Why is it I can’t get him out of my head? No other man makes me feel like he does.

It’s that simple.

From the personal journal of Ozora

Dean of Magics

The Bestiary

“Bastion!” Fraser shouted when he saw me fall. I heard the panic in his voice. “Ozora!” His voice faded as I sank, pulled under by my long skirts. They tangled my legs, wrapping tighter as I tried to kick my way to the surface until I could only weakly swing them. My arms couldn’t fight the pull of my soaked clothes.

Wish I’d held onto one of those amulets I made for Fraser. I’d never learned to swim. Swinging my legs frantically only wound my skirts tighter, binding me. The surface got farther away.

Well, shit. Killed by a hippocamp. Talk about irony.

My vision wavered as I held my mouth clamped shut against my body’s demand for air, when two muscular arms slid underneath mine. Fraser dragged me above the waves and I gasped, drawing fresh breath into my starved lungs.

He started yelling as soon as we broke the surface, but not at me.

“You big dumb meathead! What the hells were you thinking?” He directed all his rage at a hippocamp stallion perched on the end of the quay. The beast stood on his forehooves, braced upright by his long, powerful tail. Snorting, he shook his mane, as if pleased with himself.

Fraser leaned back in the water, dragging me across his chest with one arm, then began pulling for the stairs with his other.

My fingers clutched his forearm and barely made a dent in them. I never wanted him to let go. I also needed him to let go of me right now or I’d lose every scrap of self-control and beg him to give us another chance.

The stone steps hit the backs of my heels, and Fraser scooped me up in his arms.

Oh Nahit, I’m doomed. He lifted me like I was nothing as he stood, still berating the hippocamp. “Quit acting like an idiot.” Fraser’s deep voice vibrated against my arm and thigh where he held me pressed against him. “You could have killed her!” The stallion glared down at me and snorted, blasting a thin spray from his nostrils. His black eyes gleamed.

“Think maybe that was his intention. He seems like the jealous type.” Even though he had knocked me into the bay, I couldn’t help but admire him.

He was a gorgeous beast. Heavy, built like a draft horse with forelegs like tree trunks, and a thick crested neck.

Why did he try to kill me? With my magesight, it was plain as the sun high above. Their bond sparkled and pulsed with mingled blue and green numin. I splayed my hand on Fraser’s chest where his end of the bond anchored in his heart. It was beautiful, a wide stream of shared energies that stretched from Fraser’s heart to the hippocamp’s chest high above.

“Jealous indeed.” I murmured. Did I mean the hippocamp or myself? This bond was like nothing I’d seen. Stronger than a plaited steel cable, yet invisible unless I used magesight. The energies spun in ever-shifting patterns, and I got lost in the dazzling play of numin over my hand. Time seemed to disappear as I sank into the boundless feelings of love and trust that radiated from their link. “He’s yours. This bond.” I blinked, pulling my awareness back from what was between them, and looked up into Fraser’s ocean blue eyes. “Are they all this strong?”

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Salt water ran down his face, dripped from his scruffy days-old beard onto the back of my hand. His heart was pounding, wet skin smooth under my suddenly hyper-sensitive fingertips. My palm pulsed in time with the thumping in his chest. I could feel all of him against all of me, his arms and chest hot against my back and thighs.

His lips. They shaped the word, “no” but I’d forgotten what I asked. All I could think of was how it felt to be held by him again.

And I wanted to kiss him. I didn’t just want to remember the feel of his lips, I wanted them on me.

Now.

As if he read my mind, his arms tightened, and he bent his head toward mine. My hands ran up his chest to curve round his neck, tangling in his sopping curls.

His lips were just a breath away.

“This. Is a very. Bad. Idea.” I swallowed his whispered words like I wanted to swallow him.

“I know.” I breathed back, our noses brushed. “When has that ever stopped you before?”

With a low growl, he closed the brief distance between us, his lips claiming mine.

He was salty and sweet, just like I remembered. Hot, demanding, and I trembled, opening to him as time stood still and I sank in a sea of emotion. A turbulent ocean, shared only between us. Heat and desire pulsed, and I wanted to drown in him.

No one kissed like Fraser. No one else’s touch had me this ready, this needy. Only he made my heart sing and my body melt. His arms were like steel wrapped in velvet and my whole being sang to feel their strength around me once more.

He folded, sitting on the stairs so he could pull my legs across his lap and run his hand down my thigh. I sighed, then whimpered when he wrapped my tangled skirts round his fingers.

“Your pretty things nearly killed you.” Hot words caressed my neck while his fingers parted my soaked silks like tissue. Fingertips grazed my inner thigh as his lips explored my neck, sending fresh tingles along my nerves.

“I saved your life, Ozora. Again.”

A loud splash swiftly followed by a swamping roll of water took us under, pulling us off the stairs, and I was again tumbled beneath the waves and tossed. I clamped my mouth shut, but salt water drove up my nose and I panicked, thrashing.

Fraser never let go. He kicked a few times, and we both broke the surface along with another. I snorted and coughed, trying to clear the water from my nose and mouth. Fraser patted me on the back a few times till I caught my breath.

“Ozora, meet Bastion.”

The three of us rocked in the waves caused by the cannonball-like plunge of the hippocamp stallion off the quay.

Even with Fraser’s arm around me, it was intimidating meeting the immense beast. He might look like a horse from about the flanks forward, but there was nothing horse-like about the sharp, curved fangs he displayed in a wicked snarl. This was a predator in his element.

My fingers tightened on Fraser’s arm, wrapped around my waist, unsure what the lip-lifting and snorting meant. I felt better when he steered us back to the steps and I could stand. The solid stones under my feet did wonders to restore my confidence.

“Stop acting like you’d eat her.” Fraser said to the hippocamp while grabbing my wrist before I could escape, holding me waist deep in the water. “What, going to run away?” Eyes so blue I could drown in them lit with merriment. “I thought you loved these critters? Now you don’t want to meet one? Come on.” He tugged, and I stumbled into him. His arm once more went round my waist. “He’s really a big puppy. I promise.”

Bastion obviously heard him and responded by squealing and stomping one fin-like forehoof, sending another spray over us. “Okay asshole, we get it. You’re fierce.” Fraser laughed, turning his shoulder and planting his feet firmly while gripping both my arms. My protest died on my lips when Bastion reared up on his tail to stand out of the water and paw both hooves in a dramatic display. Only Fraser kept me from being pulled into the deep again.

That was it. He might be a sweet puppy with Fraser, but I was smart enough to stay out of range of those hooves and teeth.

The moment had definitely passed.

I elbowed Fraser and slid out of his reach. He chuffed and relaxed his grip. I made it two steps before he once more captured my wrist. Irritated, I spun, lifting my hand to cast. I wasn’t sure what.

“Really, come meet him. Please.”

His raw plea stopped me. Stripped of all the masks and layers he wore, there was just his soul, laid bare in his clear-water gaze. It was a rare glimpse, one that took me back to when I’d believed in him, in us. He let go my wrist, leaving the choice to me.

How could I say no?