Total pages in book: 222
Estimated words: 213974 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1070(@200wpm)___ 856(@250wpm)___ 713(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 213974 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1070(@200wpm)___ 856(@250wpm)___ 713(@300wpm)
But did that mean he would feel what I felt when I…when I died?
My chest clenched. Gods, I hoped not.
I couldn’t think about that, though. Only the gods knew what emotion he picked up when I did.
“I’m not sad,” I told him.
“Sera,” he sighed.
“It’s not what you think. It’s just that I wish…I wish we had more time.”
“We will.”
I pressed my lips together as I nodded.
His chin grazed the side of my face. “You’re so brave. So godsdamn brave and strong,” he whispered. “There is no one like you, Sera.”
“Stop being…” I trailed off, my brows knitting.
“Stop being sweet?” Ash said. “As I said before—”
“You’re only telling the truth.” The skin of my shoulders pimpled. My dream came back to me in a rush. “I dreamt of you saying that.”
“I know.”
I stiffened, then jerked upright before twisting in his lap to face him. “The dreams—”
“They weren’t normal dreams.” Tendrils of eather brightened his eyes.
My mouth fell open.
“I should’ve picked up on it the first time,” he said. “Especially when you kept arguing that it was your dream.”
“I wasn’t arguing.”
That warm, soft grin returned. “You have such a strange understanding of the word arguing.”
“Maybe it is you who does?”
His lips curved up farther. “Either way, everything was too damn real. The feel of the grass beneath me. The feel of you.” The hand at my hip swept up my waist as his gaze dropped to where the fizzing water teased the tips of my breasts. His voice thickened. “The feel of being inside you. No dreams could replicate the beauty of that.”
My heart skipped a beat as I stared at him. “Everything did feel real. Both times—” The skipping motion moved to my stomach. “You told me to tell Kolis that I needed you to Ascend, and to summon the Arae.”
“I did. It was the best plan I could come up with,” he confirmed. “I knew he would never let me leave with you, but it would’ve given us a chance to escape.”
Ash was right. Kolis never would’ve allowed him to leave with me. If it had come down to it, he would’ve just kept Ash there until my Ascension happened.
“In the end, you didn’t need me to get free,” he said, pride filling his voice. My cheeks warmed in response. “You had it handled.”
“I don’t know about that,” I said. “I never would’ve gotten out of Dalos without you.”
“I disagree. You would’ve found a way.” Ash leaned in, kissing me softly. “And I’m confident enough in my strength to admit that.”
Liking—no, loving—that he didn’t feel less capable due to my capability, I smiled against his mouth. “It was a good plan. It could’ve worked.”
Ash kissed me again, this time longer. When our lips parted, my pulse pounded pleasantly.
“You know,” I said after a moment, “I dreamt of swimming in my lake with a wolf watching over me. I dreamt that many times.”
“I think that was when I was in stasis.” His brows knitted. “I’m not exactly sure how, but all I can come up with is that part of me—”
“Your nota?”
“How do you know about that?”
“Attes told me about it one of the times he was able to get to me.”
His head tilted. “Exactly how many times did he visit you?”
I rolled my eyes. “Like twice.”
“And he couldn’t free you?”
“You know he couldn’t,” I reminded him, but Ash appeared as if he were choosing not to remember that. Time to change the subject. “So, when I saw you in your wolf form, it was because…?”
“I think part of my consciousness—a part of my being—was still alert enough to find you.”
My mind raced, figuring out the timing. When I dreamt of the wolf and him, it had lined up with when he was in and out of stasis, but… “That wasn’t the first time I’ve dreamt of your wolf.”
A slight frown appeared, and then his expression smoothed out. “When you almost went into stasis while in the Shadowlands.” He gave me a small shake of his head when I nodded. “Damn. I thought that was a dream then, but it wasn’t even the first time…”
Wait. The first time.
“The first dream when you weren’t in your wolf form. When we had sex.” I gasped. “We actually had dream sex?” My eyes widened. “Well, that explains a lot.”
“Explains what, liessa?”
“Why I could, you know, still feel you when I woke up.”
The tips of his fangs became visible as his smile turned almost smug. “Exactly how did you still feel me, liessa?”
“I could feel you—okay, all of that is possibly the least important thing to discuss right now,” I decided.
Ash chuckled. “I don’t know about that.”
Catching the teasing note in his voice, I felt a tiny catch in my chest. Hearing him like this was—gods, it was too rare.
It was yet another thing I wished for: more moments like those.