Oath of the Alpha - Eva Dresden Page 0,76
a mere hint of her power before when she’d helped heal his wounds from the arrows. Even during her rages, when she lost all control, it was nothing compared to the sensation of holding the biting core of it in his hands. Cold as the starshine in her eyes, it did not like his heat, did not care for the fire of his blood.
It wanted out.
Er’it couldn’t hear a thing above the roaring in his ears, not realizing it came from his lips until Aida screamed against his open mouth and raked her nails down his nape to dig deep into his shoulders. She clung to him as he forced the weighted length of his arm to move, his clenched fist quaking with the roiling blue glow that was Aida. Hauling her up his body, he sealed their mouths together once more, feeding her the vicious sound erupting from deep within him as he guided all her strength toward something that couldn’t be harmed.
A sound akin to the hard snap of leather, the crack of wood, pushed through the decimated village. An invisible force, it distorted the air in sultry waves that held the razor-sharp edge of winter. It knocked everything to the ground except Er’it and Aida. The source of it all, they remained untouched except for a chilled breeze smelling of snow and spring that ruffled her curls and tickled Er’it’s cheeks. He moaned against Aida’s lips as the energy flowed from his fingertips. Surging, flaring, it dimmed the sun to nothingness as its glow filled the clearing. Deepest midnight shading to the brightest sky, flecked white and tangled with red-gold, he could see it in his mind’s eye, though his gaze remained shuttered with the agonizing rapture of it.
Dragging a wheezing breath into his lungs, Er’it pried his eyes open to find them both kneeling, a dense ring of flowers nodding around them with lush grasses creeping along the hard-packed dirt. The scrubby stems and thick-leaved greenery of his dry desert home were interspersed with delicate ferns and buds. Standing tall among it all were the heart-shaped flowers he’d long ago associated with her. Deep plum petals shading to brilliant yellow and streaked with a pure sky blue, it was the oddest combination of colors he’d ever witnessed yet one of the most beautiful. Er’it’s hand trembled with the strain to reach out and caress a delicate bloom, the warmth of it a sigh against his roughened skin. The same sigh Aida feathered against his shoulder where her lips pressed against the mark she’d placed there.
Dragging his head up, he looked around to see what damage had been done. All the hard-earned breath left his lungs in a hard whoosh when he saw it. Clutching Aida tighter, he could only gape at the scene unfolding before him.
The land was healed and more. Old growth and trees stood as silent sentinels over the space once littered with rubble and ruin, and thick grass cushioned the feet of the aghast villagers as they stumbled about in awe. Every boulder gone as if it never existed, what rocks remained were nothing more than a natural part of the landscape. Even the raw edges of the sheared mountainsides had been rubbed smooth and worn, shrubs and trees spotting their hills. Flowers of all kinds still pushed their way free of the rich brown earth, passing from tender seedling to ripened seed within the space of a single breath. The process repeated again and again, fields of the blooms bursting into existence as they all watched on. The road remained clear yet no longer had the dusty appearance of misuse. It seemed as any other well-used road, sprigs of grass and stubby weeds sprouting from the edges.
None of it cared that it was the dead of winter and that snow blanketed the world beyond. Within this space, it was spring and summer, and Er’it was certain it would remain so for some time to come.
“Incredible,” Er’it breathed against Aida’s temple, gathering her against his chest until she relaxed in his embrace. Tipping his chin aside to give her access to the space her mouth worked against, her faint purr resonated through his bones.
The loss of that quiet sound startled Er’it from his shocked state. Aida hung limp in his arms, her head lolling against his shoulder. The smallest shift sent her clutching arms to flop boneless against his sides. His roar echoed to the sky, a denial so vicious it had the