Eden's Creatures by Valerie Zambito

spoke of were hard to break. Even the ones that hurt the most.
    “You are human and you are Faedin. The best of both, and I accept you as you are.” She grabbed his coat at the chest with both fists. “Accept me, Cal! Accept your life here. Help us contain the threat that endangers us all!”
    Her heart ached at sight of the lone tear that fell from his eye.
    “No one has ever accepted me before,” he told her, scrubbing his face. “Not that I can remember, anyway. I… I don’t know if you can understand what it feels like to be shunned and beaten and ridiculed every day. Every. Single. Day.” He shook his head, ridding himself of unbearable memories. “It just shrinks you. Makes you feel small and worthless. Like… you don’t deserve to live.”
    “That life is over, Cal! You will never suffer again!”
    He made a keening noise deep in his throat and pulled her close against his chest. His mouth crashed down on hers and he worked his lips over hers with the desperation of a man dying of thirst. His hand twisted into her hair, holding her captive, giving her no room to resist. He need not have worried. She met every thrust of his tongue with one of her own, wanting nothing more than to assure him that he was wanted. His free hand slid gently over her bare shoulder, leaving a trail of heat that awakened every nerve in her body.
    “I want to hold you forever,” he murmured against her lips. “It all makes sense here. You make sense.”
    Stassi didn’t know how long they held each other, only that it felt better than anything she had ever experienced. The irony in the fact that she could find such solace in the presence of such evil was not lost on her. Worlds were converging. Old ways questioned. New ways explored.
    All because of Cal.
    He linked his fingers with hers and lifted them to his lips. “Yes,” he whispered. “I accept.”
    Stassi’s eyes pulled him in until he felt like he was falling into a bottomless pit. Helpless. Flailing. There would be no turning back now. Wherever he landed, they would continue the journey side by side.
    She pulled out of his arms with a sigh of regret. “It is getting late. We should get back. The last trial starts at twilight.”
    Cal groaned. “Tonight? What is it this time? Swallowing swords? Fighting lions?”
    “No, we will be fighting Fallen. It’s a real raid.”
    He hissed through his teeth. He had been rushing along this path for days now, so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but the thought of taking another life — even one touched by a wicked curse — twisted his guts into knots.
    As Stassi started away, he walked beside her, refusing to let go of her hand. She looked down in question.
    “It’s called holding hands. Just go with it.”
    A tiny smile lurked at the corners of her mouth, but to Cal it looked like a burst of sunshine. They continued on in companionable silence, enjoying the peace of the forest and the feel of each other.
    When they arrived back at the village, heads turned at sight of their entwined fingers. The children screeched and pointed. The men outright ogled, and the women hid smiles behind their hands.
    Cal lifted Stassi’s hand to his lips.
    The entire gathering scattered like leaves in the wind as though he planned to mate with her then and there.
    “That was not nice,” Stassi said in amusement as she watched them all go.
    “It was just a kiss.”
    “To you. To them, it is something new and shocking.”
    “Well, they’ll just have to get used to it. I promised you plenty more of them. Remember?” he asked, pulling her close.
    “I haven’t forgotten,” she admitted, and he laughed at the blush that stippled her cheeks. “But they will have to wait. I have to retrieve my bow for the raid. Do you want to fly with me or stay here?”
    “I’ll stay.”
    She rose up on her tiptoes to kiss his mouth. “I will be right back.”
    He nodded and watched her go, distracted by her purposeful stride. And, the long,