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‘You were given an order, Alchemist,’ sounded a deep, commanding voice. Thea would have known that voice anywhere. It had pulled her back from the brink of death, had whispered her name against her lips, had broken her heart in more ways than one… Silver eyes met hers and Thea’s breath caught. The Hand of Death towered above her, his powerfully built frame clad in black armour that dripped red. Against all reason, despite all her fury, that rich timbre skittered along her bones as Wilder Hawthorne leant in close and murmured, ‘Or should I call you “Princess” now?’
‘Then stop looking at me like that,’ she snapped. ‘Like what?’ ‘Like you’ve seen me naked.’
‘In case I haven’t mentioned it recently… Your brother’s a complete arse, by the way.’ Malik looked delighted.
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.
‘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 —’
‘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.’
‘You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. There’s no coming back from you, no end to this wanting…’
He was fucked. Well and truly fucked. Because the way he burned for her… No vows, no notion of duty – nothing – could stop it.
Thea kept stealing glances at Wilder across the fire, at the stoic warrior she was slowly coming to know more deeply, more intricately. It was with a mixture of longing and regret that she savoured these moments with him, realising with a resounding grief that she would never come to know him as deeply as she wished to. Her hand drifted to her fate stone. The more she knew about Wilder Hawthorne, the harder she fell. And she would never know enough about him, would never have enough moments with him. There was not enough time – not for her.
He would have spent his whole life getting to know her, her body, her mind, her soul…
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.
‘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. There has only ever been one.’
