I glance at the door. It’s sealed, but I can’t be sure of secrecy anymore. “This isn’t for witnesses. Just us.”
He nods once, grave, as the water laps between us. "The High Lord can't hear you speak aloud in here," he murmurs.
"They didn't want me dead," I say. "Vorak wanted to break me when I wouldn't submit. And the High Lord let it happen." The steam curls between us. I press my back against the warm stone edge of the pool. "They lured you out. Timed the attack so you'd be away from the fortress, then made sure the jungle was crawling with enough threat that you couldn't get back. Or they thought you couldn't."
His grip on my waist goes iron. He knew this already. Now he knows I know it.
"The High Lord knows something is happening between Sophia, Maya, and me. Something the Stone did to us that he can't control. Handing me to Vorak was a test. If I broke, Vorak keeps me. If I didn't, the High Lord got to observe me up close." I sink lower in the water, letting the heat settle my nerves. "Either way, Vorak was going to lose Sophia. The High Lord couldn't let her connection to Maya sit unmonitored. Now he has her where he wants her."
A muscle twitches in his jaw. He breathes in slowly, the water barely rippling around his chest. "High Lord Jarrett does not tolerate a loss of control. And there is something you should know. I told him about the projection that used his image. I don't think he knew about it. Someone dared to impersonate him. That is a breach he cannot overlook."
"Then there's someone else involved."
"Yes," Rythar says. The pool is quiet except for the soft lap of water. "The Stone gave you this gift. Perhaps it was a mistake."
I snort. "Nothing's perfect. Not even magic rocks."
He grunts a bitter laugh. "The stability of Xytheos was my primary drive until you. I assume the other rulers feel the same about their brides."
"What happened when rulers were given Starfallen brides before?"
He pulls me closer, my back against his chest, his arms around me in the warm water. "It is like Jarrett said. This is unprecedented. The Stone never gave brides to rulers before. In a thousand years, the Stone judged no one worthy."
My eyebrows lift. Every New Terran woman with me was matched with a ruler. "Then why us?"
He pauses. “The Stone’s reasoning is not given. I assumed it was because you were all a strong genetic match to the superior genetic engineering of the rulers.” One corner of his mouth lifts. “After spending time with you, I think it must be that none of my warriors would have been up to the task of civilizing you.”
My mouth drops. “Civilizing me? I’ve been civilizing you!”
Rythar narrows his eyes. “You prove my point. You are on Xytheos. It is my responsibility to teach you our ways. I had heard the Council believed that some of us may not be successful with our difficult brides.”
“And you?” I say primly. “Are you giving up on me?”
He levels his gaze at me. “I enjoy a challenge,” he growls.
“They underestimated you,” I say. “They underestimated both of us.”
His eyes burn into mine, then drop to my lips. “I have never underestimated you.”
I run my fingers over his chest. “Good.”
He lifts me so I straddle his lap as he sits on the ledge in the pool. I want him in me. The pull is like a tidal wave under my skin. My cuts and bruises, already faded in the healing pool, now vanish under the rush of heat, the promise of safety, the violence of wanting to live.
The heat of the pool has nothing on the heat I feel for his body.
Rythar’s eyes are dark as he adjusts me, cupping my bottom. "Tell me you will stop reaching for the other Starfallen." He says it like a male who already knows the answer.
“I can’t tell you that. I can’t control it. And you know,” I say, voice hoarse. “It gets worse. They’ll all be after me now, anyway, for the antivenom. The Council, the High Lord, every ruler.”
His hands splay wide on my ribs, thumbs tracing the fading bruises. “They would not dare. Not after what I did to Vorak.”
I snort, biting his earlobe. “Underestimation is deadly.”
He growls, hips pressing up, cock hard and full against my belly. He’s had enough talking.
So have I. Losing myself in his physicality sounds perfect right now.
He cups my bottom, spreads me wider, pulls me flush against him. His mouth finds my neck, teeth grazing the spot where the bruises have healed in the pool.
