Fires of War (War and Deceit #4) - Erin O'Kane Page 0,55

Some were staying behind to care for the sacred stones and those who were too sick or young to travel, but otherwise, everyone who could fight would be coming.

“Prepare yourself,” Eldrin warns, pulling me out of my thoughts. I roll my eyes at him, but I drop into a defensive stance anyway, knowing he’ll tackle me whether I’m ready or not. “You don’t think it’s the right decision?” he asks carefully, slowly starting to circle me, looking every inch the predator with his golden eyes flicking over me, searching for an opening.

“No, it’s the right thing to do,” I reply, and my wrist tingles in agreement, reassuring me we’re making the right decision. “There’s a lot that could go wrong.” Not to mention rising tensions between the elves and some of the tribespeople, and the long, difficult journey ahead of us moving twelve tribes and all of their equipment across the mountains.

I don’t hear his response because he’s moving towards me, almost too fast for me to track, and even with my fae speed, I act too late. His arms come around my stomach, and I try to step to the side and use his momentum to throw him off me, but his grip is too strong, and we just end up rolling. Bouncing through the grass, we come to a jarring stop with him pinning me to the ground, and I look up at him with wide eyes, only to see that I took him by surprise too. I don’t know if the stress of the last couple of days has finally caught up with me, but laughter bubbles up and I can’t hold it back, and it bursts forth until I’m in fits of giggles beneath him. I just start to control them when I look at his face, at his stunned surprise, and it sets me off again.

“I-I’m…I—” I try to apologise between bouts of laughter, my stomach aching. “I’m s-sor—”

I’m abruptly cut off as his lips crash onto mine. All thought leaves my mind as I focus on the feel of his lips against mine, my whole world narrowing down to his kiss. For a few painful seconds, I’m frozen in shock, until he realises I’m not returning his kiss and he starts to pull away.

“Don’t you dare,” I growl into his mouth, wrapping my arms around him as I pull him closer to me, returning his kiss with a passion I hadn’t known I possessed. All of the fighting, heated looks, and biting comments over the last couple of weeks comes out in our fervour, but we don’t take it any further than kissing, like there’s an invisible barrier neither of us are prepared to cross, at least not yet.

I’m not sure how long we stay like that, kissing in the tall grasses, but after a while, he rolls us onto our sides and presses our foreheads together. His large hand comes up to stroke my cheek, his face somber likes he’s carrying a heavy burden.

I don’t want to ask, but I can feel that happiness draining from him the longer we stay like this, and I can’t ignore it any longer. “What’s wrong?” I whisper, my lips brushing against his, my hands gripping onto the fabric of his shirt tightly, as if it will help keep him here with me.

He sighs and presses another kiss to my lips, but this one is different. It’s deep and slow and feels like he’s saying goodbye. Pulling back a few inches, he scans my face, his expression heavy. “We shouldn’t be doing this.” Gently, he untangles himself from me and sits up, wincing at my hurt expression. “You have mates,” he justifies, but it feels more like he’s trying to convince himself rather than me.

My thoughts are a mess, but my heart is breaking and telling me one thing. How can us being apart be the right thing when it hurts so much? Yes, I’ve been destined to love my three mates the goddess has designed for me, but I can’t deny that I have feelings for Eldrin too. Does that make it wrong? Does that mean I should put aside all of my other feelings just because I have predestined mates? I already know it’s possible to love more than one person, is it really so wrong that Eldrin could be one of those people? These thoughts are all so new and fresh to me that I’m not quite sure how to put them into words,