Before I can form my daydream fully, Niko pinches my chin softly between the pads of his fingers. “Don’t use your power. I can walk,” he says softly.
I roll my eyes and shrug him off primly. “You’d get about as far as the entrance hall, and then I’d just have to leave your ass to sleep on the stairs. Besides, Iwantto use my power. It feels…” I let out a breathy sigh of pleasure. “It feels almost as good as you do.”
Something flickers in the depths of Niko’s eyes; something close to sadness. Before I can question it, he pulls my mouth to his and kisses me deeply. His tongue sweeps gently over mine, softly tasting my mouth like it’s a delicacy.
I let the feel of him open up the well of magic residing behind my heart. It took Niko’s touch, and my desperation to keep it, to learn what it truly was. The feel of its edges, the free fall into its depths. I tug on it now, feeding it a different sort of desperation: one to protect the soft parts ofhim.
The spaces inside him he shreds apart and sacrifices to save everyone else; the darkness that will never let him forget, never let him forgive himself for his choices as a lonely child.
Stolen from his family, and raised to vie for a mad king’s affection, of course Niko would sacrifice everything for the first person who cared for him. He sees it as a weakness, as a terrible moment he’ll never atone for, but I see it for what it is—strength of heart.
A heart I find myself wanting more and more desperately by the second.
Loosing a breath, I dip into the pool of my magic where infinite colors swirl. The current of them rushes against me, just as it had in the Grove, a deluge of feeling and possibility. Niko runs his fingers over my hip, and I swat them away.
“Quit that. I have to concentrate.”
He chuckles. “Or else you’ll accidentally suck us into the ground as well, Darling?”
I shoot him a dark look. “Maybe just you.”
Niko hums against my throat, flicking his tongue lightly behind my ear. “I’d prefer to be buried inside somethingelse.”
I ignore him, even as an insistent heat burgeons anew between my thighs. Instead, I slowly submerge into my power, imagining what I want as clearly as I can. In the Grove, I’d learned quickly that precision is important. Leaving even the smallest details open for interpretation makes dreams vulnerable to the wrong sort of influence.
Truthfully, I hadn’t imagined the earth swallowing up the Strayed. I’d imagined Niko safe, and my power had filled in theblanks. I granted it a dangerous freedom I’d do well to avoid in the future.
There’s a violent tug behind my heart as the pool of magic expands, and when I blink my eyes open, Niko and I are both lying on the floor of his bathing chamber. He blinks owlishly at our surroundings, having the nerve to look disappointed.
“This is decidedlynotthe bed I was promised,” he remarks sulkily, burying his face in my hair.
“Such a grumpy old man, Corpsey. We smell like fire and sex. We need a bath.”
“You keep calling me old, but by my math, you aren’t the picture of youth yourself.” Niko gives a shudder as his death curls over his chest. I watch as the black tattoos disappear beneath the even blacker ribbons.
“Has the senility affected your math skills? You’re like…a hundredyears older than me,” I point out, leaping up to open the obsidian taps that feed the giant, sunken tub. “That’s a century!”
“In the span of centuries, I hardly think a few decades makes much difference.”
“I don’t agree,” I croon, wiggling my fingers at his ribbons. “You’ve practically robbed the cradle.”
Niko glares up at me scornfully, his mouth twisting as he fights his laughter. It spills out of him in a guffaw. Not the cruel sound he makes when he’s a ruthless king, but soft and melodic; addictive as everything else about him.
His confessions of the past hour roll through my mind—What do you think I’d do for you? I’ll get on my knees every day. Adytum.Their veracity has me feeling brave enough for another moment of vulnerability. “I like hearing you laugh.”
“Don’t get used to it. Your impertinence hardly needs encouragement. You’re a menace to society.”
“I didn’t hear any complaints about my impertinence a few minutes ago.”
“I am not, and have never claimed to be, part of good society,” he drawls in a manner that immediately takes me back to the savage way he’d touched me. Like he was drowning, and I was air.
I clench my thighs together, as the tub fills, curls of steam rolling off the surface of the water. I return to Niko’s side to assist him, but he brushes me off impatiently, dragging himself up with a pained groan. The muscles of his abdomen contract with the movement, and unbidden, I remember how they looked as he moved into me.
Niko cocks a brow. “Iknewyou liked me on my deathbed.”
“Oh hush,” I reply, ducking beneath his arm to help him into the tub.
He sinks into the water, his lashes fluttering, a stifled moan of pleasure sounding from his throat.
