Chapter 7
7
Zabriel
I think I must sleep for several hours, or perhaps several days, and all the while, the Temple Mothers’ potions work their way into my bones and help them heal. It is painful to have your bones knitted back together at such speed, and I awaken covered in sweat with an ache in my chest and a sensation like pins and needles in my flesh.
I have barely opened my eyes when there is a Temple Maiden at my elbow holding a flask to my lips. “For your pain and healing, Ma’len .”
I drink down the offered tincture, and as I lay back down, the pain recedes enough to allow for the murmur of voices to fill my ears.
“What is that sound I hear below?”
“The villagers from western Maledin have been coming every day to honor their dead,” the maid explains. “They are burning knot grass and praying for their loved ones.”
I sigh and lay back on the pillows, filled with sadness for Isavelle and the villagers. I should have been able to protect the villagers of western Maledin, but instead, they were slaughtered before my eyes. I wonder how I am going to face my mate’s father and sister knowing that I failed their family and friends.
After laying there, smelling the fragrant smoke of the burning knot grass and listening to the prayers from below, I hear soft footsteps approaching me. It’s Isavelle, and she wraps her arms carefully around my shoulders.
“The villagers. When I’m back on my feet, I will tell them I’m sorry.”
“It’s Emmeric who needs to be sorry,” she says and kisses my cheek. “What you need to do, and what I need to do, is to never give up trying to make Maledin a safe home for everyone.”
“I can be strong with you by my side, sha’lenla .” I glance over her shoulder toward a Temple Maiden. “Will you please fetch something from my rooms? I wish to feel like a king once more, not an invalid.”
“Of course, Ma’len .”
A few minutes later, under the Temple Crone’s disapproving gaze, I’m leaning on Dusan and Fiala for support while Isavelle helps me into my robe and ties it around my waist. It feels good to be back in my own clothes, and I’m going back to my own bed.
The crone has both her hands buried in her sleeves as she scolds me. “ Ma’len , if you fall, you will rebreak your delicately mended ribs, and all my priestesses will have to put you back together. They already have so much work to do helping the rescued villagers.”
I have one arm slung around Fiala’s shoulders and the other around Dusan’s. Black spots swarm before my eyes, and my pulse pounds in my ears. For a moment I can’t see or hear, and cold sweat breaks out across my flesh as I gasp, “What are you talking about? I’ve never been better.”
“We’ve got you, Ma’len ,” Fiala says doggedly. The woman is only slightly taller than Isavelle, but she’s strong, and her brow is furrowed with determination. “You won’t fall.”
“Then let’s go.”
The Temple Crone mutters something about the obstinate pride of dragons, but I’m concentrating too much on putting one foot in front of the other to answer her.
Isavelle leads the way along the corridors, and I keep my gaze fixed on her long, loose hair. My reward for this painful, sweaty ordeal is to spend the night in my own bed with my Omega, and it’s not a prize I am willing to forsake.
I’m shaking and dripping with sweat by the time we reach our room, and the bodyguards lower me carefully onto the mattress. Isavelle blots the sweat from my brow and chest, and then they all ease me down onto the mattress. A simple walk from the temple to here, and I feel like I could sleep for a week.
“You see? I’m perfectly well. But thank you for your assistance, Wingrunners Fiala and Dusan.”
“You are welcome, Ma’len . Send for us at any time, Lady Isavelle. We will not leave the castle grounds.”
Once we’re alone, I feel Isavelle get into bed beside me and curl into my uninjured side, resting her cheek against my shoulder. When I put my arm around her, I get a handful of her naked bottom. She’s taken all her clothes off, and my knot twitches.
“Oh, you feel glorious. Maybe we could…”
Isavelle laughs softly. “How many broken bones do you have?”
“There are no broken bones in my cock.”
“That is true.” Isavelle kisses softly across my shoulder. “If you promise to lay still, perhaps I could…” She undoes my robe and the fabric slithers away from my hardening cock. Gently, her fingers drift up and down my shaft.
“Please don’t stop,” I groan. “I have fought and bled for my Omega. Now I wish to spill seed for her as well.”
Isavelle’s heavy breasts slide down my chest as she settles herself between my thighs, and she takes my cock in her hands and squeezes my knot.
“As long as you promise to lie still,” she whispers, and encloses the head of my cock in her mouth.
I groan a promise as the most delicious feeling sweeps over me. Warmth spreads through my belly along with an ache in my knot. My body is exhausted, but my cock has no such affliction because I am soon panting and breathing hard. Out of instinct, I bunch the muscles in my ass and attempt to thrust up into her mouth. Pain blazes across my chest, and I gasp.
Isavelle pulls her mouth off my cock with a pop and admonishes, “Zabriel.”
“I know. Gods, that hurt. I’ll keep still.”
She licks across my knot and stars burst behind my eyes. “If you’re sure that it won’t pain you.”
“It will only pain me if you cease. Please don’t stop.” After a little more coaxing, she once again takes me in her mouth. It’s unlike me to lie passively through anything, but now I don’t have a choice. I cup her head in my hand and feel the silky texture of her hair as she works her mouth up and down my length. I can’t even raise my head to look at her. My climax bunches all the muscles in my lower belly and my chest aches briefly, but most of what I feel is blessed release.
Isavelle sits up and swallows and wipes the corners of her mouth, a smile on her red, wet lips. “The king is in full working order after his ordeal.”
“I should hope so,” I mutter, gasping for breath and hoping I don’t look as pathetic as a dying fish on a wooden dock, which is how I feel.
As Isavelle lays down and lifts her thigh over mine to hold me close, I feel her slick. I reach for her. “I am neglecting my mate.”
She takes my hand in hers and curls it against her chest. “Rest, Zabriel. I want for nothing except my skin against yours.”
I turn my head and take a deep inhale of her scent. “Gods, you smell perfect. As sweet and lush as a summer’s day.”
“Your scent is so strong and comforting.” My mate strokes my chest thoughtfully. “It feels like weeks since I opened those portals into the ethereal realm, but it has only been a matter of days.”
“Days filled with worry and treachery,” I murmur. I privately curse Leibel, Elysant, and Godric. Two attempts they made on my bride, first during her first heat and then again this week. During the first attempt, some of the traitors remained hidden. Is it too optimistic to hope that the second attempt brought them all into the light? I hope that there are no more within my castle walls who want my mate dead. I wish to focus on defeating Emmeric rather than be hounded by people I thought I could trust.
“When did you realize I’m pregnant?” she asks.
I smile at my mate. “I knew your scent had changed right before you stepped through the portal, but I’m such a stupid Alpha that I didn’t realize what it meant. A king who doesn’t know his queen is pregnant. The bards will sing songs about this and chant my idiocy in every tavern.”
Isavelle laughs again. “You are not stupid, Zabriel. You told me my scent was different, but I didn’t realize what it meant either. We were in the midst of a rescue. A successful rescue, I’ll have you know. I received the reports from your soldiers about the villages that were evacuated. They made it to every single village on the list. All your people have made it safely back to this world.”
“Our people,” I murmur.
“Our people. I hope the bards sing that song as well.”
We lay in comfortable silence for some time, and my mind drifts through recent events. What I wished I’d done differently. What surprised me.
Esmeral, she surprised me.
“Your little dragon saved my life. Did she tell you?”
Isavelle looks up. “No, she didn’t. How did she save you?”
“She was a very clever little dragon and crept up on Leibel and Elysant as they nervously watched the skies. Another dragon could not have done such a thing. Would not have even thought of such a thing.”
“Then she deserves a whole cartload of chicken necks to feast upon. I shall be sure to praise her to the moon and back when I go down to the dragongrounds in the morning. All the dragons should know how she saved the king’s life.”
I smile, and another memory rises to the surface. As I flew on Esmeral, my senses were overwhelmed with the metallic scent of blood, but something else as well. A scent very like the one Isavelle carries now. “Do you know, I think Esmeral might lay a clutch of eggs soon.”
I feel Isavelle lift her head. “Really? Did her scent change?”
“I think so. I will know for sure when I’m able to walk to the dragongrounds.”
“How long will that be?”
I muse on this. “Three days. Perhaps four.” I will be uncomfortable and restless while these bones knit themselves back together, but at least the period will be brief.
“Impressive. In my village, it took many weeks to heal broken bones.”
“Dragon magic is powerful, but I’m sure with the right spell, a witch could heal broken bones just as well.”
“If she is the right kind of witch. Ravenna might be able to do it. I doubt it will ever be something I am capable of. It’s very different from the magic I’m able to do.” Isavelle tangles her fingers through mine, and we watch her slender digits moving against my large, rough ones. There’s a long silence, and I know we’re both thinking the same thing. About that dark place where I was trapped, hovering over my own body.
“You brought me back, didn’t you?” I ask. “From death. I wasn’t hallucinating. You were there.”
“Yes,” she says softly. “Zabriel, it was horrible. You were in so much pain, and that thing was everywhere inside you. It was the lich, wasn’t it? When you woke up, your eyes were full of its sickly green magic.”
I will destroy everyone you have ever cared about, and then I will go on living forever and ever because I will win. I will always win. I am unkillable.
It wanted to live through me. I shudder inwardly of the violence and destruction it could have wrought on all the people I care about if Isavelle had brought me back with that thing still inside me.
I press a kiss to her brow. “My mate has brought me home twice now. Once from beneath the mountain. Once from the other side. Not even death can keep my Omega from me. As soon as I have my strength back, I will gather my army and fly south. We will drive our enemies from Maledin once and for all. I will make this land into the home you and my baby deserve.”