Recreated (40 page)

I flinched momentarily, but he didn't bite. His caress was gentle, soft, like the barest of touches. He trailed soft, deliberate kisses down my jaw to the corner of my mouth. I was lost in the sensation, and savored each press of his lips against my skin, yielding to his embrace.

As his mouth grazed my ear, he paused and slid his hands to my shoulders. I panicked, thinking he was going to cease touching me in the lovely and delicious way he had been. “Asten? Don't stop,” I begged.

He shifted his head away, his breathing deep. As if unable to keep his hands off my skin, he slid them up to cup my neck. Asten lifted his gaze to look directly in my eyes, his expression haunted. “I'm sorry,” he said.

“Why?”

“Because my desire for you isn't something I can control in the dreamworld.”

“Is this what you were afraid of?”

Reluctantly, he nodded.

“And you've seen us together like this in the future?”

He paused a moment, as if deciding what to tell me, but then he sighed and said quietly, “Yes.”

“Then I don't understand your hesitation.”

“My”—he swallowed and sucked in his lower lip, a gesture I found transfixing—“my hesitation came with knowing how you feel about Amon.”

“Amon?” I blinked, and a cold irritation piqued, settling in my stomach and threatening to squash the escalating ardor I felt. Resentment washed away every happy sensation from moments ago.

“Am I not allowed the freedom to love whom I wish? To explore my feelings? To follow the urgings of my heart? Of my soul?”

“Of course you're allowed those things.”

“Then you need to understand that there's a fervor running through my blood that calls to you. I will work to save Amon. I will fight the Devourer. I may even die. But before I do all these things, I want to understand these feelings. Discover the tiny pleasures that I've only just begun to learn.” I stroked his cheek and found the roughness of the stubble on his face a soothing distraction.

He stilled my hand, placing his on top of mine. “Are you sure this is something you want, little lioness?” he asked.

I smiled. “This is something I very much want, Tene.”
Love.
The word felt right. He felt right. And yet, a nagging thought plagued me. “But…”

“But?” Asten frowned.

“There is something I need to know.” He nodded, encouraging me to speak, and squeezed my hand. Hesitantly, I asked, “Is the desire you claim to feel for me the result of the scarab's pull?”

“You're asking if I can love you for yourself?”

I nodded, relief and gratitude filling me. He understood me in a way no one else could. He could see into my heart.

Asten studied me for a moment and then slowly, purposely, his eyes never leaving mine, brought my palm to his lips. His kiss so sweet, my entire body hummed. Then, wrapping his arms around my waist, he drew me closer. “The scarab has no sway in the dreamworld,” he murmured, nuzzling my ear. “What I feel for you here is genuine and comes from my own heart. Does that answer satisfy you?”

I nodded.

He pressed a kiss against my temple and continued. “I was a man who usurped another man's place. Who hid who he was and what he wanted. If all I ever get is to love you in my dreams, I'll take it and praise my good fortune.”

I was about to protest, but he raised his head and pressed a finger against my lips. “And if, when you wake and decide that the things we've said and done were a mistake, I'll understand. A long time ago, I made a vow never to take what belongs to another man again, especially my brother. But where you're concerned”—he paused, trailing his fingertips across my skin and down my jaw, leaving little tingles in their wake—“I find oath breaking an all-too-pleasing prospect.”

I leaned into him, a tiny groan escaping from my lips, but he took hold of my shoulders. Pressing them lightly, and letting the cold, unfeeling wind flow between us, he waited for my eyes to open and meet his. “I need you to understand,” he said. “If, after this trial is said and done, you decide that you want to pursue this…this feeling between us, I will. I'll move the stars in the heavens to find a way to be with you. This I vow.”

I smiled, teasing him lightly, “Do you ask me to trust you, then? A self-professed oath breaker?”

His eyes pierced me. “I would break every oath I've ever made or will make just for the chance to capture even a moment of what I've seen in my dreams. But the time is not yet, little one.”

Asten paused, watching my expression as if to make sure I understood what he was saying. I understood, unfortunately, all too well. He was saying we should wait. Push the ardent feelings aside and pretend we were simply accomplices until we defeated the Devourer. I didn't know if I could do that.

I cocked my head in an impish manner, which was very unlike me. “If I agree, would you grant me one little boon?”

“What do you want?” he asked uncertainly.

“I want to experience just one tiny pleasure, even if it only happens in this dreamworld.”

“And what is that?” he asked.

“The feel of your hands in my hair and your lips on the corner of my mouth again. Right here.” I pointed to the place he'd kissed me so tenderly before.

“Ah.” He smiled and I knew I'd won.

“Would you mind doing it again? Just once?” If he rejected the notion, I wasn't sure what I would do. It felt like my entire being was centered on obtaining this one touch, being held by this one man. At that moment nothing in the world was more important to me.

“Hmm.” He must've sensed my desperation because after warring briefly with himself, he gave in and said, “Perhaps I can do one better.”

Breathless anticipation swept over me as his lips came closer. He smiled and stopped, teasing me with the distance but then just as I was ready to cry out in frustration, he cupped my neck, running his thumbs slowly and tenderly over my jaw before he slid his hands into my hair.

Why had I ever thought hair had no purpose? Obviously the purpose of leaving hair loose and long was for this—to have a man run his hands through it and cradle your head as he kissed you. Asten did just that. Tilting my head, he finally, finally touched his lips fully to my own in a perfectly slow, perfectly deliberate way.

His hands were in my hair and then cupping my face, stroking my neck while his lips moved over mine, melting me into a hot pool of sensation. The kiss was heady, exhilarating, and so, so much better than anything I'd anticipated.

I gradually drifted awake and checked Asten. He slept peacefully, a half smile on his face. I no longer felt restless. There was something soothing about being close to him, our limbs intertwined. The lids of my eyes lowered sleepily, but I remained in a half-dozed, half-wakeful state, which is why I was able to react so quickly when incipient, dark plumes of smoke rose from the west.

Quickly, I disentangled myself from Asten and shook him. He groaned, reaching for me and trying to pull me back. “No!” I hissed, patting the nearby ground for my leather harness. “Wake up, Asten! Ahmose?” I called out.

“What is it?” Ahmose was at my side almost instantly.

“There's smoke,” I said.

He peered into the murky twilight. “Could it be another campfire?” he asked.

I shook my head. “Too big. Do you want to stay with Asten or come with me to check it out?”

At hearing his name, Asten finally roused himself enough to open his eyes. “What's going on?” he asked.

“Smoke on the horizon,” I answered matter-of-factly. “We're debating on who's going to stay and watch over you.”

Asten gave me a long look, one that I couldn't decipher. “I'm well enough I think to go with you,” he finally answered.

“Are you sure?” I asked. “You slept like the dead.”

Again Asten paused, a slight frown wrinkling his brow. He had an air of expectation, as if he was waiting for me to say something else, but then, dutifully, he began unwrapping his bandage. His thigh was perfectly healed.

“Can you stand?” Ahmose asked.

With the help of his brother, Asten took a few cautious steps and then bent to stretch out, testing his muscles. “I don't understand how this happened,” he said, remarking on his returned strength.

“There's no time. We'll explain on the way. Hurry!” I added when I felt like they were moving too slow. “The smoke is coming from the area where I found the mother tree, and I've made a vow to protect her.”

Asten helped me shrug into my leather harness, his fingers sweeping along the hemline of my shirt at the back of my neck. I started and stared at him in puzzlement as he murmured, “We wouldn't want you to be an oath breaker, then, would we, Little Lioness?”

“Uh, no,” I answered blankly, feeling like I must've heard him wrong or missed something. “Let's go already!”

They followed, trusting me to find the right path, which I was able to do easily. Even with the smell of smoke filling my nostrils, I knew the direction I'd walked before and recognized the trees. The smoke overhead billowed, becoming blacker with each step.

The closer we got to the mother tree, the more certain I was that the fire would harm her soon if it hadn't already. Tension bubbled up inside me, filling my frame, and I pushed the two men harder, running and darting through the underbrush faster than they could, even as immortal guardians of the afterlife. My claws came out, and I tore at the vines and branches that got in my way.

We hit the fire line all too quickly. Ahmose stepped forward and used his power to find the safest path. Despite his ability, we were often burned and our progress slowed but we were able to move along despite the char in the air and the fog of black smoke. When it became too difficult to see, I learned of another gift Ahmose possessed.

Taking hold of my arm, he stopped me. “Stand still for a moment.”

Raising his hands in the air, he chanted a spell, and a gentle wind lifted my hair and the hem of my shirt. A stiff gale moved all around us, and I had to squint and brace myself against a tree in the maelstrom. Within the span of a few moments the smoke had cleared away enough for us to continue, but the wind he'd created had stirred up the fire even more.

The mother tree was just ahead. The trees around her were black and burned like charred skeletons reaching toward heaven for divine assistance. Around the mother tree, white, sparkling smoke lifted into the air, and though her leaves shook and her branches trembled, she was still alive. Hope blossomed.

“Hurry!” I cried. “She's still there!” We closed the distance and ran to the tree, stamping out flames in the grass at her roots. I turned to Asten. “We have to stop the fire!” I shouted. “Can you make blankets so we can smother it?”

Asten shook his head. “A few blankets aren't going to matter! The fire has spread too far.”

“I've got to do something! I promised her!” The roar of the fire overpowered my voice, but I cried out as loud as I could. “Fairy!” I shouted. “Fairy, are you here?”

There was no answer. I ran up to Asten, wrapping my hands in his shirt and shaking him slightly. “Asten, we've got to do something! Please!”

Gently, he placed his hands on my shoulders and squeezed. “Ahmose?” he said. “If I lend you my strength, do you think you can manage?”

“I can try,” he answered.

Asten quickly explained, “Ahmose is the Bringer of Storms. It's how he was able to clear away the smoke a while ago, but to call forth rain in the netherworld is very tricky. There isn't much water here. Attempting it will leave us both weak.”