More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
S.M. Gaither
Read between
July 14 - July 18, 2024
The Marr. The ones who had taken our kind’s place at the righthand of the three Moraki, our Creators. The Moraki were the three most powerful beings in all the realms,
sometimes what was considered monstrous changed depending on the lighting.
The Marr served the Moraki, but the Marr had direct servants as well—the Miratar, or the lesser-spirits, as they were usually called. But they were still divine, despite being lesser,
I needed to make certain I stepped inside with my left foot first. I’d always stepped into my sister’s room right-foot first;
Candlelight washed over this tapestry’s many, many colorful threads, over a creature with a lithe, muscular body covered in silver fur. It had long, elegant legs, and there were antlers protruding from its narrow skull. It was so large I had to take a step back to see the thing in its entirety. I nearly dropped the candle as I did. That beast. I knew that beast.
“But I’m in a generous mood, so please feel free to think of me while you take care of yourself. Just know that it’s as close as you’ll ever get to the real thing. So I hope you enjoy it.” He stroked the hard line of his jaw as if considering my offer. And I swear the bastard stopped just short of winking at me as he turned away, chuckling, and said, “I was already planning on thinking of you.”
“And what feelings do you have about us now?” He dropped his gaze to my mouth as his tongue slid over his bottom lip. “What a dangerous question.”
“I feel…” he replied, slowly, “as though someone should have taught you not to play with fire.”
“So let’s keep the danger in mind,” he murmured, “and please believe me, Little Sparrow, when I tell you that I could set fire to every inhibition you possess, and when we are finished it will only be you and I among the ashes. I will be the only thing you can think of, and it will not be disdain that you feel toward me, I can promise you that.”
“World’s smallest measuring stick?” Mairu repeated as she suddenly entered the room. “Are you two really in here talking about Valas’s dick?”
“Well, I suppose it’s lucky I’ve never based my worth on how useful I could be to a man. Or to a god, for that matter.”
“Well, I would tell you to feel free to think of this mouth while I’m gone,” I said, “but I’m sure you were already planning to think about it.” His gaze finally fixed on me, burning with possibility and promise as he said, “Among other things.”
A monster, but a monster who had gifted me the sun. Who had offered me healing in every way he could after my trials…and then let me go when he saw no other way to aid in that healing. He was still the villain. I couldn’t forget that. It was just… In my head, I’d written our story much differently.
his gaze snagging on the blade I held. Cillian had looked at it as though it was food to fill his starving stomach. Andrel regarded it with a different kind of hunger, I thought; like a king looked at a territory he intended to conquer.
I couldn’t change what had happened, but maybe I could control what came next if I could stick to this familiar ritual, if I could find some way to impose order upon the chaos.
His voice lowered. Still annoyingly calm compared to mine, but clearly frustrated. “Tonight I just needed to make sure you were okay.”
“Sometimes we hold on to painful things, I think, because letting them go feels like letting go of the person who gave them to us.”
“When you’re curious about something, your forehead gets a very deep groove.” He pointed to his own forehead, trying to mimic it. “And your lips part, as if you’re trying to inhale it all in, in every way possible.” I tilted my face away from him, blushing. “You don’t have to hide it. I like that look on you.”
When I looked back at Dravyn a few minutes later, I found him watching me as though I was the only thing in the world just then—in this realm or otherwise.
“One of my more underrated skills.” “Do I want to know what your higher-rated ones are?” “Would you like me to show you?”
“So perhaps I’ll just stand among the ashes with you,” he said, “and admire your work.” “I could allow that.”
“You look fucking beautiful in the firelight, if you weren’t aware.”
A wildness flashed in his eyes—different from his anger, but it still made my pulse skip and my breaths turn shallow.
I was one of the weakest beings in this realm, but in that moment, I felt powerful beyond measure.
The heat of his magic was nothing compared to the heat of his tongue.
“As a child I sometimes prayed to the Marr, and it’s been a long time since I’ve done so, but this still feels a bit…blasphemous.” “If it’s any encouragement, I am imploring you to commit blasphemy.” His fingers tightened against me, and his tone dropped to a near-growl as he added, “Preferably on my face, while moving your hips like the proper fucking Wildfire I know you are.”
We can take many forms, too, so I suppose things can get a bit more…ah, feral compared to what mortals are used to.”
“A little less than six years ago, a being of the mortal world succeeded in crossing into this realm uninvited. The breach caused a terrifying amount of instability—and not just to our own realm. It caused unchecked magic to flow out from our heavens and into Eligas, flooding its usually neutral pathways and creating chaos. We repaired it just in time to keep it from affecting the mortal realm, thankfully.
“What happened to the person who broke through?” “She remained here for a short time.”
“And I know you were waiting for his return, so I thought I’d let you know he came back a half hour ago. And the first thing he did was ask about you.”
“I fell asleep with you in my arms, woke up the same way, and now everything else feels unbalanced in comparison. You’ve ruined me, I’m afraid, and it’s obvious to anyone paying attention—Valas
I’d wanted to burn with him before. Now I realized I wanted to build with him, too. I wanted to melt the broken pieces of both our worlds and all our wars down and shape them into something new.
days. I’ve worried about you every damn second. Everything around us feels like it’s moving toward chaos, and I should be focused on keeping order and solving problems, but for some reason all I can think about most of the time is you. It’s maddening.”
“I love your mind.” His laugh was low and rough, as though he was using it to suppress a growl. “Your endless wondering and interrogating.” Another brush of teeth against my lips. “But right now I need you to stop asking so many damn questions and just let me kiss you.”
“I’ll try to be gentle,” he promised, nipping at the edge of my ear, “even though every part of me wants to show you what it feels like to be truly fucked by a god.”
“The sound of my name from your lips like that,” he growled, “is going to be the end of me.”
“That day…I could smell the fear on you. The blood. You could have given in—most in your position would have, I think—yet you stood in the rising flames like you still intended to set the world on fire, rather than letting it burn you down.” “And that was it for you, hm?” My smile was skeptical. “You really fell for that?” “Wildfire…” He lifted my hand and planted a soft kiss on my knuckles. “I don’t think I ever stood a chance.”
His voice was a wrecked whisper, and somehow that was worse, like the fire between us was wavering, in danger of flickering out. Please don’t let it go out. Please, please, please—
But I was beginning to think that a mind that was unwilling to change was not necessarily a strength.
All of my instincts, my logic, my years spent not trusting the gods or anything related to divine magic told me that I was a fool to even consider following the path of fire over the edge. But my heart said jump. So I jumped.
I buried my head against his chest. He wrapped his arms around me, and for a moment—just a single, breathless moment—nothing was chaos, nothing was breaking, nothing was burning.
“I felt you reach for me,” he said, “and it seems as though something inside of me couldn’t help but reach back.”
And it was a strange thing, to feel so safe in the arms of someone capable of such destruction.
We have a story in my old kingdom, that when the one you’re meant to be with enters the world, they steal a part of your soul with their first breath. “And you exist, missing that part, until they find you and breathe it back into you. Miran-achth refers to the breath—the part that is missing. You can survive without it. Plenty do. But to have the missing piece is to breathe easier, more deeply.
“Do you have any idea how beautiful you look right now, fucking me like that?”
“And the one she intended to ascend on behalf of, the God of Fire and Forging…” “Has offered up an unprecedented amount of his power to her for the transition.”
He had started to heal parts of me that I didn’t even realize were broken, and now I would return to him, and together we could forge something new.
