Tapping my latest gold band with a blunted claw, I guided his eye to my bicep where the master’s circlet to match his now sat. “You like? It’s not my first choice of body modification, mind you”—I ran my tongue over my elongated canines—“but there’s no arguing with the results.”
Tentative, he reached for me without touch, taking a terrified sip of what now lay between us.
“Can you feel me, Asher?” I leaned forward, didn’t stop until our breath mixed. “How ‘bout now?” I asked, and commanded my claws to grow anew. Watched them sprout from my fingertips and lengthen between us, as if I reallywaspart lion and they’d merely been retracted. Waiting for me to extend them and mark my territory.
A strangled, confused sound burst from his lips.
“I asked you a question, slave,” I whispered, running my scarred fingers through his hair, scratching at his scalp with pointed claws. “I expect an answer.”
Still, he didn’t speak. Seemed he couldn’t.
I tisked. “Come now, pet. You should bethankingme! I gave you more power than you’ve ever had. Sharing it seems a small price to pay, given the results. It’s all pretty unjust, if you ask me. Hardly seems right that you get to benefit from all my hard work and sacrifice, but—” I shrugged, planting my palms on the swells of his flushed pectorals. Dimpling his skin beneath my claws.
He stared back with stony eyes. “Are you having fun?” he asked in a voice that shook.
“Can you blame me? I owe you a rather lot, wouldn’t you say?”
“Then take what you came for,” he hissed, proving I wasn’t the only one spiteful enough to throw the other’s words around. “I can assure you, Miss Tannovic, you won’t get a better chance than this.”
My head tilted to the side as I considered him. “And what do you think I’ve yet to claim? I’ve already had every piece of you and found the experience… wanting.” I laughed. “See, Ican’ttake what I came here for because she’s dead. But I suppose that means my task is at leastpartiallycomplete, as the Empire doesn’t have her power anymore either…”
A ghost of his usual cocky smirk curved the corner of his lips. “Release me,right now, and I’ll spare you the bulk of the consequences your little stunt has earned. You and I are going to have a conversation.”
The smile slipped from my lips and I patted his cheek. “No. Not just yet, I’m afraid. See”—I slid off his chest, mindful of his legs and the potential to get tangled up between those powerful thighs—“I have a little surprise for you.”
“Well?” he drawled, but a bead of anxiety trickled down the side of his face. Betraying the truly delicious frisson of uncertain, aimless emotion that flew somewhere next to hate. “Get on with your theatrics or untie me, Menace.”
Setting my feet to the floor, I stood, stretched my arms above my head and luxuriated in thepopandcrackof my spine straightening without the weight of slavery beating me down. “I imagine you’ve some notion of coming after me,” I said, and flicked a hank of silver-blonde hair off my shoulder. Stooped to gather my ruined, discarded dress and the secret weight contained within. “But given our lengthy history, I feel obligated to warn you against such an…unwisepath.” I met that inky gaze, twisting black silk between my deadly fingers, then paused at his bedside table. Hooking my forefinger beneath a loop of silver chain, I lifted his pendant, watching the Glaith sparkle and dance in a shaft of noon sun. “It’s dangerous out there… in the wild.”
Regarding me with fierce, dark eyes, he said nothing. Following along as I let the pendant swing, his fury was eclipsed by a flighty sense of… what was that delicate nectar teasing my palate? Ah,yess.Panic. The poor, helpless man.
I let the pendant drop. Let it clatter to the wood, forgotten, then began to unwind a fistful of dark silk. “You remember that day, don’t you? The day we met? The day Tritan fell, and you burned my world down around me?” Another layer slipped away, and in my palm, Glaith and iron began to hum. “I still carry the scars from that day, Asher. They remind me of my greatest failure. That I was blinded byyouand didn’t see—” my throat constricted around ancient pains, and I choked. Swallowed it down and freed my ring at last.
He sucked in a breath, nostrils pinched white. Peppering the bond with the stink of fear.
“It’s fitting, isn’t it?” I asked, iron held between forefinger and thumb. Rolling it, yet avoiding the Glaith as I let it kiss the light. “That we find ourselves right back here. At the beginning.” This new ring was different than the one I’d traded an entire city for. Slimmer. Feminine and dainty, while retaining the air of bold Caledonian artistry.
I met his eye, held his gaze and let him see my Truth, then slid Sasha’s ring into place.
It settled over the ridge of old scars and branded initials, concealing them as if it was always meant to sit just there. On my middle finger.
As if… As if it had beenmadeforme.
Startled, I met his scowl. Incredulous, for hecouldn’thave been so arrogant as to craft this new ring in the hopes that it would one day be mine. Couldn’t have predicted his plans might lead to me wearing his ring, after all that had passed between us.
But hehad. I could see it in the blush that pinkened his cheeks.
“Sentimental fool!” Nipples puckered with the power of three, I threw my head back and laughed, for the fit was perfect. Absolutely meant to sit atop my knuckle.
Shaking my head, I took a moment to admire the hated glimmer of blues, greens, and purples thatbelonged, then reached for his bindings. Reached for the belts keeping him restrained, and married both buckles in bejeweled fist.
I commanded the ring to overheat just enough to turn the metal soft, then squashed it. Ignoring the pain and the stench of burning flesh and leather as the buckles twisted together—rendered forever useless as I bought myself some time. He’d have to be cut free, or tear the headboard clear off the wall.
“Thanks for the good times, Asher, but I’m off.” I smothered the embers smoldering on his pillow, then banished the blisters forming on my scarred palm with a stray thought. “People to free. Empires to destroy. You know how it is.”
“By all means,” he replied. Civil. Tight and restrained, yetseethingin his new place at the back of my mind. “Oh, and Mila?”
Out of habit, I turned to face him. “Yes?”
