His eyes glowed silver, and he stood very still. One lock of hair had swung loose from his ponytail to frame his face.
Aria reached up with her other hand and wound her fingers into the lock, pulling his head down to her. And she pressed her lips to his.
At first his jaw remained rigid, almost as though he’d never been kissed before. But when she traced his lower lip with her tongue, a shudder passed through him and a big hand wove into her hair. He opened to her, and she moaned as he tangled his tongue with her own.
It sent lightning zinging all the way through her. Aria trembled and clung to him as white static filled her mind...
Nikolai uttered a long, rasping groan, and then he pulled away, leaving her breathless.
His hand tightened in her hair before he released her. “They are coming,” he whispered. “I have to go. You are sure you can carry Lucas out of here?”
“If he doesn’t get himself eaten by an octopus, yes.” Her own voice was barely audible.
“It wasn’t an octopus,” he chided gently.
“Okay.”
“I will find you after I lose the Watchers in the forest.”
“You can lose them?”
He smiled again. “No. They can find me anywhere. But they aren’t Dragons, they can’t fly.” His eyes widened. “They aren’t Dragons, are they?”
Aria snorted a laugh. “No.”
He nodded, satisfied. “Then I can lead them on quite the chase. I have a few tricks I learned from my hunter-gatherer friends.”
“Be careful.”
He nodded and made his way down the rock ridge. He turned, once, to look back at her. Smiled, his teeth a flash of white in the darkness. And then he vanished into the bush.
Aria had to stop herself from following him. She needed to get a grip. She raised a hand to her lips. Had she really kissed him? That was brazen, even for her. But that flash she’d sensed from him resonated straight through to her soul. It called to her. And he wasn’t off base about the past life thing. Not that she believed in it, but being in his arms felt soright.
Like she belonged there.
The old Aria would never have believed in any of this. Her mind buzzed, searching for any logical explanation. Eventually she sighed and told herself that none of it mattered—right now.
Because it was time to grow wings.
* * *
Lucas crouched in the bushes. His entire body shook.
The collar was gone. He told himself to focus on that as the most important thing. But in the act of removing it, Nikolai had blasted straight through Lucas’s walls. The ones he used to keep all those memories firmly in the past, where they couldn’t hurt him.
They thrashed within Lucas now, refusing to go quietly back behind the barriers. He gritted his teeth and rode it out. Humiliating enough that those things had even happened to him. But to have that man—or whatever he was—see any of it was almost more than Lucas could bear.
Some skeletons shouldn’t ever leave the closet.
Lucas took a deep breath, and then another. He needed to get a grip. That crap had happened. It was in the past, and be damned if he’d ever let anyone do that to him again.
But Demeti... If Nikolai hadn’t done what he’d done, been who he was, Lucas would still be there. Hanging from those chains, while the Torshin—No. He wouldn’t dwell on that. He just wouldn’t.
He closed his eyes, willing himself to calm down, and suddenly, he was swept into another reality...
Lips pressing together, a warm, wet tongue tracing the lower one, sending living lightning along every nerve ending straight through to his core...
Every fibre of Lucas stiffened and his heart thundered, as though fingers danced through his sensory hairs.
