Red Blood (Series of Blood Book 2) by Emma Hamm (rm book recommendations .txt) 📗

he now had a barrel chest and whipcord muscles that flexed with every movement. She would always remember him as the fragile creature she had fallen in love with.

Wolfgang was still the Lich King. As long as he was in possession of his soul, he would remain in this form. But Lyra was the true owner of that thin blue light. He could transfer it into her and become that skeletal power again.

They both agreed; they did not wish to see that side of him again. Not for a while at least.

He reached for her and pulled her against his chest. He was always a little colder than a normal human. But he was hers.

Lyra’s fingers followed the bumps of his ribs downwards until she could hold onto his hips. Her head tucked against his heartbeat, and his arms held her. With him, she couldn’t break. He held her together like glue.

“I just want to know that he’s okay,” she whispered.

Wolfgang sighed again. He knew about Jasper and her conversation before the battle. He knew how the other man felt about the woman he called “Love”. Never once had he said anything bad about Jasper. In fact, he had offered to step aside for the love that had existed long before him.

Of course she hadn’t agreed. She would never find a man like Wolfgang again. Lyra knew a good thing when she had one.

Together, they had searched high and low for her brother. Neither they nor the Five had managed to find him. It was eating away at her.

“Do you think he’s alive?” she asked him.

“You know I don’t have that answer.”

“I just want to know what you think,” she said. Her fingers traced circles on his stomach.

“I do not know. Malachi is capable of many things. I do think that if he were dead, Malachi would have boasted of it,” Wolfgang paused, “but I also do not think that it is better for him to be alive.”

She flinched into him. “No, I suppose not.”

“You know the cards have been asking for you.”

“I can’t, Wolfgang. I can’t touch those.”

He was silent. His chin touched the top of her head as he curled around her for maximum comfort. He knew she would have crawled inside him if he had offered. Wolfgang was her security blanket during this time, and he was proud to offer as much assistance as he could. Even though it broke him to see her this way.

“Tell me something good,” she whispered against his skin.

“Ah, of course.”

Wolfgang leaned back into the water with her in his arms. A whispered spell held them afloat as he turned onto his back to stare up at the magical stars he had created for them. She curled onto her side next to him.

The water would hold them both while he cheered up the other half of his soul. The Nixies danced around them. Their hair twisted and twirled as they blew bubbles into the air.

He rose a hand to send a glittering wind into the air. As he spoke, it formed silhouettes of people that walked upon the air.

“Once upon a time, there was a great beauty. She walked the land not as a delicate creature but as a warrioress.”

Lyra watched with rapt attention as a woman formed above them. She was tiny in the air but fierce as she wielded a sword against imaginary foes.

“Yet,” Wolfgang continued, “she was not complete until she met a monster in the night. He was more beast than man. Dangerous, angry, and wounded. He did not know how much he was in pain until he saw her.”

A man formed on the other side of the woman. He was hunched and limped when he walked. Lyra smiled as she recognized the story. He always told a variation of the same tale when she asked him to make her happy.

“What did he do when he saw her?” Lyra asked.

Wolfgang chuckled. “Well, he wasn’t very impressed with her fighting skills.”

The golden woman hopped up and down as she tried to get a boot on her foot. Lyra laughed and elbowed him. “Stop it! Tell the story right.”

He was grinning as he began again. “They fought at first. Both of them were frightened of each other. For how could a beauty love such a creature? And how could a creature who was so wounded ever burden her with his existence?”

“Why did he?” she asked.

“He watched for a time. He grew to love the graceful way she twirled the strands of her hair when she was annoyed. The way she wrinkled her nose when someone said something she didn’t like. But above all else, he fell in love with the way she held her secrets locked away. He would have given anything to hear her secrets.”

Lyra snuggled underneath his arm. His fingers tapped a rhythm against her elbow. “Did he?”

“Hear her secrets? Oh yes. But in return, he told her all his. He gave her his soul as a gift, and she gave him life.”

Wolfgang rolled to his side. Water sloshed between them, but it only warmed their bodies. He trailed a finger down the line of her forehead until he bumped over the arch of her nose.

She smiled sadly. “It’s a pretty story.”

The golden people above them disappeared as glitter rained down upon them. Yet another trick he so enjoyed doing. He knew how much she liked sparkling things.

“Do you feel better,” he asked.

“I don’t know how to be happy and sad at the same time. If I’m happy, I feel guilty. If I’m sad, I feel drained.”

“Consult the cards, Lyra. I cannot even use them. They keep vibrating and asking for you.”

She shook her head. “They’ve only foretold bad things.”

“They told me about you.” He leaned forward to press his lips gently to hers. She drank his kiss like a tonic. “They do not ask for people lightly.”

Lyra did not wish to use the dreaded things. They frightened her, and she had enough of fear. But she looked