90. Rorax
Rorax had just climbed out of the bath when there were two hard knocks on her door. She pulled it open to find Ayres standing in the hallway. His jaw was ticking, which wasn’t unusual, but he had an orange roll wrapped in a napkin in his other hand, and that was unusual.
“I’m here to check on you and your nerves, and to talk more about the felidra strategy.” His eyes slowly looked her up and down, his scowl deepening.
“Do I need to start a charity drive in the nearest village to get you your own pair of pants? Do you even own pants? Do you always open the door like this?” Ayres grumbled, his eyes skimming over her legs.
The V-neck green silk slip she had on covered her ass, three inches down her thigh, and covered all her most important bits. She loved it, it made her feel feminine and almost girly. “I own as many pants as you do shirts. Maybe, between the two of us, we really should start a fund, see if we can get a complete outfit. Even the shirt you have on right now is extremely questionable.”
She raised an eyebrow, and he grinned. Ayres technically had a shirt on, but it was one of those skin-tight white sleeveless cotton shirts he wore as his base layer under his armor. It was tight and was slightly see-through. As Rorax looked him up and down, she could see every single inch of the pectorals, laterals, and thick covering of tattoos that made up the deeply intoxicating combination that was Ayres’s torso.
Rorax had a sudden inclination to lick him.
Ayres’s mouth tipped up at the corner. “Fair point. But only around you. I don’t like to show outsiders my tattoos. You seem to like them though.”
“Like them?” They made her feral sometimes she liked them so much. She rolled her eyes at herself and at him and waved him in with a lazy hand. “Come in, Lieutenant. Make yourself at home.”
He ignored the two armchairs next to the burning fireplace and instead walked over to the made-up bed and plopped down on it, the wooden frame groaning under his weight as he spread out on the plain brown comforter.
Rorax walked past him and into her closet to her box of ribbons. “Any new information about the trial tomorrow?”
“No.” Ayres let out a heavy sigh, and she heard the frame groan even louder as he adjusted his body on her bed. “Nothing. I just stopped by Kiniera’s room to confirm. There haven’t been any reports, and not even any rumors. Whoever the Guardian is trusting with the information about the trials has it carefully locked down.”
Rorax’s fingers brushed over his ribbon. It was red, white, and black, the colors of his house swirling together. She wanted to wear it. It was her favorite ribbon, but she didn’t want Ayres to know that. It felt too . . . intimate. Instead, she plucked a long, plain black ribbon from the box.
“Does Lamonte know anything?” she asked, walking out of her closet, and tying up her hair in a ponytail on the top of her head. Rorax took one look at Ayres on her bed and had to prop herself on the doorframe to keep her dignity intact.
Ayres was stretched out, his boot covered ankles crossed as they dangled off the end of her bed. His biceps were bunched up by his ears, and his huge fingers were weaved together behind his head. Rorax eyed the muscles, and the incredibly detailed tattoos over his biceps.
Ayres, the largest, most savagely dangerous man she had ever met, was sprawled out on her bed like he owned it. Like he belonged there. He looked so damned beautiful doing it she had to cross her arms over her chest to hide her nipples. She didn’t trust her knees to support her weight across the room, so she stayed where she was.
Rorax could picture him sprawled out every day on their bed, watching her with those hungry eyes as she got ready to sleep while preparing himself for his overnight guard duty, or getting ready for bed himself. They had fucked last night, and it was something she wanted more of. He was something she wanted more of.
A flicker of regret brushed through her. If she won the Choosing, it was likely he wouldn”t stay with her. He would probably go home to Morvarand. But if she lost . . . she would be dead, and he would eventually find himself sprawled out on another woman’s bed just like this.
The thought made her irrationally irritable.
Ayres had been staring at Rorax’s ceiling with a pensive look on his face, but his eyes flicked to her, and he caught her scowling. “What?”
She forced a half-assed smile on her face and shrugged her shoulders. “Nothing, you just look . . . comfy. It’s cute.”
“Cute,” Ayres drawled, rolling his eyes. “I am cute, Ror. More than cute.”
He was. So much more.
Ayres gave her a smug, knowing grin before jerking his chin to her bedside table where her orange roll was waiting for her. “I brought that for you, Ror.”
“Oh! I forgot,” she exclaimed, jumping over, and snatching it up, then holding it like a precious object in both palms. “Thank you.”
Ayres just nodded and watched her as she slinked into the bathroom to eat her roll, so she didn’t have to share it. Once she was done and had licked the last of the frosting off her fingers, she brushed her teeth and was just combing the last tangles out of her still-wet hair when she heard the bed creak from the other room.
Ayres stalked into the bathroom, and she looked up at him as he appeared in the mirror behind her.
He got close enough that she could feel the heat at her back and smell his scent. Balsam and sandalwood.
“The toilet is over there,” she breathed, pointing to a door over her shoulder with her brush. “If that’s what you’re looking for.”
Ayres didn’t move a muscle and mischief glittered in his eyes. He slid his muscular, tattooed forearms and hands on either side of her to rest them on the white granite counter, caging her in.
“Are you going to tell me what all that in the arena was about today?” He reached up and brushed the wet hair off her shoulder.
Rorax turned and glowered up at him, not realizing her mistake until she saw that those perfect lips were less than a foot away from her own.
Stop stop stop. Get it together. Get your shit together, Greywood,she thought.
Rorax licked her lips, using everything in her to keep her glower steady. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
A muscle in his jaw jumped as he watched her tongue slide over her top lip. Silver began to swirl in his eyes, and it made her heart thump in her chest.
“The prince told me you were up there watching me for nearly the full hour.”
Gods, he sounded so smug.
Her smirk immediately dropped into a frown. “That snitch.”
Ayres tipped his head back and laughed. A loud, booming laugh that made her very soul arch in pleasure.
“You were both training without a shirt on, and the prince is hot.” She smirked at him and leaned back on her palms.
The laughter fell off that handsome face like a rock in water, and a splinter of red broke through the dark color of his irises.
She had to bite her lip to keep from grinning. Jealousy looked good on Ayres.
Ayres hummed, studying her face for a beat before leaning his head down to hers. He nipped her ear and dragged his teeth along the sensitive skin of her lobe slowly.
He whispered as his left hand slid up her side, so it was even with her breasts. “I can feel whenever your eyes are on me, Ror. They are like a brand. Hot . . .” He used his fingers to pull down the straps of her nightgown, leaving her nearly topless. Ayres’s eyes burned as he swiped a thumb across her nipple. “Heavy . . .” Ayres continued to whisper. She tried to arch into him, her heart like a drum in her chest, and her breasts heavy and tingling with need. Gods above, she had never wanted anything more than she wanted this man. He cupped both of her breasts in his hands and squeezed gently until she moaned. “Claiming.”
She felt the stubble of his beard move against her cheek as he started to slowly step back, but her body screamed in protest.
She jolted forward, gripped his hair, and jerked his face down to hers. He was so close she could feel his breath tickle her lips and her stomach coil in excitement. He was right there and on the brink of losing control, his eyes silver with red fractures.
“Are you going to kiss me?” he asked, the corner of his mouth tipping up in a shit-eating grin.
“No.” She was sitting, almost fully exposed on her bathroom countertop, lying through her teeth.
“Why not?” He leaned down and bit her ear again softly.
She whimpered, moving her neck to give him more access to her. “Ayres.”
He growled at the sound and in a split second he lifted her off the counter, twisting his fingers in her hair tightly. “Not an answer.”
She hesitated, knowing exactly why she shouldn’t kiss him. They had agreed to be platonic about this, agreed to be physical to help her through her influxes, but now she wanted it more, wanted him inside her again. He had broken their agreement last night, had kissed her with so much force she had been surprised her lips hadn’t been bruised this morning. She didn’t know how he felt about it, but it wasn’t her job to figure out his feelings.
She had only felt this kind of want for one other man and he wasn’t here.
So, when Ayres kissed her again, she kissed him back. Roughly.
One of his hands gripped her hair while the other slid down her back to her hips and jerked her an inch forward. She wrapped her legs around his waist and clamped his hips to hers. He moaned in her mouth as his tongue touched hers once before claiming her mouth.
Dear gods this man knew how to kiss. She was so hot. Too hot. Sparks of pleasure skittered through her blood, accumulating in her core, soaking her panties.
One of her hands gripped his shoulder as the other waded through the short silky strands of hair. His hair wasn”t long enough to grip, so she softly scraped her nails against his scalp.
He must have liked that because he pulled her hair, and her lips parted from his and her head tipped back. He trailed slow kisses from her ear lobe, down the side of her jaw, to her throat. He slid his hand from her hair down her hip, across the bare skin on her thigh, and cupped the back of her calf, almost engulfing it completely.
Then there was a knock at the door.
No! Rorax screamed inwardly as Ayres returned to her mouth hungrily. Her lips opened under his as the knock sounded again. Then again.
Ayres broke the kiss off, his breathing haggard as he growled under his breath.
“Don’t fucking move,” he ordered, reaching into his pants to adjust himself before moving to the door.
Rorax couldn’t hear what was said over her panting, just the low rumble of Ayres’s voice.
He stalked back into her bathroom, planting his hands back on either side of her on the counter. “There”s been some news. The fourth trial has been postponed.”
She blinked at him, willing her brain to move faster. “Why?”
“Same reason as last time. Ice is moving more troops through Nyson’s Gap, and they need the transfer dragons again.” Ayres looked down at her body with hungry eyes before shaking his head and standing up straight. “Kiniera also summoned us both to her room. The messenger said it’s important.”
Rorax groaned as Ayres stepped back to give her space. “She wants both of us?”
Ayres nodded as he pulled his shirt back over his head. “Her assistant didn’t seem that surprised to see me in here.”
Rorax shook her head as she adjusted her bra and pushed herself off the counter. “Kiniera knows everything.”
She padded through her room to her closet and changed into her fighting leathers. Just in case.
Kiniera, who always looked tired and exhausted, looked absolutely wrecked as she ushered Rorax, Jia, Ayres, and Milla into her room. The walls were covered in ice, but the floors and the table had been cleared for them.
Kiniera looked thinner than the last time Rorax had seen her, and the ever-present dark circles under her eyes were unusually prominent under her skin. Rorax was surprised she hadn’t collapsed under the weight of her power.
“I received news from both the current leader of the Unit Two Heilstorms and from my source stationed in Lyondrea,” Kiniera said once everyone was situated around her table. “The House of Ice has officially obtained information that confirms Lyondrea is not just trying to open one Pit, but four total. Three on Lyondrean soil, and the other on Pit Island. We were also able to get a pair of eyes on the first, and we’ve confirmed that it had been opened.”
Rorax’s jaw dropped. She had to repeat Kiniera’s words over to herself three times before they made sense. “The Pits . . . You found them. For certain?” Rorax asked, and her old mentor nodded.
“We found them, and Raengar is currently in possession of undeniable evidence.”
Everyone sat in stunned silence for a moment before Milla jumped to her feet. “We need to send maps to our Queen, and to the King of Fire.”
Kiniera made a placating gesture to her fellow emissary. “I’ve already sent Blood Hawks with copies to the capital cities of Weather, Fire, Death, Light, and Fauna. The only Realms we could confirm are not under the influence of the House of Alloy.”
Only six. Only six houses remained unpolluted and untouched from King M??r.
So few.
Rorax eyed the tension in Kiniera’s shoulders. That wasn’t the end of Kiniera’s news. “What else did you find?”
“One of the Pits is already functional. That’s the one we were able to get eyes on. There’s a rumor the second and third are only weeks from being activated.” Kiniera slid her eyes to Rorax. “Scouts from Azaele’s Island have reported movement from Pit Island. Lyondrea apparently sent a ship full of men who tried to activate it again.”
Rorax’s whole body turned to ice.
“Fuck,” Ayres hissed from next to Rorax.
“House of Ice is sending men to help fortify House of Death’s front lines and help contain what is leaking out of the only active Pit. But we are now no longer able to send the large contingent originally negotiated with the Death Queen. If the island is activated and we lose control of the Elus River . . .”
Kiniera didn”t have to finish the sentence. If the House of Ice lost control of the opening of the river, the twelve Realms would fall. The River of Elu, one of the only safe methods of drinking water and transport, was under the protection and jurisdiction of Ice. It was an unnatural river, controlled and filtered in through the sea and pushed out through the continent by magick.
“And who exactly are you sending to aid us?” Milla asked from the head of the table, her lips pressed tightly together.
“In addition to our King fighting on the border for your people, we are sending the Frost Dragons and six companies of men.” Both Rorax and Jia stiffened, and made worried eye contact across the table as Kiniera continued. “That’s why the trial has been postponed for a week. We need to move those men across the river uninterrupted. The House of Death desperately needs them.”
Ayres rubbed a hand over his head. “We need to get this bloody Choosing over with. We should be over there trying to help them close the Pit.”
Milla nodded. “They can’t be allowed to open the second or third Pit or we’re fucked.”
“Successfully opening the pit on the island would be equally catastrophic. Since the end of the Island Rebellion, we have not had any soldiers stationed on Azaele’s Islands.” Kiniera continued, “All of the House of Ice fortresses have been reclaimed by civilians or the sea. We are utterly unprepared for a large-scale conflict there. And there are no guarantees that the Kingdoms of Wymeria and Umber would not press their advantage if the House of Ice was fighting a war on two fronts already. We might be able to handle three fronts, but the House of Ice will fall if they are faced with a war on four fronts.”
Ayres cursed under his breath and scrubbed his hands over his face.
“As soon as Enna becomes the Guardian, we will head out to the pit and see what we can learn,” Rorax said. “The fact that we even know where the first one is, it’s progress.”
Kiniera nodded slowly and stood up. “Go to bed. Tomorrow we can reconvene to go over the details then.”