My body trembled with anticipation, and I wished I could clench my thighs together, or touch myself. Gods, with the need building between my legs, I needed satiation.
I felt the bed depress as he moved forward, and I breathed in deeply while he slowly ran a fingertip down my spine. Hot tingles followed in its path; my thoughts homed in on his touch. My breath was unsteady, the erotic ache making me tremble.
He brushed my hair from my back, sweeping it over one shoulder. “Aenor Dahut, Queen of Ys, on her knees before me, quaking with lust. Mine and mine alone. Of course I have to savor this. I want this burned into my memory until the end of time.”
A wild need opened in me, and I wanted to move back into him, to move against his hand. Gods, I needed to feel him stroking me—but I couldn’t move. Not with him controlling my mind.
Another slow sweep of his warm finger down my spine, and pleasure trembled in its wake. “The sound of your racing breath, your speeding heart, is the sweetest music I’ve ever heard.”
My thoughts now were pure filth. I just wanted him to grab me from behind, yank down my panties, and fuck me hard.
But he was tormenting me—just one finger on my skin, heat racing behind it.
If I could have moved, I would have pulled my panties down and jumped on him. But all I could do was stay where he had me, quivering with sexual heat. Now, he was tracing lower, over the curve of my ass.
I wanted to whisper his name, to beg him to make me come, but my mouth wasn’t moving. I felt his fingers skim the silky fabric between my legs, and I would have done anything, anything for him to slide them inside that fabric and touch my most sensitive spots.
Another light stroke, and a desperate, wild noise escaped my throat. So, this was what he meant by drawing it out, and it was a slow and pleasurable torture.
“You belong to me,” he murmured.
And you to me.
One way or another, Salem lived to torment, and that was what he was doing to me now. But gods help me, I liked it—enjoyed being exposed and vulnerable before him. I wanted him to ride me hard.
“If you were my queen, Aenor, I think this is how I’d like to live out my days. You, naked, panting, aching for me. My queen, slick with desire, ready to be fucked.”
Another sound rose from my throat, one of pleasure and frustration at the same time—a wild, animal sound.
“Mmm… I need to see you better, Aenor.” As if hearing my desire, he slowly pulled my panties down my knees. Gods have mercy, I needed him to fill me.
I heard his deep, shaking sigh—a trembling breath that sounded like he was losing his grip on himself. I knew he was looking at me, that he could see how turned on I was. And that made another wave of hot desire pulse between my legs. Salem…
This wasn’t far from my fantasy on the boat: me on my knees, wild with lust, exposed. For a moment, I wondered if he’d bring his hand down hard. A blush warmed my face as I thought of how much I liked that idea.
But instead, he moved closer, and I felt him skim his hands over my breasts from behind, brushing over my hard nipples. I gasped. They were sensitive to the touch, and ecstasy hummed over my skin. Gently, he continued to palm my breasts, then slid his hands to my back once more.
I heard the sound of what I thought was his clothes hitting the floor, and relief washed over me. Finally, I’d be getting what I needed. Anticipation tingled through my body.
He moved his fingers to the apex of my thighs and stroked me with slow circles over my sensitive point. I gasped loudly. Then the movements stilled again.
“Your heart is beating so hard that I can hear its echo. That pleasure that you feel—that I feel, Aenor—is why we were meant to be together.”
At last, he dipped just one finger in. More. Gods, I needed to come. I could have screamed. He was slowly stroking me to a fever pitch.
At one time, I had hated being under his control, when I’d thought evil imbued every cell in his body. Now? I was in his head as much as he was in mine. He’d sacrifice for me, again and again if he had to. Much as he was in my thoughts, I’d carved myself into his.
He released his mental hold on my mind just a little and brushed a finger over my clit. Desperate to come, I started moved against his hand shamelessly. Pleasure rocked through me, making me moan. It didn’t take long for me to climax, and ecstasy rippled through me. I caught my breath.
But the ache in me was so deep that I needed all of him, and I wanted him inside me now.
Free from his mental control, I shifted up to my knees and turned to him. My breath was wild, chest flushed. I grabbed him by the shoulders and moved him down next to me on the bed.
I hooked one leg over his, taking a moment to look at his beautiful body again. For a moment, I was hovering just above him, and he made a low, agonized noise that sounded a little like my name. Guess I was in control now.
He gripped my waist, holding on so tight that I could sense he was about to lose his restraint, his breath fast and labored. Salem, always so composed, was losing control.
I liked seeing him untethered. I kissed his neck.
“Aenor,” he growled, sounding desperate now. “My queen.”
“You made your queen wait,” I said with a sly smile. “I guess it’s your turn now.”
I saw a look of complete awe on his face, the divine heat of a star. But it was too much, and I pulled my gaze away again.
“You could stay with me here,” I whispered to him.
He didn’t answer. Instead, he stroked a hand up my back, then thrust his fingers into my hair, tilting my head back. Slowly, I slid down onto him, and as he filled me, my mind went blank for a moment. I started moving on him, hips shifting against him. He kissed my throat deeply.
My thoughts fractured with ecstasy, like I was with him in celestial bliss. This was what it was like to be in the heavens, this sense of perfect completion, of wholeness. Sublime.
I rocked my hips on him, breathing in his beautiful scent. He was right—this was meant to be, a temporary star gleaming in the darkness.
But I kept my eyes closed. This moment wouldn’t last forever, and I didn’t want the reminder of what I would lose so soon.
“Aenor, look at me,” he whispered.
It was too much.
A boom in my mind, a deep throb. One last pulse of his mind control, and I found my eyes lifting to meet his. Those twilight hues shifted through his eyes—dusky purples, fiery reds.
“I love you,” he whispered, his eyes gleaming.
I felt tears sting my eyes, and the pleasure had me shuddering against him. We climaxed together, and I’d never before felt so alive.
He reached for the side of my face, catching his breath.
I knew, then, that I couldn’t let him go.
30
Salem
With my release, I rested my head against Aenor’s shoulder. We were catching our breath, bodies dewy with the heat.
I couldn’t let her see the look on my face, the one that was complete devastation. The idea of our time together ending felt fundamentally wrong—wrong as plummeting from the sky, my wings broken, soul empty.
A part of me thought that she was a goddess on Earth. Maybe she’d been living among the humans, dwelling underground. But only two things could make me worthy of her: ascending to the heavens, or my death. And if I stayed here, my former wife would find a way to get her revenge. She would force me to kill Aenor as soon as she had the chance. Clearly, Richelle had been working for her. Who else?
I brushed Aenor’s damp hair out of her face. She smiled at me, her eyes looking drowsy, cheeks pink. “You look more divine than ever,” I said. “But tired, too.”
“I am.” She shivered. “And cold.”
She slid off my lap and lay back onto the mossy bed. I was regretting the state of the place—at one point, I would have been able to cover her in silk sheets and warm blankets. I would have stationed guards outside the door and ordered servants to bring her a warm meal,
hot tea. But instead, here she was, lying naked on the moss in a dark, unheated room.
When she shivered, hugging her chest, I felt compelled to fix this situation. I glanced across the room at the ancient stone fireplace, covered in cobwebs. Once, I’d had a fire burning in there every night.
I leaned down to kiss her forehead. “I think I can help with the warmth.”
But before I lit any actual flames in here, I needed to make sure we wouldn’t draw any undue attention through that enormous, gaping window.
I crossed to it, my footsteps echoing. An ancient curtain of dusty velvet hung to one side of the window, wrapped up in vines. I tore through the green ropes, letting them drop to the floor. Then I dragged the curtains across the windows. The rusted hoops scraped across the curtain rod as I pulled it shut.
Aenor had sat up on the bed, watching me with a faint smile. She was hugging her knees to her chest. “Are you going to fix up the room?”
“This room should be fit for a king, but the forest has started to take over. If I lived here, I’d have the place gleaming from top to bottom within a day. I’d have a tray of cognac, a wall of books to entertain me, a soft armchair, and a fire in the fireplace.”
Frankly, the thought was starting to obsess me now. I wanted to make this happen for Aenor before we left. If she wasn’t going to be queen in Nova Ys, maybe she could rule here.
This was like some primal mating instinct, to make a fortress for Aenor.
But this wasn’t my castle anymore, and what if something happened to her when I left here? I imagined, for an instant, some contemptible castle bastards finding her here alone.
Right now, she had no magic, and the hex weakened her. For a painful moment, I remembered the sound of my elbow cracking against her skull in the arena. I had an impulse to drive a dagger into my own skull to get rid of the memory.
I began pacing before the curtain. My mind ignited with wild visions of a fortress I could build for her. First, I’d rip King Tethra’s body in half, incinerate the remains, and scatter them in the sea. I’d do the same to any of the nobility loyal to him. Their dying screams would ring out through the kingdom, a warning to others not to commit treason against their queen.
I’d marry her, officially reclaim my kingdom, and then leave her to reign as queen with my death. I’d enchant these walls so the kingdom served her. Anyone who objected would feel molten rock enveloping them…
I breathed out slowly, trying to regain control.
“Salem,” said Aenor. “Your body is smoking again. I mean literally as well as figuratively.”
I cast a look over my shoulder, finding that my wings had erupted behind my back and that flames blazed from the feathers, dangerously close to the curtains.
“Ah.” Control, Salem. Gain control. Breathing slowly, I smoothed my hair. Then I snatched my trousers from the floor, dressing myself. “I do wish I had my cognac.”
“What were you thinking about?” Aenor asked. “When you just started bursting into flame?”
“I was thinking about protecting you by torturing to death anyone who refused to swear fealty to you.”
Her jaw dropped open. “Salem. Once the divine hex is gone, I don’t need protecting. Trust me. And if the divine hex is not removed, I also won’t need protecting, because I will be dead. So, if you were fantasizing about burning people, it makes me wonder if that’s because you are just really into lighting people on fire.”
I folded my arms, frowning. Bloody hell. She was right. I did like indulging in that fantasy. I wanted to keep Aenor safe, of course, but how good it would feel to turn Mag Mell into another Pompeii, a garden of charred bodies. A release…
I nodded. “I suppose that’s true, yes. It is a favorite pastime.”
“Maybe you could take it down a notch and learn to barbecue. I mean food, not people.”
Heat seared my chest, and I felt like my heart was turning into glass. She was joking, I knew, but I thought there was a kernel of truth underneath the joke. That was what she hoped for, wasn’t it? Me, tamed. A safe version of her mate, a little house with warm windows and a grill in the backyard for parties.
“You think I could be normal, Aenor? If I stayed here, you honestly think I could be… an ordinary person? Someone nice?”
She bit her lip. “No, I could never imagine you as ordinary. Nor would I want to.”
“Good. But it wasn’t just the burning people I was thinking about. I want you to live in the style into which you were born. Not a hovel. Some psychotic bastard stole your kingdom from you, I believe, and I need to fix it.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Oh, yeah, him. He was a complete monster. Pretty face, though, as long as he didn’t ruin it by opening his mouth.” She took a deep breath. “But maybe, just to be on the safe side, the psychotic fire-fuck needs to make amends by sticking around here. He needs to make sure nothing bad happens.”
Clearly, Aenor knew exactly how to get her elegant fingers wrapped right around my heart. “He can’t. I can’t. But I can make you warmer.”
I grabbed an old chair in the corner of the room, its wood rotten and covered in lichen, and smashed it against the wall until it fractured into little pieces.
“Even when you’re being nice,” said Aenor, “it looks a little insane.”
I crouched down, gathering the damp wood and carrying it into the empty fireplace. Then I leaned down, letting the magic flow from my palms into the broken wood. Without magic, this rotten chair would never catch fire, but the heat from my body had the intensity of Vesuvius. As I released the flames from my body, I felt a shudder of relief. The blaze burned hot, fire straining up the chimney.
“Nicely done,” she said.
I felt a flicker of satisfaction. I pulled out another chair, setting it down before the fire. Then I snatched her wet dress off the floor and laid it out to dry on the chair.
Crossing back to her, I smiled at her curled up on the bed, watching me.
She reached up for my face. “You, my psychotic fire-friend, took my power and my kingdom. But that century I spent living among the humans with no magic—it’s what made me what I am.” She looked down at her wrists, tracing her fingertips over the dark veins of her hex. “I remember it clearly now, when I killed that man with the waves. And I don’t think he was actually guilty of anything. I think that was more crap Mama said to get me to do what she needed. But the worst thing is, I liked it. I felt the power flowing through my body, and I just wanted to crush him with it. I wanted to pound his body into the rocks, because it exhilarated me. Kinda like how you enjoy burning people. Anyway, that’s why the sea god hexed me.”
“Perhaps. We can’t know what the gods think, or that they’re wise. But so what if you have a violent streak? It doesn’t make you terrible, and it’s only one part of you.”
She sat up, leaning into me. “I guess.”
I glanced at the shadows cast by the flames, their fingers skimming the flagstones in wild, gyrating patterns. I pointed at them. “Look. You see how beautiful that is? The movement like spirits dancing across the stone. That beauty is painted by shadows. Light on its own is just a blank canvas.”
Her eyes gleamed, and she smiled faintly. “Is that right?”
“Light without shadows is tedious.”
“Hmm. Well, if nothing else, I admire your talent for rationalizing murderous impulses using poetry. It’s quite a skill.”
“I’m not saying you should torture people to death like I have. I’m saying you believe your nature is rotten, and you’re wrong. You think there’s something corrupt in you. But there’s something corrupt in all of us. Every living thing on Earth. Call it original sin if you want. You just have to learn to control it, even when you’re powerful. Especially when you’re powerful.”
Her smile deepened. “Okay. Hmm. Morality lessons from the originator of sin. Good enough.” A yawn overtook her. She threw her arms up over her head and closed her eyes, leaning back on the bed.
&
nbsp; I liked the view. But the more time I spent with her, the more I loathed the idea of leaving her.
It occurred to me that this beautiful, blue-haired fae was more dangerous to me than anything else in the heavens or earth.
31
Salem
I tried to keep the calm in my voice, even as my thoughts were spiraling ahead to the next thing. “Let’s wait out the storm, Aenor. Let your dress dry. Sleep a little.”
My eyes were on the magic beneath her skin, moving too fast. But she was already falling asleep, and she rolled over to curl up on her side. I waited until her chest rose and fell slowly, so I was sure she was asleep.
And when her breathing was slow, and she was nearly snoring, I stood quietly and crossed to the door.
Pressing my hand against one of the stone walls, I closed my eyes. This castle, like everything else on the island, responded to me, the True King of Mag Mell. I listened for the faint music of its magic. Mentally, I communicated what I needed to the walls. While Aenor was in here, no one was to enter this room apart from me.
And after I left Mag Mell, the castle would keep her safe…
My heart constricted. After I left, my magic would no longer work here.
I pushed the thought of out of my mind, already thinking of my next task.
I needed to go back to the Court of Silks. Richelle had already showed us what the risks were. My former wife was as powerful as I was, and she would stop at nothing to get what she wanted—my hands around Aenor’s throat. My fire igniting her.
My wife would plague us until the end of days—always there, always watching. The only thing that would stop this train from crashing was Aenor’s death or mine.
The will-o’-the-wisp that followed me wherever I went, flitting around my head—it was searching for signs of love. And the little creature had already seen them. That meant we were doomed.
Quietly, I slung my baldric around my waist and sheathed Lightbringer. Then, carefully as I could, I opened the bedroom door. I slipped into the dark hall before Aenor could wake.
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