A loud shout of a laugh escapes me. “Me too... although to be fair it did not take you much convincing,” I say, taking him in out of the corner of my eye. His cock is still at attention, itsimpression straining against the restriction of his pants, but he does not press anything further. In a sense I am glad, because I have no idea how I am going to take all of… him… inside me, but disappointment twinges in the bottom of my belly all the same.
He follows my gaze and snorts. “Come on, Firefly. We still need to find a place to stay tonight. And as..." he smirks, “hot as it is to watch the world go up in flames when I have you beneath me, I don’t think it is very sustainable for our surroundings.” He winks. Scooping my hand up in his, he starts walking us both into the surrounding woods.
Chapter twenty-four
Reunited
Alaceandra
Sorin seems to be fighting some internal battle. I glance at him from time to time as we walk. Anxiety builds within me every step we continue to stay silent. I am about to plead with him to come out with whatever is eating him up, when he finally turns to me, pausing our journey.
“Alaceandra?"
"Yes?" His tone makes my heart drop.Please do not say you are regretting what we did already.
"We need to talk about your betrothal."
I chew on my lip. "What about it?"
He sighs. "If we are going to continue, I need you to know that this is not some one-off thing for me. Now that I have had you, I do not intend on letting you go."
Oh. I squeeze his hand "I do not want to lose you either. There has to be a way we can make this all work."
“Well… there is one way. It is not uncommon in Ptheryeth’s history for the queen to take many suitors and, at the end of their courtship, many husbands. It has fallen out of practice with the new kings, but it does not mean it was not commonplace before. The lands will accept your courting of multiple men but only if the prince decides this is acceptable. An acceptance of polyamory does not denote the acceptance of cheating by any means. Any allegations of such would diminish you in the eyes of the kingdoms. If you are unopposed to this, I will speak to the prince once we arrive back at Helomasi on the matter. You should know this is my intention.”
I nod.All of that makes sense. I just really hope the prince can see it the same way. It is not like he will not be taking many lovers himself once we are wed. He will be a king after all. Maybe I will not have to lose anyone at the end of this.
“Good. Details can be discussed later, but until then.” He knits his brows.
“Your fire has progressed in intensity and although it does not look like it is causing much damage, we do not know what all you are capable of or if it is the only power you hold. We should try to start controlling it soon.”
I bite my lip. “That is fair, but who is going to train me? Our skills are vastly different. Although it looks like King Demetrius’ guards share my skill. I heavily doubt they will be allowed oreven want to train me. Likely no one will help me in Helomasi, save you and Sam, but Ptheryeth knows where he is.” My voice breaks a little, but I clear it and continue. “No one has even offered the services of scholars to help me understand more about Helomasi’s people. Frankly they have been avoiding my questions about such topics. I doubt they will want to teach me more about the powers I possess. I think the king plans to keep me weak as an attempt to control my actions further.” I squeak, my foot catching on a stump. I regain my balance and continue slower than before. “Even if I had known some who might have knowledge in Tikilium, I doubt they would not welcome me back now that I have been married off, especially without the prince by my side. Ptheryeth knows the prince would not assist me, especially now we are out here in the middle of nowhere.” I glance around. “He probably thinks I ran off. Who knows who or what is after us now. Or how pissed he is.” I shudder.There is still Philos. She might have some insight?I quickly shove the thought away. I do not know if there is anyone skilled in fire in Areletos either. More than that, I do not want her more mixed up in this than she already is,especially when she is already protecting Mandi.
I take a moment to glance at Sorin, but he is deep in thought. I continue.
“And even if I did somehow know there was someone who could train me, it is not like I could reach out to them. I am pretty sure my letters are being intercepted, at least that is what my elvisera has hinted towards.”
“You act as if all our skills do not stem from one place,” Sorin says. “If we cannot find someone to teach you, I can try to show you the basics. They are usually the same amongst each skillset. I will teach you the aspects I know which should help you gain some control. When we find Sam, he will teach you too. He specializes in combat.” I raise a brow at him. “What? He is ourdisguise master. If situations get dicey, he needs to know how to get out, and they have gotten dicey. Sam is my boss when we are out on missions. There are legions modeled after him in Tikilium, he can work with everyone no matter their skillset.”
“What, really?”
“Of course! He transforms into a killer on the battlefield and is a wizard in pretty much all things strategy. He has taken down whole armies in the past. It would only make sense for him to lead the teams.”
I nod.I guess that would make sense. I just did not realize my gentle rule follower could be so brutal.
“It would be good for him to train you.” Theifsof the situationremained unspoken. A beat passes. “Besides, the politics of the kingdoms don't really hold sway right now because you are right. We are in the middle of nowhere and unless circumstances change, we are all we have here. We will deal with anyone coming after us when the time comes for that, but until we can either find our way away from here or to a place of safety you will learn control and how to fight and we will survive. Okay? Everything else can come second.”
I nod.
He lowers his voice and stops to cup my face in his hands. “I consider the fact that you were even captured in the first place to be a personal failing of mine. It will not happen again.”
“It is not your-”
“It is,” he says, firmly. “We took you out on too many trips outside of the castle to be so cocky with your safety. As much as we want to be, we will not always be around to protect you. A couple of tricks with a dagger can only get you so far.”
“Okay. We train. I get it. I will take it seriously.”
He throws a beautiful smile my way and we continue walking.
