Our ride through the Green Valley is indeed hard. We stop once for a late breakfast and to rest the horses as we ourselves stretch from the morning ride and try to relax. Keane had stopped us at the side of one of Sutton and Tripler’s large quarries, the two of us gazing down into the massive hole in the ground as we watched the Discerni and human men all working the earth to mine the black granite. It was a sight to see.
Once we were ready, we rode swiftly down the Great Road with the spring breeze getting cooler as we ventured farther north in his lands. We stopped again well after the noon apex to take care of the horses, then decided to give ourselves a break under the trees of the forest.
I must have fallen asleep under those trees, or rested my eyes for a brief moment, because when I woke up it was to Keane no longer sitting with me but standing with the horses, readying them for the final ride ahead.
We would reach Gaumond just before sunset.
Keane and I ride again down the Great Road, the sun catching us between the trees and shimmering overhead. It’s a beautiful ride, as is the man next to me, but I begin to feel the slight build of anticipation forming within my chest as I watch him on the road.
Eventually he slows Ash to a steady walk, his eyes turning to me before glancing further ahead through a small break within the trees. He tilts his chin towards to the black structure rising proudly from afar. The Black Capitol is finally within our sights.
I smile and sink back into my saddle, patting Millie on the neck as I urge her to a slow as well. Keane reaches behind him and pulls out a canteen, tossing it my way as I smile foolishly, already knowing what’s inside.
“Continue, Keane,” I demand, taking a deep swig of the whiskey to still my nerves.
I lean over Millie and hand the drink back, feeling his fingers brush my own and purposely lighting my skin to fire.
“Nine,” he nods and brings the drink up to his lips. I watch those lips before taking in the rest of him, eyeing the full of his body without shame.
Keane is clad in all black, his shirt tight around his chest and accentuating his muscles just by the easy movement of raising the drink to his mouth. The shirt falls gracefully down his arms with black stitching of oak leaves resting in a thick band from shoulder to wrist. There’s a small cut down the front, nothing as deep as I’ve seen him wear at night for courts, but still open enough to reveal his broad chest. His shirt fits loosely over his torso until it tucks into his black riding pants, the fabric thick and rich and also accentuating the heavy muscles of his legs. He looks completely at ease with himself, confident and smug as his eyes catch my hand at my ear. He watches me fiddle with my oak earrings as I shift in my seat.
“You’re not going to last,” he chuckles, arrogance dripping with every word. I narrow my eyes at him and extend my hand, needing another drink.
Keane gives me a knowing look before reaching out, letting his thumb skim over the fluorite ring on my forefinger before handing me the canteen.
Ancients.
“My ninth count,” Keane grins when I move my hand quickly away from his, “came the day you woke up from the library at Red Falls. You let me have my way with you that day, still high on your own adventure, and you demanded that I look at you not in distress, but in the strong resilience that you and your body required. Your fire was strong then, Alexis, and I had to feel it. And when you let me take off your clothes and I saw the black lace waiting underneath…”
Keane shakes his head, “I have seen all manners of black lingerie on the women of my Court. But when I saw them on you for the first time…Alexis… let the Ancients hold me to these words… I wanted to fuck you senseless. I knew then that you had been hiding in plain sight this whole time, and the realization of that did things to me I could barely control. I needed you then,showedyou how bad I needed you when you let me kneel before you.”
“Even after, when I walked back into the room and saw you standing naked and bruised in front of the mirror. You were so proud talking to Stormfall for the first time, so strong. So fucking resilient. I didn’t know if I’d be able to hold myself back again.”
I nod my head at the Prince and take a small sip of the needed whiskey, letting the burn add fuel to my fire already lighting for him. “You held out your hand to me. Stopped me from approaching you.”
“Yes,” Keane says with a small smile, his brown eyes gaining intensity as he holds my gaze, “it was all I could do to stop those feelings from consuming me again. I was working hard to keep my promise to you under the Shadow Oak.”
His eyes peer down to my lips, to the small breath I let escape before he continues, “ten came back in Fumagalli, when you stood before me in the stables after our ride in the Plains. You were so heated and hot that I could feel my racing heart matching that of your own. You were on a high again, one that I’m all too familiar with, and when you told me how you refused to bow to the Prince of Livyatan, when you mirrored my own feelings of exhilaration out loud with your words… youunderstood.”
“You were nearly there, Alexis. I could feel it all building within you. Butyoutookmethat day,” he gives an approving grin, “you showed me with your body,with your mouth, exactly what you were experiencing, exactly what you saw when you looked at me bloodied and exhausted. You stood before me as a Warrior.”
Keane shakes his head, his eyes alighting in small awe. “Every time I think I’ve never wanted you more… I told you then and I’ll tell you again. The sight of your lips around me,taking me. I will die a happy man.”
My full body flushes atop Millie. I avert my eyes from his lustful gaze and take another small sip of whiskey, trying with all my might to still my heavy breathing.
I’m not going to last.
Ancients.
While I don’t see it, I can feel Keane’s smile growing more smugly as he takes the drink from my hands, continuing with his count.
“The next came that same night in Fumagalli, when you stepped forward and threw your dagger at Hirovale. I had never had something pull so deeply within me, pull so deeply against my body to claim you then. Ancient present to watch us or not, I was ready to take you, to make you mine on the forest floor. I thought for sure we would die in that moment and the Ancient would claim our souls, and all I could think of was that I wanted to have you one last time before that happened, before we met our final resting place.”
“You were so violent and angry,so proudin your humanity. You stood before the Ancient as his equal, refusing to bow yet again, and in that momentIwas proud to be standing byyourside. I watched as you challenged the most powerful being in the Old World, saw the determinationin your gaze meet his without fear, and I knew then that I wanted that strength next to me forever…”
Keane turns to me in the saddle, his voice strong, “Iwillhave you forever, Alexis.”
My breathing stops completely. My heart is pounding out of my chest, calling for him, urging me to look into his eyes and meet the fire of his words. My mind, bless my mind, diligently reminds me that Keane spoke of his intentions that night to the Ancient as well, already knowing full well where the two of us would lead.
