His dark voice trails down her spine, lighting a path of desire that renders her breathless. "If only I were in a position of no consequence."
Alia's breath wavers when the pad of his thumb slowly glides across her bottom lip.
"Then I could give in...
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"There are wounds that never show on the body that are deeper and more hurtful than anything that bleeds." - Laurell K Hamilton
•
After Death flew through the portal, Alia spent countless hours trying to get the golden restraints off of her mate's skin. But her attempts were futile. Blood coated her stinging fingertips, the blade in hand slicing her skin as she tried to orientate the dagger to block each ray's path. For the first few hours she tried cutting them, but they remained untouchable, unmovable, and they were just as stubborn as Alia.
Mind-linking Gamma was also useless. She wasn't even able to plea for his help before he told her that if he or anyone else entered Valen's home, they would be at Death's door by nightfall. He assured her that he'd do his best to discern the cause of Valen's restraints, clearly worried about his General's welfare, and would update her if he found anything of use. But in the meantime, she was on her own.
Alia muttered bitter curses after his presence slipped from her mind, conflicted by her feelings of resentment towards his fear, and desire towards Valen's primal tendencies.
A stray vine sprouts out of the ground beside her, the gleam catching the corner of her eye. It snatches her wrist and yanks her to the floor. A resounding snap fills the living room, the oncoming pain making Alia cry out with watery eyes. She scowls at the restraint, other hand grabbing the blade lined with her blood, and begins to stab at the floor. Wood splits as she aims for the base of the vine, but it continues to wrap around her, tightening with every swing.
Black eyes glare at the restraint as she tugs with all her might, adrenaline deafening the sounds of her wrist breaking even further. She snarls, furious, and tries to use her feet to propel herself backwards. But the wooden floors crack instead.
Her ankle is snatched by another vine. She gasps when her body is stretched against the floor, restraints pulling ruthlessly at opposite ends. A scream tears out of her when her knee pops, a molten pain spreading through her lower limb as the vines continue to pull.
She tries to reach for Valen's hand, just to ease the pain jolting out of her knee, but his hand tightens into a fist instead.
Lightning slams into a tree, lighting the leaves on fire as the trunk splits and crashes to the ground. Violent bolts surround the home with their strikes, illuminating the living room in electric blue light.
Alia goes pale, lungs unmoving as she fears Death's return. The cracking of her sternum in Dytikos doesn't leave her mind, and with Valen unconscious, she fears that something much more dire could happen under Death's hand. She won't be able to protect either of them, but she'll do all she can to try.
Telling him about Evropí was a blessing in two ways. The first being the Pack's demise, which Alia hopes is the outcome of Death's departure, and the other being a way to get him out of Valen's home before he could think to harm either of them. Alia knows Death supposedly cares for Valen now, but she won't trust the words of a God, not when they do everything but what was believed of them.
