“Hey,” Zaarib yelled from where he sat in the wild grass around the pool. “Where are you two going?”
“I need a private conversation with my wife,” Varidian replied, striding across the space and into the shadowed cluster of trees he pointed out.
“Everyone’s going to know what we’re doing,” I protested when he slid me down his body once we were sheltered by the woods.
“Good.” A smile turned Varidian’s expression wicked. “Then there’ll be absolutely no doubt that you’re mine and I belong to you entirely.” He tucked a lock of purple hair behind my ear. “Would you prefer to walk back to the pool, unfulfilled?”
“No,” I huffed, already unfastening my leather trousers. “But flying the rest of the way to the wall with you dripping down my leg is going to be unpleasant.”
A low growl shook his chest, and dark, thrumming emotions exploded through the bond. Desperate craving, a swell of possessiveness, and arousal both infinite and urgent. My body responded with a matching need, my breasts aching and a pulsating beat between my legs.
I grabbed his hair and forced him closer, taking a kiss for myself. Leather slid down my thighs, and there was something so thrilling, so illicit about the way Varidian tore his mouth from mine, spun me to face the tree, and brought my ass to his hips. I was already panting.
“This bond,” he groaned, his warm hand splaying over my hip, “is utter madness. I need you every minute of the day. I can’t stand not being inside you.”
I cried out when he slid inside, the sudden stretch only adding to the excitement and rush.
Our joining was quick and hard, an urgent mess of sensations and gasps and stifled moans. His movements were immediately frantic, stuttering, and I dug my fingernails into the tree’s bark and rocked back to meet each one, the satisfaction of having him inside me quickly giving way to small explosions of pleasure.
His lips brushed my ear, his voice low, guttural when he said, “I’m going to fly to the wall, and then into Kalder with your cum on my cock. I want your scent all over me. I want to drown in the memory of this moment right here, buried inside you.”
“Varidian,” I moaned too loudly.
A shock of goosebumps and ice rushed down my body when his palm covered my mouth, muffling the involuntary moans that poured free as he fucked me fast and filthy over the edge into pleasure so vast my knees buckled. His arm locked around my stomach, keeping my hips lifted as he thrust deep and spilled his pleasure into me, his groans soft and desperate and for my ears only.
“Fuck,” he panted when we were forced apart, hastily redressing with shaky hands and jellied legs.“Fuck,Ameirah.”
I palmed the back of his neck and pulled him down for a breathless kiss, all teeth and tongues and lazy pleasure. “I love you,” I breathed. “Husband. Mate.”
He shuddered, his eyelids heavy. “Again.”
“I love you,” I repeated, catching my breath.
“No.” He reached for the fastenings of my trousers and ripped them apart, catching me up against him, my back to the tree. “I meanagain.”
With no warning, he surged back inside me.
Everyone absolutely knewwhat we did in the woods, but though my ears burned with heat, I held my head high and couldn’t quite keep a smile off my face. Right now, for the few hours we flew to the wall, thoughts of Cirestia, King Bakshi, and the Zalaam queen were far from my mind.
Shyra and the ‘grave through worlds’ weren’t too far from the wall, but to cross into Kalder at all made tension wrap around both legions like a shroud. When the endless expanse of stone finally came into view, my happiness was replaced by a tight crush of nerves. Would the tigers and their riders spot usthrough the grey clouds scattered below us? Everyone knew they had ways of ripping us out of flight—cannon and nets and fools brave enough to scale the tall mountains and launch their tigers at wyverns in the air.
I watched the wall grow larger with a knot in my stomach, glancing ahead at where Varidian flew at the head of our arrowhead formation. Kamaal’s legion was in a similar shape beside us. How many times had the Legion of Fyrevein flown this way to engage tigers in combat? How many times had Kamaal and Khalid snuck over the wall to gather information and god only knew what else? They’d hinted at having weapons should we need them, but no details.
The dense tree canopy of Willow Green was replaced with the jagged mountains around the wall, the air thinner, tighter up here. As if even oxygen didn’t want to be near this site of so many deaths.
There would be no escaping the wall even in Kalder. Nabil had scoured Red Manniston’s book collection until he uncovered accounts of the small mountain village. It had a small population, no tiger warriors in residence, and was known for its clay crafts. No mention of dark events, dangerous magic, or even a history of araethawn.
But the pages I ripped from the journal had pointed to Shyra; there were no other villages in this area unless we ventured deeper into Kalder. Whatever was here had been hidden so well that no stories of it made their way across the wall into Ithanys, and that only made my stomach twist even worse.
A whistle cut across the sky, sharp and loud enough to make my heart clatter into my ribs. I lifted my head, searching for who’d made the noise, and spotted Khalid waving his arms to catch our attention. When he pointed, I whipped my head toward that distant swath of clouds and my mouth went dry.
Wyvern,Raheema hissed, her body vibrating with a growl beneath me. She was scarred and patched with armour over her still-healing wounds, but as fierce as ever. Deadlier and braver for the hell she’d been through, for all the near deaths she faced fighting Muhannad.
I rapidly counted the winged creatures I could see clustered in the distance. If we could see them from here, they must be huge, each one of them rivalling Makrukh for size. They hadn’t spied us yet, but it was only a matter of time.
I quickly scanned the dark cluster of wyverns, vaguely noting that they followed the length of the wall in the direction of the Fallow Gate instead of crossing to read Shyra. I lost count at twenty.
CHAPTER 37
