“Lyra,” he moaned as I wrapped my hands around his length and swirled my tongue over his glistening tip.
Gods, I loved the sound of my name on his lips. He saidit like a prayer and an oath — as if I were his salvation and the cause of his damnation.
“You’re going to be the death of me,” he whispered.
“You’re immortal,” I argued, licking him again.
Kaden hissed as his body went taut, and I grinned as his cock twitched in response. “You have a witchwood blade and a wicked, wicked tongue.”
“Funny, I used to think the same about your tongue.” Slowly, I drew his length into my mouth, savoring the slightly briny taste of him and the way he trembled at my touch.
A low chuckle rumbled through him, and I pulled off for a moment to look up at my mate. Shadows had nearly snuffed out the glow of the fire, but there was just enough light to make out his face. Kaden’s eyes were closed, his brow creased. His expression looked almost pained.
In his haze of pleasure, he’d summoned his wings. They unfurled behind him like dark velvet, the firelight illuminating the thin membranes, which had already begun to heal from the damage the demons had inflicted.
I ached to reach out and run my fingers along the edge of one wing, to make him come apart with slow, languid strokes, but there was something I needed to know.
“Did youeverintend to take the throne?” I asked softly.
Kaden’s eyelids twitched.
“You knew the Drathen army would not support you. You wanted them to rally behind Sorsha.”
Kaden opened his eyes, and the feral gleam in his gaze stole the air from my lungs. “Stop talking about my sister and let me taste you.”
But I held him firmly in my grasp, teasing him with my tongue once again.
He moaned.
“Tell me,” I growled. “How long have you been planning to give up your throne?”
“I . . . considered it when I realized what you were to me,” he ground out. “Mymatewhom I could not wed at the Quartz Palace.” I swirled my tongue around the ridge of him, and Kaden’s abdominals rippled with restraint. “But when Gninou told me I could not have the crown and you . . .” He pressed his lips together, casting a pleading look toward the heavens. “I chose you.”
At those words, an uncontainable swell of emotion erupted in my chest. Love and astonishment. Fury and indignation. And pure, searing terror.
“Taking the throne of Anvalyn is all you’ve ever wanted.”
Kaden shook his head, dark eyelashes fluttering. When he looked down and met my gaze, his eyes were two pools of molten silver. “Only until I met you, little huntress.”
My mouth fell open, and I was so stunned that I didn’t object as he pulled me into his lap.
“I choose you,” he murmured, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. “I willalwayschoose you.”
Tears stung my eyes as he lifted me up, and my legs fell open on either side of his hips. Slowly, so slowly, he guided me down onto his cock, holding my gaze the entire time.
I sucked in a breath at the sensation — at the feeling of him stretching me. I opened for my mate, welcoming him into my body even as my distrustful heart thrashed at his words.
I’d been on my own for so long, getting close to no one. Trusting no one. And yet Kaden had somehow slippedthrough my careful defenses. Or perhaps I’d thrust my gates wide open.
Kaden began to move inside me, his hips making deliciously slow upward thrusts that left me gasping for air. Dropping my head into the crook of his neck, I gripped his shoulders for dear life as I took him deeper.
“You are worth more to me than any crown, Lyra,” he whispered, threading his fingers through my hair. “I would rather see my kingdom burn than spend another day without you.”
I opened my mouth, but no words came out. I was too engrossed in the sensation of our bodies moving together, the tips of my breasts caressing his skin as he filled me more with every thrust.
And so I sent my feelings down the bond — pouring out the things I could not say but that Idesperatelywanted him to know.
That he was a fool.
