Chapter 29 Dressed for War #2
I dragged my gaze away, scanning the clearing. Anything to keep from drowning in the memory of his weight pressing me into the earth.
Kairos leaned a shoulder against the mairen. “Mount up.”
I grabbed onto the saddle, hesitating. The beast was massive, and I was still unsteady.
“Put your foot here.” Kairos offered his hand, palm up.
I placed my boot in his palm, and he lifted me. I swung my leg over the mairen and settled in, grinning. I’d dreamed of this as a child—watching fae ride past while I hid in alleyways.
Kairos swung up behind me.
Oh gods. The saddle was not built for two. His chest pressed against my back, his thighs bracketing mine, and this was very intimate. His body was everywhere—hard muscle and heat and the lingering ghost of his mouth on my throat.
I didn't think it would feel like this—like falling and never hitting the ground.
I clutched the saddle horn, desperate for something to hold that wasn't him.
It really didn't help that Kairos smelled incredible.
Pine and steel and florals, filling my lungs every time I inhaled.
Then his arm slid across my waist, and I forgot how to breathe.
“Relax,” he muttered.
How could I relax? His arm looped my waist, just like it did in the forest. Damn it, this was too much. I could feel him breathing. We’d be like this for hours, smashed against each other. Whenever he moved, it set off sensations, and I had to bite my lip to keep from shuddering.
His arm tightened. “Hold on.”
The mairen surged forward.
I gasped as we shot down the trail, trees blurring into streaks of green. Wind tore through my braid as we raced through the woods. Too fast.
The mairen didn’t gallop—it glided. We took a sharp turn and I jolted sideways. Kairos yanked me against him.
Branches thinned, and then we burst from the forest. Sunlight spilled in golden sheets across a meadow.
I dug my nails into his forearm. “This is fast.”
“Fast travel between realms isn’t easy. You either need a portal or mairen.”
The heat of him made it worse. Or better. I wasn’t sure. I could feel his heartbeat against my spine. Or maybe that was mine—I couldn't tell anymore. Everything was pounding.
I turned to look at him, our mouths inches apart. “Where are we going, again?”
“Dr?thmar. It sits where the coast of Sanguir meets Skaldir waters. Neutral ground.”
“The Thalir control it?”
“Yes. It was a human port city once, centuries ago. Built on trade between the realms. Then the Thalir decided it belonged to them. They flooded the streets and dragged the ruins to the bottom of the sea.”
“That’s horrible.”
“They needed a foothold between the northern and southern territories. The humans who survived were given a choice—serve the depths or drown.”
“And now they host summits.” I shook my head. “Nothing says ‘let’s make peace’ quite like meeting in a mass grave.”
He grunted.
His hand shifted on my waist like he was adjusting his grip. Then his fingers flexed and he pulled back, leaving only the minimum contact necessary to keep me from falling.
It felt like a rejection. He’d been so cold all day. Was he pulling back because he didn’t trust me? My stomach knotted with another unpleasant twist.
“How many rulers will there be?”
“Skaldir, of course. Vaeris.” His body tensed.
I’d see him again after he’d let me die, and I’d be sitting beside Kairos. Touching him. Pretending to be his. Would Vaeris care? Did I want him to? I didn’t know anymore.
“The ruling house of Lunir will attend,” Kairos continued, “and the Skyborn as well.”
“So that makes four?”
“Five, including the Thalir.”
Every shift of the horse rocked me against him. An awkward silence stretched, filled only by the mairen’s rhythmic movement.
“Measures are in place to prevent violence at the summit,” he said in a low voice. “There’s a rune that prohibits anyone from attacking another, and they’re linked across the rooms. I’ll offer blood at the threshold, and the moment we step through, the binding takes hold.”
A rune that forced peace. Gods, I wanted to see it. My fingers itched with the need to study that kind of runework.
“Don’t get complacent,” he warned. “Some of us have been feuding since before humans crawled out of caves. Betrayals, broken bargains, slights…none of it is forgotten.”
“I’m about to walk into a palace of rulers who want to kill each other?”
“The others want peace.” His mouth curved darkly. “I’m the violent bastard who spent a century with a blade in my hand instead of sitting at negotiation tables. I don’t have the patience for their politics.”
I shifted, and pain lanced through me. The dark veins had spread past my ribs this morning. Whatever was going on with this damned rune, I was running out of time.
“You okay?” he asked quietly.
“Fine. Just nervous.”
His chest rumbled with a deep sound. “Once we arrive, you’ll be sharing my chambers.”
I froze. “What?”
“It’s expected. Nobody brings a war prize and sticks her in another room.”
My heart jolted.
Sharing a room. With him. After I’d straddled him and kissed him like I was starving. This was a terrible idea.
“What about the bed?” I blurted.
His lips brushed my ear. “What about it?”
“There’s only one, right?”
“Yes. Can you handle that?”
Heat flooded through me. “As long as you remember this is an act.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t.”
His chilled voice cut to the bone, but his hand stayed pressed against my stomach, over where my rune burned.