THE MOMENT HIS ARMS wrapped around me, the forest vanished. The beast was gone, dead, bloody, rotten on the ground, and I was safe, safe, safe, oh, how I had longed for something like this. To be wrapped around someone’s arms who would protect me like the world meant nothing to him, and who would burn the world like it meant nothing to him. Oh, I had longed for this type of love, and vulnerability, of affection and tenderness, of fierce protectiveness and anything else that might save me from myself.
I barely noticed the sting of scratches along my limbs or the dampness of my ruined gown clinging to my skin. All I could feel was Icarus—his body solid and warm against mine, his heart hammering like war drums as he held me far too tightly, as if trying to press me into himself or his soul o
