Standing against the thick fog are a pair of wings—beautiful onyx feathered ones that drape luxuriously over Malice’s forearm. Her eyes are closed, her body limp, but the glowing silver light pulsing from her skin is bursting with energy, with light, with life. The sight has my eyes misting, my soul singing, and suddenly, everything is perfectly, utterly fine.

She’s alive.

14. Fenryr

14

Fenryr

The silver sun beams into my eyes, searing my retinas and blinding me to everything other than the sight of my mate floating toward me. Her beautiful feather wings flutter gently in the howling wind, reflecting the sunlight like millions of gleaming black diamonds.

Waiting for Malice to bring her to me is agony, more so than the pain throbbing from my shattered wings or the dozens of oozing, festering wounds that cover my body.

Malice lands silently on the ice, his hands curling protectively around the luminous creature in his arms. The light beaming from her pores casts a silver glow along the left half of Malice’s face, casting shadows along the hollow of his cheek and highlighting the soulless void of his damaged eye.

“Is this what you’ve been looking for?”

“Yes,” I whisper, reaching for the woman my soul has been yearning for—dying for. “Give her to me.”

A puff of vapor billows out from Malice’s nose as he clutches Dagny tighter to his chest, unwilling to let her go. “Only if you promise to give her back.”

My lip peels back in a snarl, my vision flickering with shadows. “She’s MINE. Only mine.”

Malice’s eyes trail to the skies, another breath puffing from his chest. “I don’t have fucking time for this…” He takes another deep breath, closing his eyes in an attempt to calm his beast. “You can hold her until she wakes. But that’s all.”

He walks the last few feet to where I’m waiting, passing Dagny into my arms with an order I can’t hear past the violent rushing in my ears. Electricity flows through my veins as soon as I touch her, warming my chest and filling my eyes with tears. A desperate whimper echoes into the air as I push my face into her neck, needing her closer, needing to be inside her skin. To be the air she breathes, the moisture leaking from her eyes, the words rolling from her tongue. To occupy every single molecule that touches her, every object she lays her eyes on, every thought in her mind.

Even that would not be enough.

I pull back, my eyes glossing over as I stare down at my beautiful mate. Mine. Always mine. The bond settles with a great sigh of relief as I reach a hand up to her face, brushing the dark brown hair off her forehead, wishing I could stay in this moment for an eternity.