“You like the stars?” He kisses me, his mouth warm and lush. “I can give you stars,” he whispers.
The promise in that velvet voice flows over me, making me forget why I even came out here with him in the first place. To ask about the bond and how to break through the barrier around the prince, Raina. But the moment that thought enters my mind, it vanishes, because much to my surprise, hundreds of tiny golden orbs drift from the wood, floating like fallen starlight. I jump and gasp, pressing my hands to my cheeks, but it doesn’t take long to recognize the familiar tingle in the air.
Alexus smiles and jerks his chin at the orbs. Like a swarm of fireflies, they zoom closer, each one mesmerizing as they hover and flicker, illuminating us and the road. The rich musk of Alexus’s magick saturates the night like we’re standing in a field of deer and wildflowers, its sweet flavor spilling over my tongue like honey. Captivated, I stare at the orbs with sheer wonder.
“They’re just energy,” he says. “They’re also only the beginning of what I can do.”
Holding my gaze, he slips the left side of my cloak over my shoulder and tugs one of the strings tying the collar of my wool tunic. The knot unravels, and the neck of my shirt falls open.
Alexus pulls the fabric aside, revealing my rune and the swell of my breast. My nipples harden as he dips his dark head and kisses the rune, trailing his tongue over the mark. I close my eyes and sigh. I don’t understand why a kiss to the rune feels so good, but it sends a chill through me.
When Alexus lifts his head, he says, “You brought me out here to ask about the bond and breaking through the prince’s barrier, didn’t you?”
Completely caught off guard, I blink, trying to clear the haze of lust hanging over me and make the most innocent face I’m capable of making.
The side of his mouth quirks into a crooked smile, and that dimple returns. “Dismantling the wards around the prince will not only require the ability to read runes, but also the ability to rearrange those runes to unlock an opening. To do this through Sight, from thousands of miles away, will be the most complex magick you’ve ever worked. It will require immense concentration. Your attention cannot be easily diverted.” I’m trying to listen. Trying so very hard. But he bends down again, trailing his mouth beneath the rune, and gently bites into my breast, making my knees give a little. “You must maintain two magicks at the same time,” he continues, folding his arm around my waist, his voice warm against my skin as he drags his lips to my ear. “The balance would be quite difficult.”
Quite difficult is right. I can’t even think right now. Which, I quickly realize, was exactly his point.
Alexus pulls away, revealing my bared chest, which is now unglamoured, covered in luminescent witch’s marks. Glimmering gold for life magick, bright scarlet for healing magick, icy silver for common magick, deep violet for Sight, and the occasional warm, ocher shadow for fire magick. I shiver when he trails his fingertip up and down a flourish that swirls from between my breasts. I swear he leaves a trail of magick on my skin.
“No matter how difficult, I’ve a feeling you’re going to be persistent about learning,” he says. “And I think it can be done. So I suppose I can teach you.”
The nights when he taught me to glamour flash through my mind, and my reply bursts from my hands. “Can we start now?”
He laughs, the sound low and soft and sensual in the night. “You are an absolutely wicked little witch. I wish I didn’t love that about you as much as I do.”
I smile, brighter than I have in days, and before I know it, we’re heading back toward camp hand in hand, jumping over puddles, laughing as his little starlights cluster around us, lighting the way.
Unfortunately, no birthbane tonic remained amid Winterhold’s destroyed apothecary, and the dose I took the night before the harvest supper won’t last much longer. But it’s still safe to be with Alexus for a few days more, until the next full moon, and I plan to take advantage of that time with him.
Alexus slows our steps, lingering in the nightfall as a wolf howls in the distance. As we walk, taking our time, I ask one more question.
“Your first love. What was her name?”
I stare at him, waiting for a response, watching as her memory washes through him, the pain of recollection evident on his face.
“Fleurie,” he says softly. “Her name was Fleurie.”
5
THE PRINCE WITH NO NAME
The Eastland Territories
City of Yura, Un Moritra Ruins
* * *
The iron gates shimmer, wrapped in glistening, ancient magick that thrums through my bones, luring me to reach out and touch it.
When I do, silvery ribbons fold around my wrist and caress my arm beneath the silken sleeve of my jacket. A warm sensation floods my core, and I revel in the bliss, feeling so alive. So right. A blessing from Thamaos.
“Revius,” I say, using one of the most basic Elikesh commands. It shouldn’t work against the wards around these ruins, but as though I’d weaved some spell of unmaking, the iron gates open wide like a yawning maw.
Thresh and Bron—my right-hand, my closest advisor, my physician—wait behind me with lit torches in hand. Neither makes a sound of shock, but I know they lacked confidence in this mission. In me. And not because I’m still shedding the last layers of weakness.
No. Bron and Thresh doubted me because no one has opened this gate or stepped foot on this land in centuries. And yet here we are.
