Tower of Tempest: A Steamy Fantasy Romance (Stolen Crowns Book 3)

Chapter 18

This woman would be my undoing. When she’d appeared naked in my doorway, I’d almost drowned right there on the spot. Blood and fucking water. That sumptuous body, those curves, her pale skin, unmarred by a single mark or scar other than the freckles dotting her cheeks. Her shiny brown hair cascaded down her waist like a waterfall, grazing her perfect, round breasts. I wanted so badly to rock up into her, slip inside and fill her completely. My cock throbbed as I sat in the now-cool bath, my body still hot enough to bring the water to a boil.

I’d been so consumed by Poppy, by finding her, these last few months that I hadn’t had time for flings, for my usual fun activities.

Now I had found her, and I was still consumed, but in a very different way, a way I didn’t like.

I leaned back in the tub, water splashing up into my face. “Fuck.”

I couldn’t cross that line with Poppy. Our relationship was easy, fun. Over the last three weeks, we’d flirted, smiled, laughed. We’d traded stories that were lighthearted and fun. Every other woman I’d bedded, I could escape from. Not Poppy. Our destinies were intertwined, of that I was sure. If I took this too far, I wouldn’t be able to run, and I wasn’t ready for that kind of commitment. Not when it had the potential to cause strife between us. I was better off without serious relationships, always had been. That wouldn’t change because of some random woman who’d started appearing in my dreams.

A voice whispered that she wasn’t random, that even though she’d only been with me a short time, she saw through me in a way most didn’t. I pushed the voice away, then stepped out of the bath, wrapping a towel around my waist, throwing on a tan shirt, and emerging from the bath chamber.

I halted in surprise.

Poppy sat there on the edge of my bed, wearing one of my navy tunics, which hung down to her knees.

Fuuuuck.

I cleared my throat. “Glad you found something to wear.”

She gave me a shy smile and lifted her wet hair, a few water droplets falling to the tiled floor. “I wanted my hair to dry out a bit before going back to my room. I hope you don’t mind?”

“A half-naked woman in my room?” I shot her a smile. “I’ll never say no to that.”

There was that look, the one I was coming to crave. Amusement danced in her eyes, but her mouth flattened like she was trying so hard to act as if she disapproved yet couldn’t help herself.

“You’re insufferable.”

“You like it,” I said.

She rolled her eyes again as I sat next to her on the bed. I was acutely aware I could rip this towel from my waist and then there would be nothing between my aching cock and her. If only my cock wasn’t doing so much of my thinking these days.

“Sorry about that whole bath incident.” She waved her arm. “It’s not enough that you were trapped on some island, have had your shadow taken, don’t sleep well, but now you have me barging into your room when you’re trying to relax...” She trailed off as if she realized what she’d said. I stiffened, and she must’ve noticed because she quickly said, “Leoni mentioned something about the island. You don’t have to talk about it.”

I rubbed my stubbled jaw. “To be honest, I haven’t talked about it with anybody.”

Mainly because I didn’t want to think about it, but also because no one had actually ever asked me about my experience in Sorrengard. I’d come home, and the few days I was there were spent mediating between Gabby and Mother and Mal and Mother. I was so busy trying to mend the tension between them all, that I just shoved my own trauma, my own problems, away.

Poppy reached out a hand and placed it over mine. “Well, you can tell me. If you need to.”

Spirits help me. “No.” I shrugged her comment off. “No need to burden you with my troubles.”

“You do that, you know.” She held my gaze. “You drive the conversation away from yourself. You make jokes to lighten the mood. It’s okay to be sad sometimes. It’s okay to let others help lift your own sadness, just like you do for everyone else around you.”

I reeled back at her observation, at the truths about myself she was throwing at me.

Harmless flirting I could do, only because it made her smile, brought out a fire in her that I liked, and that I suspected she liked too. But this felt wrong, unloading on her like this when she already had so much to deal with. But she was looking at me with such earnestness in her eyes, I couldn’t say no. She wanted me to tell her, so I would.

I exhaled. “Almost a year ago today, my brother Mal woke me in the middle of the night and told me we needed to go. I didn’t ask any questions, just followed him out of our castle, down to the shoreline below, and into the sea. I was used to these middle-of-the-night wakings from both my siblings. We liked to adventure, to explore, to sneak out and do stupid things. But I quickly realized this was different. He explained as much as he could as we used our water magic to ride the waves. Our boys had been taken, he’d told me. All of them. Every single boy of Apolis. Kidnapped in a single night. Right from under our noses.”

Her nose wrinkled. “Taken? All your boys?”

“Yes, by the pirate lord of the Dark Seas.”

She rubbed her arms. “He sounds fearsome.”

“He is. Mal made the plan. We snuck onto his ship, hiding out, planning to emerge when we got to wherever the pirate lord was taking our boys. We’d hoped to overpower the pirates and commandeer the ship back to Apolis.” I swallowed, remembering how it had all felt like a dream at the time, and I kept waiting to wake up. “The ship finally arrived at our destination, and Mal and I watched as the boys marched off onto the island like they were in a trance.”

Poppy’s nose wrinkled. “That doesn’t make sense.”

“It didn’t to us either. Until we followed them into the jungle and realized where we were: the shadow court.”

She sucked in a sharp breath.

“All of our shadows got taken, and escaping the island is almost impossible. The shadows guard the perimeters of the jungle, ordered to keep anyone from leaving. I watched boys try to escape and get torn apart.” My muscles tensed at the memory. “We were there for eight long months, just trying to survive, to take care of the boys and keep their spirits up. Well, Mal took care of the boys, and I kept their spirits up. I told them stories, teased them, played with them, made them laugh and smile and sometimes even forget that they’d been kidnapped from their home.”

“Why does that not surprise me?” Poppy asked.

“Eventually, my sister Gabby came. With the pirate lord.”

Poppy gave me a wry smile. “Ah, yes. Leoni mentioned her relationship with him.”

“It had been a shock to me and Mal. We saw him as a villain, not someone good enough for our sister,” I said, still remembering seeing Gabrielle kissing the pirate through the thick foliage, how angry I’d felt in that moment. “It turned out the pirate wasn’t at fault for any of his actions. He was under someone else’s control, the same one who took all our shadows.”

Poppy’s eyes searched my face. “Who?”

“The shadow king.”

A look crossed her face that I couldn’t decipher, like she was trying to solve a puzzle.

I tugged at my shirt collar, almost feeling those blue lines writhing underneath. “My sister pulled it off. She managed to rescue us all, the boys, me, Mal... But my shadow got left behind.”

Poppy’s eyes shone with sorrow. “Gran told me being separated from one’s shadow is painful, that you can no longer use your magic, that you feel like you’re missing a part of yourself.

I hesitated, wondering why her gran had never told her the worst part about getting your shadow taken. I could tell Poppy the truth, that I was dying a slow death, and if I didn’t either get to the island where I was bound or get my shadow back, it would be my end. But that felt like too much to unload on her in this moment. I didn’t need her taking on my problems when she had her own. She was so selfless. I’d seen it over the last few weeks in the way she insisted on taking care of everyone else. She would insist I forget about her gran, about her mission, and go after my shadow. She’d insist I forget about her. For some reason, I wasn’t ready to do that.

“It is like you’re missing a part of yourself.” I tapped my chest. “That’s what the blue lines are. They signify that I don’t have my shadow.”

All true. Just not the whole truth.

She studied me for a moment, and I thought she might argue, but she didn’t. “The shadow king,” she said slowly. “He’s the one who took your shadow? Who is he?”

“I don’t know. No one knows. He’s someone who’s risen up on the island and is collecting shadows for a dark purpose. But we couldn’t figure out why. Our best guess is he’s planning on waging war against the rest of us, that he wants revenge because of what happened after the Shadow War. My brother is calling a conclave soon, maybe has already called one, and he plans to bring all the courts together to discuss this very thing.”

Poppy chewed the inside of her cheek, something she did a lot when she was nervous. It made me smile.

She scowled. “Why are you smiling?”

“Because you always do the same thing when you’re nervous, and it’s cute.”

“Prince Lochlan.” Her voice had warning to a it.

“Yes, Poppy?”

She jabbed me in the chest. “Focus.”

I chuckled. “That’s it. That’s my story.”

“That’s not it. Your story continues through your shadow. If the shadow king took your shadow, that means he’s the one who commanded it to then kidnap my gran. He wanted my gran, but why?”

“I don’t know.” I shrugged helplessly. “I’m not the person to ask. If Gabby were here, she’d fight to get your gran with every part of her soul. Mal would have a plan at the ready. He’d know every risk, have the whole thing mapped out. Me?” I grinned. “I just tell the jokes.”

An image flashed in my mind of a man covered in shadows, of a frail old woman chained and shivering in a cell as he floated over her. Shadows swirled over him in a fury.

One of my dreams.

I pushed away the images like I always did, pushed away the feelings of fear that flooded me. I shifted, and guilt speared me. If I’d allow those images in, could they tell me more? About her gran? About this shadow king? No. No. The dreams meant nothing, and relief was already rushing through me as I pushed the images to the farthest corners of my mind.

She raised her brows. “You just tell the jokes? You, who traveled from Apolis all the way to the isles of Valoris? I’d been trapped in a tower for twenty-two years, hidden from the world, and you—you found me. All because of a dream. I don’t believe for one second that all you do is tell the jokes, Lochlan Aster, and I don’t think you really believe that either.” Her gaze shot through me, like she saw through all the muscle, the charm, the flirting. Like she saw me.

Blood and water. I tugged at my ear. “Well, your gran had to be someone important enough to help this shadow king with his mission. If he is planning on waging war, then your gran must have information, something valuable that can help him in that quest. He sent my shadow across the Dark Seas, all the way up to the sky court to find her. She’s valuable, Poppy, and if you know anything...”

She broke eye contact, gaze dropping to her folded hands. She was silent for a moment, then blew out a breath. “I told you that my gran kept secrets. One thing I haven’t mentioned that might be worth knowing is that Gran has shadow magic.”

I went still, mind reeling from that revelation. “Your gran was from the shadow court?” Fuck me. That was big. I’d assumed her gran was a sky elemental, like her. “Why didn’t you say anything before?”

“I didn’t know if I could trust you,” she snapped, cheeks flushing.

“And now?” I asked.

Silence. Right. That answered that question. She still didn’t fully trust me, but she had told me this. That was something. A step in the right direction.

“So what do we do?” she asked.

“We go to the library,” I said, unsure that would do anything. “Every court has one, located in the royal city. We go, and we look through records of those who survived the Shadow War, try and find your gran—anything about her.” I took a deep breath, readying myself to ask a hard question. “Are you sure she was actually your gran?”

It could be possible. Magic was passed down through the mother. So her mother could have been from Valoris and her father from Sorrengard, though that didn’t seem likely.

Poppy barked out a laugh. “No, of course not.”

My mouth went agape.

She rolled her eyes. “She has shadow magic. Not to mention, her skin is a russet brown and I’m as pale as the clouds. Besides, Gran never pretended we were related. But it never mattered. We were still family.”

I reached out and laid a hand over hers, that shock jolting up my arm at the innocent touch. “I’m sorry.” I didn’t even know what I was saying sorry for. I just knew that’s how I felt.

“I know,” she said softly, her gaze rising to meet mine. She bit her lip. “Is that who you dream about? You seem so restless in your sleep.”

“I’m sorry if I’ve kept you up. Driscoll complains about it all the time.”

“No.” She shook her head. “It just seems like you’re in pain, in anguish.”

I spread my hands wide. “I wish I could remember my dreams. I think I dream of my shadow, what it’s seeing, what it’s feeling, but no matter how hard I try to remember, I can’t.”

A voice whispered that that wasn’t the full truth. That I didn’t want to remember my dreams. Because remembering might mean feeling too much pain, too much anxiety. Too much of everything that I generally avoided.

She studied me with a curious expression. “But you remembered your dreams about me.”

“I did,” I said, not able to explain any of it, though I wondered if I remembered Poppy because of a very simple reason: that she was not something I could ever forget, not since the first night she appeared in my dreams.

We stared into each other’s eyes, and I couldn’t look away from those green irises, reminding me so much of the green of the very mountains we’d been traveling through. So bright, so spirits-damned beautiful.

I had the urge to lean over and press my lips against hers, to pin her to the bed so we could both forget whatever pain we were feeling. If she were any other woman, I just might. Use her body as a release. But no, I wouldn’t do that to her when I knew full well I couldn’t commit. I pulled back, and shock flashed in Poppy’s eyes.

She slipped her hand from mine and stood. “My hair’s dry,” she said quickly, ducking her head so that her hair curtained her face. “I have to go.”

I’d hurt her somehow. “Wait, Poppy?—”

But I couldn’t even get the words out before she was crossing the room and closing the door behind her. I fell back onto the bed, staring up at the thin white film of the canopy. Thoughts whirled in my head of a kidnapped old woman, a mysterious king, and, most troublesome of all, a beautiful little bird that I couldn’t get out of my mind no matter how hard I tried.

I stared after the closed door, then swore and jumped to my feet. I threw open the door and raced down the hall. Poppy was nowhere to be seen. She was quick when she wanted to flee, I’d give her that.

I ran up the stairs, taking two at a time, and caught her right as she was inserting the key into the lock of her door.

“Poppy.”

She paused, slowly turning to stare at me. “What are you doing?”

“If I hurt you in some way, I’m sorry.”

She turned the key, and the door swung open, but neither of us broke each other’s stare. I lifted an arm and braced it overhead against the doorway, caging her with my body.

She swallowed thickly. “You didn’t. I’m fine.”

She didn’t seem fine. I leaned closer, smelling the sweet floral scent of her hair. Just a little farther and I could kiss her, finish what I’d refused to start just moments earlier.

Bloody waters, I needed to make up my mind when it came to her.

She cleared her throat and broke my stare, glancing around her room, but I couldn’t take my eyes off her.

She gasped, face losing all color, which jolted me back to reality. I followed her gaze, and my mouth dropped open.

Everything in her room had been moved, turned over, ransacked. My body went cold as she stumbled forward.

The covers had been thrown off the bed, the pillows everywhere, the wardrobe splayed open. Furniture overturned.

My hands curled into fists. “What in the bloody waters happened here?”

“Someone’s broken into my room.” Her voice shook with the words. “What could they have been looking for?”

“I don’t know.” I crouched down, studying what looked like a boot print. “But someone is after you, Poppy. And we need to figure out why.”