Morrighan - Mary E. Pearson Page 0,10

he made me. He was in my thoughts, my hair, my fingers, my eyes, his memory in places where no one else had been, in a hundred ways that made no sense. I stared at the empty bag still clutched in my fist, my knuckles pale.

“There is no future for us, Morrighan. There can never be.”

I startled, looking up. He stood in the doorway, a tall silhouette against the bright day behind him. I knew he was right. A future was impossible. I could never embrace his home or kind, nor he mine. What did that leave us?

I stood. “Why did you come back?”

He stepped into the coolness of the cavern. “Because…” His brows pulled down, his eyes becoming dark clouds, still angry. “Because I could not leave.”

He walked closer until only inches separated us. His gaze was sharp and searching. There was so much I didn’t know about the ways between a man and a woman, but I knew I wanted him. And I knew he wanted me.

“Touch me, Jafir,” I said. “Touch me the way you did yesterday.”

His chest rose in a deep breath and he hesitated, but then he lifted a single finger, slowly tracing a line up my bare arm, his eyes following the path as if he was memorizing it, and then the path turned and his finger traveled across my collar bone, resting in the hollow of my neck. Something bright and liquid and hot rushed under my skin and through my chest. My fingers went slack, and I dropped the bag still in my grip.

I reached up and laid my hands on his chest, my fingertips searing, trembling at the feel of his skin beneath mine, the rapid beat of his heart, and I breathed in the scent of everything that was Jafir, earth, and air, and sweat. My hands burned, meeting in the middle and slowly traveling down, feeling his ribs and the muscles of his stomach. His breath faltered, a catch, and his hands came up to cradle my face, his thumb swiping across my cheek. We brought our lips closer, misjudged, bumping noses, but then my head turned one way, his another, and our mouths met, our tongues met, and it seemed there was no other way for us to be, tasting each other, exploring the feel of each other, discovering each other in ways we never had before.

His hands slid down my back, strong, pulling me snug against him, and his lips brushed over my cheekbone, my lashes, my temples, and all the empty spaces between.

I didn’t think about his world or mine or the future we couldn’t have. I only thought about the warm light behind my eyelids, his soft murmurs in my ear, and the fullness of what we had in that moment. And we touched in all the ways of yesterday and more.

Chapter Nine

Jafir

She knelt behind me, her hands covering my eyes. “Don’t look.”

“I’m keeping them shut,” I promised as I reached up and brought one of her hands down to my lips.

“Jafir, pay attention,” she said tugging her hand away. I turned and pulled her down on top of me, drawing her face to mine, kissing her, whispering between breaths, “You are all I need to taste.”

She smiled, tracing a line around my mouth. “But one day you will be glad for a berry to quench your thirst.”

“You are—”

“Jafir!” she said, sitting up, straddling my stomach and placing a finger to my lips to quiet me.

I closed my eyes obediently.

I had asked her about the knowing, the gift the Siarrah of Harik the Great was said to have. She had frowned and said it was a gift to many in the tribes of the Remnant, except that some sought it more earnestly than others.

Here, she had told me, pressing her fist gently against my ribs.

And here, she said again, pressing it against my breastbone.

This is the same instruction my ama gave to me.

It is the language of knowing, Jafir.

A language as old as the universe itself.

It is seeing without eyes,

And listening without ears.

It is what led me here to this valley.

It is how the Ancients survived in those early years.

How we survive now.

Trust the strength within you.

Now she tried to teach me this way of knowing.

She had already taught me much—the difference between berries that could nourish or kill, the seasons of the weed thannis, and the gods who ruled it all. In the last few months, I hadn’t missed a day of riding to