Cyara swallowed the impulse and landed again at the rear of their party. It would be a while before Veyka was willing to let anyone she cared for go far.
Diana’s breaths came in loud huffs, her heavy purple robes catching on roots and debris as they climbed up and up andup. At the front, Lyrena cut away the worst of the branches and understory with her sword. But it was still slow going.
Cyara was about to suggest a stop—she did not need Diana fainting dead away and injuring herself, especially with Isolde all the way back at Eilean Gayl.
Lyrena beat her to it.
Diana was already looking for a log or stump to sit on. Percival urged her ahead, pointing to what appeared to be a clearing just beyond where Lyrena had paused. Cyara shifted the pack she carried, mentally mapping out which provisions she would take out and where they were stored.
But Lyrena was still not moving.
Neither were Diana and Percival.
Cyara’s stomach flipped as she closed the last few yards between them, all the sounds of the forest melting away.
Even Percival fell silent.
“It is not a castle at all,” Diana murmured.
Accolon’s ancestral home. They had expected a fortress of some kind, an old round tower, perhaps—or at least the crumbling remnants of one.
The clearing was certainly wide enough. The journal had mentioned Accolon’s home; Diana’s vision had shown the white cliffs. But it had never occurred to Cyara that they were not actually seeking Accolon’s residence. Until she stepped into the clearing.
Because instead of the ruins of a seven-thousand-year-old keep, the clearing was ringed with massive monoliths. Standing stones.
Every single one of them was carved.
96
VEYKA
It was a wonder that Elayne and Pant even bothered with torches, when every single set of eyes in the great hall glowed with desire and barely contained lust.
It began like every other communal meal I’d attended at Eilean Gayl—without any ceremony at all. The priestess and her acolyte were present, standing between Elayne and Pant and offering benedictions to anyone who approached. But that was where the formality ended.
The only difference I could detect was that the revelry had moved towards fucking more quickly. Usually, the terrestrials did not start openly straddling or mounting each other until at least the third course.
But by the time the first round of meat hit the table—curried lamb with a tangy cream sauce—the scent of arousal was already thick in the air.
Most of the terrestrials ignored the platters. I, however, was hungry.
Arran’s breath warmed my ear, making me drop the portion of lamb I’d been aiming for my plate. I should have been able to sense him coming. But since I’d returned from the Spine,the mating bond had been humming so loud, it was nearly impossible to tell whether it was to indicate his nearness or an aftereffect of our most recent round of bed play.
Not that we’d confined ourselves to the bed.
We’d fucked on nearly every surface in my suite of rooms. And the study Arran had commandeered. Twice.
Arran leaned around me, cutting a new slice of lamb and placing it on my plate. “Eat up, Princess. I do not want you to lose another pound of that lovely round ass of yours.”
How the fuck was I supposed to eat when he said things like that?
Arran’s eyes glowed, dark brows lifting in challenge.
I forced myself to cut the meat, to lift a bite to my mouth. My stomach betrayed me as the mouthwatering scent filled my lungs. Clearly, my stomach and my cunt were not in communication with one another.
I decided not to look at him. Seeing those burning black eyes, imagining the stubble on his chin as it scraped over my skin… Nope. I definitely could not look at him.
I trained my gaze on the crowd in front of us as I forced down bite after bite, appeasing both my mate and my stomach. There was a growing group of terrestrials in the center of the great hall, dancing. Or fucking while dancing. As I watched, a male lowered himself to the ground right in the center of the pack, bringing a female down with him. She shoved aside his pants, her otherwise demure skirt, and mounted him, rocking her hips in time with the music. A few seconds later, two more males had joined her—one tugging down her bodice to pay homage to her breasts, the other coming behind and toying with her rear entrance.
