She froze beneath my lips, her words dying off as I traced the seam of her mouth with my tongue. The angle of her head was awkward, but she turned her head more to face me fully as she let out a little sigh that I swallowed greedily. When the tension bled from her body on that sigh, I pressed closer and kissed her slowly, giving her the time necessary to change her mind. She didn’t, instead releasing a little growl of frustration as she carefully swung her leg over the top of Thunder’s neck and turned to the side. She repeated that process as he tensed beneath her, but she was as careful as she could be and mindful of his spine as she pulled her leg over. The movement had forced our mouths to separate, and I watched her to see what reaction I would get.
She reached up with a steady hand, touching the stubble on my jaw. Her skin was so soft it felt like silk, her hands uncalloused from hard labor the way mine were. She inched closer, tipping her head up and waiting for me to close the distance between us.
I smiled as I touched my mouth to hers again, wasting no time on preamble as I opened for her. She matched me, sliding her ass closer until she sat with her legs draped over mine and her core pressed to mine.
I groaned, but forced myself to pull away long enough to give her the reassurance she needed. “You’re going to be my wife, not my prisoner, Sunfire,” I said, the words a soft sigh. I wanted nothing more than to pull her down from Thunder’s back and show her allthat monogamy with me had to offer, but she’d given me something that mattered to her.
Something I had a feeling she didn’t share with many.
“In my experience, there’s little difference between the two,” she said, her eyes uncertain as she studied me.
“A real marriage should be about compromising and seeing to one another’s needs. Ihaveto look after my people in the Summer Court and give them stability, but part of that requires me to go to all the different corners of Alfheimr and maintain relations with the nobles there. If your desires are to travel, then there’s no reason we cannot do that. You’ll have to be willing to compromise with me and understand that we may not be able to run offallthe time, but I have no desire to lock you in a cage, Fallon. If we’re able and things are stable, we can go wherever you want.”
“You’d go with me?” she asked, and her shock was palpable.
“Sunfire, you couldn’t keep me away,” I said, smiling down at her as I tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear on the side opposite of her braids.
“But you didn’t ask for this or for me. Mab just dumped me on you, too—”
“Some of the best gifts are the ones you never asked for,” I said, evading the truth and leaning into her more fully. I let her feel the press of me behind her, knowing that we were less than a day’s ride from the first stop on our journey.
“You want me to look at you as a gift?” she asked, quirking her brow at me as if I was arrogant to think so.
I grinned, pulling her tighter into me so that she could feel me. She stilled in my arms, allowing the continued touch when she might not have only a few hours before.
“There are those who would view me as a great gift indeed,” I said, grinning at the snort that she released.
“They must not have known you very well,” she said, and had she not been stuck on a horse with me, I could almost picture her striding away.
Leaving me burning in her wake to prove her wrong.
SEVENTEENFALLON
The journey through the Summer Court was long and arduous, the minutes passing into hours as we made our way over the desert plains. The heat was unbearable, sweat dripping down my temples and the back of my neck as we rode. Etan’s warmth behind me didn’t help matters—the man gave off as much heat as the hot springs in the tunnels of the rebellion. He seemed unfazed by it, even though sweat made his skin sheen when I turned to glance back at him.
He was acclimated to it, at home in it even, I imagined. Whereas I had grown up in the temperate climate of Nothrek, where we had four seasons and the summers never quite reached this level of heat, he’d spent centuries thriving in the humid air. I’d been belowground, insulated from the worst of the weather entirely, without any of the extremes that might have been more common on the surface. Even still, my hunch told me the hottest of weather in Nothrek was nothingnext to this desert that never seemed to end in spite of the scent of ocean brine and the humidity to the air.
“This heat will take some getting used to,” I grumbled as he led us up a particularly large sand dune. It was closer to the size of the mountain range I’d called home than what I’d imagined of the desert hills I’d only read about in the books Imelda shared with me.
He chuckled, the sound hoarse and appealing where it made his chest shake against my spine. He touched my head with his nose, his deep inhale of my scent something that should have felt wrong and too primal to be our reality, but somehow felt right in this form.
The differences between the humans and the Fae were somehow both minuscule and overwhelming all at once.
“Don’t worry,” he said as he crested the top of the hill. A village sat at the bottom on the other side, nestled against the shore. “Our capital, Vallania, is right on the shores of the sea. The direct ocean breeze makes the heat far more pleasant than the desert like this, where the air is too still. We’ll stay in the village of Oceanmere for the night and then ride along the coast for the rest of our journey. This is the most suffocating of the heat you’ll experience.”
Thunder struggled to trudge through the deep sands, forcing Etan and me to lean forward over his neck to help him balance on the incline. I felt guilty for the poor creature, but he never complained, and Etan periodically handed him apples and carrots and special treats that seemed to keep him hydrated. He whinnied happily every time he received one of the circular treats that looked like candy.
With a final shove from his rear legs, Thunder crested the top of the dune. A village came into view at the base of the mountain of sand on the other side, nestled into the side of the ocean waters, which glimmered with a color of blue so vivid I never could have imagined it on my own. Even the ocean I’d seen when we’d crossed from Nothrek to Alfheimr hadn’t been like this; it had been covered in mist and nearly gray, a moody and mysterious body of water that had quickened my heart rather than calmed it.
Thunder began the descent without hesitating, and our weight shifted to lean back to counteract the change in balance. His steps slid through the sand with practiced ease as the tiny grains rolled down the hill beside him.
The village below was gated, an enormous stone wall surrounding the side of the town that abutted the desert. From our vantage point at the top of the dune, it was hard to guess just how tall thewall might have been. But the homes within were smaller, dwarfed inside by the size of it, and I had to wonder exactly what it was designed to keep out.
Only those who knew of the presence of the village would have any clue it existed with the way the dunes kept it hidden from travelers passing by.
Even this far from the shores, blocked by the buildings and the wall that separated us from them, I felt the cooling sensation of the water on my skin. The humidity from before wasn’t stifling, instead coming on a gentle breeze that soothed my sun-kissed skin. The sea was a tangible thing in the air, a promise of relaxation, and some of the tension bled out from my body.
“Have you ever been in the ocean?” Etan asked, and there was a wistful quality to his question. It was clear that he enjoyed time in the water himself, but the only water I’d ever set foot in had been the hot springs in the tunnels where we bathed. It had been warm and calming in its own right, easing sore muscles after Imelda and I trained with some of the others, but it felt different than how I imagined the sea would feel. Refreshingly cool waters on a hot summer’s day rather than the warm comfort of a bath.
