“She threw herself on the king’s mercy, offering to execute my mother personally in exchange for her freedom from me, and the chance to become Oblisii’s bride instead.”
That brought my thoughts crashing to a halt. “Wait. She what?”
“My father accepted her offer.”
A horrible suspicion began to trickle through me. “Rayth…”
He came to a stop across the room from me, staring at the wall as though seeing something else completely in the flickering shadows from the hearth.
“She slit my mother’s throat in front of the council and what remained of the royal family, while I stood by in chains—forced to watch, but unable to do anything to stop it. Oblisii accepted her hand in marriage immediately afterward. She still had my mother’s blood staining the sleeve of her dress when he claimed her as his.”
Horror settled over me, cold and clammy. “Your fiancé. She was—”
“Lesimba.” He still wasn’t looking at me. Or at anything that existed outside of his memories.
‘There was… a woman. He loved her, and she betrayed him,’ Eldris had told me once, when I’d asked him why Rayth acted like such an asshole all the time.
Good gods.
“You loved her once,” I whispered, nausea rising in my gut. “And I killed her. Right in front of you.”
Rayth’s eyes finally focused on the here and now, flicking to me. He opened his mouth, and seemed to flounder for a moment.
“I loved… the idea of her,” he eventually managed. “And then I saw what truly lay inside her soul. She was… poison.”
“She was insane,” I said, remembering the manic light in her eyes as she’d sliced me open with a blade.
“Perhaps,” Rayth said, watching me with something behind his dark eyes that I’d never seen there before. “Either way, she was evil. Rotten. By killing her, you avenged my mother’s death. More importantly, you saved yourself from becoming her victim as well.”
I was on my feet without remembering how I got there. My legs carried me across the cramped space separating us, though I couldn’t even feel the dirt floor beneath my boots. Rayth’s hands closed around my shoulders. He looked down at me, his brows drawn together and storm clouds gathering behind his gaze.
My throat felt dry.
“Rayth, I—”
But the words were cut off as his lips crashed over mine, sealing our mouths together.
Chapter 24: Unforeseen Developments
Frella
SOMEHOW, I’D ENDED up with my legs wrapped around Rayth’s hips and my back pressed against one of the support posts that held up the roof. It hurt when the wood jammed against the fading bruises and scabs left over from the torturer’s whip. My chest hurt, too, where cuts made barely more than a day ago stretched and pulled beneath their bandages.
I didn’t care.
Fingers dug into the meat of my thighs as Rayth supported my weight, seemingly without effort. My core pressed against his burgeoning hardness through two pairs of leather breeches. I moaned into the kiss as everything beyond the heat of his body faded to insignificance.
My good arm snaked around the back of his neck as he started walking us to the hut’s modest bed without setting me back on my feet. We half-fell into it, and he twisted as we went down so that I ended up pinned beneath him.
I was immediately thrust back to my memory of the evening on the first day we’d met, when I foolishly allowed my temper to goad me into challenging him to a sparring match. Despite having a dagger while he fought unarmed—and despite the fact that he’d been drunk off his ass—I’d been so badly outclassed in the fight that it wasn’t even funny.
When he’d grown tired of playing nicely with me, I’d ended up pinned beneath him exactly like this. And exactly like this, I’d felt his hard cock pressing into the crease of my hip. The only difference was that this time, he didn’t leap to his feet as though he’d been burned.
Our mouths were still dueling. I got the upper hand somehow and sucked on his tongue, need throbbing low in my belly when he groaned and flexed his hips in response. My gasp broke the kiss, and he immediately started work on the laces of my breeches, yanking them down without finesse before realizing that my boots needed to come off first.
A low rumble of frustration rose from his chest, but in moments I’d managed to wriggle out of everything below the waist with his help. Gods save me… I was wet. So wet. It seemed wrong for my body to respond this way so soon after my uncontrolled storm of grief. But then I thought of Aristede—of his genuine delight over my closeness with Eldris. With Nyx.
Picturing his soft, sly smile at the idea that I’d finally breached Rayth’s walls brought fresh tears to my eyes… but inside, something settled. Rayth was tearing at the knots in his own laces, shoving breeches and smallclothes down past his hips. My legs were hanging over the edge of the mattress after he’d helped me pull off my clothing, and he stepped between them, looming over me. Firelight glinted off the planes of his torso like a halo.
He scooped up one of my legs, lifting it until the crook of my knee settled into the bend of his elbow. Splaying me open. His cock thrust into me almost violently, and I arched into the stretch and burn of penetration.
“Gods, yes…” I hissed, desperate for more.
He was almost completely silent as he fucked me, only the occasional choked breath escaping his control when I gripped my inner muscles around him. I unclenched one hand from the bedclothes and wormed it between us, grinding two fingers against my nub to get myself off.
The pain from my half-healed injuries would normally have killed the mood. Tonight, it was the edge of punishment I needed to move beyond my mental self-flagellation and take what Rayth was offering me.
Himself.
I wondered if he’d been with anyone at all since Lesimba betrayed him. It wouldn’t surprise me if he hadn’t. The bitch had ripped out his still-beating heart by killing his mother in front of him. His eyes burned into mine, everything that had been dammed up behind them spilling out in a flood of unspoken emotion. I couldn’t look away… couldn’t even blink.
The obsidian of the dragon bond swirled through his brown irises like ink, and I spared a thought for poor Cheen, stuck here alone with no way to relieve the urges pouring through her connection to her rider. Then I immediately forgot everything else as Rayth’s free hand covered mine, increasing the pressure against my nub until I exploded beneath him. My passage clamped around Rayth’s cock, demanding he follow me and then milking him of every last drop when he did.
The raw sound he made was very nearly a sob. His hips jerked into me, his upper body collapsing forward until he caught himself with one hand. His grip on my leg slid free, so I wrapped my thighs around his hips to hold him in place while we shuddered through the aftershocks.
“Frella,” he rasped.
I cut off anything more by placing a fingertip over his lips, mirroring his gesture from earlier. His eyes flared again, and I realized with a faint jolt that my hand was still wet with my own juices. My inner muscles fluttered in a final weak contraction, and his stomach muscles jerked in response. A small, faintly bereft noise slipped past my lips as his softening length slid out of me.
We stared at each other, breathing heavily into the scant space separating us. I swallowed, licking my lips as I lowered my silencing finger.
“Will you… hold me for a bit, please?” I asked, feeling oddly vulnerable.
There was a wooden bar that could be set on the inside of the door to lock it, though I hadn’t thought to do so when I arrived. I held my breath as Rayth rose and took care of it, then let it out in relief as he returned to the bed and wordlessly stripped off his remaining clothing. I managed to hitch my tunic over my head and toss it aside. I debated the merits of getting up long enough to clean myself using the ewer of water and rags on the table in the corner—but within moments, I’d decided it would be too much work right now.
If this ended up not being one
of the worst mistakes I’d ever made, I could train Rayth in the finer points of coddling one’s bed partner at some future date. Or Eldris could, I supposed. Right now, I just wanted his skin against mine.
Rayth helped me get under the covers, joining me once I was settled. He didn’t protest when I sidled up and draped myself against him, resting my head on his shoulder. If anything, he seemed somewhat bemused by what had just happened between us.
His fingers trailed the edges of the linen bandage crisscrossing my chest. “What did you do to the mark to change it?” he asked absently, craning down a bit to look at me.
“Ask me in the morning and you can see it for yourself,” I told him. “I haven’t seen it either. I’m supposed to keep the bandages on for a little longer.”
He nodded.
“Are you… all right?” I asked, still slightly wrong-footed by his less-than-asshole-ish demeanor.
“That’s a difficult question.” He was silent for a stretch. “For one thing, I’m mostly sober, which always complicates matters considerably.”
A wry snort escaped me. “Oh? Well, it’s good to know that I didn’t take advantage of you in a compromised state, I guess.”
He sighed. “I suppose you won’t be breaking things off with either Eldris or Leannyck.”
I rolled onto an elbow so I could look down at him. “No. I won’t be. Is that a problem?”
A furrow formed on his forehead. “I don’t… claim to understand how one goes about navigating such a situation,” he said slowly.
I blinked at him, my eyebrows shooting up in surprise.
His frown deepened. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
An odd sort of fond irritation welled inside me. “Men. I swear to—” I shook my head. “Rayth. Your family keeps actual harems. You… really don’t see the irony inherent in that statement?”
His lips pressed together, one corner of his mouth twitching down. “Such arrangements are seldom if ever related to love. I fail to see the parallel.”
And just like that, my irritation melted away. I let my head fall onto his shoulder once more. “I can’t choose between the three of you, idiot,” I said without heat. “If you want this to continue, you’ll just have to learn to share.”
Silence fell again, but it wasn’t a tense sort of silence.
Rayth broke it after a few minutes. “These last couple of weeks were the only time I’ve ever seen Aristede truly at peace, in the entirety of our acquaintance,” he said. “I… thought you should know that.”
My throat closed up and my breathing hitched around fresh tears. Rayth’s arms closed around me as I let them fall, helpless to stop them. Somehow, they seemed less painful than the tears from my earlier breakdown had been. Cleaner, and not quite so acrid with guilt.
“I miss him, too, hellion,” Rayth said into my hair, holding me close.
* * *
I awoke to the sense of having slept like a log for quite a long time. My body was heavy with that combination of stiffness and relaxation that came from barely having moved for hours on end. The light slanting through the small window indicated that it was slightly past midmorning, and the fire had gone out some time before, based on how chilly it was beyond the cocoon of blankets.
I stretched cautiously, relieved to find that my shoulder had improved considerably and was now merely stiff rather than painful. The lump next to me stirred, and Rayth’s head emerged. Dark circles marred the skin under his eyes.
He grunted unhappily. “Urgh. Is it possible to have a hangover from being sober for too long?”
I ignored that in favor of scrubbing at my puffy face. “I can’t decide if I have a headache from crying or if someone snuck inside the hut last night and stuffed my brain full of felted wool.”
“The door’s barred, so I doubt the wool purveyors could have snuck in without waking us,” Rayth pointed out, veering dangerously close to exhibiting a sense of humor. He sighed out a deep breath. “I suppose we’ll need to get ready to meet your council of elders.”
I stifled a groan. “True. I doubt they’d be very impressed if we wandered in late—chief’s adopted daughter and foreign prince or not.”
“I’ll start a fire.” He rose, a whiff of chill air creeping under the blankets as he did so. A gesture indicated my chest. “And I still want to see what’s under those bandages, hellion.”
So did I. Reluctantly, I sat up, my nipples pebbling in the cold air. Rayth laid fresh wood and kindling, ignoring the gooseflesh I could see rising over his arms. Unrolling the bandages from around my torso was awkward, but I managed it. When I was done, flames were crackling at the dry wood, sending a hint of warmth into the room.
The angle wasn’t ideal as I craned down to stare at the mass of scabs, some older and some newer. “How does it look?” I asked when Rayth returned and sat on the edge of the bed, unconcerned by his nakedness.
His eyes traced the pattern of cuts, some of that lost look from the previous day creeping back into his expression before he mastered himself.
“It looks like a dragon,” he said. “It’s artfully done.”
I wondered if the marks in my flesh would end up outlasting the surviving dragons. I hoped not, since that would also mean I’d outlived all three of the remaining men I thought of as mine.
“Good,” I managed. “It would’ve sucked pretty bad if she messed it up.”
Rayth hauled a bucket of water to warm by the fire, and we washed ourselves before changing into clean clothing from the saddlebags. I made my morning tea, cognizant of the importance of keeping up with it for now. It occurred to me that there would be no way to get more of the herbs when they were gone—not here on Eburos.
I turned the idea over in my mind. Objectively, if we ended up living in Draebard, there was no real reason to worry about it. I had no reservations whatsoever regarding a child with Eldris’ dark skin, or Nyx’s green-ringed eyes, or even Rayth’s stubborn jawline.
Right now, though, I still felt a nagging sense of things being somehow unfinished. I had enough of the herbs to last for at least another couple of months, so I would use them.
We finished readying ourselves in relative silence. When we were done, Rayth banked the fire and we ventured outside. I led the way to the cookhouse where Charyal—the longtime proprietress—nearly smothered me with the force of her hug.
“Limdya and the others will be so happy you’re back!” she exclaimed, before foisting more food onto us than we could possibly eat and refusing to accept any coin for it.
I tried to accept the fawning with good grace, and not show how ambivalent I was about the prospect of trying to reconnect with Limdya and all the other friends from my childhood. Instead, I introduced Rayth, translating for him since Charyal didn’t speak Alyrion. He was polite but reserved, and I got the impression that he, too, was putting on an act. The looming feeling of unfinished business still hung over me like a pall.
There was just enough time to go out and check on Rayth’s dragon before we were due to address the council. She was curled calmly enough in the lee of a knoll, though she did look a bit miffed by the damp chill on the wind. Rayth stroked her neck soothingly for a few moments, and declared her fine for another few hours.
We arrived at the meeting hall shortly before midday, where my guardians greeted me with a fresh round of hugs and words of greeting. Carivel must not have gotten a good look at my generally battered state last night, because a frown creased her features as she examined me in the daylight.
“I did try to tell you when you were growing up that adventure is generally overrated,” she said, holding me close against her wiry body.
She passed me off to Senovo, who held me at arms’ length, his gaze sliding over me for only a moment before moving to focus behind me, where Rayth was standing out of the way.
“And yet,” he said, “sometimes we seem to find exactly what we need, hidden in the rubble afterward.”
“Wise as ever,” Andoc sa
id as he wrapped one strong arm around me, balancing with his walking stick in the other. “Come on, sweetheart. Let’s go find out how crotchety the elders are feeling today.”
Chapter 25: The Beach
Frella
WE EMERGED FROM the meeting hall a couple of hours later with a formal agreement in place offering us permanent haven in Draebard with the dragons, in exchange for our pledge to use the beasts in defense of the tribe and its allies against any external threat that might arise.
The way I saw it, it was kind of a no-brainer from the council’s perspective. Oh, no thank you… please take your stunningly powerful war beasts to some other village that might not always be well-disposed toward us. We’ll be fine without them, and the flames from burning huts torched by our enemies are so warming at this time of year.
Yeah, right.
With the terms agreed, there really wasn’t much more to be said. I spent the rest of the afternoon visiting those in the village I’d been closest to over the years, while trying the whole time not to let the conversation with any of them become too deep. Rayth stayed behind to speak in greater depth with Andoc and Senovo, presumably discussing the political situation on the continent.
I wasn’t naive enough to think that word of the dragons’ presence here wouldn’t eventually make it back to Alyrios and Utrea. However, after the emperor’s disastrous attempts to invade Eburos two decades previously, I was hoping that neither he nor Oblisii would consider the potential benefit of attacking the island worth the risk.
Not when all they’d have to do was wait a few decades, and the problem would be solved without any action on their parts.
After a pleasant dinner in the temple with my family, Rayth and I excused ourselves for an early night in preparation for our departure in the morning. Cheen was growing restless with her nestmates absent and Rayth otherwise occupied much of the time. We visited her again as the last of the light faded, and returned to Carivel’s hut when it grew too dark to see.
‘An early evening’ somehow turned into another round of lovemaking—lazy and drawn out, this time, rather than passionate and frantic. I cried again in Rayth’s arms afterward, something about the act of passionate intimacy drawing Aristede’s spirit closer to my awareness. After I quieted, Rayth held me close. He surprised me, then, by sharing a story about Aristede from the time before I’d known them.
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