“Gods, no.” I sit up against the pillows and clasp her face. “Raina, there is nothing I want more than your mouth on my body.” I lean in and kiss her. “I have ached to take you that way more times than you can count since that night at Starworth Tor. It’s just that…” I swallow the tightness in my throat as I search for words, a reason why I stopped her that doesn’t sound like madness. And the answer hits me. “You bow to no one,” I tell her, my voice graver than it has any right to be tonight. “Do you hear me? Not ever. Especially not to me.”
She crawls up my body and straddles my hips. Not another word is said as she takes me inside her, then leans down, one arm around my neck as she moves slowly, taking her time, taking me deep.
I was too eager moments before, so I haven’t yet asked, but I think tonight we both might need tenderness. I can feel it in the way she kisses me, as though that simple connection is enough for her to enter my soul, to memorize who I am, who I’ve become under her care.
I don’t hide anything. I have no fear anymore. Any darkness, she has destroyed with her light. Every shadowy, gloomy place inside me feels remade because of her. I feel healed.
She tightens her fingers in my hair and presses her lips to my throat, tasting the skin over my pulse as her other hand traces my rune. I fold my arms around her and hold her tight, moving with her, and a different kind of instinct takes over, something so intimate that we begin to move in a beautiful rhythm, our bodies gliding in perfect time, like when we were in the pool at Starworth Tor. Every movement is fluid, every thrust met with slick grace, our hands and mouths finding that sensual rhythm. It’s a dance, one our bodies have learned these last weeks, but tonight it’s perfected.
Raina kisses me, her mouth brushing mine, the soft drag of her bottom lip enough to give way to sweet pleasure.
I plunge my hands into her hair to the wrists and inhale her, this kiss so much more than just a kiss. It’s a promise. An oath. I already know that before she presses one word to the skin over my heart.
“Mine.”
“Yes,” I whisper. “Always. El om ze pera. Lohanran tu gra.” She pulls back, and I see the question in her eyes, the recollection. “I was supposed to tell you what that means when we were in Malgros.” She nods, eager for me to continue. “It means, There is no other. You are my only temple. I love you, Raina.” I’ve said those words before, when things were different, but tonight, I can see that she hears me. That my words are etching themselves across her heart. “I meant it,” I tell her. “I swear I have loved you all my life. And when we are gone from this world, I will love you still.”
“I love you the same,” she signs, and I cannot stop the smile that breaks across my face. My heart feels discovered. Like a lost thing finally found by the one meant to hold it.
Tears fill her eyes, and when they fall, I kiss them away. Again, we begin our dance, making love as though we might never have the chance again, lost in a euphoria that makes it feel as though we’re floating among the stars.
Suddenly, a strange feeling comes over me. I grip her hip.
I can feel her.
I can feel her through the bond.
Clasping her face, I stare into her eyes. Now, when I look for her in my mind, she’s there. As though she never left.
The threads of our magick begin weaving together, a tight braid chasing along the bond.
I shake my head, confused.
“I healed the bond,” she signs, laughing and weeping. “I did not know if I could.”
It is impossible to express the joy I feel. I’m not certain even Raina would understand it. But this—being with her—feels like my fate has finally arrived. The overwhelming relief of this night is incalculable, because the thing most precious to me in this world is with me, in my arms, and she’s mine.
Hungered like never before, I turn her over, pressing a kiss to the smooth skin beneath her delicate collarbone that used to bear her rune. That still does, I suppose. Inside.
“I hope you aren’t sleepy,” I tell her as she completes the tangling of our magick. She smiles and shakes her head, and I bury myself inside her. “Because tonight,” I whisper, “we’re going to rattle this city.”
63
COLDEN
The Eastland Territories
City of Quezira
Min-Thuret, Dungeons
* * *
Fleurie is gone.
I passed her in the courtyard earlier tonight. I was leaving the prince, and she was going to him.
Now I lie on my cot, staring at this damn stone ceiling, wondering what the prince is doing with her. Is he portaling to Alexus? She’s ready to attempt such a feat, but I’m thankful that she has hidden it for as long as she has.
