Moon's Flower (Kingdom, #6)

He could not continue to seek out Calanthe.

Staring up at the sky, he noticed the murder of crows circling high above him. Siria had sent her spies as he’d assumed she would.

Tossing a pebble into the waters, he called the funnel to him and without so much as a wave good-bye, headed toward the glen. More precisely, to their knoll.

The emotions fisting his heart were both excruciating and exhilarating. Because she was here, she’d been waiting. For him. Her eyes danced, the rosebud silk of her pale white dress swished about her knees exotically, the long ends of her brown hair blew in the gentle, perfume tinted breeze and his insides were chaos.

“Calanthe.” Her name was a whisper of breath on his lips. A caress and a benediction.

“Jericho.” Her lips curved upward. “Sometimes I thought you were only a dream.”

Her words sped like an arrow through his soul. How could he walk away from her, from this?

They stopped striding toward one another at almost exactly the same time. Five yards of green grass was the only thing that separated them, but Jericho knew the distance was so much wider than that. He sensed the birds peering at from hidden branches, ready to share his every move with the sun.

She held out a hand and he curled his fingers into his palms so hard the nails dug at his flesh. And there he stood, a second, two, three, four… just staring at her, drinking in the sight of her, heart thumping wildly in his chest and knowing, knowing he could never make her his.

“Jericho?” Her brows dipped and her hand moved down a fraction of an inch.

It ripped him apart that he could not comfort her, could not offer her words of love. “Calanthe, I…” he shook his head, because all the words felt so inadequate, so imperfect to describe, to tell her what he really felt.

Blue eyes widening, she hugged her arm to her chest and sighed a loud sigh. “Oh.” Her eyes squeezed shut. “Oh…” she laughed, but the sound was without humor. “I’m such a fool.”

And against his better judgment, he rushed to her. Grabbed her small form, and tugged her into her his arms, shivering, because the mere touch of her flesh against his made him forget everything.

Forget that tomorrow morning Siria would see he’d hugged Calanthe, would see his hand moving up and down her spine. Would see the way her beautiful eyes widened as she tipped her face up to meet his and she would see his kiss.

He wasn’t gentle either. He wanted to be. Knew he should be. Knew this would have to be their only night, Siria would never allow this to happen again.

Damning the consequences, he tasted her. Inhaled her sweetness, suckled on her tongue and moaned as her hands frantically slid under his shirt. Her sharp nails scored his hot flesh, making him hiss and burn, ache for more of her.

Calanthe was all that was pure and perfect and she was his other half. He knew it, felt it in her touch, in the way their bodies moved in synchronicity, how their flesh literally began to glow as his moonlight seeped from his pores and sank into hers.

“I must have you,” he whispered by her ear, before planting warm, wet kisses along her jaw line. If tonight was to be all they had, he wanted no regrets.

Calanthe nodded and it was all he could do not to tear the roses off her body.

But the eyes were still there. “Not here.” He panted out. “Not here. Someplace private, where no one can catch us, no one can see us.”

Face flushed, she licked her rosebud lips and a feeling of “mine” swept through him.

“I know the place. But you’ll have to shrink.”

Glancing down at himself, and then back at her, he shook his head. “My magic doesn’t work that way.”

“No,” she smiled mischievously, “but mine does.”

And then holding out her hand expectantly, she waited.

No more thinking. He was through with right or wrong, this was his life, and for once, he would live it as he saw fit. Grabbing hold of hers, he smiled as the brilliant glow of her fairy magic enveloped them.

Ever since his imprisonment in the castle, he’d yearned for the warmth of the sun. Not for Siria, but for the brightness of her rays. But he hadn’t really missed the sunlight at all. He knew that now, because as Calanthe’s brilliance enveloped him, he realized this was what he’d been yearning for.

Passion.

Excitement.

Love.

The world suddenly exploded around him. Trees towered eternally toward the sky, flower blossoms were enormous, larger than his face, and everywhere he looked there was life. Giant ants that climbed along the trees, beetles marching through individual blades of grass so long and thick they appeared like jeweled swords shooting up toward the sky.

He laughed and the sound was rich and deep. “I’m small.”

She nodded, as her large wings unfurled behind her back. And where before he’d thought them just white, he now saw the pearlescent veins running through the gauzy ivory.