59
The following morning, Darcen appeared more bored than grieving, leaning against a sleigh as he twirled a small knife between his fingers.
I gathered my black-and-gray skirts and left Voran at the open palace doors with a rigid Dusk in his arms. As I descended the steps to say goodbye to my friend, Darcen looked over. He gave me a slight smile I did not return before Celestine met me on the drive.
I hugged her and whispered, “I will find a way to get you out of this.”
“What if I don’t want to get out of this?” She sounded hopeful, yet her eyes welled when we parted. “What if the bond was not meant to be broken, and we just had to wait?” She swallowed. “What if it was meant to be broken so that we can prove it isn’t always permanent?”
Though I wanted to argue, I didn’t.
Perhaps she’d put great thought into this, and perhaps this was the path to their fate. After all, Avyshla was fond of such mayhem.
But Celestine’s gaze drifted up to the palace.
I followed her line of sight just in time to see a flash of white hair before it vanished from the second-floor window.
Ruvus.
I was tempted to ask if the commander had said goodbye. If he’d said anything at all since she’d agreed to leave with Darcen. Instead, I said, “If you want this, then I do too, but…” I took her hands in mine. “I don’t know if you do.”
“I don’t know either.” She pulled me to her for one last hug, and said as she squeezed me, “So I suppose all I can do is find out.”
Gripping the recently polished railing, I frowned down at Voran. “I wasn’t aware there was a dining room up here.”
“Less chirping, more walking.” His eyes gleamed in the dim of the tower stairwell. Aside from that, those severe features remained expressionless.
My eyes thinned. “I know you’re up to something.”
He merely gestured to the stairs.
Sighing, I continued to the final landing. Across the narrow ledge, three more stairs awaited beneath an open steel door. Firelight shone in the metal, emanating from the room.
I walked inside and promptly stopped.
Voran’s heat met my back. “The royal quarters.”
Gaping at the enormous four-poster bed, I murmured, “I can see that.” Black velvet hung from the wooden frame, tied loosely with black ribbon at the posts. The bedding matched, but with gray and black furs adorning the end of the bed.
“Now ours.”
Dumbfounded, I blinked twice. “Ours.”
Voran closed the door, then strode over a large pelt covering the floor.
He nudged a long leather chest at the foot of the bed with his boot.
“More blankets in here.” Crossing to the bed’s left, he tapped a closed wooden door.
“Bathing room.” He then tapped the next.
“Dressing chamber.” The final door was given a gentler tap. “Dusk’s room.”
“Dusk’s room,” I repeated.
He gestured to the lock on the door. “We are the only ones with keys.”
Struggling to process all of this, I shook my head and nearly asked for a moment. Only to hear myself ask instead, “How did you get her to willingly go in there?”
“Wrapped her in one of your cloaks, waited until she fell asleep, then placed her on a mountain of our clothing I have yet to put away. As long as she can smell you, she will be fine.” He then stalked to the other side of the room, where a square table crafted from the same rich wood as the bedframe and nightstands waited.
“Now I can eat with my wife.” He untucked a chair.
“Without sharing her or my food with a demanding hatchling.”
Still slightly dazed, I wandered over to him. “She’s not the only demanding one.” I didn’t sit. I stared up at him with a flutter of my lashes. “Is that all you wish to do?”
His eyes roamed my face. “Far from it.” He snatched my chin and lowered his mouth to mine. Feather soft, he kissed me. “But you’ve barely eaten since Celestine left.” After a harder kiss, he ordered, “Sit.”
I sat.
He tucked my chair in before taking a seat and removing the lids from our plates of roasted vegetables and duck.
He set the lids down so carefully that I smiled while filling our goblets with water. “If she wakes, it won’t be for long. She sleeps a lot.”
“Not nearly enough,” he grumbled.
I laughed, almost choking on a sip of water. Setting the goblet down, I asked, “The gates have been replaced?”
Voran carved into his giant mound of duck. “Yes.”
“And the fires have almost extinguished,” I said, recalling the update Gore had given me earlier. “Was anything found?”
“Nothing.” He stabbed his knife toward my plate. “Eat.”
The Scale Crown was truly gone.
I ate, slowly and staring at Voran—watching his jaw and throat as he chewed. He watched me, too. Not for the same reason. His gaze appeared more searching than hungry. That line formed between his bunching brows.
After another mouthful, I drank more water. “Have you seen Ruvus?”
“I have,” he said.
“How is he?”
Voran scowled. “Why ask this?”
I half rolled my eyes. “I’m not so sure he wanted Celestine to leave, is all.”
His expression eased. He seemed to ponder it before saying, “If he wanted to keep her, then he could have said more to stop the fish prince from taking her.” Pulling a piece of duck from his fork with his teeth, he muttered, “He chose not to.”
Frowning, I briefly wondered what more the commander could have said. I set my water down and smirked. “Fish king now.”
Voran’s lips wriggled. He made a sound of distaste. Not quite a grunt but not a growl.
I laughed.
“Another laugh.” His head tilted. Using his knife to point at himself, he said, “I’m the remedy for your sadness, broshklin. You should have spent the day with me.”
I hadn’t been in the mood to roam the grounds with his patrols and most trusted. After Celestine had departed, I’d spent the gusty afternoon in my rooms—old rooms now—attempting to nap until Voran returned.
“I was tired. Someone didn’t let me sleep until dawn.”
“Complaining will only get you punished again. So please…” His teeth flashed. “Tell me how much you loathed repeatedly coming on my cock and tongue and fingers.”
I flushed, and not merely from embarrassment. I gestured to the room. “Well, if I hadn’t napped, I might have ruined your surprise.”
“These rooms were prepared during your bleed.”
“Oh.” Yet he’d slept in his old room beneath the palace—in that horrid cell—until I’d decided I could forgive and trust him. My chest pinched, but I smiled softly. “I’m not sad, Voran.”
“Lie.”
“Fine. I suppose I am a tiny bit,” I admitted. “I liked having my friend so near, and she liked being here, and I cannot help but feel a little guilty. I wish I had done more to…” I blew out a breath. “I don’t know. Just something more.”
Voran pushed his chair back from the table. “Come here.”
I went instantly and gathered my skirts to sit on his lap. Before I could, he seized me by the waist and situated me on his thighs so I straddled them.
My face was cupped in his hands. “Let me feed you.”
“I don’t want to be fed.”
“Then what do you want, myishla?”
In answer, I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and burrowed my nose into his neck. It took him only a moment to hold me back. “Darcen rejected her, Voran, and brutally at that.”
“Rejections are brutal.”
“Do not defend him.”
“Never.”
I straightened to look at him and toyed with the undone laces at the chest of his tunic.
He tipped my chin. Sliding his thumb across my lower lip, he murmured, “Write to the golden princess in a few weeks. If she’s not happy, she will inevitably let you know.” He shrugged. “You can fret then.”
I didn’t know what the future held for Celestine. Nor did I know what it held for the four kingdoms. Never would I have expected to end up here—queen of an Unseelie kingdom and mated to the monstrous prince they now called king.
Anything could happen.
Feeling a bit lighter, I kissed Voran’s nose.
His brows scrunched, and his lips twitched. Reaching around me for his water, he took a swig. He swished it in his mouth before putting me on my feet. “Move those plates.”
I didn’t ask why. I placed them and the lids on my chair, the goblets upon the windowsill, then returned to his lap.
He took my face in his giant hands. A single punishing kiss held my lips captive. He drew back. Our eyes had barely opened before he set my ass on the table. “Lie down.”
My heart raced. Anticipation warmed my blood as I eased down onto the hard wood.
Voran removed and tossed my slippers. He pushed my skirts up. Chair legs scraped over stone as he moved closer. Close enough to lift my legs over his shoulders. As he did, he ran his fingers down them, calluses tickling.
I sighed, then bit my lip when he reached my inner thighs.
“So fucking soft.” He arrived at my sex, fingers feathering over my mound. Trailing one down to part me, he murmured, “Miscvon.”
“What does that mean?”
“Magical,” he said.
I nearly laughed.
But he then dug his nose into me and groaned. He seemed to nuzzle me. His nose nudged my clit. I jolted with a stunned and noisy breath.
He stilled and muttered something I couldn’t understand before lightly licking my clit. I moaned, and he licked it again and again.
Squirming, I reached for him. He was too far. So when he swept his finger through me to my opening, I gasped and gripped the sides of the table.
“Are you still sore, myishla?”
“Yes,” I said—desperate for more.
“Good.” Then he licked me at the same time he inserted his finger.
I bucked.
He cursed against my slick flesh, and lapped at my clit while curling his finger. He stroked me from within, then slowly withdrew his finger and mouth.
Breathless, I nearly asked him why he’d stopped.
Then his finger slid back into my body. His tongue returned to my clit, licking in time with his curling digit.
I didn’t care how tender I was. My body certainly didn’t care. Heat careened through me. My hips lifted, chasing it.
Then, once more, he stopped. “So close, broshklin.”
“Yes,” I said again.
A wickedly low laugh washed over my skin as he resumed his torment. I moaned. My back arched as climax neared. Before it could crash into me, he stopped again.