Chapter 67
Belle
I tore my gaze from my shattered reflection in the mirror and looked up at the king. “I thought you said I could see my sister.”
His jaw tensed, but he nodded. “Show me Ella, Queen of the Bloodvale.”
Dark clouds spread across the mirror, and a new image began to form, a silhouette in silver mist that slowly took shape. My little sister.
She was mounted on horseback, riding through the woods with Cassius at her side, bathed in moonlight. She held her chin high and her silver hair streamed behind her. The leaves and branches shifted as she passed, bending with subtle grace.
This was what a real queen looked like. The reflection I’d seen in the mirror was nothing more than an illusion.
What were they doing out riding so late? Hunting the beasts? Renewing Ella’s enchantments over the trees?
King Cassius spoke, and my sister laughed. We couldn’t hear them through the mirror, but I knew the sound. It was the most beautiful sound in the world.
I glanced at Valen.
The king was as spellbound as I was. He watched Cassius like a soldier who’d forgotten how to lay down his sword, too beaten and hollow to be jealous of the peace he would never know.
The corner of his mouth turned up as his brother laughed.
Not a smile, but perhaps the memory of one.
“They seem happy together, don’t they?” His voice was reverent, barely a whisper.
I went still. I finally had the answer I so desperately needed.
Valen cared fiercely for his brother. He would never harm Cassius or Ella, despite what it would cost him. He would keep his word.
I let my hand brush lightly against his. “They do.”
Valen looked down in surprise as our fingers entwined, and I smiled up at him. For a moment, that was all there was between us—then his expression hardened. “Sirael, conceal yourself.”
Magic flowed over my skin as the mirror rippled and vanished into the bare stone wall.
My heart lurched with yearning as my sister disappeared. “Why did you do that?”
“Because there’s a chance that Locke is right, and I can’t bear the thought of the demon watching you.” He turned me to face him, his gaze possessive and wanting as he cupped my cheek. “You’re for my eyes alone.”
Trails of warmth spread beneath his touch, more powerful than any magic, and the tiny hairs on the back of my neck rose.
“From the moment I stepped into this castle, it’s felt like someone has been watching me,” I said, searching his eyes. “Was it you?”
I’d meant it as an accusation, but somehow, the words didn’t come out that way.
The king didn’t respond, but he didn’t have to. I’d come to know the sensation of his gaze. It had been his eyes following me relentlessly—in my bedroom, the library, as Locke and I trained.
“I seldom dared to use the mirror until I met you,” Valen admitted. “Then, I couldn’t bring myself to stop.”
My mind raced, trying to recall every moment I’d felt those unseen eyes on me, that ghost of a breeze caressing my skin. I pulled his hand from my cheek. “Was I so much of a threat that I needed constant surveillance?”
“You were a riddle I couldn’t solve.” He traced my jawline with his thumb, his voice a low murmur, like a rumble deep beneath the stones of the castle. “Then you became an obsession.”
I wanted to feel violated, to feel furious. Instead, my pulse raced. Obsession. It shouldn’t warm me, but the fire in his gaze flushed my skin and left a hollow ache deep inside me.
His lips grazed the shell of my ear. “I love how unguarded you are when you think no one is watching.”
I closed my eyes, relishing the way his touch sent fluttering tremors through me. “But you were watching.”
His hand slipped around my waist, while the other tilted my chin to his. I opened my eyes, meeting his honeyed eyes.
“Does it send a thrill through you?” he asked, his voice gravel and lace. “To think of me watching you like a possession, of not being able to stop.”
The thought made a treacherous ache bloom low in my belly, but I couldn’t tell him that. It was a betrayal of everything I should be.
The corners of his lips pulled into a knowing grin.
“I think it does.” He moved his hand down the length of my throat, his gaze following the motion as his thumb brushed over the pulsing vein under my chin.
“Maybe you’re the one hiding behind a mask, pretending that there’s no pull between us—but you can’t fool me. ”
The breath slipped from my lungs, and my lips parted. “You know nothing.”
“I can hear the way your heart stirs when I’m near, scent the way your body responds to my touch.” He lowered his mouth to mine and snatched my lower lip between his teeth, sucking it gently before releasing it. “I can taste your heat,” he rumbled low.
Need threaded through me, and my legs grew weak. How long could I go on fighting this? He read me like an open book, and a desperate part of me wanted him to open me up and skip to the last page.
“Stop lying to yourself, princess.” His teeth grazed the shell of my ear. “Tell me the truth—do you like it when I call you mine?”
“Gods, yes,” I whimpered, unable or perhaps unwilling to resist him any longer. Never in my life had I wanted a man to own me, and yet for some reason with this male, I wanted him to brand every inch of me with his mouth.
He grinned, his eyes now molten honey. “Good. Now tell me, what should I do with you?”
Lay me bare. Worship me with his fingers. Make me cry out with pleasure like I’ve never known.
“Kiss me,” I said instead.
He lifted one brow as if he’d read my treacherous thoughts. “That’s not all you want.”
“It’s all I can have.”
I couldn’t let myself fall too far. Not yet. Not until he proved himself the man I believed him to be.
“A pity,” Valen said, brushing his lips against mine.
“It doesn’t have to be.” I wound my arms around his neck and leaned up on my tiptoes to meet his mouth. He kissed me slowly, his lips rolling against mine, tongue teasing, hinting at the pleasure I could have if only I gave in.
I twisted my fingers through his thick hair, deepening the kiss and letting him explore me deeply. He groaned and pulled me closer, his desire evident against my belly, reminding me of what I was missing. My center ached for his touch, and I moved against him.
He released a low growl that sent a shiver over my skin.
Hold firm. I’d find my pleasure later in the privacy of my own bed with the memory of him on my tongue. Liquid warmth pooled low in my belly at the thought of Valen watching me, knowing it was his image, his ghost that was drawing out my pleasure.
I moaned and leaned into him, my hips arching against him at the wicked image in my mind.
Valen’s hand slipped down my backside, fingers splayed as he pulled me closer, chasing the pleasure I so desperately wanted. “A penny for your thoughts, princess.”
“Never.” I smiled against his lips. “I don’t give up my secrets as easily as you do.”
“Infuriating woman,” he growled and kissed me again, this time more intimately, more demanding as his hand drifted up my ribs.
I relished the way his body wrapped around me, possessive and yet under my command.
The thought was dizzying—the dragon king under my power, willing to fulfill my deepest desires.
My nipples pressed into my bodice, aching for his touch, demanding his mouth.
But instead of teasing them, of giving me what I so desperately desired, he dropped his hand back to my waist and pulled his lips from mine.
“Why did you stop?” I asked breathlessly.
“You should know by now that there are consequences to keeping secrets from me.” I opened my mouth to protest, but he silenced it with a final kiss, then backed away.
“The truth is that the hour grows late. I need to meet Sarkis at dawn. As much as it pains me to leave you—” His sultry gaze dropped to my mouth, and the muscles in his jaw tightened, a tell of the struggle he was hiding. “—I must.”
The cold filled his absence. I didn’t want him to leave. I wanted him to stay, to do more, even as prudence warned me not to go further with this male.
I brushed my skirts flat, trying my best to gather myself. “I should go with you. If the general tries anything, I could tear him to pieces with a storm of golden coins.”
A dark smile curled across his lips. “You have a violent streak, you know?”
I shrugged, a grin threatening to play. “Some people bring out the worst in me.”
“As much as I’d love to see Sarkis ripped apart by his own payment, it’s out of the question. The general is obsessed with you as it is. One look, and he’d demand you over the mirror or a thousand chests of gold. Any man would.”
A cold tremor worked through me at the thought of Sarkis’s revolting interest in me.
And yet Valen’s obsession gave me a thrill. How did that make any sense?
“I don’t like the idea of you facing him and his men alone,” I said, unable to shake the unease growing within me. “If you’re ready to kill him and take back the mirror, then I’m certain he’ll turn on you just as quickly.”
His eyes flashed pure gold, then faded away. A reminder of what lay beneath. “He can try.”
Valen started to turn away, but I intercepted him. “Be careful.”
He opened the door to his chambers, a hand extended outward in dismissal. “I’ll take Locke. The general is a greedy bastard, but no fool. He won’t risk taking us both on.”
I prayed to the Fates that he was right, because if Sarkis saw an opening in Valen’s armor, I had no doubt he’d take it.