Cool air swept across my fevered skin, raising goosebumps. His chest touched my back, warm and bare.
“Gone by morning?” he breathed against my ear, voice barely holding.
“Yes.” The word spilled out, more whimpered sigh than sound.
He kissed a line between my shoulders, each press deliberate. The dress parted wider. My upper back bared, skin flushed and trembling under the chill.
I shivered when his fingertip found me.
“Be still.” His tone held no space for disobedience.
I swallowed the knot in my throat. His touch moved down, traced the dip of my spine, then slid outward. He exhaled, then gave me room to inspect his work.
I twisted, catching the mirror’s reflection.
My skin burned hotter. Across the pale canvas of my back, written in glowing letters—singed into magic and flesh—was a single word.
‘Mine.’
Chapter Twenty-Three
Kallias
The glow refused to fade. It spread instead—water sloshing against my hands, dragging streaks of iridescence into the basin. My free palm glimmered now, eerie and unnatural. I’d wiped my cheek without thinking; my jaw burned with residual light. Flecks clung to strands of my hair and dotted the hollow of my neck.
The rest belonged to Nienna.
Her name flowed across my chest, pulsing with each heartbeat. A small handprint lingered at my navel, a branded echo of intimacy. Too close. Too knowing. That mark screamed of hunger—mine—for her.
The door creaked open. I stilled. Listened.
Quiet steps. Heavy. Unhurried. No knock.
Greaves.
He passed the dressing room without pause, casting a glance before disappearing into the bedchamber for his sweep.
I dropped my gaze back to her name. Shame curled through me, flushed heat up my neck. He’d call it foolish. Reckless. What was she doing to me—this woman—to an older king who should’ve knownrestraint?
“You’re lit up like a firefly,” he grumbled, returning. His eyes cut over the space, scanning shadows as his hands unbuckled twin blades, setting them on the low dresser.
Then he caught my reflection in the mirror. His brow dipped. His steps slowed.
“Fallione?” I asked, deflecting.
“Out cold in the library.” He stopped behind me, eyes narrowing. “Gods, Kal—did you do the same to her?”
His jaw ticked, disapproval etched deep.
He knew my promise to Nereus. I couldn’t bed her. But that vow wouldn’t hold if someone spotted my name written between her breasts. Thankfully, that darker animal inside me had settled for her back.
Elohios, if it had been her chest…
We would’ve been covered in the damning light.
“It fades before morning,” I said, wiping my face. The rag dragged a smear across my nose and eyes, but at least I was clean.
“She told you that?”
