Vows & Ruins (The Legends of Thezmarr, #2)

by Helen Scheuerer

Let them see, Wilder thought irrationally. Let them see that she belongs with me.

How had he never felt power like this before? Magic rippled from each of the stars as one by one, his apprentice, a lost princess of Delmira, the woman he loved, plucked them from the wall, freeing him. She looked at him as though she were expecting anger, as though what she’d done was somehow wrong.

He would have been lying if he said he wasn’t afraid for her. There was a hunt for her and her magic across the realms. But he refused to be the one to teach her to fear it, to fear her own power. ‘Who’s going to stop you?’ he said quietly. And to his surprise, Thea smiled.

‘You have no idea how much I want you. How I burn for you. You lit an inferno within me and it won’t stop. I can’t stop —’

She felt his words deep in her chest, in her bones. The anger had only magnified their wanting for one another, alongside all that raged against the world and what it had demanded of them. Hawthorne – Wilder – froze for a moment, as though warring with himself, as though he didn’t dare breathe. ‘I can’t fight this anymore,’ he groaned against her lips. ‘Not tonight.’

‘I have many regrets in this life,’ he murmured against her skin, kissing a path down to her navel. ‘But not tasting you that night in the woods is one of the biggest. I need to rectify that now. Let me show you how much I don’t want you, Thea.’

She knew no inhibitions then, no shame or vulnerability. Only him and the pleasure he unravelled in her. All she could do was ride out the tidal wave, rendering her as powerless as a piece of driftwood in a surging storm. ‘I want you undone, Thea…’ Wilder murmured against her.

Wilder would never forget the taste of her. He’d never forget the sight of her, head tipped back in ecstasy, utterly bare and exposed before him, her skin flushed and damp. It was everything he’d hoped it would be and more. If he’d done his job right, she’d never forget it either.

‘If there’s one thing that transcends time and distance and all else, it’s love.’

Wilder went to her, and when she reached for him, he didn’t pull away. Instead, he stood behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her close for all the world to see. For as long as she’d have him, Althea Zoltaire was his. And he no longer cared who knew it. Maybe she should know it too.

‘Because I love just as I fight. Hard, with everything I have. And I was afraid to lose it all. To lose you.’ ‘And now?’ Wilder was still as stone beneath her touch, as though he didn’t believe that she was still standing there, that they were here having this conversation. ‘Now?’ he breathed, wrapping his hand around hers, pressing it to his chest so she could feel his heart hammering beneath. ‘I’m terrified.’ Thea’s voice was raw when she asked: ‘Is that what it means to love me? To be terrified?’ ‘I think that is what it means to love at all,’ he said, brushing his lips over hers, the whisper of a kiss. ‘But it’s more than that, Thea. To love you… is to be free.’ He claimed her mouth with his then, his kiss tender and thorough, causing a ripple of longing to move through her. But there was something else, something beyond desire that had settled deep in her chest. She broke away, swiping at the tears that stung her eyes. ‘I wish we had met when we were younger, so we could have had more time together.’ Wilder smiled as he ran his thumb along the line of her jaw and seemed to stare into her soul. ‘When I was younger I didn’t know what it was to look at a woman and want to fall to my knees,’ he told her. ‘When I was younger I didn’t know a woman could make me feel powerful and powerless in the same breath. When I was younger, I didn’t know a woman could bring me back from the darkness.’ Thea exhaled shakily. ‘A woman can do all of that?’ ‘Not any woman. There is only one....