Chapter 35

35

MENTAL NOTES FROM THE SCHOOL HEALER AT CSA:

Many herbs have calming effects but consider the source, too. Take a stroll through the woods when you don’t feel well. Not alone, of course.

T hessa didn’t remember slamming the book shut or chucking it across the tent. She didn’t register bursting through the flaps or storming down the alleyway of canvas and cloth. She ignored the children screeching past, kicked an empty bucket in her way, and cursed the goddess of night, loudly.

Next thing she knew, the smell of fresh moss and salty air occluded her senses. Massive arms were restraining her. One hooked around her chest, while the other pinned her waist back.

Soren held her close as he whispered, “You’ll not run around here like a feral feline, scaring children. Do you hear me?”

“Get off of me! ”

“Or what?”

Thessa wrapped her leg around his and tripped him. Dipping out of his grasp, she sprinted for her tent.

It was a useless measure of security. Soren hurled himself inside a second later, tackling her to the ground.

Beneath him, her chest heaved. Every breath she took inadvertently pressed her closer to him. She couldn’t take another lie, yet she couldn’t deny the heat building between her legs, or the ache of her breasts beneath his solid weight.

“ This isn’t fair,” she eyed the minimal space between their bodies for clarification.

“Maybe, but your existence hasn’t been fair to me.”

She wasn’t sure what he meant. “You can’t expect me to lead your army, to kiss you … I’m not some reincarnate of your late wife,” she chided. “Why do you keep lying to me?”

He huffed, rolling off of her and onto his back.

“How do I tell someone they were gifted the grimoire of my late wife? That I lead a rebellion? That I was given a title I don’t identify with? If you have any conversation pointers, I’d love to hear them.”

She rocked to her side, facing him. “Let’s start with you , like the experiment you keep mentioning.” A part of her had been desperate to know.

Soren’s eyes drifted to the roof of their tent. “My father is sick, and not in the physical sense. The order to execute our kind led to a century of conflict and fear that molded him. After he guided shadow-wielders and our allies south, that became the very beginning of this rebellion. But his numbers were weak, and there was pressure to rebuild, so he asked all the males and females to …”

“Procreate?”

“Yes.”

“And then what?” she asked .

“One storm-battered night, he rushed my very-pregnant mother to a sea cave. He hunted a Black Sea Serpent successfully, and unleashed its fangs on her womb while reciting a Manifestation Spell. In the days that followed, whatever I am, was born.”

Thessa was horrified. “Why would he do that?”

Soren rolled to his side, facing her. “He was desperate for an heir to all of this; someone to lead. After I turned eighteen—after he saw what became of my magic—he tried to repeat the experiment again … and again. Every other pregnancy failed. My poor mother. She did everything my father asked, including allowing him to have another wife—you met Sila. And my half-brother Brenneth.”

Her eyes widened in shock. “Brenneth has your powers too?”

“Hades, no, that would be a nightmare. He has no aim.”

She sniffed, holding back a laugh. “Do you hate him, or something?” Last she saw, his serpent-fingers were strung around his throat.

“No, I envy him. His powers don’t turn into things . He doesn’t hold the weight of this entire rebellion on his back, and he was raised by a father that I never knew, one that was … kinder.” It was like he had a hard time admitting the change he saw in his father.

Thessa exhaled. “I’m sorry.”

“Stop apologizing.”

She swallowed, unsure what to make of his honesty, but appreciated it. “What made Brenneth different?”

“He wasn’t an experiment.”

“Sila didn’t go through with it?”

“She did, but her pregnancies failed. Twice. And she wouldn’t allow my father to try again. She left him, moved out of our house, and stayed with the rebellion instead. ”

“I don’t blame her.”

“Me either. My father spent months begging for her forgiveness. After Sila made him promise to never perform the experiment again, on any female, she eventually forgave him. Then came Brenneth. But she’s lived with the camp ever since, and prefers it here—says the woods are healing and all that. If it weren’t for my mother, I would’ve stayed here too.”

“It sounds like you were bred, not born.”

“Yes,” he said with certainty.

They were much the same in that way. “Me too.”

He shot her a curious glare, and she sighed before unraveling her own truth. All of it. Matching his honesty wasn’t as hard as she’d thought it’d be.

When Thessa finished, he said, “If my father finds out about your magic, you may as well flee.”

“He’ll be allowed nowhere near my womb, thank you very much.”

Soren chuckled, and there’d been something about that sound, so light and different from the rigid male she’d come to know.

After staring at him for a moment she asked, “Could you tell me about Eiliana now?”

She watched his throat bob before he answered, “Our marriage was arranged.”

That was not what she was expecting to hear. “Did you love her?”

His voice shifted, there was anger in it. “Madly. And I hated my father for what he forced, then destroyed. Losing her in battle … I almost lost myself.”

She shook her head, feeling sorry for him. “It was your father’s idea?”

He groaned, answering that question .

Thessa wasn’t sure why she was so curious, but had to ask. “Why her?”

“She was the heir to the Forgone One. He presented my unique skill set to her father and they forced our hands—to help restore hope after the exiles.”

She wondered how anything forced could do such a thing. “And did it?”

“Yes, even in myself. She was as righteous as she was stunning. Falling for her was as easy as it is falling for you .”

Thessa blinked. “You can’t mean that.”

“I mean it with every drop of magic in my blood.”

He couldn’t. He was a mourning mess. One question still lingered in her mind. “I don’t even know how old you are.”

“I’ll be two hundred this year.”

Thessa’s jaw unhinged. His eyes and perfect skin held nothing but youth. “And Emiel?”

“The same. Father’s orders, remember? We grew up together. He’s my best friend.”

“Does lying come easy to him too?”

Soren snorted.

“I mean it. You weren’t going to tell me you fought in the UnResting? That I was gifted the grimoire of your late wife? That your father was a fanatical scientist? That you were created? That you want me to lead your army? At any point during our time together, were you thinking, hmm should I tell her anything? ”

The inches between them seemed to disappear entirely. “I haven’t been able to think about anything since I met you. Nothing but those sea-blue eyes and sharp tongue.” He tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear.

“I can assure you, your thoughts are skewed.”

“Far from skewed, Thessa ,” he purred her name, tracing a line from her jaw, down to the top of her tunic .

She grabbed his finger the moment it touched her heart. “Don’t do this.”

His magic flared in her grip. “Release my finger.”

She did not. “Do you really think I’m afraid of your little serpents?”

“You seem to be the only one who isn’t.”

Smiling, she locked eyes with the serpent-wielder and brought the tip of her tongue to his finger.

He shuddered.

Without another thought, because her mind had won too many times, she pushed Soren flat on his back and straddled him. Pressing her hands into his shoulders, she said, “Every time you touch me, my body responds.”

His gaze drifted from her eyes to where their hips met. “Do you have any idea what I was thinking about doing to you when we rode Ares together?” Thessa felt him swell beneath her, and the pressure was undeniably perfect.

Goddess, help me .

“Well,” she breathed. “I appreciate your restraint.”

He groaned and said, “When will you kiss me?”

She bit her lip, but her rumbling stomach had other plans. “Maybe after we eat, I’m starving.”

“You’re joking.”

“I never joke about food,” she said, hopping off of him.

Soren pouted, then grumbled something about having meetings anyway.