Even as the evening crept on the heat was palpable, a smothering blanket of energy sapping misery, dry and acrid. The only reprieve from the heat was the caress of the wind sweeping down the crags and valleys and rock formations, swirling along the brief stretches of flatlands that reached out between the red stones, or whipping along jagged, flinty corners of standing stones, clustered cliffs, and miniature mountains. Th...

The inn’s stillness and quiet was unnerving, the blackness of the halls and common room below an ominous contrast to the noise and bustle and light that should have been coming from downstairs this early into the night, just a few bare hours after sundown. Even with the flickering light of the candles at their bedside, the dark outside their room was so complete it left even her sharp eyes momentarily unable to pierce the...

DarkFyre Chapter Twenty-One Rael sank back into the large brass tub sitting in the middle of their room. The room’s furnishings were modest, but the bed was large enough for them both to settle into comfortably as long as Silmaria curled in tightly to him, and the room was clean and tidy. The bedding was simple cotton spun, with a thick wool cover and soft, fresh straw stuffed into the mattress. There was a small ash wood...

My hands smell of coconut and vanilla. Lingering warmth and your skin. Memories of you. Fresh. Your blanket curled around you. Tired eyes. Gratitude. The simple comfort of my hands on your feet. Just hours gone by. I miss you already. Every moment spent together For all eternity won't be nearly enough.

Everywhere I look, I see shades of you. Coloring my world. The sweetness of your smile. The freedom of your laugh. The flash of fear in your eyes. Tremble of your lip. The quiet stubbornness in your posture. The darkest of nights is nothing to the depths of your eyes. Glossy and shimmering Like moonlight on dark, still waters. Your joy is the sunshine of my world. The sweetness of your pain a secret treat A delicacy Savor...

I love the many tastes you yield. The soft, fresh sweetness of your lips, tasted in threes. The silky smooth tones of your skin, warm and supple on my tongue, tasting of pleasure sweat and salt, and rich vanilla evening times. The tang of your dark places taste like a sweet, heady musk, low and deep and powerful. The taste of secrets and sharing and pinkish sin. The taste of your fear and pain are a rare delicacy, overpow...

Silmaria’s heart beat violently, thudding unpleasantly in her breast. As the men stepped into their small camp she swallowed and fought to ignore the rising tide of panic threatening to drown her entirely. There were half a dozen of them, all armed and stepping with the confident, easy swagger of men who were comfortably acquainted with a great many kinds of violence. Dark eyes roved over her. She saw a flare of desire he...

Never had the sun shone so bright and warming north of The Teeth before spring had even come. The breeze was chilling and sharp as it rolled off the mountains and swirled along the rise and fall of the open hilly country, but next to a lifetime of winters in the North, the breeze here was but a refreshingly cool caress. The wind touched everything. It combed through the flat plains to the south, teasing patterns from the...

DarkFyre Chapter Eighteen The next day, Rael was a busy man. Silmaria sat back and watched him with a sort of amused fascination. After a long night of rest, Rael was renewed and overflowing with energy and robust health. They’d discussed with disappointment how much of the bear meat was going to go to waste as its spoiling became eminent, but Rael gave a good effort at consuming as much of it as possible that morning. Si...

There's something extraordinary about those moments. We come together, you and I. We become more, and less, respectively. You tap into my darkness. I find it inside, where it always is, where it waits for me and for you, in that same corner of me. Waiting for me to realize that I lost it again. Waiting for me to remember that it's never lost at all. It spreads through me, frighteningly fast and satisfyingly right. How eas...

DarkFyre Chapter Seventeen The bear pelt was heavy and warm. Strange, to think that the pelt and meat were keeping them alive and comfortable after the bear had nearly killed him. There was a sort of grim irony in that, he supposed, but it was lost in the relief of being alive, the exhaustion of his ordeal, and the wonder of the woman in his arms. Rael stared down at Silmaria. She slept for now, a deep, peaceful sleep wit...

The darkness of the cave was broken only by the small, flickering flames of Rael’s makeshift torch. It had spun off into the corner during the struggle with the bear and there it sat, dying. The flame was weak and feeble, yet it would not go out fully. It swirled, sputtering and pitiful, but it clung stubbornly to the torch and sent a tracery of shadows to sprawl in shapes and flittering figures grand and small along the...

DarkFyre Chapter Fifteen The next day was lost to the blizzard. They spent the better part of it huddled together in their blankets, pressed in close, as near to their small fire as they dared. The stone cliff was a forbidding face of rock and ice, and even with the nearby fire, the ice held strong, glittering with stubborn beauty in the firelight. The blizzard outside was a wild, angry thing. The winds were a deep, soulf...

The wilds of DarkFyre Dale were a raw, wretched place, and never more so than in the grip of winter. For the first few days they traveled mostly through the open, sweeping meadows and plains of the western highlands. During the all too brief summer months the highlands were an entirely different place characterized by tall, lush green grasses swaying in the cool wind, speckled with notes of color from wildflowers. They te...

The mild weather snuck away in the night, setting the stage for their departure, to be a much more bitterly cold and uncomfortable affair. After sundown the temperature dropped until snow fell in a scintillating curtain of white, crystal-soft flakes. They danced along the wind, dazzling and fleeting in the moonlight as they did somersaults and dizzying spiral dives before collecting in a graceless mass grave all along the...