81. Bastian
Bastian
F or the second time in as many days, Kat burst into my office. Anyone else, and I’d have destroyed them, but for her I preferred the kind of destruction I’d enacted on this desk yesterday.
I looked up from another dull report. A delivery of guard weapons missing… or perhaps not. It wasn’t clear if this was a clerical error or if they’d really disappeared. Thankfully this was the last of the reports, since the wedding was tomorrow.
I arched an eyebrow as Kat shut the door. “Don’t tell me—you’ve found the Crown of Ashes this time? I wouldn’t put it past you.”
She shook her head as she caught her breath and approached. “She did it.”
With a gasp, I sprang to my feet. “Elthea. Your appointment.”
Half laughing, half panting, she clutched my arms and gave them a little shake. “I’m cured.”
My pulse tolled loud in my ears. She’d wanted to be rid of her magic and the poison, and she looked so happy…
I swallowed, searching her grip. Her nails dug into my shirt, still purple. “But you’re still marked.”
She nodded, smile widening. “The poison in my system is gone—it isn’t killing me. But I chose to keep my gift.”
As she made the stain spread over her fingers, she looked just as happy to have her magic as she was to no longer be poisoned.
I exhaled my relief and bent, kissing her fingertips. Her poison tingled on my skin, a pain I’d grown to enjoy. A shiver skittered through me. “And I’m still immune to it.”
Eyes bright, she nodded. “Poisonous, but not poisoned. At last.”
“And you don’t need me anymore. You’re free to go where you wish.” I smiled as I said it, like I wasn’t torn apart by the idea. I didn’t want her bound to me, as she’d put it. I wanted her to be free.
But I also wanted her… maybe even needed her.
Her lashes fluttered, and she swallowed. “I… I am.”
A long moment passed, and I tried my best to look entirely happy. Maybe she could read me—maybe despite my efforts she knew that I was crumbling as I held this smile.
“And…” She spoke very softly, gaze flicking away before edging back to me. “What if I wish to be right here?”
My breath hitched like I’d just found solid ground. I cleared my throat and managed a laugh. “Well, it would be a little inconvenient to have you in the middle of the floor, but I’m sure I could work around you.”
“Bastian!” She swatted my arm. “I’m being serious.”
Grinning so much my cheeks hurt, I pulled her close. “I know. I’m sorry, I just…” I bent close to her ear. “I was afraid.”
She arched back and gave me a wide-eyed look. “That I’d leave?”
I nodded, cheeks warming.
“Idiot Shadow.” She grinned and squeezed me. “I don’t want to go anywhere… not for the foreseeable future, at least.” She winced. “I might need to travel to Albion to settle things with the estate at some point. I haven’t heard anything about whether he has any living relatives.”
“I mean… if he does, we could always get rid of them.”
“Bastian.” Another swat. “We are not killing some random person because they’re a little inconvenient.”
“ Very inconvenient,” I muttered, catching her hand. I planted a kiss on her palm. “If they take that estate from you…” I let my glower complete the sentence.
“With a little luck, he has no relatives left, and the queen will decide I should have it. Service to the crown and all that.” She shrugged, but I spotted her brief wince, like she wasn’t at all convinced.
“You did stop unCavendish.”
“As I recall, I was lying on the floor when you killed him.”
“But I wouldn’t have known to kill him if not for you. Your queen owes you. We should petition her to give you the estate on that basis. I could draft a letter and ask Braea to sign it.”
This time her face scrunched up in more than a brief wince. “Perhaps.”
“We’ll fix this.” I took my time kissing away her wince.
When I pulled back, she made a little sound of complaint, fingers digging into my back.
This was what I’d seen in the woman who’d held herself so tightly in Lunden. Passion. Pleasure. A thirst for beauty—for life in all its expressions that had been kept locked away.
And now here she was, coming in to all of that.
Heart full, I kissed the tip of her nose. “Since you’re staying, I can show you this.” I disentangled myself from her and locked the door leading to Brynan’s office.
She watched, brow furrowed, as I went to the panels depicting the Celestial and Tellurian Serpents and opened the hidden door. “A secret passage? You really are a spymaster.”
She followed me into the darkness, letting me guide her and whisper the directions in her ear so she’d know in the future. When we reached the courtyard door, I took her hand and showed her how the ring I’d had made for her fit the indent and opened it.
As we stepped into the secret lodestone, she gave a soft gasp at the shift from one plane to another, and her mouth fell open when she saw the courtyard, which was no longer overgrown.
I’d planted it with aconite, foxgloves, hemlock, and other poisonous plants—ones I was fairly sure she could touch, despite her magic.
Ones that could hurt as well as kill, as my itching wrist reminded me.
I’d even managed to get the fountain working, and lily pads crowded the edges of its pool.
“What is this?” she asked, bending over the purple bells of deadly nightshade.
I held my breath as she stroked its petals. The plant didn’t so much as droop.
“Yours.”
She snapped upright. “What?”
“It’s a secret lodestone. I’m giving it to you. Only one other person has a key for Dawn’s side.” I nodded towards the other door. “But if you lock it with your ring, they can’t come through and startle you while you’re in here.”
She looked at me as though I was speaking in tongues.
“I planted all this for you. Well”—I gestured at the fountain and the other side of the courtyard, which I’d cleared but awaited plants—“half of it. I thought you might like to do the rest. Now you can control your magic, I’m sure you can plant some roses.”
She blinked at the empty flower beds. “I… I don’t…” She touched her chest. “You did this for me ?”
“Of course. I hesitated about telling you about it before you had a cure. I didn’t want you to feel obligated to stay because of this. But now you’ve decided to stay for a while at least, I thought it would give you some pleasure.”
Her chin trembled, and she frowned at the plants. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Say nothing. Just enjoy it.”
I stood back as she walked a slow circuit, skimming her fingertips over plants, the fountain’s stone edge, the bench I’d uncovered beneath the brambles.
“Bastian,” she said at last. She clasped her hands before her. “This is so much—so perfect. Thank you.”
“It’s my pleasure—truly. I look forward to seeing what you do with it.”
“Hmm.” She nodded, glancing at the plants. “It’s so warm in here, everything’s flowering months early. The palace walls—their magic must create a microclimate.” She went on, muttering to herself about soil type and rose varieties.
I shut my eyes, letting the passion in her voice flood over me as I had in Riverton Palace’s gardens. Listening to her speak to the supposed gardener about roses had revealed the fire behind her guarded exterior. From that moment I’d been doomed.
“You know…” She said, suddenly close, and when I opened my eyes, I found her only a foot away. “I haven’t properly shown you my gratitude for being my antidote all these months.”
“You don’t need to thank me for that.”
“I wasn’t going to thank you.” She peered up at me from beneath her lashes. “You like the feel of my poison, don’t you? When it’s just a light dose.”
My cock twitched at her tone, yet my chest grew tight. This felt dangerous, like it might be a trap to allow her to wrestle control from me. With hesitance, I nodded.
She blinked up at me, all innocent, but the way she slowly licked her lips was anything but. “Then tell me to get on my knees so I can show you exactly how grateful I am.”
A groan so low it was just beyond hearing reverberated in my chest. Still… “You don’t have to do—”
“I know.” She placed her hand on my chest, touch hot through my shirt. “I choose to. Now tell me .”
I slid my fingers into her hair, breaths suddenly a little too fast. “On your knees, love. Show me what that lying little mouth can do.”
With a smirk to put the Wicked Lady to shame, she obeyed.