Araes couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. Everything he was outside of this moment ceased to exist. He fell into Tethys’s orbit, feeling her pull in full, unwavering force. Throughout his life, he was a fighter. When he found himself in the darkest of nights, he’d scavenged for a match. When the world tried to muzzle him, he raised his voice louder. But now? He gladly waved the white flag.
His fingers glided up her hip and traced the curve of her breast. Even beneath the heavy woolen fabric, he could feel her nipple pebble for him. Araes let out a groan and pressed a thigh between hers, desperate for even a sliver of relief from the need raging through him like wildfire. His cock throbbed against the laces of his trousers.
“Fuck,” he groaned slipping his tongue between her lips. She tasted even more delicious than he ever imagined. Like lavender and honeydew.
“I need you,” she murmured against his skin, her nails digging into the back of his neck. He deepened the kiss, losing himself in it. He didn’t care if the other patrons could hear their groaning whispers or panting breaths. He didn’t care that his breathing was ragged.
“Please, Araes,” she breathed, her fingers trailing the hem of his tunic. Her touch against his skin nearly sent him over the edge. Every cell in his body begged him torip the laces from his trousers and plunge himself into her warmth. His hands gripped the fabric of her shift and dragged it up her leg. Her skin was so fucking soft. So smooth, against his palm. He squeezed her muscle, digging his fingers in and pulled himself from the kiss.
She stood there, her breathing shallow and lips swollen, nearly to the point of no return. He traced a thumb along the sensitive flesh of her inner thigh, watching her eyes narrow and her swollen, pink lips part. It was one thing to imagine her unraveling for him, but here and now, the shields of his self-control wavered.
“Touch me,” she whispered, her golden eyes blazing like wildfire. He groaned, feeling her need soak through the thin underclothes she wore. Nowthiswas dangerous. Reckless. If they crossed this line, everything changed. He tugged on the laces of his trousers, now uncomfortable against his aching cock.
His heart pounded in his chest, it wasn’t smart. He’d let her see everything. Let her creep into his chest and establish roots there. His thumb fell from her thigh. Maybe it was the wine, or the cold wintry storm rattling the windows, but if his head was clouded, then hers most certainly was as well. Would she wake up tomorrow, lying beside him, with regret souring the night?
“Tethys, wait.” He pulled away, leaving his lips desperate for the warmth of hers.
“Do not speak, Lieutenant. Please.” She lurched for him again, but he grasped her wrists before they could wrap themselves around his neck.
“We can’t do this,” he whispered, feeling the flush cool from his cheeks.
“I’m not some fragile, little thing, Araes. I made my choice. Now make yours,” she challenged, her voice like gravel in his ear.
“I’ve sworn my life to protect you, and these feelingscomplicatethings enough as is.” The space where her bodyfit against hisachedfor her. He breathed, his lungs still ragged in his chest. “I can’t. I’m sorry.”
Before Tethys could offer a retort, he lunged past her and swiftly placed himself behind the safety of a locked bedchamber door. He didn’t glance over his shoulder at her as he swung the door shut, because he knew if he had, he’d never look away.
Chapter 33
The road back to Venia was colder than the blistering Ursaean winds. Araes, stoic as ever, hadn’t just repaired the walls she’d managed to crack, but had also fortified them. With the rising sun, he’d molded back into that brutally emotionless soldier, speaking only when addressed. His responses were clipped and controlled. She no longer felt like she was a friend or a lover, but his commanding officer.
Tethys knew he was right in doing so, though. Aside from his duty to guard her and the complications that may come when feelings are involved, she had a husband. A husband with an immortal rage and utter disregard for mortal lives. If Procyon ever got wind of what had happened between them, Araes wouldn’t stand a chance. He may be the strongest of soldiers and most lethal of warriors, but he was limited in his mortality.
But the way he’d left her ragged and reeling. She noticed the slight shift in his step just before he’d escaped to his rooms, as if he’d contemplated turning around. Herhead buzzed, and a dull ache now throbbed at the base of her neck, the lingering remnants of too much wine. She’d been stupid, like playing with fire during the drought.
Laying between the rough, flannel sheets, Tethys decided the best thing she could do was retreat, just as Araes had. Leave behind the residual feel of his lips against hers and extinguish the heat from her skin. The world hadn’t been kind before, why the hell did she think it’d be any different now?
A week passed since Tethys and Araes returned to Venia, and, seemingly, the realm hadn’t noticed their patron goddess’s absence. General Otto briefed the council on another rebellion attack along the Venian border, this time with a longer list of casualties. Lord Kalos offered words of counsel laced in poisonous, undermining subtleties, and Messene reassured her the copyists maintained their search for Eos’s missing volume as vigilantly as ever. Araes remained the ever-silent statue over her shoulder.
“Today we’ll be discussing the primordials and the Theogony in more detail than previously. It’s important for you to fully comprehend the creation of this world, as the duty to defend it falls on your shoulders,” Euda said, slamming the thickest leather bound text Tethys had ever seen on the desk in front of her. Her glasses shifted down her nose, and the ancient woman swiftly pushed them back in place before blowing away the blanket of dust that’d settled on its cover. All this talk of duty was getting so fucking tiresome.
“Oh joy,” Tethys sighed, leaning back in her seat. The back of her scalp burned with the exigent presence of the lieutenant behind her. She felt so childish sitting here, using every essence of self-control she had not to turn and face him.
“Now, the primordials created the realm together. We know this, but what hasn’t yet been discussed is how they created our world. Even the mortal scribes aren’t trustedwith this information, so…before I begin, Lieutenant Araes, I know you’ve been vetted to attend council meetings, but I must ask that you close your ears and retain nothing spoken during this lecture,” she said. Tethys willed her head to keep from turning in his direction. Under no circumstance would she find herself prisoner to those blazing eyes again.
“Understood,” he replied. His voice was a stranger’s voice. No trace of the man she’d unraveled for remained. She supposed that made it easier to forget his lips against hers or his thumb trailing across her inner thigh.
“Trust me Euda, if I’ve learned anything, this man is as silent as a wraith, and quite forgetful in regards to secrets,” she huffed, digging her nails into the oak tabletop to keep from glancing over her shoulder. The lieutenant’s sword scraped against its sheathe as he shifted his weight.
Euda took in a prolonged, over-exaggerated breath before pacing across the chamber and beginning her lecture.
“Now, we know of the four primordials Eos, Phosphora, Astraeus, and Obscuros. We know they came together to find order in the chaos. To create life in the death. But, to do so was near deadly. Even for immortals. Through the use of conduits formed by channeling their power into divine objects, each was then used to will the continent into existence,”
Yes, yes, the astral relics. Again, this lesson was nothing new. Phosphora would tell Tethys and her siblings the Theogony as a bedtime tale. Tethys could practically recite the lecture word for word.
Euda continued to drawl about the relics, but Tethys had lost track of the words. Her thoughts had carried her away again. What would Phosphora say now, seeing her carcass of a daughter? Tethys wasn’t sure if her mother would pity her or be heartbroken. Maybe both. The seed of that familiar sadness sprouted in her chest and she shuther eyes, if only briefly, and allowed it to root.
“Two of the astral relics have since been lost with time. The cost of creation had stolen the immortality of two of the primordials, Astraeus and Eos, the lovers of Dawn and Dusk. It is said they turned to stone, eternally entombed in one another’s embrace.” Euda’s words felt miles away. Her voice was muffled as if underwater.
