A Valkyrie's Apprentice: Book Two

You

– T A Y A H –

I ran. I sprinted across that sunbaked plaza without thought.

Without thought of the citizens I threw myself through to get to her. I closed the distance faster than anyone should be able to. I slipped past a joyful couple easily. Then didn't stop as I launched myself at her chest and took her with me clear over the edge of the fountain into the water with a huge splash.

"You bastard!" I shouted at her face that became starkly shocked when the water came over us both. I pinned her shoulders heavily and dragged her head up by the collar only to dunk her head into the fountain's water again. "You selfish bastard! You were here–you were right under my nose in that shop and you said nothing!" I snarled, slamming my palms back into her chest and feeling her catch my wrists this time.

She started smirking again past the water streaming over the lines of her face making me want to drown her further. My knees were on either side, straddling her in the shallow water and I was fairly sure every citizen in Yascalla now stared at the display but I did not care.

"What in hells do you have to say for yourself?" I growled, pulling up her face sharply to my own and breathing down heavily on her. She calmly regarded me as droplets of crystalline water bounced off her features.

"I missed you equally." She murmured, taking in every detail of my face. I watched her back for a breath before dunking her head below the water again for no reason other than the fact that I was speechless. She sputtered out the water again and grinned at me before capturing my wrists and pulling them off her chest. Her eyes flashed down my body quickly before she spoke.

"Tayah–that garment is starting to become see through–" she murmured with a dark look filling her eyes, "–and secondly, just about every member of this town is aware of us. Not that I care in the slightest." She added with a shrug.

My eyes burned into hers endlessly and my breathing slowed. She watched me back intently with a thousand unsaid things floating between us in a blink. Her death. Our loss. Our separation. Her touch. The feel of her heat beneath me in the water–actually here. Not in our dreams.

"Teayah?" Yanu asked behind me unsure.

It ripped my head from the goddess and the world around us came crashing into focus. The eyes of the Valkyrie always seemed to draw me into our own private, heated realm where things were more intense–more powerful...

"Yanu." I muttered, shaking my head out of her mind. I pointed to my immortal below me and said, "Kára."

To which Yanu grinned and looked to her saying something in the foreign tongue. She laughed below me and returned it with another series of words. I sighed heavily, this was going to grate. I lifted myself off her slowly, watching the water rush off my legs and looked down at my very revealing attire. The eyes of my immortal did not miss a thing and ran up my body slowly as she replied to Yanu in something I couldn't understand.

Despite it all, it made me smile darkly. I wrapped the red cloak over my chest and offered her my hand. She ignored it and rose to her feet swiftly before standing close to me and slipping a hand quickly under my cloak. I sucked in a breath already feeling the rush of blood to wherever her hand lay but then realised the smooth tunic had dried instantly below me.

She held my gaze briefly before stepping from the fountain dripping and not bothering to do the same for herself in front of so many witnesses. It would dry in this heat soon enough.

John and Kaden then rushed into the fray among the crowds who had grown less interested and started back with their own conversations. Kaden barged through despite it and suddenly stopped short with a stare of disbelief.