تسجيل الدخول~Axel’s POV~It had felt like being consumed by all of her at once. Not overwhelmed. Consumed, in the best way there was, like every part of me had quietly agreed to belong to her without asking me first. It was a feeling I had already made peace with, one I knew I would spend the rest of my life sinking into and never wanting to climb back out of.I didn’t want it to end. I didn’t want to let go of it, ever. That was the last thought in my head before sleep took me, staring at her face, her body still wrapped in my arms.So her face was what I expected to see when I woke up.Instead, the first thing my eyes met was chains.I blinked, slow at first, thinking maybe I wasn’t seeing it right. But the second blink gave me the same picture. Metal, wrapped tight around both wrists, cold enough that I could feel it even through the strange, heavy weakness sitting in my limbs.That weakness registered next, and it registered wrong. My body didn’t feel like my own. Everything in me was slow
~Amber’s POV~Of course it couldn’t have been that easy.I shouldn’t have been surprised, really. Whatever this thing was, it wasn’t going to be undone by Axel seeing it clearly enough that a thousand men could march out and end it by morning. That would have been too simple, and I already knew deep down nothing about this was going to be easy. But him coming back with nothing meant I was back to zero too. No answer. No idea. No shape to put to the thing that had turned my father and my best friend into strangers who didn’t recognize me.The only sensible thing left to do, the only thing, really was to bring it to the Council in the morning. Tell them everything. See if there was some corner of magic no one had thought to try yet, and pray to the moon goddess that nothing else came for us before we found it.“Asher is asleep,” Axel said from beside me, “but I’m fairly sure he can still hear you thinking in the dream world.”His voice cut through the spiral before it could pull me
~Amber’s POV~“So you were spying on me.” I folded my arms to match the glare I was shooting at him and kept my eyes locked on his face, because I would not, could not be distracted from my very much dignified anger, which had absolutely nothing to do with what had just happened between him and Ian.And well, I didn’t like the fighting but I couldn’t deny that he had had a right to be angry about what he had walked in on.Why hadn’t I pulled away from Ian sooner? I knew I could have.But that was a question for another time, filed neatly under things I refused to examine right now, because right now my focus and the reason behind the glare sharpening on my face was standing in front of me looking entirely too unbothered.“Well. I’m waiting. For the answer and the defense.”“I told you not to get mad.”“Me? Mad? Who said I was mad?”He gave me a look, one eyebrow lifting in an infuriating way. “If this was a cartoon, you would have smoke coming out of your ears right now.”“You thi
~Axel’s POV~Irritation.Annoyance.Aggravation.Displeasure sharp enough to have a texture of its own.I couldn’t think of another word to qualify the feeling, but that was how deep it was running through me, and it immediately combusted the moment his irritating scent hit me the second I returned and tracked the one person I needed to see, the one person I knew I needed to talk to, and maybe — maybe — she would curb the irritation that Zane’s stupid words had left simmering under my skin, on top of the fact that I still had no plan for how any of this was supposed to last long term.And then my eyes had seen them following the found of his voice and his irritating words. I hadn’t thought.No.I had done exactly that. Thought, deeply and with complete clarity, about all the ways I wanted to murder him and decided on the simplest way to start by getting his hands off her. Why was she even letting him touch her?And worse than that not saying anything against his bullshit words?All
~Amber’s POV~What was going on?I know with specificity that I wouldn’t get a reply because, yet again, I had no idea who I was even asking. But now, more than all those other times, I needed an answer. Badly. Because what the hell was going on?“Amber, are you okay?” I felt the hand reach for me before I heard the rest of his sentence, and I shrugged my body away before it could touch me, taking a step forward at the exact same moment the warrior tightened the chain around Timothy.I flinched when he groaned from how tight I could see it was.“Please,” I said even though it had just moved past my lips. The warrior stopped, looking up at me, and I was about to add that he should be gentle when Ian spoke again, this time directing the words at the warrior instead.“Make it as tight as it needs to be. After what just happened, he is an obvious threat to both the Queen and, by extension, the Realm.”My glare cut to him so fast I felt something pull in my neck. “I didn’t ask for your
~Amber’s POV~The words landed in the corridor and just sat there and I did not know I found it funny until I was already laughing.“You did what and you are what?”He opened his mouth and I cut straight through it.“Please do not answer that. And with even more pleading, just go. I am not in the mood for this right now and I will not ever be in the mood for it.”I turned again and this time he stepped directly in front of me.I will admit there was a small flicker of amusement. Just a small one. And then it was gone.“As you can see, Ian, I am holding my child.” I kept my voice completely level. “I would like to put him down to rest. So step away from my door or I will have you physically moved. Do not test me on that.”His eyes moved to Asher then.It was like he had only just registered that I was holding him. That he existed. Something moved through his eyes, anger, brief and sharp, there and gone in under a second before his expression settled back into something softer.“I genu
~Axel’s POV~“I do not care!” My growl exploded, rustling the leaves on the trees. “Find her or everyone will be wondering where you disappeared to.”The head of my security swallowed hard, taking a step backwards. The lividity was so blinding I couldn’t even recall his name.He bowed his head sli
~Amber’s POV~Men were irrevocably assholes.It was a fact that had been proven over and over again by what three years ago I would have tagged as sets of bitter females. But I knew better now.And it fed directly into the anger coursing through my veins as I turned away from that man, from his cr
~Amber’s POV~‘Mate.’Roxanne’s voice filled with that same purr slammed into me with such deafening impact that it completely overwhelmed the understanding of what was happening to me, the knowledge she’d just sent flooding into my head seconds ago.I blinked, trying to push myself up to see the p
~Amber’s POV~It is expected that I begin with something intriguing, right?Something absolutely gripping that captures attention from the very first line.Preferably something entertaining.Well it is unfortunate that I would have to disappoint, because there was nothing entertaining about the gas







