Page 177 of Dare

A sob dropped from my mouth. He would come. But not soon. Not even close. That part, he didn’t say.

All the same, he snatched my cheeks. “Know this. I would chase you to the ends of the ocean, to the bottom of the fucking sea. I would mutilate anyone who stopped me.” His fingers knifed into my hair. “So help me, I would freeze this world for you.”

“And so help me, I wouldn’t want you to do that. If you’re going to act for my sake, then heal this world instead.”

“Selfless little beast,” he murmured. “So be it.”

“Good.” Folding my hands over his, I gave him the dirtiest look I could muster. “Because I will hunt you down if you don’t.”

“That isn’t a threat,” he countered. “It’s a temptation.”

Tears puddled in my eyes. This morning after fucking the day away, and he’d said we still had time.

Suddenly, one year felt like one second. It had gone by too fast. We wouldn’t find out how it felt to have more time. We would lose those dusks and dawns. We would forsake every sunset and sunrise. We could sacrifice every lost kiss and touch. We would surrender the life we’d barely gotten to taste.

Poet and Briar had earned their happy ending. They were blessed, and I couldn’t be more elated for them. Yet I envied their bond. When the prince and I next saw one another, it could be months or years. From then on, our reunions would be sporadic and risky. They would always be fleeting.

What we shared would remain unknown, never existing for the world to see. Our language was fire and ice, it was ferocious and enduring—a language of survival. It was a rainforest, something that remained elusive and isolated.

Like our shared ability to hear my voice. Like Aire’s sensory powers. Like Aspen’s beautiful markings. Like Poet and Briar’s unbreakable union.

If magic existed in nature, it must exist in humans and fauna too. If nothing else, Jeryn and I would always share this private link.

Let this go, my blood said.

Hold on tight, my heart said.

I surprised Jeryn—the last surprise—and slipped off his necklace. Crouching to the ground, I packed the vial with sand, sealed the vessel, and rose to loop the strap back over his head.

“To heal you when you need it,” I said, the words splintering on my tongue.

He clasped the pendant, his features constricting. “I have nothing to trade.”

“Yes, you do.” I framed the hard ridge of his jaw. “You’ve already given it to me.”

His name, his kiss, his body. He’d given me his thoughts, his fears, his doubts, his regrets, his shame, his desires. In those ways, this cold prince had given me his heart.

Jeryn’s gaze clung to mine. Those irises grew tender in a way I’d once thought impossible. He soaked in the view as though he were staring into the sun.

The muscles in his face cinched, and heat swirled in his pupils. “I belong to you.” Seizing the back of my head, my villain prince swooped down and hissed against my mouth, “Everywhere you are, I shall be yours.”

His mouth grabbed my own, ripping open my lips and pulling a grieving noise from me. I flung my arms around him and sobbed into the kiss. My mouth latched on, catching the desperate flex of his tongue, angling my head and fitting my own tongue to his.

Groaning, Jeryn locked my scalp in place with one hand and gripped my ass with the other. His strong arms banded me to him, enabling his mouth to reach deeper, to locate the depths of my soul.

I kissed him because I wanted him. I kissed him because I needed him.

I kissed him because I loved him.

I loved this villain prince more than any legend or wish I’d ever had. I told him with my moan, the clench of my lips, the way my tongue roped around his. I let him feel it in the quiver of my mouth, the nip of my teeth.

I kissed him for the year we’d shared. I kissed him for someday.

Jeryn’s body hitched. His ferocious mouth crushed mine harder, hotter. He hoisted me into him, my tears leaking into the place where our lips fused and rocked.

Just one more time. Just one more minute.

Would I remember the shape of this kiss? Would I remember the last gasp of it?