Chapter 27
27
I started to rise to my feet. I had to do something?—
“Worry about your own fate—not anyone else’s,” Tristen said, pulling me back down to the floor cushions. “You’ll need a clear head for her riddle.”
I flickered my eyes over his body. The black silk he had been dressed in showed off his muscular form. The top few buttons of his shirt were left undone, hinting at the way his bronze skin glowed underneath.
I couldn’t stop myself as my hands pressed his chest until he was leaning back against the wall of the alcove. I climbed on top of him, my body straddling his. I started to bring my hands to his face, wanting to tangle them in his dark hair once more…
…but Tristen took my hands and, with great effort, pinned them to my sides.
“Clear. Head. Now ,” Tristen said, but I felt him against me. I felt his arousal, long and hard against where my body brushed against his, and the surprise in my eyes must have alerted him to what I felt as I sat in his lap.
“ I need a clear head?” I asked, a smile creeping on my lips as my traitorous hips ground down against him and he closed his eyes and let out a rumble of a groan.
With great concentration, he picked me up by my waist and placed me beside him, putting more space between us. “ Focus .”
Another scream behind those closed doors shook me out of the clutches of the aphrodisiac.
“Gods,” I whispered, fear slicing through me.
“Hold onto that,” Tristen said, shaking his head as if he was trying to clear his own thinking. “But don’t let your fear consume you. We’re almost through the effects of it.”
“Will you be able to use your mindweavying ability to get through this trial?” I asked, curious to hear if my hunch had been right—even if I hadn’t been able to take his magic in time.
“No,” he said.
“Is there anyone’s abilities that could help me in here?” I asked, turning to scan the debauchery going on in the crowd as my head grew clearer and clearer by the minute.
Tristen took my chin in his fingers and turned his gaze back to him. “I don’t want to see you trying to seduce anyone else in here.”
I raised an eyebrow, looking at him with a knowing smile. “Trying? You seemed more than willing to acquiesce to my requests the other night,” I said, my voice lowering as my mind was suddenly flooded with images of the other night.
Tristen glared. “Nice try, princess. But you’ll need to do this yourself. The Oracle can block powers. Which is why you’ll need to keep your wits about you in this trial. All of this,” Tristen gestured at what was going on around us, “is just a distraction. To feed the well of sacrifices for the Order so their witches can use the unfortunate losers for their rituals and drain their life forces.”
“The Oracle is ready for Rachelle Deveraux.”
My blood turned to ice. Rachelle .
I whirled, scanning the writhing bodies for Rachelle. “Where is she?”
I sprung to my feet. Tristen followed as I scanned the long center table. But she wasn’t there. I stalked over to an alcove, my mind suddenly clear. I pulled back the curtain that was closed to see a moaning priestess being taken by Ajax’s shadow double. He turned and grinned up at me, and I closed the curtain with disgust, walking away.
“Where is she?” I muttered, Tristen still at my side.
We both turned as we heard Rachelle shout, racing around a corner to an antechamber just off the throne room…
…where Rachelle was howling in victory as she smashed her opponent’s arm into a table. She was… arm wrestling .
I stared at her, and she stood, the man whose arm was across from her was cradling it in pain.
“You owe me three gold pieces,” she said with a grin, then turned to me and Tristen. “Having fun?”
“I’m not the one arm wrestling,” I said, surprised.
Rachelle sauntered over to us. “How else was I supposed to blow off this godsforsaken steam?”
“The Oracle’s guard is calling your name. You need to go, now,” I said, grabbing her and dragging her back to those gilded doors.
We stopped in front of the guard, who lowered her notebook, a tad disappointed that Rachelle had shown up after all.
“This way,” she intoned, turning on her heel. Rachelle started to follow.
“Wait,” I said, and swept up Rachelle in a hug. “Good luck.”
“Mmm. You hug nice,” she said, still a bit unsteady on her feet like I was. “You can get in line for an arm wrestle one of these days,” she said with a wink, and then followed the Oracle’s guard and the priestess down the long hallway beyond the gilded doors.
I stood and watched the double doors for a moment, fearing that I would hear Rachelle’s screams all too soon. But as I waited… nothing sounded. I sighed, and then caught sight of Callum on the balcony.
“I’ll be right back,” I said to Tristen, and at his raised eyebrow—“I mean that. I’m more… clear now,” I said, and it was true. The aphrodisiac had already begun to subside, but that didn’t stop Tristen from standing preternaturally still as he watched me leave the throne room, heading out to the large, sunny veranda.
Callum was white-knuckling the railing of the balcony when I found him, the afternoon sun starting to fall toward the horizon.
“Should have known that all of this beauty was a trap,” I said, a joking tone in my voice as I joined him at the railing.
He turned to me, his expression pained. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to lose control like that. I didn’t expect… I’m just sorry.” He hung his head, and I stepped toward him, taking his hands.
“It’s okay. I was feeling it, too.”
He searched my eyes. “It wasn’t just the wine, Saffron. I can barely hold myself back around you. I just want you. All of you.” His voice came out low, and I could hear the male need in it. It caught me by surprise. I had known Callum had wanted me—but I still felt the guilt biting at me. For what I had experienced with Tristen. For how good he felt.
“I know,” I said.
“Our time was cut so short when he took you from me. I can’t bear to think I might lose you again.”
“An island death match isn’t the most promising of circumstances,” I said with a smile, but the endless sorrow in his eyes cut my joke at its knees. “We’ll find a way out. Both of us.”
He tugged me close to him, wrapping me in a hug. Then he groaned, pulling away. “You smell too good, Saffron. I can’t be close to you right now.”
I felt my heart flutter, but before I could respond?—
“The Oracle is ready for Saffron Vale,” a voice floated outside.
“I have to go,” I said.
“You’ve got this,” Callum said, and I could see in his tensed shoulders that he was holding himself back from trying to whisk me away from whatever lay ahead of me.
I turned and breezed back through the open doorway, past the gauzy curtains.
Tristen was waiting, and he just locked eyes with me and nodded. “Keep it simple,” he said.
“Do I ever?” I said, tossing him a slight smile over my shoulder as I turned to the Oracle’s guard. They turned back to the double doors, leading me to whatever awaited me in the rest of the third trial.