She steps closer to me, opening her arms, and I lift my hand. “I may be grateful, but you and I are not in a hugging place yet.”
Ruby laughs and inclines her head. “Yet?” Awkward silence lingers between us before she takes pity on me. “We’ll speak more later, all right?”
I nod my assent, and then she’s shutting the door behind her and leaving me in gently crackling silence. With a sigh, I head toward the adjoining bathing chamber. What I find waiting for me there assuages my headache and soothes the stress from my muscles.
Stark leans against the edge of the massive tub with a tiny upward curl to his mouth. He lifts up a fluffy sponge, and his eyes move over me. “A bath, my queen?”
I smile and approach him. “Did you draw this yourself, Alpha?”
He straightens up. “Figured it would be well deserved. You’re not going to make me chase you down to clean you this time, are you?”
I guide his hands to my hips, and he leans over me. Immediately, he’s smoothing his touch around to my back, slipping a hand under my shirt and following my spine with his fingers. I sigh and lean into his chest. “I’ve used up my fighting energy for the day. I’m all yours, Stark.”
His amused breath tickles my neck before he kisses me there. The sponge caresses my lower back, dry but soft and full of promise. Stark’s stubble scratches my palm as I guide his mouth to mine. His fingers start to unfasten my clothes even as he kisses me in a slow slide.
I’m exhausted, but I’m lighter than I’ve been since I took the throne, or maybe even since my sister was taken. Yes, the future yawns wide as a sea. But I’m no longer anchored by a darkness on my wrist.
I can move. I can breathe.
Tonight, I can drift away into the feeling of Stark’s hips meeting mine, his hand cupping my breast, his teeth trapping my lip.
Tonight, I can soak up the light and chart a new course.
Tonight, I havehim, and when he lifts me up effortlessly and steps into the bath with me, none of the rest matters.
61
STARK
It’s with a rude, wrenching twist that I’m pulled out of sated, peaceful sleep and into a world of shadows.
Into what Meryn knows as the shadow realm.
I haven’t told her about my new access to this realm—and everything that comes with it. It’s been tearing me apart.
But there’s been no time for me to figure out what, exactly, needs to stay secret because of our family’s oaths, and what was just Siegrid being a tight-lipped, withholding narcissist. I do know she kept secrets from her wolf, Genicos.
She encouraged me to take similar care with Cratos, even before she knew of Cratos’s mate bond.
Iwillshare what I can with Meryn, when the moment is right. And in the meanwhile, I comfort myself in knowing that my allegiance to my family’s oaths ultimately serves her.
The realm is more violent than usual. I’ve been here only a handful of times since inheriting my powers and responsibilities. It’s been a roughawakening—realizing the true extent of the bargain my family made for power all those years ago.
The dark god has never shown himself to Meryn directly, only whispering in her ear. He hasn’t even done that since Killian started tapping her powers. The bracelet allowed Killian access into this realm, so the god has kept himself hidden.
Perhaps that will change now that Killian is gone.
Perhaps Meryn, too, will soon face the nightmare god himself, the source of her cataclysmic shadow powers: herothergod-ancestor, Nocturn.
As if thinking his name conjures him up, the god himself steps out of the shadows. Whether he was there all along or comes and goes, I can’t say.
His alabaster skin and black-blue hair seem to glow with blue fire. He looks more in focus tonight, somehow. Sharper-edged, almost realer than reality itself. Stronger, the buzz of his magical aura sharper than ever, setting my teeth on edge.
The change makes me uneasy.
As he draws nearer to me, I lock my muscles in place to stop myself from retreating. The feelings that twist in my gut are harsh in their unfamiliarity.
Dread. Fear.
