The Price Of Fate Chapter 67

The Price Of Fate Chapter 67

After a while, I stood and drifted to the window. The resort gardens were still, the trees beyond whispering like the ocean I’d never seen. I pressed my palm to the cool glass and wished Toren were back, wished Talon had stayed, wished Elder Thora would walk in and tell me

exactly what to do.

The lock turned softly. My breath caught. Talon stepped in, a paper bag balanced in one arm and two bottled teas in his hands. His eyes flicked to my face, scanning, searching. He shut the door with his foot, set the food on the little table, then came to stand in front of me.

“I’m sorry,” he said, without preamble.

“For what?” My voice was small.

“For snapping. For making you feel like you have to ask permission to exist.” He exhaled, the sound rough. “You were trying to

understand me. That’s more than most ever tried.”

My chest loosened an inch. “I’m sorry too. I didn’t mean to question your loyalty to Toren. I just…” I shook my head. “I’m new at being

chosen. I don’t want to be a burden. Or a fracture.”

“You’re not a fracture,” he said firmly. “You’re the only thing that’s made sense in a long time.” He held out a tea. “Peach. Toren says

you’ll like it.”

A laugh broke out of me, startled and wet. “You brought me peach tea.”

“I brought you two,” he corrected, the faintest smile pulling at his mouth. “In case the first one isn’t enough.”

We ate on the edge of the bed-quiet, companionable-passing the box back and forth, picking through fries and a burger big enough to share. He tore napkins in half, handed me the bigger piece without comment. Small things. Gentle things. When my fingers brushed grease across my lip, he reached up without thinking and wiped it away with his thumb. We both stilled, eyes catching. Something soft and bright pulsed between us-no pressure, just the warm truth of it.

“Talon?” I said after a beat.

“Mm?”

“When Toren comes back with Tyson… are you okay with this? With… all of it?”

He looked at the floor, then at me. “I won’t lie. The idea of sharing doesn’t sit easy.” He lifted a shoulder. “But the idea of losing you sits worse.” He swallowed. “I can learn new ways to be a brother. I don’t want to learn how to live without you.”

The hum behind my ribs turned luminous. “Okay,” I whispered. “Then we’ll learn together.”

A chime sounded on his phone. He glanced down, brows drawing together. “Toren just checked in. He’s on the road. He says, ‘Tell Starlight I’m keeping my promise.””

Warmth slid through me like sunlight. “Tell him I’m keeping mine too.”

Talon typed, then set the phone aside. We sat shoulder to shoulder in the quiet, the kind that didn’t scrape or demand. For the first time

since the shouting, since the glass and blood and the truth that cracked open the floor, I felt… steady.

Maybe I wasn’t breaking anything. Maybe I was part of what would hold it together.

Outside, the trees moved like a tide. Inside, Talon’s arm eased around my shoulders. I leaned in, and he let out a breath that sounded like

relief.

His thumb brushed slowly across my upper arm, a gentle, steady rhythm. The warmth of his body at my side was a completely different kind of heat than Toren’s – not fire and storm, but a low-burning ember. His lips found the side of my neck, just the barest brush at first. My pulse jumped beneath his mouth.

I froze for a moment, caught between instinct and surprise. Talon felt it immediately. He hesitated, fingers flexing against my waist like he was bracing to let go. “Kira,” he murmured, voice low and rough but trembling at the edges, “just tell me no, and I’ll stop.”

Something in the way he asked – no demand, no assumption, only permission – made my chest tighten. “I don’t want you to stop,” I

whispered.

A shiver went through him. His hand slid higher, still slow, still careful, tracing the curve of my ribs through the thin fabric. His mouth moved again at my neck, soft, testing kisses, and then the faintest scrape of teeth. When he lightly bit my shoulder, the sound that left me was a gasp-turned-moan. My back arched against him, every nerve alive.