Chapter Twenty-Six Lor
Istare up at Nadir, the warmth of my declaration spreading through my limbs. The look on his face makes my heart melt out of my pores. I know it’s true. I love him.
I want to say it happened in a blinding flash, like some great awakening, because I fought so hard against it. But it didn’t. It was there all along, happening with each touch and look and word, stacking and forming themselves together until I had no choice but to acknowledge what was there.
“Zerra, you really made me work for that,” he says, but he’s grinning from ear to ear, and I can’t help but laugh as he leans down and gives me a deep kiss that fills the dark space behind my heart with liquid drops of sunshine.
“I’ve known it for a while,” I say. “Though I’ve been too scared to admit it. It’s been so hard to get past everything you once represented to me, but I know that’s not who you are. And I understand you were never trying to claim me in a way I didn’t want.”
He revealed his hand, and now it’s my turn to lay it out, but this no longer feels like I’m stumbling through silver fog, trying to reach for safety. Along with my growing but complicated feelings, I’ve come to trust him with everything. My heart. My soul. And now my future.
His face softens, and he rolls off me, tucking me into his side. “I understand that. I’m sorry for everything he did. For every moment of hurt he caused you.”
I shake my head and touch his face. “I don’t want this to come between us anymore. I should never have been so hard on you. None of it was your fault. I was just so angry.”
His eyes darken, and he pulls me tighter. “What if he’d killed you, and I never got the chance to meet you? If Atlas hadn’t stolen you, who knows what would have happened? Maybe I should be thanking him.”
I smile at the echo of the same thought I’ve had before. “I’d probably still be there, wasting away.”
Nadir shakes his head. “No. I don’t actually think so. Fate meant for all of this to happen. I’m sure of it. It felt like destiny the first time I laid eyes on you in Aphelion. I just knew something had changed.”
“I did, too,” I say. “When Gabriel told me your name and that it was your ring I had to ‘borrow’ for the challenge, there was this moment when everything just… shifted.”
He smiles and tucks a lock of hair behind my ear before he bends his head and nuzzles my neck.
“So, what does this mate thing actually mean?” I ask, and he blows out a breath.
“Honestly, I’m not entirely sure. I know it means we’re connected, of course, but I’m not sure what else it means. Like for the long term.”
“It means it’s you and me,” I say, touching his chest, and he clasps my hand against it.
“Yeah. It does. You aren’t going to freak out about that, are you?” He smirks as he tips his head.
I slap him playfully on the arm. “Okay, I deserved that.”
He laughs warmly, and I just stare at him, wondering how we got here.
“Why are you looking at me like that now?” he asks. “What did I do?”
“Nothing. I’ve just never seen you like this.”
“Like what?”
I shrug and then consider my response for a second. “Happy?”
But that has the opposite effect I intend, because the smile drops off his face, replaced by that fierce expression that gives rise to some violent part of my soul. I love that look and the way it feels like I am the sum of his every desire.
I don’t know how, but somehow, he draws me in even tighter.
“Lor. I’ve spent my life on the edge of happiness. I’ve had happy moments, and I have happy memories, but everything was tainted by my father and the pain he caused my mother. By everything that happened in the war and everything that’s happened since. But I can say with the most undeniable certainty that the moment when you said you loved me was the first time I’ve ever known what it’s like to be free.”
He stops talking, his intense gaze burning through the layers of my very soul.
“Oh,” I whisper, because that’s a lot, and I feel the same way, but it sounds trite to echo his words. I need words of my own, but everything feels inadequate, and they won’t come over the knot swelling in my throat.
“Fuck,” I blurt out, like the articulate troll I am. “You are really, really good at this.”
His grin returns, and then he rolls back on top of me. “I’m glad you think so, because I plan to tell you the same thing every day of our lives, Lor.”
I hold his face between my hands. “This is it then. You and me?”
“If you’ll have me.”
“Rhiannon said that we have to bond, or eventually we’ll waste away and die.”
“I’m ready whenever you are,” he says.
“She said there was something special we’d need to do because we’re both Primaries.”
“Then we’ll do whatever we need.” He brushes my cheek with his thumb. “Don’t worry, Lor. Nothing is going to come between us anymore.”
“We probably need my magic back first.”
He dips his chin. “I saw it. Just now. It was coming to the surface. Did that change anything?”
I shake my head. “I felt it, but it’s still locked in there.”
His eyes darken with a wicked spark. “Then maybe lots and lots of sex is the answer.”
I laugh. “Do you suppose that, too, is what fate has in store for us?”
But he’s not really listening anymore, because his mouth is against my throat, sucking the skin.
“Oh, are we done talking?”
“Keep talking,” he breathes. “I’m listening. I’ll just…”
He slides a hand between us, a finger pressing against my clit, and my hips arch.
“… be right here.”
“Mmm,” I moan as his finger slides into where I’m already wet. Or still wet? It doesn’t matter. All I know is my body craves him with a ferocity that would destroy worlds.
“Wait,” I say, and he pulls up. “That night in The Aurora when your father figured out who I was. You promised me something very specific, and yet you’ve failed to demonstrate what toe-curling things your magic can supposedly do.” The smile on his face is growing as I speak. I tip my head and raise an eyebrow. “Or was that all talk, oh Prince of The Aurora?”
He lets out a growl and sits back on his knees. He’s absolutely beautiful. All warm brown skin and taut muscle painted with the colorful images of his magic, his hair wild and loose. His generous cock sits erect and waiting, and I stare at it and then at him, licking my lips, remembering the last time I had it in my mouth, when I wouldn’t let him touch me.
He lets out a low rumble as if he’s reading my mind.
“Don’t lose that thought,” he orders, and I laugh. “But first, I’m going to show how much that wasn’t talk.”
I lift up onto my elbows and pin him with a challenging look. “Put your money where your magic is, Your Highness.”
The title slips out, feeling so right this time. I remember when I swore to him I’d die before I called him that. He must remember, too, because something curls in his expression, his entire demeanor arching into the shape of a ravenous predator who’s been denied his quarry for far too long.
A moment later, multihued ribbons of glowing light peel off him and circle in the air, twisting around my arms and my legs in mesmerizing spirals of color.
When he tied me up in his bedroom, they had felt like nothing against my skin. When he’d used them to go inside me to unlock my magic, they’d been only gentle touches, no more forceful than a spring breeze. But they’re entirely different right now. They feel just like his hands—warm and soft and insistent.
I lie back, luxuriating in the sensation like a cat who’s found a sunbeam. Inexplicably, the space overhead begins to fill with lightning bugs, just like those I spied in the ballroom. They filter in through an open window and circle around us, bouncing happily.
“Where did they come from?” I ask as Nadir watches them with a crooked smile. “I think they like your magic.”
We both watch as the lightning bugs zig and zag, waltzing with his ribbons of color.
“You are so beautiful,” he says, pulling my attention to him. “I could sit here all day and stare at you.”
“Fine, but could you get on with it while you stare? I’m dying here.”
His eyes go dark at that. “Was that an order?”
“So what if it was?”
He waves a hand, and more magic spirals out, wrapping around my torso and my waist before thin tendrils cuff each of my wrists, binding them together. My magic slips through my limbs, swirling and twisting, but I don’t know if this is what it needs to truly break free.
Nadir raises my hands over my head and then secures them to the bed so I’m helplessly restrained under him.
“You’re going to pay for that.”
I tug on the restraints, pretending to be put out but definitely intrigued by what comes next.
His magic continues swirling around me, and his gaze is acute as a ribbon of magic glides down the center of my body, dragging like a fingertip. The violet light is warm as it travels lower, spreading heat through my limbs and my stomach before it passes my navel and then pauses at the very apex of my thighs, so close yet so far from where I want to be touched. Need to be touched.
“Still think I’m all talk?” he asks with an evil smile.
“I’m not sure. You really haven’t done anything yet,” I say, completely breathless, as the magic tightens in a way that rolls through my entire body. I gasp as he lets out a dark chuckle, and then slowly, that teasing ribbon slides down further between my legs and into the heat of my wet aching center.
I moan as Nadir spreads my legs wider and sinks down on his elbows so his face is poised close enough that I can feel his warm breath along with the tantalizing touch of his magic. I want to reach for him, but I’m still trapped, and that helpless feeling shreds the threadbare control I’m keeping on my nerves.
He continues touching me—or rather his magic does, dancing along my clit—and then there’s an electric spark, and I cry out as my whole body attempts to fold in on itself.
“Still all talk?” he asks again, and this time I shake my head as he sends out another spark, lighting me up like a bloody chandelier.
“Oh gods, no,” I say, not sure what I’m saying no to. Every sensation is so extreme I can barely stand it, but I also don’t want him to stop. Magic touches me everywhere, tiny shocks peppering my breasts and nipples and stomach, and there, right there, his magic slips inside me, finding my hollow place slick with need. It feels almost like his fingers, only slightly different. Smoother and less dense but just as present. My entire body is writhing, and I tug on my restraints because I can barely handle all these conflicting tingles.
“Nadir,” I gasp and moan over and over as my hips move and buck. He sends out another spark, and that’s when I snap, my orgasm tearing through me with such force that I scream. Wow, that has never happened before.
Then he’s on me, his mouth crashing into mine as the magic around us shifts, and he releases my hands right before he flips me onto my stomach and then presses his chest against my back. I feel the wide head of his cock at my entrance, and I lift my hips and push my butt back.
“Please,” I beg.
“What do you say?” he asks with a dark laugh, and I know what he wants.
“It wasn’t all talk. It was definitely not just talk,” I whimper as he hitches his arm around my waist and thrusts into me.
“Fuck,” he moans. “Lor, I’m never ever going to get enough of you. This is the most fucking perfect feeling.”
And then he’s moving, pounding into me as I grip the bedsheets while he drops long, wet kisses on my shoulders and my back and my neck. The bed creaks under the force of his thrusts, and his magic returns, circling around my limbs and then sliding under me until it finds my clit, sending out more of those little sparks until I come apart again with a rough moan.
Nadir picks up his pace, his movements turning frantic. He lets out a low grunt, and then I feel the shudder that ripples over him as he spills into me, and we collapse into a warm heap of tangled limbs.
After we’re done, we lie there for several minutes, holding each other.
“You okay, Lightning Bug?” he asks, and I nod.
“Definitely,” I answer with a smile that he returns, one that brightens up every shadowed corner of his face. He tucks me close, his big body wrapping around mine as his hand traces gentle circles on my skin.
“Lightning Bug?” I query.
He shrugs. “Seemed like it was time for a new name, and this felt… appropriate.” He holds up my hand, lacing his fingers with mine. “Heart Queen with the wicked red lightning.”
I look up, watching the tiny creatures who continue to hover around us like our own personal sky filled with a galaxy of golden stars.
“I love it,” I say, a crest of emotion swelling in my chest.
In this moment, everything feels right.
We bask in the lazy perfection of our afterglow, my eyelids growing heavy. I want to sleep, but I also don’t want to miss one solitary second of this chance to be next to him. We might not get much time. If I ever unlock my Fae form, we should have centuries, but nothing right now is certain.
As I continue to fight the pull of sleep, a vivid memory comes hurtling towards me.
The conversation I had with the Torch in the Aurora Keep throne room when I asked it about Nadir.
The prince wants something from you, but it is not your power.
I think about my grandparents.
Two Primaries who tried to bond and tore apart the world.
But… that way lies only heartbreak, Your Majesty.
That way lies only ruin.