Free Obsessed by Cheyenne McCray Page B

although she didn’t understand why. She pushed the concern aside, determined to enjoy the moment with Aric.
    As they rinsed themselves clean, the Elvin magic began tugging at Liana’s essence, telling her she could no longer wait to inform Aric of the rest of her vision.
    I have something to tell you, she said in his mind, wanting that intimate connection with him.
    Aric sighed and raked his hand through his wet hair. “I, too, have something important to discuss.”
    Liana squeezed excess water from her tresses as she followed Aric out of the pool. “But first I must finish telling you of my visions.”
    Frowning, he turned to face her, his form magnificent in the waning afternoon light. “There was more?”
    Liana resisted the urge to run her fingertips down his powerful chest, and nodded. “I saw another man.” She tossed her wet hair over her shoulder and moved closer to Aric so that she was mere inches away. “His name was Renn.”
    Aric drew in a deep breath and picked his breeches up from where they lay upon the shore. “My…Captain.”
    “Your Captain?” Liana furrowed her brow. “But—”
    “Tell me what you saw,” Aric said, cutting her off as he shoved his legs into his breeches and secured the ties.
    Liana clenched her hands together. “In my vision I stood upon a precipice,” she explained while Aric pulled his tunic over his head. Her voice wavered as she went on, and the knot in her belly grew. “A great bird approached from Mount Taka, and when it landed, it transformed into a man.”
    Aric stilled for a second, then grabbed his boots. “Continue.”
    “Your Captain is Nordain.” Liana frowned as she watched Aric slide on first one boot, then the next.
    “Yes.” He nodded. “Did you see anything else?”
    A feeling of doom gripped Liana so hard she began trembling. Something was wrong. Very wrong.
    “Liana?”
    She straightened and rubbed her arms from a sudden chill in her bones. Gooseflesh sprouted on her limbs and she wished she had brought the blanket to wrap around herself so that she did not feel so naked and vulnerable. “I saw the irani. Many of them.”
    Aric snatched up his weapon belt and strapped it on as his intense black gaze watched her.
    “The Sorcerer has sent out every single irani he has in search of…” Her voice trailed off as his dagger caught her attention. Its red stone glistened in the late afternoon sunlight like a large drop of blood.
    Images flooded her mind, one after another, each one sending her reeling. The nordai at her windowsill. Black feathers on her blanket and in Aric’s hair. And Renn—in her vision the stone in his dagger had matched the one in Aric’s weapon.
    Why he did not eat meat…because like Liana, Aric was not human. But unlike her, he was not Tanzinite.
    “Oh, my gods.” Her body shook so hard that her knees threatened to give out. Her mind could barely process the knowledge as her eyes met his. Her words came out in a hoarse whisper, “You are Nordain.”
    “Yes.” Hi gaze held hers as her world came crashing down around her. “I am Aric L’tiercel, King of the Nordain.”
     

Chapter Six
     
    Wrapping her arms around her belly, Liana sank to the forest floor, feeling as though she might die. Blood rushed in her ears, so loud it drowned out all but the pounding of her heart and the accusations flying through her thoughts.
    Gods. What have I done?
    She stared at the ground, unable to meet his gaze any longer. Her vision blurred as tears of humiliation and betrayal blinded her, and the Elves’ prophecy flooded her mind.
     
    Tanzinite woman, wingless and wan
    Nordai of Power, of twins, we warn
    One path to doom, enslavement and walls
    With unholy mating, Dair rises or falls
     
    She had traded her soul to not one devil, but another. She had run from the Sorcerer, only to mate with another powerful Nordain—the King himself.
    And now she surely carried the fate of her world in her womb, just as the prophecy foretold. No