“No, but I do like hearing it once in a while,” I replied. “Besides, it’s a two-way street here, so it would be rude of me not to tell you my own truth.”
His lips stretched into a lazy smile, his hot breath tickling my cheeks. He had me pinned against the hard stone wall. This was the only type of rock-and-a-hard-place situation I wanted to be in.
“By all means, please do, Elonora. I’m on the edge of my seat, here.”
“I love you, Nevis. Prince of Dhaxanians. All-around frosty badass. And I certainly didn’t see it coming, back at the Shade party,” I replied, my voice wavering. His gaze darkened, his arms tightening around me and nearly cutting off my air supply.
“You didn’t?” he asked, the shadow of a smile fluttering across his face. “Funny. I was already thinking about what my people would think of you. Dhaxanians never date outside their species.”
“I think you need to take me out on a date, first,” I said.
He kissed my left cheek, then the right, with slow and deliberate movements. My heart was bouncing around like a tennis ball, and my feelings for him grew stronger with every second that went by. This was it, our little moment of peace, before we went out and faced our nemesis, the very end of days.
“Where would you like to go, then?” he asked, most seriously.
“Anywhere that doesn’t have Perfects trying to fry my ass,” I replied.
He laughed lightly, and it sounded so sweet, it made my ribcage hum. He kissed me again, this time with more fire than before. I welcomed him into my very soul, wrapping my arms around his neck and losing myself in this single most precious snippet of time.
“We’ll go wherever you want to go, Elonora. The world will be out there, still waiting for us,” Nevis said, breathing heavily against my lips.
Desire thrummed through me. I’d practically forgotten where we were, or what we were going to do. It didn’t matter, as long as I could always just reach out and touch him, as long as I could feel his lips on mine.
“Honestly, I’ll be perfectly happy if we spend an entire month locked away in your bedroom on Mount Athelathan,” I replied. “I like the cold, and, well, I can’t get enough of you. It’ll be a total win-win.”
“You don’t have to ask me twice,” Nevis whispered, then lifted me off the ground so I would straddle him. He kissed me a third time, hungrily.
“I could stay like this forever,” I murmured, then gently bit his lower lip.
He stilled and pulled his head back so he could look at me, his brow furrowed. “This isn’t our last night together, Elonora. We’re going to get out of here and do everything we’ve been thinking about doing since we first kissed.”
My cheeks were on fire. I didn’t think it was possible for me to fall deeper in love with him, but Nevis was clearly aiming to break any barrier in this relationship.
“We’ll go to Mount Athelathan, and we’ll lock ourselves in my suite. I will love you until the sun comes up, then I will love you some more as it goes back down. We’ll be together, and we’ll explore new worlds and fight a million Ta’Zans along the way, if needed, until every single living creature in this universe gets a shot at love and freedom. Am I making myself clear?”
I found myself nodding slowly, overwhelmed by the intensity of my own emotions. I was seconds away from crying, when he locked his thumb and index finger on my chin and lifted my head so we could look into each other’s eyes.
“Sounds like a plan,” I managed, my eyes stinging.
“Elonora, I’m serious,” Nevis said. “If we look at this as our last night together, we’re letting him win. We’re putting ourselves in a mindset that leaves room for failure. And you are one of the greatest warriors I’ve had the honor to join in battle. That, to me, is enough to move mountains, tear down entire worlds, and beat the snot out of a gray-haired megalomaniac.”
I laughed, surprised by his choice of words and the smooth compliment. I’d thought Varga was the one who had a way with words, but Nevis could sure drop the royal jargon to get down and dirty like the rest of us.
“You’re absolutely right.” I sighed. “We’ll kick some Perfect ass. We’ll fire up the Hermessi. We’ll pulverize Ta’Zan, and we’ll get our people back. And then, you’ll take me to Neraka, and we’ll do all the stuff we’ve both been thinking about since—”
“The Shade party,” he cut in, completing my sentence.
My eyes nearly popped out of their orbits. “You weren’t kidding, huh?” I mumbled. “You’ve had the hots for me since the party?”
He nodded. “You don’t know how beautiful you are, if you thought I was indifferent to your charms.”
“You called me inadequate, too young and inexperienced to be worthy of your attention.”
It was Nevis’s turn to blush, as he pressed his lips into a thin line.
“I was lying,” he replied dryly. “I would’ve thought you’d figured it out by now.”
“I was too busy drooling over you,” I grumbled.
There was something endearing in the way he looked at me, a kind of softness I’d never seen in a man’s eyes before. He made me feel like I was the single most important element in the universe—more precious than all the serium on Strava, more beautiful than the Nevertide sunset, more loved than The Shade itself.
Somehow, in the midst of all this chaos, Nevis and I had fallen for each other. The spark had been at the party, it seemed, but the real love came gradually, one day at a time, as we fought for survival through the jungles of Strava.
Nevis was right. This wasn’t our last night together.
I kissed him, this time, resting my hands on his shoulders—the feel of his toned muscles beneath the fabric of his shirt making my insides tingle.
“This is only the beginning,” I whispered in his ear, then nibbled on his earlobe.
A grunt escaped from his throat, and he gripped my waist and captured my mouth in yet another kiss. This time, he conquered me, bringing down all my defenses. I was helpless now. All his.
Forever.
Nevis paused, gently squeezing my thighs.
“All spicy jokes aside, Elonora, I will want you to meet with my people. Whatever this is between us, I don’t think it will die out,” he said.
The flutter in my chest became frantic, as I held on to Nevis and prayed to all the possible deities, both old and new, that we’d never be apart. We’d found each other at the heart of a tragedy, and, if The Shade’s history of love stories was correct, ours was going to be just as powerful, just as timeless.
