Chapter 31

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Zarya’s hands were trembling. Her whole body was vibrating from magic and adrenaline and relief. She guided Arkon to a chair and had to physically restrain herself from pouncing on him.

He is alive. He is safe, she kept reassuring herself.

"Don’t look," she said and placed his wounded arm on the table in front of her.

"I wasn’t going to. I trust you and don’t need to be checking your work," Arkon replied. He looked far too pale, and she didn’t like it.

Zarya unwrapped the magic she had bandaged over his forearm. Strahil had nearly made it to the bone. Zarya should have made him suffer longer.

She had only been thinking of getting Arkon out of there and not of her revenge. Somewhere along the way, her priorities had shifted. She renewed the numbing spell, and he sighed softly.

"Tell me what’s been happening since I’ve been gone? How did you find me?" Arkon asked.

"Ashirah asked Karsudan to track you because we couldn’t," Zarya said, checking the wound for infection.

Arkon gasped. "No. You’re fucking kidding me? You had best start from the beginning because I’m struggling to believe Ashirah would do that for me."

Zarya talked while she began to knit the muscles and tendons in Arkon’s arm. She was trying her best not to let her anger get the better of her because the fight was already over, and she had no one to take it out on.

Zahir and the others were going to bring survivors through the portal and get them help. Zarya had barely been conscious of what she was doing when she had been dropped into the camp by Dom. She had no memory of what happened before going into the dungeons. She only knew she had to get to Arkon, and she had let her magic guide her to him.

"Almost done. Stay put," she said and went into the bathroom and wet a cloth. She cleaned up his face in gentle swipes and mended the cuts on his lip and the blow he’d taken to his nose. She tried not to kiss him because she wouldn’t stop. She cleaned up his arm and checked the raised pink scars that were left behind.

"Give me one moment. I just need to get something," Zarya said. She stepped outside and sucked in a shaky breath. She wasn’t going to cry. She had him back, and that was what mattered. She gently tugged on the strings that led to her mother and found Astrid awake and helping tend to the wounds of one of the survivors. A marquee had been erected in the garden to shelter the people still coming through.

"How is he?" Astrid asked, her eyes not moving from the leg that she was bandaging.

"He’s lost a lot of blood. I don’t suppose you have any of your healing elixirs?"

Astrid gestured to the leather kit behind her. "Take a yellow one."

"Thanks, Mama."

"And Zarya? I don’t want to see you out here until you’ve both slept."

Zarya kissed the top of her head. "Yes, Mama."

Zarya took the vial and hurried back through the gardens. Arkon was getting out of the shower when she returned.

"I thought I told you to stay where you were?" she demanded. He had a towel slung low around his waist, skin still glistening from the water.

"I smelled like prison cell and ass. I needed to get the bad vibes off me," he argued. "Why? Were you going to wash my back for me?"

"I guess you will never know. Drink this," she tossed him the vial. He didn’t question what it was, just popped the cork off and downed it. Color flushed back into his cheeks, and he straightened a little.

"What the hell was that?"

"Healing potion of my mother’s."

"Hmm, explains the honey."

Zarya’s hands clenched and unclenched. "How do you feel now?"

"Better. Damn, that stuff is good. Why?" he asked. Zarya collided with him, her mouth on his. The shaky feeling inside of her intensified, and she sobbed.

"Lupa, look at me," Arkon said, cupping her face. "I’m fine. I’m okay."

"But you could have died, Arkon! Do you have any idea what it did to me watching you disappear through that portal?"

Arkon brushed his thumbs over her cheeks. "Tell me. Say it."

"I love you, and you left me," she whispered, her voice cracking. "We are meant to be a team. We are better when we are together. And you left..."

Hot tears filled her eyes, and she tried to swallow them back. Arkon kissed away the few that had escaped.

"I love you too, and I couldn’t let him take you. It was my only thought. I’m sorry," he said and rested his forehead against hers. "I knew you would find me. That you would get to the camp as well and save the day. That’s who you are."

"You don’t know that for sure. Strahil could have killed you. I could have been too late," she replied. Her fingers gripped him tighter. "Do you know what I could have done—what my magic could have done—if I lost you?"

"Probably the same thing I would have done—destroy everything. We are here; we are safe, and that’s what you need to focus on, baby. Don’t worry about the could have beens." Zarya started to argue but Arkon kissed her again. "No. No more arguing. Just kiss me."

Zarya couldn’t handle the storm of emotions inside of her, didn’t know the right words to use to explain all that she was feeling. She poured it into her embrace, her magic curling around his. She never needed words with Arkon because he could read her a thousand different ways. He knew what she was feeling down to her core.

Zarya dragged him to the soft bed, her clothes coming off in a desperate flurry. Arkon’s warm mouth closed over her nipple, and she buried her hands in his wet curls. She breathed in the scent of his magic, focused on the heat of his body, and the desire building inside of her. It pulled her out of her spiral and into the present where they were both safe and alive.

Zarya wrapped her legs around him and lowered herself onto his hard dick. There was no foreplay or finesse. She needed to be connected to him in every way. Arkon’s breathless groan was all she needed to hear.

"My mad, mad sorcerer," she said, kissing him again. "Don’t leave me again. If we fight, we fight together. If there are any more strange portals, we go through them together."

Arkon’s hand tightened in her hair. "I promise, baby. I’m sorry for everything I put you through."

"Good." She held his gaze. "You are more important than my revenge, Arkon. I know we need to finish this for the sake of everyone, but I don’t care about everyone. I care about you. I only want to end the war if I get you afterward."

"Fuck, Zarya. I want that too. So fucking much. You and me, baby," Arkon said and kissed her deeply.

The kiss turned desperate and feral, and Arkon rolled her onto her back, tossed her legs over his shoulders and pounded into her. It was too much, and exactly what she needed.

His eyes never left hers, flames burning inside of them that called out to her power. Every time hers surged too much, he caught it and calmed it. Every time his started to burn too hot, she cooled it. They were the perfect balance.

Lights burned in her vision as her body locked up and pussy gripped around him. Her whole body burned with a thousand pins and needles as she came with a strangled gasp of his name.

"Yes, that’s the sound I needed to hear. The only one I ever wanted," he growled, picking up his pace until he was filling her, his breath hot against her lips as he kissed her again and again.

They lay tangled for a long time, Zarya curled around him, his heart thrumming under her ear, reassuring her that it was still beating and that it belonged to her.