“Why are you here? You have news?” I asked, spinning a small ball of air in my palm.
Razia tracked the movement before fixing me with an unreadable stare.
“I do.”
“And?” I tried to belay my excitement, but threads of it pushed through in a rush.
“There will be an . . . opportunity soon.”
“An opportunity for . . . what exactly?” I asked, the ball of air whizzing in my palm with my growing irritation. “Speak plainly, Razia. I grow tired of your”—I glanced disparagingly at him—“games.”
“I have it from good sources that there will be a . . . celebration in roughly a month’s time.”
“A celebration?” I deadpanned.
“Yes. A time where the rebels will be caught unaware and unguarded.”
“A perfect time for an attack,” I mused, a feral smile gripping the edges of my lips.
Finally, the opening I needed. The time to snuff out their little flame of rebellion and bring Elyria to heel.
“Tell me all that you know,” I said, extinguishing the ball of air with my fist. “Andleave nothing out.”
Razia responded with a malicious grin of his own, teeth and eyes glinting in the low firelight. “Gladly.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Folami
After that picnic, Lex was everywhere.
When I sparred on the training grounds, when I took lunch with Peytor and Itanya in the gardens, in strategy meetings, in the halls of the manor. It seemed like all I had to do was look over my shoulder, and I’d find him. The feeling of his eyes caressing my skin like a hot brand should have been terrifying, yet it was everything but.
Instead of jumping through my skin, itching to leave well enough alone and remove myself from his obvious attention and affection, I drifted toward it. Reveled in the thrill of his awareness, of my body—my verysoul—awakening under his gaze.
It was a heady thing that set my heart in motion and tingled my skin.
I wanted it to stop.
I never wanted it to end.
More than once, I’d found myself so wholly distracted by his undiluted regard that I’d stumbled through my training, fumbling movements and instructions I’d been performing in my sleep for nearly three decades. I was a bumbling idiot in his presence, yet the softness of his chocolate eyes, the utter reverence he held, made me feel like the most desired and respected woman in Elyria.
Even now, as I trained our army in hand-to-hand combat, and Lex instructed a separate group in magical attacks, I was aware of him. Like my soul called to his, begging to be united.
It didn’t hurt that he was incredibly handsome in an almost feminine way with his delicate features and soulful eyes.
I gave my group a series of movements to practice while I watched and critiqued. Every few seconds or so, I found my attention wandering, my eyes canvassing his lithe form, drawn to the way his black tunic and pants clung to the finely honed muscles beneath.
What does he look like naked? Does his waist taper, exposing cut muscles that lead the gaze down to his cock? I bet his cock is just as pretty as?—
“Good morning,ayaba,” Ilyas growled from behind, startling me from my incredibly inappropriate thoughts. My cheeks instantly flushed, my body sweating from the sudden heat.
Where Lex was all lithe grace, Ilyas was a ferocious giant of a man. Ilyas rolled his tunic sleeves to the elbow, and I greedily drank in his corded forearms that were nearly as round as my bicep. Veins popped from beneath dark skin, trailing down to equally large hands and fingers. I heated further at the thought of them inside me, touching places I’d only let Peytor explore.
The thought of my Peytor was a douse of cold water on my ardor, and I immediately stiffened, turning away from the sight of Ilyas and Lex.
“What happened just now?” Ilyas prodded quietly, moving incrementally until our shoulders brushed. Tingles of awareness spread down my arms, but I purposefully ignored the call that wanted me to push my body flush with his.
