로그인ZaynFallon searches my eyes. Her brows pinch together, and a look of uncertainty paints her expression in shadow. I’m still inside her, hard again. It’s been so long since I’ve done this–touched someone like this. It’s my first time touching her like this.My mate. I have her wrists pinned above her head to stop her from moving. I just needed a moment–a single slice of time to decide the best way to go about this. “How long?” she whispers, her voice breaking. “Fallon–”“How long have you known?”I slowly pull out, both of us wincing, both raw and torn open emotionally. Her, because I’ve lied for three years. Me, because I’ve known the truth for that long. I let go of her wrists, but she makes no move to shove me away again. She doesn’t bare her teeth or hurl insults. She grabs my hands before I can pull away completely, and we stay there, tangled, slick with perspiration, our hearts still rattled. “How long?” she begs in a tone I’ve never heard her use. It’s quiet, sad but susp
FallonZayn’s hands are warm but coarse, steady, and so much larger than mine. His power radiates through his skin–an electric kind of warmth that causes a tingling sensation to erupt over my flesh. Pearls of rainwater slide between our joined hands, hovering just above my fingers. More droplets appear, shimmering like starlight, before Zayn lets out his breath, and the raindrops race into the sky so quickly that I lose sight of them. But his power buzzes all around me, cloaking me in an electric heat that burrows into my bones. It’s so different from my powers. So foreign and unique. A crackle of lightning tinged a strange blue expands overhead as clouds suddenly appear. A boom of thunder rolls over the beach, and for a moment, I feel like I’m home, watching the storms roll over the lake in Moonrise. “Did you make the storms in Moonrise, too?” I ask.His smile is soft and wanting. “No. I did not. But I would have.”“Why?”“Because I know you like them.”I’m insane. He’s not looking
ZaynTali walks at my side down the stretch of narrow dirt road weaving across the private royal island. It’s a fine day. It was, at least. I spent the majority of it avoiding Fallon at all costs, which meant tiptoeing through the house, occasionally catching glimpses of her talking to the maids, the chef, or the messengers who travel to and from Eurye. I’m staying out of her way for good reason. I almost lost my grip on the situation this morning. Tali whistles low, drawing my attention back to the moment instead of lingering on the way Fallon’s hair shimmered across the pillows in the morning light. “When’s the last time you shifted?” he asks. I kick a pebble of pumice, squinting into the sun drifting between the palm fronds overhead. “When I was challenged. Yesterday.”“I mean, when was the last time you got it out of your system?”“What?” The guesthouse comes into view. Tali halts, touching my arm in a silent request for me to stop walking. “Tali–”“You smell like a wolf on e
FallonI wake to full sunlight dusting the domed ceiling. It reflects off the chandelier, painting the room in rainbows. Groggy and unsure what time it is, I close my eyes again, wiggling under an immense amount of pressure gluing me to the mattress. Warmth like I’ve never known pins me down. It’s cozy. The coziest thing I’ve ever felt. The most comfortable and secure I’ve ever been. It’s likely that I’m still hovering somewhere between reality and the dreamworld. I feel full and slightly dizzy from what might be the longest stretch of real, deep sleep I’ve had in a long while. I’m not sure what woke me up, but I quickly assume it’s my senses blaring in warning, and with a start, I open my eyes again and realize the weight keeping me pressed to the bed is not the dreamworld or my body’s slow roll into awareness. Nope. Zayn sighs so deeply his body rattles. It hums through me because the man is draped over me in a way that’s so damningly intimate I have to suck in a breath and pore
ZaynI was twenty when my father found me on the beach, sopping wet and covered in sand. It was a strange day, to put it lightly. The weather was terrible, roiling and violent, though I suppose I was used to that. I couldn’t remember how I ended up there. I have hazy memories of him kneeling in front of me, clutching my face between his hands and shouting my name over, and over. But that was the moment. The night the stars aligned, deciding my destiny. The night everything about my upbringing ceased to matter. Father’s tenure in Meridem was supposed to be life-long. That was the rule for governors–one step below the Principate in hierarchy of wizardry. He was supposed to keep Meridem and the shifters who called it home in check, to ensure the laws of the wizards were followed, and beat into submission anyone who disagreed. Meridem was a gift, so to speak, when he became an adult. The Alexandrite mines in Meridem were the main source of the precious stone that allowed lower wizards a
ZaynIt’s well past 9:00 in the evening when Tali and I walk up the steps to his home. The first thing I see with full clarity after a hell of a long day, mostly in my wolf form, is Fallon resting in an oversized armchair with Koa draped over her lap. He’s fast asleep. Andy hangs off one shoulder, his dark eyes bright and honed on the picture book she’s reading. Gracen is perched on her other side, resting his elbow on her shoulder, his cheek squished against the top of Fallon’s head. She yawns, which makes the little boys yawn, and turns the page. “Hey now,” Tali whispers, which startles both boys. “How’d you weasel your way into staying up an hour past your bedtime?”Andy fidgets, but I expect as such from him. Little wizard boys are essentially whipped into submission from birth if they’re unlucky enough to be separated from good fathers, like he was. He slides off the armchair, but Gracen hesitates, narrowing his eyes at his father, battling some internal shifter rage at the ide
MaeveMy back hits soft, cream-colored carpet as the sitting room in my private apartment in the palace materializes. Gloves’s hand is still wrapped around my neck, but his grip is loose. His body is a dead weight pressing mine into the carpet. My vision blurs as pain like I’ve never felt before ca
BrieI pull the stool out from under my vanity, sinking down and facing Blake. I’m older than him by a few months. We’ve always been close, even when we were younger, and he tended to want to play rowdy boy games with Aris. He always sat quietly and played tea-party with me, though, without fail.
Brie“Tonight?”“Yes, tonight.”“How?” I laugh, taking a step away from him. “We-we can’t.”“We can,” he says breathlessly, shaking his head. “The temple stays open all night. We’d just need to find a priestess.”“We’d need a witness,” I whisper as the cogs in my mind start turning. “I’d need a dre
LoganBrie looks exhausted, but otherwise… happy, thank the Goddess, as she sits between her mother and Misty, listening to their conversation and picking at a sandwich. I lean my elbows on the table across the room where I’m sitting in silence, alone, still waiting for my mind to catch up with my







