Chapter 48 Kneeling Kings
KNEELING KINGS
He closed the door behind us, and I yanked my wrist free and moved toward the window.
“Sit down,” he barked.
“I’m fine standing.”
“Aelie.”
I whirled on him. “You can’t order me around.”
“Sit,” he said softly, “or I’ll make you.”
I sat on his bed.
Kairos knelt and reached for my hands, peeling off my gloves. The leather had fused to my skin in places, and I hissed as blood welled along the creases of my palms.
He let out a growl. “I can’t watch you do this to yourself.”
“Then don’t watch.”
His grip eased, but he didn’t let go. “I can’t.”
That landed heavier than anything he’d barked at me.
“You welcome pain like it’s a language you’re fluent in,” he murmured. “But every time you’re hurt, it feels like I’m the one being cut open.”
My chest ached.
“If you never broke another rune again, that would be fine with me.”
“I don’t break runes because I want to be hurt,” I whispered. “I do it because sometimes it’s the only way to help people.”
He healed my cuts with a sweep of his thumb, then his giant hand engulfed mine.
“Why do you care about them?”
I didn't have an answer that wouldn't expose me.
“You're only here because I forced you.” His jaw tightened. “I dragged you to this realm.”
“That’s not why I’m still here.”
His touch slid from my wrist to my thigh. “Why then?”
My heart banged like a drum, the scent of him mingling with the rain clinging to his skin. One honest answer and I’d be falling off a cliff I couldn’t climb up.
I hesitated. “It hurts when I pull away from you.”
His face shattered. He was on me before I inhaled, kissing me like I was sustenance.
I gasped as his lips crushed me over and over.
He smothered the noises I made, even the pathetic, small moans.
I clutched his collar and met him, stroke for stroke.
Then I gripped his shirt, pulling him closer, and he climbed over me.
We tumbled onto the bed. His weight settled over me, one hand bracing beside my head, the other sliding into my hair.
My legs wrapped around him and he groaned into my mouth. The kiss deepened into lust as he sucked and licked at me like I was honey. I was on fire. His mouth kissed down my throat, my collarbone, lower.
My pulse hammered violently in my throat, my wrists, between my thighs. Kairos slowly ran his fingers up my legs, and goosebumps erupted in the wake of his touch.
“What are you doing?” I whispered.
His rough hands glided up my calves, pushing my dress up. Then his mouth brushed my knee and all my thoughts dissolved.
“I’ve thought about doing this.” He kissed me, his breath scorching my thigh. “Every night since I met you. Wondering what sounds you’d make. Whether you’d say my name or just scream.”
My head fell against the mattress, and a tremor rolled through me. Oh gods, was he really going to do this? His teeth grazed my skin, and I whimpered.
Heat rushed up my neck and bloomed across my cheeks. My thighs tensed, caught between clenching and opening. He planted another kiss to the inside of my leg—hot, open-mouthed—and the drag of his tongue made me want to scream.
He slid his hands higher, grazing the crease where thigh met hip. The lightest pressure, and my whole body seized.
My breathing fractured. “Kairos.”
He chuckled. “Already shaking, and I’ve barely started.”
His thumbs stroked higher and heat gathered in a wet ache between my legs. I bit my lip hard. My knees pressed inward, but he nudged them apart.
“Don’t hide from me.”
He kissed, dangerously close. A strangled cry tore from my throat. Every brush of his lips sent sparks racing through me—only a thin barrier of fabric separated his mouth from where I ached for him. Slowly, he removed my smallclothes, and then he put his mouth on me.
A jolt tore through me, and my hands fisted the sheets. His groan vibrated against my slick pussy before his tongue dragged through my wetness in one long stroke.
My hips surged forward, desperate to grind against him, but mist coiled tight around my ankles and pinned me.
“Kairos.”
He sealed his mouth over my clit and sucked. The sound that ripped from my throat wasn’t human. My fists clenched, pulling uselessly as my thighs shook against my restraints.
He worked me with slow strokes, then sharp, filthy flicks. When I tried to clamp my legs shut, the mist wrenched them wider, holding me open for each devastating sweep. He tilted my hips and forced his tongue inside me, and I bit back a scream.
He fucked me with his tongue, sliding up to my clit with a pressure that made my hips jerk. I couldn’t speak. Couldn’t think. Could only shake while he devoured me.
I craved this with every fractured piece of myself. I wanted to be ruined by him and rebuilt into something that didn’t remember how to exist without his hands on my skin. I’d surrendered, and he knew it. I could see the triumph in his eyes.
I have you now.
He pressed one last kiss, a tease that made me twitch, then rolled over. Before I caught my breath, he grabbed my hips and hauled me up until my knees bracketed his head.
Then he yanked me down.
I cried out, clawing his hair as his tongue slammed into me. Deep, hot, wet. He drove into me, then dragged up to my clit. So intense. My thighs shook as I pulled back, but his grip turned to iron, locking me against his face. He growled, the vibration shooting through my pussy.
I whimpered, twisting, but he worked at me harder, his tongue circling my clit. I choked, barely able to breathe, my mouth open in a silent gasp.
He withdrew his tongue, panting. “Ride me.”
“I—”
“Now.”
His hands forced my hips to move, and I obeyed—rolling, rocking, chasing my pleasure. His tongue met every movement, relentless, and the sounds coming out of me weren’t words anymore.
A whisper of cold silk climbed up my calves, sliding under my dress. The tendrils moved like fingers, peeling it from my body before it floated away.
Ride me.
That tunneled inside me, breaking me open. I ground myself against his mouth shamelessly, and ecstasy tore through me in bright waves. My nails raked his scalp, anchoring, holding on, and the deep satisfaction of it shoved me toward the edge.
My vision erupted with stars.
The pleasure detonated. Ripped straight up my spine and exploded behind my eyes. I came apart with a sharp cry that echoed off the walls.
His lips gentled, drinking the aftershocks. When the shaking finally eased, he rolled me over, climbing up the bed to face me.
I stared at him, breathing hard. I wasn’t satisfied. Not even close. The ache between my thighs had only sharpened, but it wasn’t just physical.
I needed him.
I grabbed his jaw and dragged his mouth to mine, pouring in my overwhelming feelings. I tasted myself on his lips, hot and slick, and it made me wild. I kissed him harder, biting his lower lip and he groaned, his hands fisting in my hair, pulling me closer—
A knock shattered the silence.
Kairos went rigid. “The world better be fucking ending,” he snarled against my mouth, “or whoever’s on the other side of that door has three seconds to run before I gut them.”
“It’s me,” Elwen said flatly.
“Fuck. Off.”
“Vaeris burned another village. No survivors.”
The words drenched me in ice.
Kairos pulled back, his expression lethal.
“Don’t move,” he said roughly.
He ripped himself off me and stormed to the door, yanking it open. I sat up slowly, covering myself with furs. They spoke in low, urgent tones. Razed to ash. Moving west.
Kairos shut the door with a heavy exhale. He turned and crossed to the bed, sitting on the edge. His hand found mine under the furs.
“I have to go.”
“Right now?”
“Yes. I’ll return in a few days.”
I nodded, my stomach sinking with the image of him riding into battle. I pictured smoke rising from the embers of a village, and my eyes stung with tears.
His palm cupped my cheek. “It is not your fault.”
“People are dead because I’m here.”
“Vaeris did that. Not you.”
My throat ached. “I should’ve stopped it. If I were stronger…if I could defend myself—”
“You are strong.”
“Not in any way that’s useful on a battlefield.”
“Warriors are easy to find. I have thousands of them. But people who survive this world without letting it make them cruel?” His voice softened. “That’s rare. That’s what matters when the fighting stops and there’s nothing left but rubble.”
That slid beneath my ribs, cracking me open.
“You’re not a warrior, Aelie. You’re something far more important. You’re the reason we fight in the first place.”
A soft ball of warmth swelled in my chest, startling in its intensity. Gods, I’d been trying not to fall, and then he said things like that, and the ground dropped away.
I didn’t have words. So I pressed my face into his neck and breathed him in, memorizing his scent. His arms tightened around me. Then he pulled back, and the softness vanished behind the mask of a king riding to war.
I dressed and followed him like a lost puppy. Through the corridors, down the stairs, outside. The courtyard was alive with movement. Warriors checked their weapons, adjusted saddle straps, called out orders. Mairen stamped and snorted.
Uther approached, clapping Kairos on the shoulder. “Ready?”
“Always.”
A scimitar appeared in a swirl of white mist. The blade sang as he gave it a practice swing. He caught my eye, and my heart squeezed.
“Mount up!” Kairos shouted.
Fae swung onto their mairen and the beasts shifted restlessly, eager to run. I couldn’t take it anymore. I elbowed past the warriors to his side. He removed his horned helm, his hair tumbling around his face.
I yanked a ribbon free of my hair, tying it on his mairen’s halter. I needed him to bring something of mine. My fingers fumbled with the knot and then I stepped back.
“There,” I murmured. “Now you can go.”
He smiled and kissed me, a light peck on my lips.
My pulse jumped. “That’s it?”
His eyes blazed, and the next kiss was anything but chaste. His tongue swept in, claiming, devouring. I gasped and he swallowed the sound, kissing me like his soul would tear apart if he didn’t.
Please don’t let this be goodbye.
He tore away, his breathing ragged. His thumb caressed my jaw, and then he shoved the helm on, climbing onto his mairen.
The ribbon fluttered against the beast’s dark mane, a splash of blue against all that black armor.
Then he kicked the mairen and soared into the forest, the warband following him.
The gates closed with a thunderous boom.
I stood there, staring into the mist.
“He’ll be fine.”
Elwen appeared by my side.
I sighed. “Was the ribbon too much?”
Her lips curved. “In all the centuries I’ve known him, I’ve never once seen him carry a favor into battle.”
My cheeks burned. “I didn’t know if fae even did that.”
“Oh, some do,” she said lightly. “But Kairos always turned his nose up at tokens. Too proud.”
“So…he didn’t like it?”
“He loved it. Didn’t you see his face?”
A smile tugged at my mouth.
She pulled me toward the keep. “Come. Standing here won’t bring him back faster, and we have work to do.”
I heaved a sigh, trying to shake this strange melancholy.