The concern knotting my chest tightens. I can feel myself compressing into an ever-constricting space between the crushing weight of my exhaustion and my fervent desire to set off to find Lukas immediately. His ardent green gaze fills my mind, setting off a burn in my blood. That warrior energy in his stance. His courage. His fire.

A choking knot of longing overtakes my throat and I struggle to pull in a breath.

Stop this, Elloren, I can almost hear Lukas snarl at me. Gather your strength. Then fight back with everything in you.

I force a breath. Then another as I focus on the Wand’s starlight tree, branching out deep inside me, the Wand’s steady energy humming against my hand.

I’m coming for you, Lukas, I mentally grit out toward the western sky. I swear it. If I have to fight the Vu Trin to get hold of a portal west, I’ll do it.

I turn and drag my leaden, bruised body toward the bed. I’m already bathed and fully dressed in a dark purple tunic and pants with a holiday lilac moon pattern edging the collar and hems to help me blend in. Ready to flee at a moment’s notice.

I slide my Wand into my right boot’s side, then slump down onto the bed, overcome by the dizzying sense of melting into its absurdly indulgent softness, the feel of a mattress so foreign after weeks of sleeping on bedrolls and moss. I don’t so much fall asleep as hurtle into the abyss of it, a faint sting prickling my hands before darkness draws me under.

A shot of fiery pleasure courses through my body, my spine arching against it, the sensation so heated it’s nearly a shock of pain as sinuous branches twine through my lines in a rampant caress. Lips press down on mine, sending a tight shiver through me, the kiss suffused with breathless hunger. A tongue pushes into my mouth, claiming me more than kissing me. Strong hands grip my arms, a hard male body fitted to mine.

An aroused male body.

An emotional cry escapes my throat, the feel of his half-naked body intimately familiar against my sparsely clothed form. And that deep forest scent...

The name almost tears like a cry from my lips.

Lukas.

I open my eyes, a tremor of relief quaking through me to find myself wrapped in Lukas’s arms, his lips moving against mine in an impassioned kiss.

Overtaken by a fierce rush of love, a muffled sound of joy bursts from me. I knot my fingers in his hair, grasping tight hold of his muscular arm and wrap my legs around him as I draw him into a deeper, desperate kiss.

A groan shudders through his chest, Lukas’s heartbeat sounding out his longing against mine as his lips slide to the nape of my neck, his hot mouth pressing against my skin with devouring fervor.