Page 242 of Onyx Cage: Volume II
“Even then,” I gritted out. “But can you at least tell me you will try to be careful?”
“Evander, I will always fight to make my way back to you.” The sound of my name on her lips affected me the way it always did, searing right through to my soul.
I opened my eyes, willing myself to see her face as it was now, not the bloody, broken version I had conjured from the darkest parts of my mind. I had to take her at her word.
She had always been a fighter, even before she had raised an army in a couple of weeks and tamed the skies themselves. She would fight to come back to me, and I had to believe that she would succeed.
“All right.” I relented. “I promise you, even if your life is in danger, even if I believe there is no way out, I will always be honest with you. I will respect your decision...whatever it is.”I will walk by your side to that fate, though, Lemmikki. Where you go, I go, and I will still die before I let someone hurt you.“I swear it on my life.”
“No,” she all but yelled, startling me. “That just means the next time you think you’re going to die, you won’t see the need to uphold it. I want you to swear it onmylife.”
How very Socairan of you, Lemmikki.
There was no more sacred oath she could have asked me to take than one based upon the most precious thing in this world to me. Grasping her hand in mine, I made her the promise that would purchase the future we had dreamed about together.
As long as we lived long enough to see it through.
“I swear it on your life, Lemmikki.”
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FIVE
Silence was nothing new for us.
Not after this past week where words failed us for all the worst reasons, where every walk down the hall was accompanied by a weighty hush filled with all the compromises we couldn’t bring ourselves to make.
But the silence that greeted my words was different. It settled around us like a blanket in the dead of winter, shutting out the elements beyond. We hardly dared to breathe as we lay inches apart, her hand still in mine, her gaze fixed firmly on my own like she was half waiting for me to take the words back.
Then she sucked in a breath, molding her body against my own, relaxing fully against me like she could finally let down the guard she had been forced to carry for too long.
Like she was finally home.
And when she murmured a request to go back to our rooms, I finally let myself relax in turn. I pressed my lips against her forehead, letting the taste of her skin thaw me from the inside out.
She’s still here. Still alive. Still mine.
I repeated the words like a mantra in my head, convincing myself a little more with each step we took toward the haven we had carved out for one another.
No sooner had the door shut did Rowan fall into my arms. She rested her head against my chest, breathing me in as deeply as I did her.
I wrapped my arms tighter around her, pulling her closer. It hit me all over again how perfectly she fit in my arms. How close I had come to losing her forever.
My fingers dug into her a little more, as if to remind myself that she was real. I pressed a kiss to her head, followed by another and another, slowly working my way down to her face.
She tilted her chin up, trying to capture my mouth with hers as I gently backed her up against the door. I pulled her bottom lip into my mouth, and a small gasp escaped her.
I took my time, exploring the contours of her mouth, relishing the taste of her. Storms, I had missed her.
A thrill of pleasure ran through me as she caressed the seam of my lips with her tongue, the warmth of her mouth stoking the flames of my desire.
She tasted like the first drop of rain after years of drought. Like the first deep breath of spring air after a long and bitter winter. Each stroke of her tongue against mine was delicate, deliberate, and impossibly perfect.
Our hands were still laced together, our fingers intertwined—neither of us willing to let the other go.
Slowly, I lifted her hands above her head, pinning them to the door. She let out a breath, arching her hips into mine as I ran my lips down her neck, savoring the tender spot where her pulse thundered against her skin.
“Lemmikki, did you take your herbs?” My question came out in a low rumble, and she nodded.
Something in my chest tightened at that. If she suspected there was a baby, she would have waited until she knew she was wrong to take her herbs. Despite how much I had hurt her, despite all her anger, all her pain, she hadn’t given up on us these past few days.