CAGED (#3, of Crows and Thorns)

Chapter 124

Gods, how I loved her. But I shouldn't have shared my feelings with her, not now, not like this. I just hadn't been able to stop my heart's truth from spilling out. "I shouldn't have said it—" I began to apologize when Nelle pressed a hand to my mouth, stopping me from saying anything further.

"Say it again," she whispered.

The words vibrated against the tips of her fingers. "I love you, little bird."

I curled my hand and slid my knuckles gently along the curve of her face, down the column of her graceful throat to rest it on the bottom of her neck, the roped collar butting up against the side of my hand. Nelle didn't say anything for a long time, simply dropping her hand to my shoulder, her thumb resting in the hollow between my collarbones, as she stared at me with a bewildered crooked grin caught up in awe. All too soon, her expression collapsed into regret. As her eyebrows angled up, she swallowed thickly. "I can't—"

"I know," I hastened to say. How could she feel anything like that for me?

Her gray eyes shimmered with unshed tears. "I can't give you what you want..." She sucked in a deep breath as her thick lashes fluttered shut. "But I can give you this." I felt her then, a humming skittering sensation beneath my flesh as she shared with me the tangled riot of emotions within her. She leaned closer, and her hands skimmed upward to frame my cheeks as she pressed her mouth to mine.

My fingers trailed around the nape of her neck, burying themselves into her lovely, wild hair. She glided her lips against mine in a barely-there touch, sending intimate shivers coursing across my skin that I felt all the way to the depths of my very soul. She nudged my lips open to kiss me deeply. Every caress of her tongue, every endearing slide of her lips, sang an enchanting melody to the steady rhythm of our twin-hearts beating as one, the bass note of my helpless groan. The kiss was wickedly sweet and spun from silvery moonlight. She gave me everything she felt. Everything that troubled her. Everything joyous too. She poured bright, buttery sunshine through her kiss to vanquish every dark crevasse that lurked inside my being.

As the willwips flitted above and we basked in ethereal hues of metal, she let her truth stir through my blood once more, warming my heart as her pure delight and happiness fluttered inside my chest like a swarm of glowing fireflies rising into their twilight flight.

What she felt for me was tentative. A fragile flame. The first glimpse of sunlight slipping over a mountain peak to tiptoe across the sky. But she cared deeply.

Cool air prickled my mouth when she broke the kiss to rest her forehead against my own. Her hands slid forward to feather through my hair and curl around the nape of my neck. Her breath whispered across my lips as she asked, "What are we going to do? Your aunt and your brothers know what you feel for me, that you've been protecting me."

"No," I replied. "They may suspect it, but they'll believe it's tied to our connection as Wyrm and Tamer."

I'd already run through what had occurred in my mind, what had been seen, what I'd said aloud. My aunt was too caught up in her rage and sorrow to have overheard my heart's confession to Nelle. My brothers had come at the moment rage had set my blood on fire when I'd learned of the vileness of the Emporium and what Nelle had been subjected to. They'd witnessed the color of my eyes blow straight to Nelle's and they'd fallen to the might of the Tamer. My wrath turned to bloodshed because Nelle was my possession, I owned her, and the dominant nature of the Tamer could easily be mistaken for the reason for my explosion.