King of Fire and Flames (Courts of the Star Fae Realms #2)

Chapter 35

Leaf

Before I could beg to take the elevator, we were flying again, swooping into Arrow’s domed apartment, then gliding up to the bathroom perched on a platform of raised marble inside the river room.

Arrow ran the bath, not taking his eyes off me as I peeled off my blood-soaked wedding gown and boots. He took a bucket from the corner of the room, guided me to stand over the drain and poured warm water over my head, sluicing most of the blood and dirt from my skin.

My mouth dried as he removed his leather pants, then ambled to the sink and splashed water over his face, the flames from the wall sconces highlighting the mesmerizing shift and glide of muscles.

Arrow’s body was a work of art.

Picking up the bucket, he sloshed water over himself, staring at me with a hungry glint in his eyes.

“Mind if I join you?” he asked.

“Please do,” I said climbing carefully into the copper tub and swallowing groans of pain. “Before you get any big ideas, touching and kissing in here are fine, but nothing else. We’re saving the best stuff for dry land.” Grimacing, I swished the red-tinged water. “And clean sheets.”

He bowed his head, strands of hair framing the brutal lines of his cheekbones. “I’m yours to command, of course, but let me check if I have this right. Hands and lips are fine, but a cock is out of the question?”

I laughed. “Hurry up and get in before I turn into a wrinkled prune.”

“If you do, I promise I’ll love every single crease on your skin.”

“Arrow, I don’t fancy the idea of looking like your grandmother one day.”

His glyphs glowed bright gold, his erection bobbing as he slid into the tub and entwined his legs with mine. “Having my storm magic around and inside you will slow the human-aging process. When you bear our children, some of their power will transfer to you. We will live a long and blissful life together, my Aldara, all we must do is enjoy it.”

“ And work on bettering our kingdoms for our people.”

“Of course. Instead of hoarding peace and happiness for ourselves, we’ll ensure everyone in the realms experiences it, too.”

“There’s nothing sexier than a reformed villain. When are you planning on kissing me?” I asked.

Smirking, he scratched the stubble on his chin. “Hm… perhaps next Friday I could find time to do it properly.”

I splashed water on his chest, then took his face between my palms, kissing him ruthlessly.

“Slow down,” he whispered, his palm covering my pulsing Aldara mark. “I’m about to lose control. I want to love you properly. Take care of you.”

“Okay,” I said, struggling to catch my breath. Then between soft kisses we washed each other gently, fingers stroking, hushed voices soothing.

“I thought I’d lost you in that horrible arena,” I said, the tears I’d been suppressing flowing freely.

“No, never. Come here, Leaf.” He dragged me closer, wrapping me in his arms and the dark canopy of his wings. “Even death can’t keep us apart. I would fight my way back to you from the deepest hell realms. I promise.”

“Ugh, now I’m thinking of Ruhh, bound to her corpse forever.”

Arrow grimaced. “Don’t think about her .” His fingers trailed over my stomach, then ventured lower. “Does this help redirect your focus?”

I moaned in pleasure. “Yes. It absolutely does.” Heat flushed through my veins, my muscles trembling with need. “I can’t wait to have you inside me. Please, let’s get out of here.”

In a blur of limbs, feathers, and splashing water, he leaped from the bath, his glyphs moving over his skin as he pulled me onto the wet floor.

We dried each other quickly and threw our clothes into the blood-tinged bath water. Then he wrapped a towel around my shoulders.

“Please, no flying this time,” I begged. “Can we walk through the river room? I want to see the waterfall window again.”

“The one you jumped out of? Certainly. But forgive me if I hold on to you too tightly.”

I laughed. “I wouldn’t dream of fleeing. I couldn’t possibly be a more willing guest.”

“Not a guest, a permanent resident,” he corrected. “I hope.”

As we entered the river room, deep peace enveloped me, the large leaves of tropical plants brushing my arms and legs and soothing my fractured nerves. The sounds of the river teased my senses. A bubbling lullaby where it entered the room, growing into a raging chorus as it tumbled over a sloping marble ledge, through the window, and into the pool in the city street below.

It could have triggered traumatic flashbacks of my time held captive here. But it didn’t. Instead, the past and the present collided, and memories of the green-eyed boy I’d once loved—the brother I had killed—raced through my mind.

Our loud yelps as we ran through the lush forest of our childhood, then leaped over a waterfall into a rumbling river below. The Mydorian palace. Running with our hands linked through white-washed hallways into our parents’ loving arms.

Then the images changed, and I saw myself jumping from the very window I now leaned upon. Smelled the stench of Bonerust. Gorbinvar’s forge. Watched the Storm King blow it all to ash.

I shook the past off, turned and smiled at the fae who I loved and trusted with every part of my fragile human heart. He smiled back, folding a wing around my shoulders.

Together, we leaned over the sill, our palms braced on the window frame. He whistled long and low. “Quite a distance from here to that pool. You’re brave, love. And stubborn. Reckless. Perfect. And forever mine.”

“I do adore arguing with you, but I can’t disagree with anything you just said.”

“Never thought I’d hear you say that, Leaf.”

We laughed, and then raced each other up the staircase to the sitting room. “You let me win,” I said at the top, adjusting the towel under my armpits.

“Can you blame me?” he teased, his hungry gaze roaming over my body. “In this case, the loser’s view was spectacular.”

Through fluttering gauze curtains, I caught glimpses of the shimmering city lights and the silhouette of distant mountains. I looked with longing toward his crescent-shaped bedchamber on the next level up, but ignored the stairs leading to it and walked instead along the stone pathway that connected my pavilion to the sitting room.

“Follow me,” I said over my shoulder, entering the gilded prison.

Crouching, I snatched two large feathers from the tiles and waved them under his amused nose. “Remember when I thought these belonged to a rare breed of night hawk?”

“Yes, and instead, they belonged to me —your stalker.”

Laughing, I walked to the edge of the pavilion and tossed them into the breeze, the warm tiles a comfort under my bare feet as I watched Arrow’s feathers float toward the desert.

I remembered lying naked on my back in the center of this very floor, my restless feet scraping against the tiles as forbidden desire heated my blood, and Arrow above me, taunting and teasing until I thought I’d break apart.

But my feelings for him were no longer forbidden. I could do what I liked with the King of Storms and Feathers, and he would happily allow it. I could break him if I desired. Cleave his heart from his chest. Kill him.

But at this moment, violence was the furthest thing from my mind.

Letting my towel drop, I eyed his still-damp body, drinking in the sight of smooth, hard planes flowing into dips and valleys between muscles. His cock twitched under my scrutiny, a bead of moisture already forming at its tip.

I licked my lips. “Lie on the floor.”

His eyebrows rose as he pointed at his chest, mouthing a silent question, “ me ?”

“Yes, you. And hurry, please.”

With his eyes on mine and his fists clenched at his sides, he did as requested.

I nudged his hand with my toe. “Arms over your head and keep your wrists together. If you move them even slightly, this ends. Do you understand?”

Throat bobbing, he nodded.

As I climbed over him, his head rose like he wanted to kiss me.

“Nope.” I pushed against his bulky shoulder, and he flopped back without resistance. “Don’t touch me. It’s my turn to be your master.”

“Fuck. If you keep talking like that, I won’t last three minutes,” he ground out, his fangs already lengthening.

My lips and tongue glided along his neck, and I bit the muscle that ran from behind his ear to his collarbone. I sucked his hard nipples, then moved lower, pressing hot kisses over his twitching stomach. When my mouth brushed his weeping tip, his hips lurched off the tiles.

“ Please . I’ll erupt if you do that…” he broke off, panting hard. “And fucking die if you don’t.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll go easy on you.” With one hand, I balanced my weight on his chest, gripping his pulsating length with the other.

He released a volley of curses, but his wrists stayed crossed above his head, not moving an inch, as if I’d chained them together.

I guided the broad head through my slickness, teasing up and down, until we both quivered and shook, panting with desire. Cuffing his throat with my fingers, I placed him at my center, and with a sigh, slid slowly down his length until our hips met.

“Bliss,” I whispered, motionless and losing myself in the wild storm of his eyes. In the sensation of perfect fullness.

“What are you waiting for?” he asked, staring up at me through heavy lids. “Fuck me hard before I die from wanting you.”

I leaned forward, my face close to his, the change of angle inside me divine. “Do you remember that time you left me staked out in this exact spot?”

He groaned. “I wish I could forget. It plagues me still, and by the glint in your eyes, it might be the death of me now. I pray to any and all gods, past and future, that you won’t be as foolish as I was and torture us for one heartbeat longer. I’ve begged you before, and I’ll beg you again. Every day, if I must, Leaf. Please , make us one again.”

“As you wish, my king, my obedient slave .”

His laugh cut off abruptly as I squeezed his throat tighter, and then did as he asked, fucked the Storm King ruthlessly, with neither shame nor mercy. A delicious symphony of moans, growls, and rasped incantations of my name urged me to punish him harder. And I did.

Our bodies rocked in flawless rhythm, our breathing rough as waves of pleasure quaked over us. My movements grew erratic, every muscle coiling tighter and my attention narrowing to the pleasure building at my core.

“Such a good girl,” he growled. “Use me. Take what you need.”

“Oh, gods.” I moved faster, shaking and moaning as I slid up and down his length, our hips slamming together.

It was sublime. It had to end because I couldn’t bear anymore. Yet, at the same time, I never wanted it to stop.

“Leaf,” he moaned. “I can’t… Oh, fuck. Don’t think I can hold on.”

I cried out, rubbing the points of his ears as I broke apart, coming in hot waves, my physical body dissolving and flowing like lava down a mountainside.

Arrow froze, his mouth forming an agonized grimace as he battled against the end.

Just as I’d instructed, and even while my body pulsed around him, his arms didn’t move an inch. But his wings were another matter.

The dark feathers shifted and trembled hard, his wings quivering and arching, and when he came with a growl that made me clench and spasm, they shuddered along with the rest of his body.

Dazed and panting, his arms banded my waist, and I collapsed on his damp chest, my cheek pressing against the thudding heart that I’d sworn to cut out.

But I could never harm this male.

Never forsake him.

From the moment our eyes met through the bars of the Farron Gilt Market cage, we had belonged to each other. I knew that now for a fact.

“Do I finally have permission to kiss you?” he asked.

I grinned, brushing my mouth against his. “Yes, please.”

Soft lips took mine, and then he flipped our bodies, his fangs flashing as he smiled. “Now it’s time for the feeding and the fucking.”

“My favorite part,” I replied.

Tears streamed down my face as he brought me to ecstasy again and again, drinking reverently from the veins in my thighs, my breasts, and my throat, while I whispered, “More. Don’t stop. Not yet. Please, not yet.”

Finally worn out, he wrapped me in his wings, and we perched on the edge of the pavilion, overlooking our sleeping kingdom.

With a gentle finger under my chin, he tilted my face to meet his gaze. “After tonight, you must promise to stay with me always. We have three kingdoms to oversee, but I’m sure we can—”

“You’re still issuing orders,” I said, interrupting.

“Not an order, an ardent request. I hope you want the same—to never be parted from me again.”

“I do want that, Arrow. I want you to stay with me forever. Marry me. Be the father of my children. Be my dawn, my gloaming, my endless night sky. Always and forever.”

“Finally, you’re speaking sense! Nothing would make me happier. Before we leave for your Mydorian coronation, we’ll marry in a simple Light Realm ritual.”

“Sounds perfect.”

He looked away, his heels thumping against the pavilion’s stone wall.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. “Tell me.”

“Well… in old Coridonian marriage ceremonies, the king bequeaths his queen with a new name. A formal one, if you like. Will you let me do this?”

“Why would I need a new name?”

“Because it’s the greatest honor a Light Realm king can bestow upon his Aldara.” He leaned closer and whispered, “If you don’t like the name I choose, we can negotiate for change.”

I cupped his cheek. “Negotiations are always… appealing. Tell me what you’d choose.”

“Leaf Zali Omala Ramiel.”

“Why put Leaf before my birth name?” I asked.

“Because it suits you. And it will serve to remind me of everything I have taken away from you and all that I plan to give back.”

“Well, then, I like it very much. Can we go to bed now, please? I’m exhausted.”

Without warning, he gathered me close and flew us up to his chamber, while I giggled into the crook of his neck. Flying without clothes was certainly an interesting experience.

“Do you still have nightmares?” I asked, sighing as his silk sheets enveloped me, and I curled into the sanctuary of his arms. I breathed him in deeply, the hint of rosemary and mint in his hair making me smile.

“Yes, but only when you’re not with me.”

“Then you’ll never have another one again.”

“Never,” he agreed. “Sleep soundly, my Aldara. I’ll see you soon in our dreams.”

“See you there,” I whispered, pressing my lips against the strong column of his neck, my Aldara mark pulsing in a soothing rhythm. “Please don’t crush me during the night. You’re extremely heavy,” I teased.

He chuckled. “I’d rather die.”

The night sounds of Coridon lulled my eyes closed—the contented chirping of the auron kanara from the floor below, a bell chiming in the distance—and I released a deep sigh of happiness.

I was home at last.

I had finally found what I’d been seeking since the moment I woke up in that horrible market cage. Arrow’s love. Wherever and whenever he held me, that was my home and where I belonged.

A rumble came from his chest, then a nonsensical jumble of words from his lips.

“What was that?” I asked.

“Remind me to feed the birds when we wake.”

“Somehow, I don’t think they’ll let you forget.”

“Sleep well, my Aldara. Love you.”

Then we drifted into heavy slumber, safe in each other’s arms, beneath the golden domes of our apartment.