Sorsha nodded and snatched the wine back, taking another healthy gulp.
I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. “That means you must know how the real Adriel kisses.”
Her flush deepened, and she bit down on her bottom lip as she passed me the bottle. “I might. Not that he would even remember,” she mumbled, covering her face with her hands.
I sipped the wine, waiting for her to elaborate. Thick flakes of snow were falling, but the alcohol left me feeling pleasantly warm.
“It happened when I was practically still a youngling,” said Sorsha quietly. “At the masquerade ball celebrating Kaden’s twentieth turn.”
My jaw dropped. Somehow, I couldn’t imagine the stiff royal guard stealing a kiss at a ball — especially not from Sorsha, considering the two of them were constantly at each other’s throats.
“Honestly, it’s better this way,” she sighed. “Better he doesn’t know, I mean.Pleasedon’t say anything to him. Or to Kaden, gods forbid.”
“I won’t,” I promised, though I wasn’t sure I agreed with her decision not to tell Adriel.
Maybe he would be less of a grump if he had a female in his life. Then again, it was hard to picture the joyless, austere royal guard with the warm, bubbly princess.
“Anyway, I think we will both find somewhere else to spend the night,” she added with a smirk. “I have no desire to be stuck in that tiny safe house with you two again.”
My face heated as I choked out a laugh. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be.” She nodded toward the cottage, where Kaden and Adriel were likely hunched in front of the fire, deep in conversation. “I’m glad he has you, Lyra. He needssomeone to call him on his bullshit, especially if he intends to go to war with Alfrigg.”
I opened my mouth but then hesitated, wondering how much of her brother’s plan she’d guessed. “He may intend to steal your uncle’s throne,” I said, “but I don’t think he intends to steal it for himself.”
Sorsha’s face went slack with shock or maybe panic, but I just passed her the bottle again and started up the stairs.
True to her word,Sorsha made sure that Kaden and I had the house to ourselves for the night. After a quiet meal and two bottles of wine, she and Adriel left to find lodgings at the inn down the street.
Kaden heated a pot of water over the fire, and we took our time helping each other out of our filthy clothes and depositing them in a heap with our weapons.
Tugging me down onto the rug beside him, Kaden dipped a clean cloth into the water to wash the blood and grime from my face. I held his silver gaze as he swabbed away the flecks caked along my nose and jaw before moving down my neck and over the swells of my breasts.
His shadows unfurled around me like dusk itself, caressing my legs as his magic hummed over my wet skin. My breath caught as he brushed the cloth over my peaked nipples, and my gaze drifted down the hard lines of his body, mesmerized by the swaths of tanned, inked skin straining over muscle and sinew.
He was sobeautiful.
Semphrys was dead, which meant no one was invading his mind tonight.
He belonged only to me.
“Say that again, little huntress,” Kaden rumbled, his gaze heating as it fell to my lips.
“Say what?” I breathed, momentarily forgetting that he could sometimes hear my thoughts.
His expression softened, and I hurriedly checked my mental defenses. In the aftermath of the battle and my ensuing relief and exhaustion, I’d left the pathway to him completely open, though my wall of brambles remained intact.
You belong to me, I purred down the bond, reaching out to press my hand to his chest. His heart thundered against my palm in response, and more shadows billowed around me.
It was hard to believe I’d once thought Kaden a heartless monster.
The male before meledwith his heart. He’d become the Taker of Souls to protect his only family. He’d givenmethe protection of his shadows outside the Great Oak and left himself defenseless. And he would have died today to save the kingdom he loved.
Leaning in, I pressed a kiss over the crest tattooed on his pectoral, feeling his breath hitch at the contact. His muscles quivered as I began to wash him, kissing a trail down his chest as I went and skimming my fingers along his ribs.
Gods, I could spend a lifetime memorizing my prince’s body, and it still wouldn’t be enough.
Kaden groaned as I reached his chiseled abdominals, and my loose hair skimmed the tops of his thighs.
