Chapter 28
Twenty-Eight
SENAN
If this poison doesn’t kill me, all this waiting will.
The problem with lying around like a helpless infant all fucking night is that it gives you the chance to think. With worry spilling from the edges of my mind, plagued by every terrible mishap that could have befallen my girl, the last few hours have been torture.
Don’t get me started about the shite Aeron brought up regarding the king. My mind is on fire and the only way to dampen the flames is to keep moving.
My bare feet make no sound as I pace back and forth between the fireplace and the wall, my trembling hands stuffed deep inside my pockets.
I still cannot believe Aeron wants me to take the throne.
Gods… Could you imagine? King Senan . Sounds like a curse if you ask me.
Who would want someone like me telling them what to do? Leading an entire kingdom when all I’ve done is lead myself and my love astray? Perhaps if I’d had more self-control and been better able to manage my grief, then I’d feel up to the task.
Instead, I squandered my life away.
I was right to turn him down?—
The door bursts open, and Aeron races through the gap, cradling my girl in his arms. All the warmth in my body drains away as I lunge for her, my hands meeting the pale skin of her waist between the scandalous panels of her scant red gown.
Her hands look as if they’ve been painted in blood.
“What happened?” For the first time, I wish I did have the crown if only to exact revenge on whoever harmed my girl.
My brother’s haunted eyes meet mine. “Carew found them. I managed to save the princess and Allette, but Jeston… He didn’t make it.”
Shit .
Allette’s lashes flutter open, her gaunt cheeks pale as her vacant eyes find mine. “Senan?” She twists and wriggles out of my brother’s grasp.
Aeron sets her on her feet, and she throws herself into my arms. I hold her as tightly as I dare, cradling the most precious person in my life.
“Where is the princess now?” I ask my brother.
“She’s safe.”
Allette slips a hand inside her sash, withdrawing a blue vial. “And so are you.”
Gods above…
She did it.
It’s not that I doubted her. If anyone deserves my faith, it’s this woman in my arms. I doubted this world. Doubted that the stars would allow me another chance to live and love and be free of all my terrible misdeeds.
Allette pops the cork with her thumb, and it tumbles to the ground, rolling toward my boot. “Here.”
Why do I deserve to live when Jeston died trying to save Kyffin and me? That should’ve been my fate. I should’ve been the one to die, not him.
“Don’t let his death be for naught,” she whispers.
My death won’t bring him back. Nothing will. All we can do for Jeston now is live.
I throw back the antidote like a shot of whiskey. Whatever magic it contains instantly quells not only the ache in my chest, but also the darkness shadowing my mind.
Allette’s cool hand falls to my chest. “How do you feel?”
“As if I will live forever.” All because of the sacrifice of a man I’m almost certain hated me as much as I despised him.
One by one, Allette sets the vials on the coffee table. This should be more than enough to rid my body of the poison.
Aeron sighs. “I must get the princess back to the castle. The two of you need to remain hidden until I can find a way to bring you to Stratiss.”
Jeston had hoped to find sanctuary in Stratiss as well…
What about his mother? Perhaps Braith will know where to find the woman so that we can offer her the protection and the life her son had hoped to secure for them both. It’s the least I can do after all he sacrificed.
Allette shakes her head. “We can’t leave now. Cadoc must be brought to justice.”
“Men like Carew live beyond the law,” Aeron explains. “If we were going to take him out, tonight would have been our best chance. You heard what Jeston said: The man is in the king’s pocket. Boris isn’t going to raise an army over the death of one Tuath servant, and anything short of that won’t work.”
I love Aeron, but he’s never been what I would call an optimist. He thinks everything is going to go to shit no matter what, which often leads to him giving up when he should fight.
If anything is worth fighting for, it’s this. Carew needs to pay for his crimes.
It’s the least we can do for Jeston.
“Then you don’t give him a choice,” I say. “Cadoc didn’t just kill Jeston, he kidnapped the Princess of Nimbiss. He is the reason a Kumulus prince was stolen by a foreign kingdom. Present the evidence to the king in such a way that his only option is to retaliate with the full force of the kingdom’s might. And do it with a big fucking audience.”
Aeron scrubs a hand down the back of his neck. “ Shit . You’re right. I need to go. Stay hidden. I mean it, Senan. I’m done saving your ass.” With that, my brother stalks back out the door.
Alone in the living room, I turn to find my girl looking up at me with tears lining her lashes.
When I reach for her, she steps away.
“I’m sorry. I just… I think I need a moment alone.” She folds her arms around herself, her shoulders curling inward as she drifts into the hallway toward the bathing room.
I wait until the door closes to follow her. I’m going to give her space but want to be close in case she changes her mind. Soft sobs drift through the barrier, the broken sound crushing my soul.
Let me be alone with you.
My girl spoke those words to me only a few weeks ago.
Why wouldn’t I do the same for her?
Before I can talk myself out of it, I twist the knob and open the door.
Allette stands at the sink, her hands coated in suds as she scrubs the blood from the front of her dress.
“Allette?”
Her red-rimmed eyes meet mine in the reflection of the mirror above the sink. “It’s not fair. Love is meant to triumph over evil. That’s what all the stories say. But evil keeps on winning, and it’s not fucking fair. ”
I step behind my girl, my chest meeting her back. “I know.” Gods, do I know.
“I was so frightened. I thought I’d never see you again. I thought he was going to…”
“Shhh… I’ve got you. You’re safe now.” I reach for the cloth, and she lets me take it. I twist off the tap, hang the cloth on the edge of the sink, and untie the sash at her waist. With a few tugs, she’s bare before me, the drenched silk in a puddle on the stone floor. I remove my shirt and slip the soft cotton over her head, pulling her hair from the collar so the midnight strands fall down her back.
She continues staring at her reflection, a frown on her lips. “What if he finds me?”
“He won’t.” I would never let that happen.
“You weren’t there. You didn’t see the madness in his eyes. He won’t stop until I’m impaled on a pike.”
“Aeron will take care of it.” And if he doesn’t, then I will. Don’t ask me how, but I would move the sky and the sea to ensure her safety.
If I were king ? —
No. Those are the thoughts of a selfish man, one who wants to use the throne for revenge. A man exactly like Boris Vale.
Allette’s lower lip starts to wobble, and a single tear rolls down her cheek.
I turn her toward me and cover her trembling lips with mine, breathing her in. My life. My world. “You are the bravest person I know. I am humbled by your selflessness. In awe of your strength. I’m so sorry you had to risk your life for mine. That my foolishness cost Jeston his,” I murmur between kisses to her lips, her face, her throat.
Love is meant to triumph over evil .
Maybe it has. Maybe the fact that we are both here, both alive, clinging to one another is evidence of that triumph.
“Make me forget,” she begs, her nails tattooing crescent moons on my shoulders. “I want to forget it all.”
How can I deny her this escape?
My hands come around her hips, trailing down to grip her backside and lift so her legs can wrap around my hips. Allette’s arms come around my neck, pressing our bodies closer as she pants into my mouth, her fingers dragging through my hair.
Losing our minds. Suppressing memories. Finding only each other. Stealing what we can in this frantic moment.
She tastes of salty tears and bittersweet hope.
Of love and loss and life.
Make me forget …
I set her on the ground only to watch her drop to the floor without a word. She leans back on her elbows, knees raised and spread for me, my shirt riding up her bare thighs.
I kneel in front of her, unable to fathom how a man who has made so many mistakes could ever get so lucky. I drag my knuckle along the swells of her breasts, my mouth as dry as the cotton covering them. My hands slip to her waist. Her hips. Her thighs. Tugging my shirt to reveal her red silk undergarments. I trace my thumb along the wet patch covering her core. “Is all this for me?”
“All for you.” Her hips tilt upwards, pressing her closer to my touch. So fucking wet .
“Would my heroine prefer I lick her clean or mess her up?”
Her teeth drag along her bottom lip. “Why can’t it be both?”
Both it is.
Off comes the scrap of lace hiding her center, abandoned on the stones along with reservations and decorum. I throw her legs over my shoulders and go to work, lapping at her sweetness, searching for the spot that makes her hips buck. Her hands tear at my hair and her pelvis grinds against my face as I drown in her. Relief and misery have me setting a frenzied pace, clawing at her unblemished skin, flicking my tongue against her clit, coaxing her to the edge until she’s panting my name.
She is still pulsing when I yank down my trousers and bury myself inside her, the stones biting my knees with each punishing thrust. Pleasure and pain. Our love and this terrible, beautiful life described in two words.
With one hand firmly planted on the stones, I relish the way her breasts bounce as I thrust into her. The way her stiff nipples strain. Has a more beautiful sight ever existed?
This woman is my undoing. My detriment. My salvation.
A low, tingling sensation starts in my stomach, and my balls tighten. I don’t want this to be over but can’t bring myself to slow. If Carew succeeded, Allette wouldn’t be here, writhing beneath me. She’d be gone.
Gone. Gone. Gone.
“You are mine.”
“Yours,” she whispers, eyes closed and chin raised, exposing the smooth column of her throat as she strains for another release. “All yours.”
I palm her breast, teasing the tip with calloused fingers until her walls tighten around me, pulsing as she comes once more. It’s not enough. It will never be enough. I withdraw before I spill into her, and my body screams its protest. “Get on your knees.”
Her thighs tremble as she rolls to her front and presses back into me, thighs still spread and round ass lifted. I fist my cock, soaked from her sweet honey, and take her from behind, watching her face flood with ecstasy in the mirror leaning against the far wall.
I twist the thick curtain of her hair in my fist, tugging her head up until our eyes lock in the reflection. “See what I see? The power you have over me?” I reach around to toy with her swollen clit, teasing her until she’s pushing back against me, meeting each buck of my hips, begging for more. When I’ve reached the end of my tether, I pull out, spilling onto the globes of her ass.
With my trembling hands still anchored to her hips and my heart pounding an uneven song in my chest, I force the breath back into my lungs. “Gods, Allette. You are a sight to behold.”
She peers over her shoulder, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. I retrieve the cloth from the sink and clean my spend from her skin.
“Come here.” I pull my girl onto my lap, cradling her in my embrace. She melts into me, her body fitting like the key to my locked heart. How did I get so damn lucky to have such a strong, fierce woman loving every dark and broken inch of me?
Make me forget …
Our bodies may have been sated, but in the silence, those dark thoughts tend to creep back in. I should know; I spent the last four years drowning in them.
I don’t want my love to drown as well.
Love is meant to triumph over evil .
The only way for that to happen is if we never stop fighting. Hoping. Dreaming.
My head falls back against the wall, the floor cold beneath my bare ass, and yet I have no desire to move from this spot. “Let’s dream together.”
Her voice wobbles. “How?”
“Close your eyes and I’ll show you.” My fingers sweep along the small of her back, tracing her spine. “Are they closed?”
Her lashes sweep against her name inked over my heart. “Yes.”
“Do you still want to live by the coast?”
“More than ever.”
My little air wielder, always searching for the breeze. “Imagine we’ve finally reached our seaside destination, the breeze rife with stinky seaweed and fish urine. What happens next?” My lips twitch into a smile. “Please, don’t tell me I’m a fisherman.”
Her whole body vibrates with her watery laughter. “Heavens, no. You will obviously have the most successful cheesecake business in the village.”
Obviously. “What about you?”
“I’ll mend the villager’s clothes. That way I can sit and watch you bake all day long and taste everything to make sure it meets expectations.”
“Sounds like the perfect dream.”
“The perfect dream,” she mumbles, her breaths evening out as sleep steals her away.
Love is meant to triumph over evil .
I only hope Aeron succeeds in taking down Cadoc Carew before the bastard finds us so we have a chance to make those dreams come true.