My throat burns even as my core tightens, and he captures every moan of pleasure on his lips. With a last deep thrust and strum against that sensitive mound of flesh I unravel. Millions of small threads that once made up a whole are cast out into oblivion, to flit across tides of starlight. He meets me there, even as I dance in the ethereal beauty of the endless skies, patientlycollecting those threads, binding me back together until I am whole once again. I shudder the last of my release even as he swells inside of my pulsing core, spilling his sated desire within me.
I brush my lips along his shoulder, regretting that the moment has passed. It’s not enough. It never is.
His throaty chuckle tickles my ear. “Let me take you to bed,mi’ajna. The night is still young, and I’ve only just begun.”
“You said you couldn’t read my mind,” I say skeptically, my head resting on his shoulder.
“I don’t need to read your thoughts to feel the desire welling within you, it’s the same as my own.”
“You can feel that?” I ask, pulling back to read his eyes, speculating as to the male’s gift.
He nods. “Sometimes there is a great deal I can feel from you. Other times, nothing at all.”
I hum under my breath, wondering just how much of my murderous intent he’d felt at the beginning. I suppose that might explain a few of our earlier interactions. Deciding it’s better to keep all those thoughts from my head, I let my eyes drop to his mouth and bite my bottom lip.
That’s all the male needs to hook an elbow under my legs and carry me out of the tub. He kicks a lever by the floor on his way to the bedroom and my eyebrows hit my hairline when the gushing waterfall cuts off and the marble tub drains in a giant whirlpool. Maybe I reallycouldspend a lifetime exploring the palace and all the carefully constructed inventions of the feyn.
Late into the night, after Xeyvian has driven my passion to blissful release for hours, I rest my head on his chest. My mind wanders as I listen to the beautiful sound of each breath he draws into his lungs as he sleeps. There is too much to consider, too much to ponder in one night. But there is one simple truth I can no longer deny. I have no desire to kill the feyn king.
Learning that he is protecting the fea from the Vatruke is reason enough to want him to live. But, apart from that, I know now that I could never intentionally injure the male that lays by my side. Not by ending the life of his king, not in any way that I can fathom. My very being recoils at the thought of that betrayal.
Even as I admit all of this to myself, I don’t taste the bitterness of failure that I expect. I am Drakai no longer, and I will never be Fea Dien, not in the way I was molded to be.
My stomach hollows as I consider my future. I have to tell him. This is not a secret I can keep from him forever. Even if it were, the very thought of maintaining this deception between us is vile.
Despite the fact that he claims he will never hurt me, his loyalty is to his king first, and I am a threat to everything he stands for. I won’t blame him if he throws me in a cell. As the king’s general he won’t have a choice once he learns what I am. Even as I think it, guilt swells in my gut. Guilt that the male who has given himself to me will be forced to execute my punishment.
My brow pinches when I am struck with the realization that the choice to punish me is something I can take out of his hands. I can do this for him.
I will tell the king and let him seek justice as he sees fit. I have to believe that the male is merciful to some extent, though it is entirely possible his tolerance and the sanctuary he offers the fea won’t extend to a mortal sent to end him.
Tomorrow, I will seek the king and let the fates decide which of the few remaining paths left of my life I will tread.
CHAPTER 35
THE A’KORI PALACE
Present Day
“Mi’dair’a.”Xeyvian’s deep voice rumbles in my ear, and I stretch out across his body like a well-contented cat. My eyes flutter open in the morning light as it fractures through the tall leaded glass windows, casting small rainbows around the room.
I peek up at him, catching a glimpse of his smile and ask sleepily, “What does it mean?”
His fingers glide down my arm leaving goosebumps in their wake, as he says in a voice gravelly with sleep, “Mi’dair’ais what we call the one closest to our heart.”
I smile at that, turning to nip at the tender flesh of his belly.
“I’m not sure it’s your heart I’m closest to right now, General,” I tease, laughing at the flash of fire igniting behind his eyes, my toes curling beneath the sheets as I squeeze my legs together.
Just as quickly as the heat rises in his eyes, his brow draws down into a frown, and he looks toward the door before the knock sounds from the other side. I sigh when he swings his legs over the bed and pulls on his looselinen pants before leaving me to answer it.
I don’t recognize the voice that comes from the hall, but the tone isn’t urgent. I slide on a robe of my own and head for the closet, my plans for today still forming in my mind. The king at the forefront of those plans. But it’s far too early to seek an audience and spending a few hours sparring will keep my mind from the bleakness of my future.
The latch clicks when Xeyvian closes the door and he finds me knotting a dark dress below my hip, my black leathers beneath it.
“You are training with Riah this morning,” he says when he sees my leathers. It isn’t really a question, but I nod. “I’ll have Toren station extra patrols by the stables and along the border of the northern woods.”
I don’t argue. I half expect the male to issue a battalion as my escort. If it makes him feel better, I’ll agree happily. I plait my hair after checking that my feyn blades haven’t wandered from their home, sheathed tightly against my thighs.
