Felix’s head snapped back to face her. “Titus? Why would he tell you that?”
“Men tell me all kinds of things, Felix,” she said with a sly grin. “Titus loves to brag. Told me Alwin was practically frothing at the mouth to be sent after you. I assume he never found you?”
“Oh, he sure did,” Felix replied darkly. “I’m going to check on Isolde.” He ignored Mia’s smug expression and strode off into the gloom.
The indistinct murmur of voices suggested Luella and Garren wasted no time in starting their own interrogation of Mia. He wished them all luck.
***
He found her with the horses, as he’d expected. She was leaning against Shadow’s neck, one hand tangled in the horse’s mane. When he got closer, he saw her shaking. She was crying. If he wasn’t so mad, he would try to comfort her, to be gentle. But he was really fucking mad.
“Isa,” he said, turning her around to him. “Stop. This is not worth your tears.”
The look on her face broke him into a thousand fractured pieces. It was so haunted, so heartbroken, that he didn’t think he could ever erase it from his memory.
His hands were on her shoulders, and he almost shook her, but managed a gentle squeeze. “All of them – the mages, your father sending you off alone, that worthless Laghain piece of shit – they’re nothing. All they deserve is your anger.”
“I can’t do this anymore,” she said, her voice breaking. “Every time I think there is a glimmer of hope, I am reminded that I am heading towards my doom. And if I somehow don’t die at the Nexus, it seems the man I was supposed to marry wants me dead as well. I don’t understand what I have done to deserve this.”
Felix let out a slow breath, his anger receding in the face of her anguish. He reached out and gently wiped away the single tear rolling down her cheek.
“You have done nothing wrong. You’ve been nothing but brave, and strong, and perfect.”
Isolde surged forward, interrupting whatever he was going to say next. She flung her arms around his neck, and before he could register what was happening, her lips met his.
For a heartbeat, he was stunned by her enthusiasm. Then he kissed her back, finally,finally,and she melted in his arms. She tasted like rain, like lightning,like everything that was right in the world. Sparks danced against his skin, warm and heady. Her fingers threaded through his hair when he deepened the kiss and pulled her body flush against his own.
When they parted, Isolde touched her forehead against his, searching his face. She smiled a watery smile at him. “I’ve wanted to do that for what feels like a very long time.”
“I hope it was up to expectations, in that case,” he said with a grin.
She narrowed her eyes. “Don’t you dare hide behind jokes now.”
“I thought you liked my jokes.”
She kissed him again.
If their first kiss had been a spark, this was a storm. Isolde clutched at him, digging her nails into his neck, her magic enveloping them like a cloak. Felix trailed kisses down her jaw, tracing the shimmering blue line there he had so often fantasized about. She whined when his lips left hers, but gasped as he found the pulse point beneath her ear. He wanted to touch her everywhere, all at once, inwardly cursing the existence of clothes and cloaks and other things that got in the way. His hands roamed down her back, moulding her against him, and she let out a divine little sigh that would have made him lose his last remaining shred of sense – if it hadn’t been immediately followed by a sob.
He moved his hands out to the sides. “Isa. Isa, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t,” she said, drawing them back around herself. “Don’t apologise.I’msorry. I’m a mess.” She leaned her head against his shoulder and sighed. “You’re the only good thing in all of this.”
He slowly exhaled and tried to ignore all the many complex emotions those words stirred in him. “That is grim news indeed,” he quipped instead.
Isolde let out a sad little huff of a laugh, but that was better than nothing. His arms tightened around her, and he kissed the top of her head.
She did not deserve any of this. She was far too good for this. The wild, unpredictable magic and now a bloody witch hunt and the complete unknown of her future – if she survived whatever awaited her at the Nexus. If they even made it there at all.
Fuck. I can’t lose her.
He was a stupid fucking idiot. Somewhere down the line, he had let her in. Had unknowingly opened the triple-locked box in his heart where he kept hisfeelings.Now there was no turning back.
She turned her head and looked up at him. He stared into her eyes and an overwhelming wave of sheer terror overcame him – a blind panic that ran across his skin like flames.
“Run away with me.”
Confusion flickered on her face. “Run away?”
