, "My friends—Flynn and Astrid—I told you how they died. That their throats were slit in front of me. And after I watched Feyre die..." I squeezed my eyes tight, "Every time I thought about giving in, I saw you dying in front of me too. And I couldn't...I couldn't imagine that."
Slowly Rhys turned around, and I lowered the washcloth in my hand. His had reached up, cupping my cheek. A motion to tell me he understood. To tell me that he too feared the same.
And that we should not let our fears rule us.
I leant over, kissing him tenderly. Not like the kiss we had shared just minutes before—one of passion and hunger and desperation—no this was slow and warm and lovely. I pulled away, taking a breath and shaking off the remnant of the words I'd just said, "What now?"
Wordlessly, he took the soap from my hands and turned me, rubbing down my back, scrubbing lightly with the cloth. "It's up to you." Rhys said, "We can go back to Velaris and have the bond verified by a priestess—no one like Ianthe, I promise—and be declared officially Mated. We could have a small party to celebrate—diner with our...cohorts. Unless you'd rather have a large party, though I think you and I are in agreement about our aversion to them." his strong hands kneaded muscles in my back, and I sighed in content. "We could also go before a priestess and be declared husband and wife as well as mates, if you want a more human thing to call me."
"What will you call me?"
"Mate," he said, "Though also calling you my wife sounds mighty appealing, too." his thumbs massaged the column of my spine. "Or if you want to wait, we can do none of those things. We're mated, whether it's shouted across the world or not. There's no rush to decide."
I turned, "Well, I was originally asking about Hybern, the queens, and the Cauldron, but I'm pleased to know you'll do anything I want and that I have you wrapped around my finger completely." I smirked.
His eyes danced with feline amusement, and his arms wrapped around me, pulling me closer. "Sweet, beautiful nightmare."
I grinned wickedly, "Cruel, Darling Nemesis."
Beautiful. He thought I was beautiful. Such a trivial thing, and yet it felt...special. It was by no means the first time I had been called so, but from him it was like sending sparks through my veins.
"You are." he said, "You're the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. I thought that from the first moment I saw you on Calanmai."
I grinned at him.
"Which is good," he added, "Because you weren't one to swoon for a male at first glance, but just this once..."
Pure, undiluted terror lit my veins and my mouth dropped open, my eyes widening. My thoughts on Calanmai. Gods he had heard all of them. "I'm gonna go die now." I replied.
"Oh but, Danika, I thought I was the most beautiful male you've ever seen." he taunted.
"I hate you."
"You love me."
"I'm rethinking that." I repeated, and he chuckled, hands sliding to grip my waist and tug me to him. He sat down on the built in bench of the tub, and I straddled him.
"Tomorrow." Rhys said, features becoming grave. "We're leaving tomorrow for your family's estate. The queens sent word. They return in three days."
I started. "You're telling me this now?"
"I got sidetracked." he said, eyes twinkling.
"Sidetracked? Rhys, let's not downplay it, you got thrown off a cliff."
"Dramatic." he grumbled.
"Says you." I replied and he smiled. Broadly and without restraint just as he had done on Starfall.
And the light in those eyes, the quiet joy...they knocked the breath from me. A future—we would have a future together. I would have a future. A life. Something I thought I would never have. Something I had given up long ago. And now I had it in my grasp. Glittering like never before.
His smile faded into something awed, something...reverent, and I reached out to cup his face in my hands—
To find my skin glowing.
Faintly, as if some inner light shone beneath my skin, leaking out into the world. Warm and white light—like a star. At least I was living up to my title. "You've turned me into a lightbulb." I peaked a brow at the male.
"What's a lightbulb?"
I waved a hand, "You wouldn't understand."
Those wonder-filled eyes met mine, and Rhys ran a finger along my arm, "Well, at least now I can gloat that I literally make my mate glow with happiness."
I laughed a little, and the glow flared a little brighter. He leaned in, kissing me softly, and wrapped my arms around his neck. He was hard against me, pushing against where I sat poised right above him. All it would take would be one smooth movement and he'd be inside me—
But Rhys stood from the water, both of us dripping wet, and I hooked my legs around him as he walked us back into the bedroom. The sheets had been changed by the magic of the house, and they were warm and smooth against my naked body as he set my down and stared at me. Shining—I was shining right as a pure star.
I felt—I watched as Rhys removed the glamour from himself and his magic was unleashed, filling the room, the world, my soul, with ebony power. Stars and wind and shadows; peace and dreams and the honed edge of nightmares. Darkness rippled from him like tendrils of smoke as he reached out a hand and laid it flat against the glowing skin of my stomach.
That midnight hand splayed, the light leaking through the wafting shadows, and I hoisted myself up on my elbows to kiss him. Smoke and mist and dew.
I moaned at the taste of him, and he opened his mouth for me, letting me brush my tongue against his. Everything he was had been laid before me—one final question.
I wanted it all.
I could die from this, I decided. From wanting him, from the pleasure of being with him.
And I was perfectly fine with that.
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Warmth. It was warm. Everything was warm.
Toasty warm like sitting by a fire on a cold night. Like coming back to a house in the dead of winter, greeted by the cozy feeling home.
It smelled like the sea. A breeze flowing up toward me from the ocean, flitting across my skin like mist as waves crashed in front of me.
But there was also a weight. Something slung across my back like a belt. It was heavy enough that I could feel it even through the lens of exhaustion I looked through then. Yet it was almost a comfortable pressure.
My eyes fluttered open to the dim light of dawn and I nearly groaned. An hour. An hour of sleep. I was going to die today. Pass out and start rolling in my grave.
Rhys stirred beside me and I could have screamed at the movement, screamed because he was warm and I was cold and I wanted to leech every ounce of that heat from his body. That sounded mean. It wasn't...I hoped.
His arm tightened around me in a way that told me Rhys was half asleep as I was. I stirred, nudging my head further into the pillow in an attempt to escape the rising sun, attacking my mercilessly through the windows.
"You snore like a pig." I said into the pillow, my voice gravelly with sleep.
Rhys made a sound between a groan and a sigh of protest. "No, I don't."
"You wouldn't know." I grumbled back. Peaking and eye open and immediately hissing at the light, obviously opting to stuff my face further into the silky, white pillow.
Rhys, in fact, did not snore. But I was feeling grumpy with my lack of sleep and felt like stirring up trouble.
The sound of the sheets rustling beside me, and then Rhys's heat enveloped me fully. I pressed further into him, hoping to escape the cold elicited by the cold winds stirring outside. His lips pressed against my skin softly, trailing up my shoulder blade. "Liar." he whispered.
"Yes, but I was hoping you'd believe it and be paranoid for all eternity."
"Cruel." He muttered, placing another kiss to my shoulder blade. "Why, praytell, would you want that?"
"Because I'm tired. And when I'm tired I think about world domination." I replied, immediately feeling Rhys's confusion behind me. "Don't question it."
"I have a feeling that even if I tried questioning it, I wouldn't understand."
"That's a fair conclusion."
Silence blanketed over us, such blissful silence that I lost track of how long I lay there. How long I felt him begin to trace my skin lazily. And I found myself allowing him to trace my scars without so much as a second thought.
Vulnerability. Freedom. Choices. Three things I had gained and allowed myself without realizing. Three things that had snuck up on me; three things I had never used to allow myself or even possess at all.
I quite liked it.
"How did you get these?" Rhys questioned, drawing a line across one of the long banded scars on my back.
I sighed, finally turning so that I was facing him, and allowing the horrendous light to flood my eyes as I opened them. "It is considered...a right of passage, that on the birthday after you finish your basic training at the academy, your endurance is tested." I explained, "They say that if you cannot handle the pain they bestow on you, then you are not fit for the field because their enemies will be far less merciless. So after I completed my trials, and entered into the ranks of the full fledged warriors, I was tested." A shrug. "They whip you until you can't take the pain, until you're near death and can't even scream anymore. And then they bring in the Fae healers to erase the lashes as though they were never there."
"Then why are yours still there?"
Another shrug. "I lasted longer than most. I lost count after 26. By the end my back was no more than a bloodied slab of meat. It was so bad even magic couldn't heal it all. Those three had cut so deep that it was all the healers could do to try and keep me from dying."
I had been ten years old. But I refrained from saying that aloud.
Rhys's gaze turned cold, as if the thought had sent pure ice through his veins. The arm around me tightened and I rolled my eyes. Males.
I placed a hand on his cheek, drawing his face to mine as I kissed him softly. Within seconds the tenseness of his muscles dissipated. His hand wrapped around my waist, drawing circles on my skin as his lips melded with my own.
I pulled away slowly, grinning smugly as I did. Rhys rolled his eyes, before his gaze roved over my body, drinking in every inch of me as though I was some sort of art.
His finger reached up, trailing on my skin as he found another thin, barely noticeable scar just below my ribcage. "How did you get this one?" he asked curiously.
"Sword fight with my mentor. I was a bit brash back then and obviously lost." I snorted.
"And this one?" He whispered, drawing a line across the band of a scar on my thigh, a long and thin slice barely noticeable unless you were looking.
I let out a soft chuckle, "My friend has quite a short temper." I replied, "We got into an argument about chocolate cake and the right way to bake it and ended up coming to blows. We were both bloodied at the end."
Rhys hesitated, his finger pausing on my thigh before resuming its trail along my body. "Your friend...was it the one who..." he trailed away, the words catching as though he knew the mention of Astrid and Flynn was a touchy subject.
"No," I replied, still staring, "this was a different friend from a different world."
He nodded, as though already used to the prospect of portals and worlds. I wasn't surprised. His thumb reached my collar bone, drawing along the faintest scar. "This?"
I cringed, replying sheepishly, "I fought a sea snake." I grimaced. "The sea snake won."
Rhys's lips quirked up, but I did not give him a chance to ask about another as I lifted my own hand, trailing a finger along his upper arm. A long, thin scar, spanning barely more than two inches. "How did you get this?" I questioned in turn.
Rhys grinned, "Cassian."
"Should've guessed."
"This one?" I asked, trailing a featherlight finger across his chest where a long slash resided.
"The War." he said, "One of the harsher battles. They snuck up on me."
"And—" I was cut off as Rhys kissed me. I grinned into his mouth and forgot completely.
A/N: There will be about 16 chapter left in this book!! My babies, oml its gone so fast
And, eventually, not anytime soon, but if Dani were to have children do you guys like the idea of two kids??
MORE FANART EDITS BY @erotic_roses ON INSTA THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
I LOVE THEM SO SO SO SO SO SO MUCH.