Chapter 49
Forty-Nine
ALLETTE
This ends tomorrow .
Those ominous words and the threat they pose hang in the air like a fog, chilling me to my marrow. Tomorrow, my prince and I will pay the price for our love with our lives. That is where this ends, with both of us passing beyond the veil to whatever lies on the other side of death.
This is our last night together, and as much as I don’t want to waste it, my body is frozen in place, my lungs barely able to capture air, as if growing accustomed to the fact that soon, they won't be needed.
If only Iver were here to cut a hole in the marble slab beneath us.
But Iver isn’t here.
It’s just Senan and me, and from the devastation on my prince’s face, it’s clear he’s feeling the same hopelessness as I am.
This can’t be the end. I refuse to accept it.
Maybe I can move this cage with my magic.
That’s it! I’ll throw every last drop of power into commanding a great wind to blow the thing over. We’ll have to fight off the new guards stationed at the servants’ stairs, but between us, surely, we can manage.
I glance over at Senan, his eyes hollow, the skin beneath bruised by despair. From the way his gaunt cheeks cradle the shadows, it’s clear that the king hasn’t fed him more than stardust since his capture.
Senan is in no shape to fight anyone, so this responsibility must fall on my shoulders.
I push to my feet and stretch out my hand, calling a breeze to my palm. The time I spent in the sunlight this morning feels like forever ago. Closing my eyes, I reach deep within myself, begging my power to rouse.
“Allette?”
The sadness in Senan’s tone, his resignation, crushes the shattered fragments of my heart.
Don’t give up on us. On me.
The deeper I dig, the weaker I feel, as if I’m carving out my own insides for a foolish dream.
“Allette, stop.”
If I stop, the king wins. If I stop, then I have to accept that this is the last night I’ll ever spend in my prince’s arms. We deserve centuries to love each other. Millenia.
“Allette, please.” Senan’s fingertips graze my ankle, nothing more than a wisp of a touch. “Save your magic in case there’s a chance to escape tomorrow.”
The anger and fear and sorrow pressing in on all sides cracks my fragile shell. Tears spill from my lashes, blurring the cage and my prince’s vacant expression from where he remains on the floor, as if this world has knocked him down one too many times and he’s no longer able to rise.
“ Tomorrow? ” I drag my palms down my face, wishing I could rip this cage—this bloody castle—in two. “Did you not hear the king? Tomorrow, we’ll both be dead.”
Senan’s cold fingers curl around my ankle, his thumbs skimming up and down my shin. “I know.”
How is he so bloody calm? “Don’t you care?”
The barest hint of a smile curves his lips as he blinks up at me, his own eyes shimmering. “That I am to die? Not really.” A single tear spills free, racing down his cheek to his sharp jaw, clinging to the stubble there. “I only wish I hadn’t dragged you down with me.”
Stepping out of his grasp, I sink to my knees and take his scarred hands in mine, pressing our matching bonds together. “You didn’t drag me anywhere, Senan. I leapt into love with you with both feet and my whole heart. This—our love—has always been too good for this world.” Perhaps that is why the stars have been so hellbent on cursing us, because they’re jealous and want to be the only light we see on dark, moonless nights.
Senan’s smile grows but so does the tremor in his voice when he whispers, “Then let us hope that it isn’t too good for the next one.”
I capture his final word with my lips, filling my lungs with his next breath. What starts as a slow exploration becomes an assault of crashing mouths and lashing tongues, a feast of desire that only leaves us panting and moaning for more.
More of my skin for his mouth as he drags down the front of my dress and devours my breasts with hot, needy kisses. More of my knees falling to either side of his hips. More of his stiffness pressing insistently against my core as I begin to rock, searching for friction to stoke the flames growing in my belly.
Our hips pulse, and I lose my hands in his hair, clutching him to my breast, seeking the only sort of release either of us will find this night.
“You are everything to me,” he rasps.
“Until the sun implodes, and the stars no longer shine,” I return. Forever and always.
His hair falls across his brow when he nods, whispering promises of love against my bare chest.
I rise off him to unlatch his belt, the leather slipping through the buckle with ease. The buttons on his trousers give me some trouble, but soon enough I’ve freed his stiff cock, my hand gripping him tightly, stroking slowly as I watch a lust-filled haze descend over his taut features.
His head falls back, exposing the strong column of his throat, and I lick at his bobbing Adam’s apple as his hands braced on my thighs nudge my skirts higher, until only a scrap of lace separates us. With a groan, he hooks a finger around the wet fabric of my undergarments and tugs the lace aside, baring me to his fingers. His thumb slips through my folds to my clit, pressing and flicking in circles.
His eyes burn into mine as he strokes faster, both of us climbing together until I can take no more and knock his hand away. Positioning myself over him, I sink down until he’s buried to the hilt.
His breath catches and throat works as he waits for my body to adjust. I brace my hands on his shoulders, capturing his lips once more as I start to move, riding him until my thighs are shaking, his hips punching up to meet mine.
“Touch me,” I beg, the rigid peaks of my breasts brushing against the muscles of his chest, sending a tidal wave of desire crashing over me.
Even after all these years, after coming together more times than I can count, being with him is still so magical, so intimate.
One of Senan’s large hands cups my backside, urging me to keep my pace as his other falls between us to work my clit with tight, frantic circles. “Harder.” I want to feel the ache of him when I wake tomorrow. When I face the executioner.
“Harder.”
With a curse, he nudges me off him and flips me onto my back, his body coming over mine, taking me with a devastating thrust, leaving me quivering and crying for more.
He hooks an arm around my thigh, bucking his hips with wild abandon, his pelvis grinding against my center each time he bottoms out, sending sparks of pleasure shooting through my core until I’m teetering on the edge of release.
“I’m almost there.”
“Let go. I’ll catch you.”
He always catches me, unfailing, unwavering, undeniable. His devotion, his loyalty, his love. My body tenses, poised and ready as he rocks into me, grinding harder, filling every broken part of me with every broken part of himself until we are whole together, the way we were always meant to be.
Tension coils in my core, tighter and tighter, ripping through me like lightning, my body pulsing around Senan’s as he drops forward on his elbows. His hips start to lose rhythm as he gives one final thrust and spills into me, both of us panting, fitting in as many breaths and heartbeats as we can, until it’s too late.
I don’t know how long we cling to each other, but eventually he pulls out, his palm flat against my stomach as he stares down at where I’m still bare.
“Best view in the world,” he murmurs. With a heavy sigh, he pulls my undergarments back in place and fixes my skirts.
I sit up and fasten my buttons as he stuffs himself back into his trousers and puts himself to rights.
The haze of lust wanes with the darkening night, leaving room for fear to slither back in like a serpent, coiling around my heart. “I’m scared.”
Senan’s own fears grow in his eyes like the shadows on his handsome face. His hand laces with mine, his thumb skimming my knuckles. “Whatever happens, we will be together.”
The door to the office swings open, and in strolls the king, trailed by six guards.
What are they doing here? He said the trial isn’t until tomorrow. We still have a few hours left together, so why is he unlocking the door and telling me to come forward?
Senan pushes me behind him, as if that’s going to stop his brother from getting what he wants. Boris waves his hand and steps aside. Two guards lunge, catching Senan’s arms, dragging him out. His shouts fill my ears as the next pair of guards come for me, their hands like vises around my forearms, towing me from the cage.
“We have until tomorrow,” I cry. “You promised us one more night!”
The king stalks toward his brother, withdrawing the dagger from his belt and dragging the tip across Senan’s ribs, cutting through the beautiful blackbird in that cage.
Senan’s howl of pain pierces my soul.
“Stop! Leave him alone! Please!” My cries fall on deaf ears, and I watch in horror as the king withdraws a glowing vial and dumps stardust on my love’s wounds. The glass shatters when it falls to the ground, and the guards throw Senan back into the cage. My prince staggers, crumpling to his knees, his veins glowing brighter and brighter as he gasps, his wild eyes finding mine across the room.
I tug and wrench to no avail. “Let me go. I said, let me go!”
“Give her back to me,” Senan slurs. “Please.”
The king takes a knee at the edge of the cage, the sound of the guard turning the key in the lock like a death knell. “Sleep tight, brother. I’ll see you at dawn.”
Boris stands, his raven hair falling from its leather queue as he turns toward me, his lips curled in a sneer. “Bring her.”
I won’t go willingly. I won’t . My feet drag on the smooth marble as they carry me away from my mate, his cries swallowed by the closing door. Silence fills the empty hallway, and I’m too turned around to figure out where they’re taking me.
Boris comes to a halt in front of a door. When one of the guards drags it open, there is nothing inside the closet but more emptiness.
“Why do you hate him so much?” I need to know. To understand.
A blank mask settles over Boris’s features. “Do you know what it’s like to watch someone take and take, waste everything, and drag your family’s good name through the mud, while you stand by and do nothing? There isn’t a rule that coward hasn’t broken, all for his own selfishness. You see him as your hero, but I see him for what he truly is.” The king brushes back a few strands of hair, tucking them behind his pointed ear. Tugging his waistcoat, a harsh breath falls from his lips. “Sleep tight, Allette; your judgment comes at dawn.”
Someone shoves my lower back, and I stumble forward. The door bangs closed, and I hear the key turning the lock. With nothing more than my tears and memories for company, I sink to the ground, holding my knees to my chest to keep myself from shattering, praying for an escape that never comes.