The Apollyon lord’s lips curled at being ordered about. However, Leisha had handled him well because he could do nothing except adhere to her command since it was the very reason he’d been awaiting their arrival. “I have a message from Malachi,” Jakobi said gruffly to Kadeesha. “He has declared war on the Six Kingdoms instead of waiting for Rishaud to be the initiator. Soon after the solstice, Malachi will lead Apollyon armies in an invasion of the Hyperion palace to kill Rishaud and claim the title of high king, so be sure that you and your squadron are ready to uphold the oath you swore to fight alongside Apollyon forces with your war serpents.”
Jakobi’s announcement wiped any previously held humor from Kadeesha.
“IDID NOT AGREEto launching an assault against southern fae and helping to carry out an invasion against southern lands!” Kadeesha seethed at Malachi when he finally deigned to show up in the study that Jakobi had grudgingly taken her to when she demanded to speak with Malachi himself. Perhaps a more sensible individual would’ve stopped and taken stock of the deadly air clinging to Malachi as he’d stalked into the room, as if he just barely leashed his most vicious instincts and that restraint would snap at the slightest provocation. However, Kadeesha had never been intimidated by Malachi and she was too pissed to give a damn about his baleful temper or the fact that it was coming on the heels of him having unleashed his hellish magic to execute today’s crop of fae who’d accrued death sentences.
Malachi said nothing at first, and it stoked her fury as he merely strode across the room and didn’t stop until he’d invaded her space and had her caged between his rock-hard body and the wall of floor-to-ceiling books she’d been standing in front of. One of the bookcase’s wooden dividers now dug into her back as Malachi’s broad chest crushed hers. He gripped the back of her neck and then his mouth was crashing down on hers as he held her in place. All the hard-won distance and perspective she thought she’d gained from being separated from Malachi over the last seven days shattered. She was wrenched right back into the web of insanity as she opened for him and let his tongue sweep inside her mouth. He kissed her like a starving male, andshe kissed him back like she’d been famished for days. When he abruptly tore his lips away, she bit down on her tongue to keep from crying out in protest.
“I was trying to stay away from you and yet here you are summoning me,” he rumbled against her lips. He let go of her neck to plant both hands against the bookshelf on either side of her head. His eyes raked the length of her and every spot they swept across went flush with heat after not seeing him for days. “And you call me to you in these damn flight leathers, no less, that I want to rip off you and then fuck you right here until you scream yourself hoarse,” he said like he was angry about how badly he wanted her.
The volatile thunder that was Malachi’s voice shot straight between her legs. Kadeesha arched into him, needing the friction and rubbing herself against how hard she could easily see and feel that he was beneath the black silk tunic and pants with silver stitching that he wore. A crown sat atop his sleek locs that hung loose around his imposing shoulders, and a wretched breath caught in her chest as she drank him in whileneedinghim so badly it ached. He dipped his head again, sweeping his tongue over the Marking at her throat. She gasped from how hypersensitive the skin was and arched more fervently into him.
“No!” she breathed when Malachi’s teeth grazed her Marking. An uncontrollable shudder rocked through her. He shuddered too. Then, his body went rigid.
“I’m not that fucking stupid to bite you again,” Malachi said against the side of her neck. He sucked on the skin hard enough to draw a moan out of her. She extended her neck so he had greater access.But what if you are that stupid? What if we both are?She screeched at herself to stop where they were headed—where they always inevitably ended up.
Not anymore!she lashed herself. She had to claw herself out from under Malachi’s spell. Which meant she needed to speak her piece to set things straight between them about his bloody war declaration and then exit the room—that was obviously Malachi’s personal study since his scent clung to every corner—with haste. Because every time she found herself in close proximity to Malachi, she lost every scrap of sense and felt a tug toward him that was becoming exceedingly more difficult to deny.
Whatever this pull was that lay between them, she obviously should take a few additional days of separation to cleave it as best as the cursed Markings would allow. And it was imperative to accomplish itbeforehis invasion, because after it she’d be returning to her court and officially assuming rulership of it. When that occurred, she and Malachi would become two monarchs engaging in a dance to maintain a precarious balance of power. She refused to act in any manner that allowed Malachi to tip the scales of power in his favor. Especially when he was already making decrees and high-handedly maneuvering her into situations without consulting her as if she was a tool—an actual possession—to use at his disposal.
She gnashed her teeth at the same moment his fingers dug into her hips. The magic that made oaths unbreakable and bound each party to honor the terms meant she’d be going along with Malachi’s invasion whether she liked it or not. Not that he’d bothered to solicit her opinion. Which again presented the precise problem she had with Malachi’s latest machinations. It felt too much like he was pulling her strings. She hadn’t negotiated independence just to become the Apollyon king’s puppet. Rishaud had tried to chain her in that role and her father and mother had groomed her for her entire life to dutifully acquiesce to it. Now that she had been handed a viable way out ofmarrying Rishaud and her father was gone, she refused to hand over the personal autonomy she’d gained to yet another king.
Her utter fury over the way Malachi went about informing her of his war declaration pumped the clarity into her veins that she needed to plant her hands against his chest and shove him away. When he took two steps back, just that small distance allowed her to think more clearly. Though admittedly by only a small fraction, since he was still much too close. But it was enough to dull how badly she wanted him to make good on tearing her clothes off, how badly she wanted to do the same to his sumptuous garments, how badly she wanted to feel his teeth sink into her neck as he stretched her, and how badly her mouth watered to bite him,taste him, back.
Okay, the modicum of space had dulled nothing at all.
Her fury still raged, though, and she clung tight to that. “How dare you,” she spat, “just decide to invade Hyperion lands and then dispatch a messenger to inform me of your new war stratagem I am beholden to. Let me guess,” she hissed, “you assumed that your dick is so great that I’d readily kneel to whateverYour Gracecommands and you didn’t need to bother with the inconvenience of affording me the courtesy and respect of coming to me yourself and apprising me of your change of plans that monumentally affect me and my squadron. New plans that have us no longer merely acting as a defensive force against an invasion of your lands but aiding your warmongering agenda alongside you and using my squadron in an invasion of your own!
“Let’s set one thing straight,” she continued, taking a step toward him despite the distance she’d wanted, fire raging in her veins, “when you agreed to our latest bargain, you may not have really intended to respect me as Aether queen once I return to my kingdom, but while I am aiding you in your war, youwilltreat me with the respect that a fellow monarch who is an ally should be extended.”
Malachi’s answering stare pinned her in place. The menacing energy he’d prowled into the study with remained about him, as did the intense sexual energy, but his countenance had also shifted in a way she couldn’t quite parse out. More quietly than he’d ever spoken to her before, he said, “I think we can both agree that we should restrain ourselves from giving in to ill-advised urges moving forward since the Markings have become a thing. It’s why I didn’t tell you of my planned invasion myself. I’ve been staying away because you were already too damn alluring for my own good before these damnable Markings, and now that I’ve made such an egregious error …” He closed the distance between them and reached out to stroke her Marking as if he couldn’t help himself. Her whole body shuddered as she craned her neck once more to give him better access without ever making the conscious decision to do so. Kadeesha brushed the pad of her thumb across the Marking on Malachi’s neck. His answering shudder was as violent as hers.
He cursed and rested his forehead against hers. Then abruptly pulled his hand away from her neck. He didn’t, however, replace any distance between them. His body remained pressed against hers and Kadeesha stiffened, every bone in her body screaming at her to push farther away even as something that was disturbing and deep-seated demanded that she haul him close enough to crawl inside his skin. Malachi must’ve felt it too because he let out another savage string of curses. “See, this right here, whatever this draw is that exists between us … It is a severe issue.”
“Agreed,” Kadeesha ground out. She continued to hold firm to the reason she was angry, using it to keep her wits about her. “Did you hold a war council to announce your shifted plans toyour inner council and lord primes?” she asked to be crystal clear about the level of insult he’d delivered.
“I wouldn’t call it a formal war council. I called an Assembly of Primes to discuss it and other items.” He answered in a defensive enough manner that told her he knew she had a right to be furious.
She didn’t bother to extinguish the flames that ignited at her fingertips. If he wanted to be offensive, so could she. “I don’t care what you would call it or the reasons you had, the currentsevere issueis that your choice stripped me of the respect I’m due as a monarch fighting at your side. Instead, you treat me as if I am a subject, or more, avassal queenat your beck and call, which was never part of any bargain we made. I should’ve been afforded the regard of an invitation to attend that war council and I should have been notified of your change of plans alongside those you did hold in high enough regard to do precisely that with.” She managed to keep her hands at her sides instead of scorching the guilty look off Malachi’s face.
It was a tell that he quickly wiped, though. “As I said, Apollyon business needed to be conducted too, and I couldn’t very well have you, an outsider, be there for the second part. Nor could I explain your presence to my lord primes.”
“Since when do you concern yourself with caring about explaining anything you do to your lord primes? Spare me the bullshit, Malachi.” She shoved away the ridiculous keen hurt that blindsided her. At least she tried to, but every damn single thing about Malachi made her move so differently than she ordinarily would. And it was why she’d flinched before she could hold it back.
Catching it, Malachi’s eyes narrowed, scrutinizing the vulnerable response she’d let slip.
She pushed her shoulders back and held up her chin. She didn’t avert her gaze as if she was embarrassed. Instead, she owned what she’d allowed him to glimpse, skewering Malachi in place with a withering stare.
“You’re right,” he said in a bland tone as if he’d grown bored with the conversation. “My reasons aside, I’ll concede that I dealt you a great disrespect when I did not extend you the regard of a seat at my council table during discussions of war. Any insult or injury was not what I intended, Your Highness.”
Malachi’s stiffly formal tone was one he’d never used with her before, and it was as jarring as metal scraping glass. So was his pseudo-apology. “I thank you for your expressed contrition, Your Grace,” she returned to Malachi as formally, because a tiny bit of breathing room away from how intimate they’d been in his pool and afterward when the Markings had happened was exactly what she needed to eke out.
Distaste rippled across Malachi’s dark stare, dulling the specks of radiant gold among the brown. Malachi quashed it and replaced it with an aloof expression that grated on her every nerve. She ignoredherdistaste and stepped past the Apollyon king because they’d been in each other’s presence long enough for the day. Over her shoulder she said, “Is Jakobi still available to escort my squadron to the arena? We’ll need to lengthen our sessions as well to coordinate how we’ll best be of aid in an offensive strike versus the defensive support we’d been preparing for.”
“He’s waiting right outside the door,” Malachi said to her back.
As she exited, the formal exchanges they’d ended things with continued to vex her. She told herself it was only because she must maintain some level of familiarity with Malachi so she could coax him to drop his guard at the opportune time.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
