Free Moon's Flower: Book 6 (Kingdom Series) by Marie Hall

for her jealous eye to turn Calanthe’s way. Which meant, he’d have to go to the sea first. She would probably send a tracker on him now.
    Closing his eyes, he inhaled deeply. Wishing he had more power than he actually did, but the sun controlled everything. And Calanthe’s blooms could not grow without its warm rays, so he smiled, and pressed a kiss to her hot cheek, before nodding.
    “Siria, we are friends. And that is all you need to know.”
    “Then come to my bed this eve. Make love to me beneath a blanket of stars, just as we once did.”
    Tired of this battle, and her constant need for him, he rubbed his brow. “I can’t and you know why. We can be friends, Siria. Why do you always make me repeat myself? Why can’t you just accept that things are as they are?”
    Her eyes narrowed. “Because you are mine. I brought you here. You loved me, Jericho. Do you know how many others I’ve burned? But not you.” She stepped in closer, framing his face in her hands, tawny eyes searching his. “You were made for me.”
    Gently prying himself from her grasp, he shook his head. “You told me once, there are many mortals capable of filling my role. I am nothing special. You’ve had men in the moon before me, there will be more after me.”
    “No!” She shook her head, as her face morphed into a mask of fury. “None that could handle my heat, my touch. You were made for me, Jericho. You are my match. My only match and I will not let anyone else have you!”
    For the first time, her madness scared him. Not for himself, but for Calanthe. Siria’s obsession could be held in check, so long as he remained unattached. But what would happen if she ever discovered his truth? His love?
    A terrible, slinking feeling burrowed through his gut and settled in his soul. Because the realization was this… to protect Calanthe would mean he’d have no choice but to leave her.
    Siria’s reach was too powerful. He’d seen her capacity for cruelty in many forms. How she’d burn a land to ashes, refusing the skies to open and bring much needed rain. The drought that spread through certain lands like a plague, killing crops and people in an unmerciful path of destruction.
    The glen was so rich with beauty, fairies were nature’s emissary… they could not survive in such a dead place.
    His loathing for Siria grew even stronger then. For so many years he’d tried to set aside his anger and hatred, tried to be her friend again.
    “I have to go,” he murmured.
    Her nostrils flared. “Do not make me angry, Jericho. I only wish to love you.”
    Squeezing his eyes shut, he jumped into the tunnel that had formed and headed to the Seren Seas.
    His disposition was cold and aloof when he took his seat on his rock. The maidens must have noticed, because they all gave him wide berth, casting furtive glances in his direction, but none came to talk to him.
    His thoughts were like dogs chasing after rabbits, chaotic and frenzied. No matter how many different scenarios he ran through, the outcome was always the same.
    He could not continue to seek out Calanthe.
    Staring up at the sky, he noticed the murder of crows circling high above him. Siria had sent her spies as he’d assumed she would.
    Tossing a pebble into the waters, he called the funnel to him and without so much as a wave good-bye, headed toward the glen. More precisely, to their knoll.
    The emotions fisting his heart were both excruciating and exhilarating. Because she was here, she’d been waiting. For him. Her eyes danced, the rosebud silk of her pale white dress swished about her knees exotically, the long ends of her brown hair blew in the gentle, perfume tinted breeze and his insides were chaos.
    “Calanthe.” Her name was a whisper of breath on his lips. A caress and a benediction.
    “Jericho.” Her lips curved upward. “Sometimes I thought you were only a dream.”
    Her words sped like an arrow through his soul. How could he walk away from her, from this?
    They stopped