Yeah, he still wants to get rid of me, after everything. Asshole.
I bet he wishes we’d left the Oracle off the itinerary.
The priest clears his throat. “May the sacred waters of the Oracle bless the coming marriage of Prince Dietan of Loegria, heir to the throne of Alarice, and Aren of Evandale,” he intones. “May your union bring peace to both kingdoms and strength to our people for centuries to come.”
“Goddess willing,” I say, which is what we say back home.
“May the wind be ever at our back,” Dietan murmurs, which is the Loegrian way. He takes my hand and squeezes it, and when our gazes meet, his eyes are soft. I know what comes next to conclude this kind of rite. My whole body begins to hum like a beehive.
He draws me closer, and I can’t stop my heart from galloping out of my chest, because now he’s lowering his head as I raise my own. He murmurs, too softly for the priest to hear, “Don’t hit me, okay?”
“Okay,” I breathe.
Then he kisses me. His lips touch mine. They flutter as if asking a question. For a split second, I think he’s about to pull away because this is just pretend. We’re fooling Dietan’s soldiers and the priest—even the Oracle.
But then his arms encircle my waist, and he draws me even closer. I wrap my arms around his neck, and we’re pressed against each other, and everything around us melts away. He opens his mouth to mine, and I do the same, breathing him in. The press of his tongue against my own sends fire racing to every inch of my body. He nibbles on my bottom lip, and now every part of me is burning.
His body is all heat and muscle against mine. I tilt my hips a little, which makes him groan. My fingers weave through his silky hair, and he draws me tighter against him. For all his secrets and denial, this man wants me, and that alone makes me want to give him everything.
Then Marcus coughs.
Shit.I blink my eyes open, and my cheeks burn hot.Shit, shit, shit.
Dietan chuckles. “I forgot where we are,” he murmurs, still holding me in his arms. Then he releases me, and my body is numb everywhere we touched.
I blush and smooth the front of my dress. I can hardly look at the priest. I enjoyed that so much, I damn near forgot everything, including my own name. I wonder how much of it was just for show. Based on Dietan’s quick breaths and flushed cheeks, maybe none of it…
Dietan grins at me, and I grin back. I got what I wanted. I’ve waited all my life for a kiss, and that was one for the ages.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Aren
At last, we’ve arrived at the bridge between Loegria and the Great Waste of Estyrion.
If the royal soldiers are surprised that we aren’t making our way back to the capital, they don’t show it. Perhaps they simply follow Marcus wherever he leads.
Like the bridge connecting Loegria and Alarice, it’s a massive thoroughfare. But where that bridge was teeming with travelers, this one is eerily empty. The stores lining the bridge are shuttered, the houses dark. Our party is the only one that dares cross into the fallen kingdom.
“Dietan?” I ask, and he understands my silent question.
“I know,” he answers. He, too, is taking in the charred trusswork and support beams overhead. Not only is the bridge empty—it’s cloaked in smoke.
I can’t bring myself to go further than the beginning brickwork as I peer into the haze. I’m covered in gooseflesh, and I clutch my pack so tightly, my fingers start to go numb. I feel Dietan come up to my side, also stopping just short of stepping onto the bridge. His eyes narrow as he looks down its length. Crossing the bridge means we’ll be exposed once more, but it’s the only way into Estyrion.
The bridge looks passable, but portions of it are damaged by some kind of explosion. It looks like a battle happened here recently, yet there are no bodies, no injured soldiers, no other evidence of human passage.
“The Usurper’s work?” I ask.
Marcus joins us, taking in the damage with a keen strategist’s eye. He kneels and scrapes a long finger in the ash smeared on the railing. Nodding, he rubs it between his fingers and smells it. “Alchemist’s powder.”
“What’s that?” I ask.
Dietan looks gray when he replies, “It’s an explosive powder ground from highly volatile stones, mined deep in Estyrion. It’s one of the only resources of value left there. It can create fire on impact. Devastating if deployed in large quantities.”
I don’t like the sound of that at all. “But they left the bridge intact?”
“Whoever was here would be foolish to demolish the only passage between Loegria and Estyrion. They need it as much as we do,” Dietan explains.
