“I did. It worked pretty well. Now…” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Do you still want me to take it to Kalmena, or do you know someone who’d buy it from me here in Teneris?”
“Zayr, I’ll buy a bag from you myself. And I know Prince Rha’s cook will happily buy the other one from you. But there’s a huge shortage of salt in Kalmena right now. We’ll need to hire you some help. There’s a lot of gold to be made in this salt business, my friend.”
Even burned, flooded, and defeated, Ashgate remained a sore spot for the rulers of the Alveari Kingdom. Prince Rha left the shadow tunnel beacon in place, making the passage to it possible. He reasoned that if someone needed a shelter, they could still find it in the caves of Ashgate.
Of course that also meant that crime would eventually be free to flourish there again with time if we did nothing about it now.
“We need to establish a city council of Ashgate,” Prince Rha determined after several discussions about the future of the city. “I’ll station warriors to enforce the law there, and I will appoint a governor.”
He rested a pointed stare on me, and it made sense to me. I knew Ashgate better than anyone in Teneris.
I’d burned Ashgate, and I reveled in watching it burn. But I also knew that city was a refuge for the misfits who couldn’t find their place anywhere else in the kingdom. I was one of those misfits myself once. If there was someone who understood the needs of Ashgate residents, it would be me.
When I told Elaine about Prince Rha’s offer that night, she added her vision of Ashgate’s future.
“Very ugly things happened in that city,” she said. “But the place itself is beautiful. The climate is milder than in the desert, with fewer storms during the day. It could be a great place for humans to visit, to swim in the ocean, and to enjoy the sun. You know, humans generally like all those things.”
“Swimming?” I grimaced, remembering Elaine’s joy at getting her clothes, hair, and body deliberately wet in the rain.
We were sitting in the warm pool in our house right now. But being wet now felt very different, especially with our tendrils intertwined and Elaine’s joy rushing to me in a shimmering stream of magic.
“Yes,” she laughed at my unimpressed expression. “Believe it or not, I regret not getting a chance to swim in the ocean while we lived on the beach in Ashgate. But I was so terrified of every shadow there, scared to go outside, hiding all the time…” she sighed. “It could be so much better, Timur.” She glanced up at me. “We can make it better. Safe for everyone.”
“So be it then. We’re moving back to Ashgate.”
She beamed at me. “And we’ll make the beach safe to swim for everyone.”
Two months after our arrival to Teneris and two days before our departure for Ashgate, Elaine and I were leaving the palace on our way home for the day.
It was just before dawn, during that warm, golden hour that Elaine loved, and I’d learned to appreciate thanks to her. Teneris was ready for the approaching day. Its shutters closed, its doors locked, and most of its people were going to bed already.
I had my chair. I’d brought it to the palace that day because it made it easier to attend the formal meals and meetings that Elaine and I were often invited to. She sat on my lap, where she belonged and where she loved to be.
She relaxed against my chest.
“Tired?” I asked, winding the end of a wavy lock of her hair around my claw.
She shifted her delectable bottom on my thighs, and my cock stirred to life as if she had direct access to its operation, which in a way, she very much had.
“It was a long night.” She drew a circle on my chest with the tip of her finger, her warm breath fanning over my skin through the mesh armor of my uniform.
“Let’s get you to bed now.” I kissed her forehead.
All I really wanted to do was to keep kissing her face, her lips, her chest. To lick her skin. To bury my head between her thighs. To plunge my tongue deep inside her…
Something stirred around my cock. The mating cluster.
Fuck.
It’d been about a month since my last mating fever, hadn’t it? Unlike shadow fae, human women’s fertile days came more often, monthly instead of yearly. Not that I would ever complain about that. I enjoyed sex thoroughly every month and almost every day in between. But now, I wished I could take Elaine right here in the city plaza. I didn’t even think I could make it all the way home in this chair.
But she was relaxed, tired, and in need of sleep.
“Oh.” She sat up straighter, obviously sensing the increased activity of all my mating equipment happening under her butt.
“It can wait until the evening,” I assured her, my voice hoarse from the intense arousal.
She tilted her head, giving me a sly look. “Are you sure? It doesn’t feel like it’s going to wait that long. And oh, look…” She leaned back, pointing at my skirt.
