Chapter 59
59
I t was a warrior’s sacrifice. A choice of death to give others life. A choice that had me falling to my knees on the ship’s deck.
Tristen kneeled beside me.
“I know,” Tristen said softly. “I know.”
I threw my arms around Tristen, sobbing. Callum had taken so much from us, but he had done what he had thought was right. And he had chosen death to give me a future. A future with Tristen.
As the crew gathered on the deck, Tristen turned to them. “A moment of silence for the sacrifice given to us by Commander Callum Wells, please,” he said, and silently, the crew began to kneel all around us.
I kneeled beside Tristen, beside Aldric, beside all of the others. The silence was carried on the breeze, honoring what he had given us even as I felt my heart constrict. In that moment, the wind carried my braided hair away from my body, and I noticed the blue ribbon I still had tied there.
The ribbon of mine Callum had kept, as a reminder of me. The same ribbon that would now be my reminder—of him and what he had chosen to give up when he had chosen to detonate his heart crystal to give us a chance to escape.
I rose to my feet, even as sobs tore from me as the truth sank in—Callum was dead. Even though Callum had doomed me—and Tristen—with his choices, he had atoned for them.
Tristen held me to him. “I know.”
My tears subsided, and I looked up at him. “It’s not fair.”
“I know,” Tristen said again. “Luminaria will pay for what’s happened here.”
I nodded, wiping at my face. We could honor Callum’s sacrifice by fixing what was broken—and repairing what Luminaria had taken from us.
“Saffron!” I turned, and a woman with fiery red hair bounded out from the people on a crowded deck. She hugged me. “You’re alive!”
Behind Rachelle, Leah stood nearby—and I saw Zara with her ephemeral scribe’s robes appearing like a specter on the ship as she followed behind.
“You’re all here!” I said, my heart warming as I realized I wouldn’t have to bear any more casualties.
Then, screams started up on deck as people started pointing to the sky, readying crossbows.
An annoyed squawk had me shouting, “Hold your fire!”
I ran to the edge of the boat to see a very tired—and very annoyed—baby dragon flapping its way to our boat.
It landed with a tumble on the deck, letting out an indignant screech.
“Pepper!” I cried, sweeping up the creature in my arms.
Rachelle clapped her hands, jumping up and down. “He made it!”
Pepper nuzzled his scaly head in my arms, and I swore he let out some sort of sigh. “I think he’s annoyed we almost left him behind.”
Tristen sighed. “To be fair, I did look for Pepper before getting here. He flew away when my men and I were battling the Thousand-Fanged Scorpion King after you left. Turns out Pepper is a lot less inclined to help when you’re not around,” Tristen grumbled.
I frowned, turning to Tristen. “A Scorpion King with how many fangs?”
Tristen shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. We’re here now.”
“How did you escape The Eternal Sands? Those men who came out of the shadows to kill you?—”
Tristen shook his head. “They were fellow rebels, not enemies. They arrived right on time to help me set up the escape plan. It was all very well-orchestrated, but I won’t bore you with all the details. All I’ll say is that Zara had swiped Callum’s Illumia Crystal from his old quarters in Ashguard before getting Rachelle and Leah out last night. We tried to spring you and Callum last night as well, but you both were too heavily guarded. So we opted for Plan B. And now we’re going home.”
“To Stormgard,” Aldric said, stepping up beside us on deck.
“To Stormgard,” echoed the voices of those on board. Slowly, those gathered on deck crossed their right hands over their chests, their fists at their heart. I watched as they all watched me with a fierceness that belied hardship and a loyalty that ran deep.
“What’s going on?” I asked Tristen. Rachelle and Leah looked confused, but Zara just placed her fist over her heart like the others—the ultimate chameleon, able to blend in with any group.
“They’re honoring their future King and Queen,” Tristen said, watching my expression. “If you’ll still have me.”
“You’ve always had me,” I said.
Tristen’s obsidian eyes lit up like stars shining through the night sky. In one fluid movement, he crossed the distance between us and captured my lips in a kiss. Cheers shot up around the deck, and I pulled away, my cheeks reddening from all of the attention.
“Finally,” Aldric grumbled. “You have no idea how insufferable this one was when we were scouring the world looking for you.”
“Shut up, Aldric,” Tristen said, and wound an arm around my waist. “Set sail for Stormgard. Let’s go home.”
“You heard him! Let’s put as much space as we can between us and this godsforsaken island,” Aldric said, turning and shouting instructions to the crew.
Rachelle grinned at me as Tristen was pulled away by some of the warriors and sailors on the ship.
“I heard. Everything. You’re to be a Queen , Saffron!” she squealed as the sails caught wind and we started flying over the water. “Do you remember it? Everything that’s happened? With you and—him?”
Tristen caught my gaze across the ship, a small smile creeping across his face as he took me in before turning back to the conversation he was engrossed in.
“Only what I’ve been shown,” I said. “I’m hoping it will come back over time. But if not? It’ll be a good excuse to make new memories.”
Pepper chirped in my arms, and Rachelle reached out a questioning hand. “Can I?”
“Here, you can hold him,” I said, and I put Pepper in her arms.
Pepper let out a content squeak as Rachelle held him close.
Zara stepped up, her eyes flickering a bit warily to Pepper. Seeing her trepidation, I walked to the edge of the ship as Rachelle and Leah cooed over Pepper, scratching his neck the way he liked.
“Thank you. For getting them out,” I said to Zara.
Zara smiled. “A promise is a promise.”
“So you’re not a scribe?”
“Oh, I am. A scribe’s training pairs best with a spy’s ear.” She lowered her voice. “Which is why you should be careful when you return to Stormgard.”
“You’re not coming with.”
“Not now,” Zara said. “I will part ways once we reach land. But you should know that the people of Stormgard have been without true leaders since Tristen’s parents were slaughtered by Luminaria. Ever since, the kingdom has awaited its sole heir to marry, and when Tristen chose you over Melisandre— especially after you were taken by Cassandra and he refused to chose her or another—there have been some who have grown distrustful of his future reign.”
“What are you saying?” I asked, careful.
Zara just gave me a small smile. “Enjoy your new future. Just know that underneath every seat of power lives a den of vipers. Stormgard is no different.”
I nodded. “I understand.”
“And I’m sorry for your loss today,” Zara said.
“Thank you. Luminaria will pay for everything they’ve done.” I looked out at the island, growing smaller as we made our escape.
“Revenge may be necessary to balance the scales, but don’t forget to cherish the gifts of those you’ve lost left behind,” Zara said.
“I know,” I breathed, “He would want me to be happy.”
“He would,” Zara said, and her eyes dipped to someone approaching behind me.
Footsteps sounded on the deck, and I turned to see Tristen standing a few paces away from us. “Can I borrow her?” he asked Zara.
Zara smiled, stepping away like a cloud drifting on a soft breeze. “Borrow away.”
I ducked my head, trying to hide my blush as Tristen’s hand went to my lower back, leading me to his quarters.
Tristen’s quarters were at the front of the ship, windows sprayed with the salty sea as the prow carved through the deep blue water. A four-poster bed was hidden away in the corner, with a lounge area surrounding tables covered in maps at the center. A small metal bar cart with a decanter filled with liquid of an amber hue sat by one of the tables.
Tristen had led me to a small bathing room where I washed off, stripping off my wet and bloody clothes and stepping into a warm bath. I didn’t linger, my skin already feeling hot. I pulled on a simple white gown with capped sleeves and criss-crossed laces across the front of the bodice that I left loosely tied, the dress dipping open across my breasts as I ran my fingers through my wet hair that was starting to dry in curls thanks to the salty sea spray.
Then, I wandered out into the spacious bedchambers to see Tristen dressed in a fresh tunic and pants—both in black, his favorite color, it seemed—his dark hair still damp.
“You bathed,” I said.
He smiled. “I used Aldric’s chambers to give you some space. May I?” Tristen asked, going to pour me a drink.
“Sure,” I said, suddenly feeling a sense of eager anticipation in his presence as the tension between us continued to crackle like invisible electric sparks.
Tristen motioned to one of the couches. “Sit,” he said.
I did, and he poured two drinks into crystal glasses, walking over to sit beside me. He propped an arm on the top of the sofa, the other one tracing the rim of his glass.
I took a sip of the liquid and started coughing. “What the fuck is this?” I ground out in-between coughs.
A small smirk quirked his lips. “Oakspirit. It’s a favorite that’s imported from the Kingdom of Verdanroth.”
I set down the glass on the low table by my feet. “Well it’s definitely not my favorite.” My eyes flickered up to him. “Or is it?”
He shook his head. “You’re still the same person you were before. What you like is what you like.” Warmth danced in his eyes. “You were impartial to Grimwine before. I just don’t have any on our ship.”
“ Our ship,” I echoed.
Tristen downed the rest of his drink, setting the glass on the low table with a slow, careful movement. “Everything you see is yours, too. If you want it.”
The undercurrent of his words was clear. He still wanted to know if I wanted him .
I bit my lip, and his eyes tracked the movement. “So Melisandre… she wasn’t… you never…”
“ Never ,” Tristen growled. “Clearly, she was trying to position herself in a place of power at Stormgard. To claim she was my wife was a dirty lie, even for her, but our people…” his eyes shifted back to mine, and I saw the pain there, “they’re desperate for a path forward. I’ve hurt them by being away for so long, but I couldn’t bear returning without you.”
“And if I hadn’t wanted to return?”
Pain flashed through Tristen’s eyes, and he lifted his gaze to me like it took effort. “I knew from the moment that I entered Ashguard and joined the trials that there was a chance you wouldn’t fall for me again. There was a chance that our love… that it made sense for your last life, but maybe not in this one. When I arrived and I saw you protecting Callum, I faced that fear head-on. But I couldn’t let you go. Even as I tried to convince myself that you would be safer with him, that if you had picked him it was for a reason—even then I couldn’t fathom not having you by my side once more. And when I smelled him on you, saw how he looked at you…” Tristen closed his eyes, shaking his head. He blew out a breath, and locked eyes with me once more. I saw they were rimmed with tears. “I knew it would destroy me if I failed at winning you over, so that couldn’t be my mission. So, I made it my mission to make sure you survived—at all costs. Even if you didn’t choose me.”
I inhaled sharply, feeling the full weight of his sacrifices. “You’ve done so much for me. Why?”
Tristen’s hand slid into mine, and his obsidian eyes warmed like a spring night. “I don’t know if I’ve made it clear to you in this version of your life, but I want you to know that it’s an honor and a privilege to remind you each day of why I fell for you. You may not remember it yet, but when your village was crumbling, you chose to stay and help the other villagers evacuate. And when you saw me fighting the Luminaria forces? You picked up one of their blades and, even though you didn’t have a lick of training, you wanted their blood. You were a baker’s daughter with a warrior’s heart, and you saw as I did that Luminaria had no more care for human life. So you joined us. Trained with us. Fought beside us. You were considered hollow without a drop of power, but you made your determination your power.”
“I wasn’t the Siphon before?” I asked in disbelief.
Tristen shook his head. “No. Which is why your bravery was even more stunning. You fought with your whole heart against Luminaria troops and their magic. You found your own ways to be clever and cunning as we rebuilt the border and helped villagers escape into our territory, and you even fought your way into my heart.” His lips quirked up into a smile that set my heart on fire.
“As did you,” I said, and as the words left my lips, they felt more true than anything I’d ever said before. “Because I choose you, Tristen.”
“And I choose you,” he said, his voice soft and his eyes wide as if he couldn’t believe his luck. “I will always choose you.”
I bridged the gap between us, my lips meeting his. He tasted of the salt of the sea, his scent of pine and spice overwhelming me. I felt his fingertips brush my neck and then wind into my hair, pulling me into him and angling my lips toward his. His kiss was warm and fervent and it promised a kind of sinful escape that made me lose himself in him.
I pulled away, his forehead meeting mine as the current between us grew stronger.
“How do you know I’m not just here to steal your powers?” I teased.
“I’d like to see you try,” he said as his eyes darkened.
He pulled me onto his lap, and I arched into his touch as his fingertips traced up my thighs, lifting the hem of my dress. His touch was like a wildfire, and I wanted to be devoured by it. His lips moved, tracing my jaw and reaching the shell of my ear.
“You have no idea how hard it was to keep my distance,” he murmured in my ear, “when every day, all I wanted to do was strip you bare and claim you as mine .”
The small gasp that escaped my lips was swallowed up as his mouth crashed against mine. Heat pooled at the apex of my thighs, and as his right hand slid up my dress, I moved against him and felt his hardness through the fabric of his pants. My hand fisted in his shirt as I chased the friction of our bodies sliding against each other, Tristen’s left hand pulling me against him.
My fingers went to the buttons of his shirt as I pulled away from his kiss. “Off,” I commanded, a little breathless.
Tristen’s answering smirk was hidden as he stripped off his shirt, tossing it aside in a flash—he was just as impatient as I was. In the blink of an eye, he picked me up, his lips hungrily finding mine once more as he strode to the four-poster bed.
He broke from our kiss and then tossed me onto the bed before climbing over me.
“Off,” he growled as he caged me in with his body. He nipped at my neck as he tugged at my dress.
I pressed a hand on his bare chest, heady with lust as I pushed him off me. I guided him to the bed as he let me straddle him. I undid the laces at the front of my dress, and the straps of my dress slid down my shoulders as the material spilled at my waist, baring my breasts to him.
“Saffron,” Tristen breathed, sitting up to brush kisses at my collarbone… lower… “You’re beautiful.”
He flipped us once more, undoing the rest of my dress and pulling it off me. I hadn’t bothered wearing anything underneath, and Tristen’s gaze turned absolutely lethal as he took me in, flickering back up to me as I lay sprawled before him.
“I knew what I wanted,” I said with a half-smile.
“You’re what I want,” Tristen growled, a feral grin stretching across his face as he moved off me, standing at the edge of the bed. He took my legs and yanked me to the edge of the mattress and I let out a yelp of surprise.
He sank down to his knees before me, his strong hands going to cradle my leg. “There were so many times I was jealous,” he murmured, kissing my ankle, my shin. “But you know when I was most jealous?”
“Mmmm?” I said, my skin burning with each kiss as he worshipped my body.
“I was the most jealous of that fucking ice cube.”
My mind shot back to the Temple of Orsi, the aphrodisiac we had all been drugged with—and how Tristen had cooled down the most sensitive parts of my body with the ice cubes. I sucked in a breath as he kissed my knee, my inner thigh, climbing higher.
“I promised myself if I found myself between your thighs again I wouldn’t let it go to waste,” Tristen said, finally reaching the sensitive area between my legs. Before I could breathe, he licked the seam of me, his tongue hitting my clit as I arched my back with a cry.
Lightning rocketed through my body as he worked, eliciting breathless moans from my lungs as my core dripped with desire.
“Gods—you’re so wet,” Tristen said against me. The hum of his voice made me shudder with pleasure, but he didn’t give me a second to recover. He added one of those strong, talented fingers of his, moving inside of me as he sucked on that sensitive bud.
Every cell of my being teetered on the precipice of oblivion as Tristen worshipped my body, energy buzzing underneath my skin and sensations crested like waves, growing stronger.
“ Tristen ,” I gasped, his name coming out like a prayer from my lips.
“Come for me, Saffron,” he commanded, slipping in another finger into my dripping core.
His demand sent me over the edge, and I unraveled. My pleasure shot through me like lightning—he was a force of nature in his hold on me.
He withdrew, my body trembling in the aftershocks of how he had consumed me. Each moment had felt like the colliding of stars, but I wanted more .
As Tristen rose to his feet, I saw the impressive length pressing against the seams of his pants. Gods, he was huge—I would be lying if I said he didn’t intimidate me.
Then, his shadows swept out with a soft touch—surrounding me as I was brought up to a sitting position at the edge of the bed in front of him. I laughed in surprise at the feel of them.
“Happy?” he asked with a mischievous grin.
“I want you,” I said, but it came out like a breathless plea as I reached for him over his pants. His blazing eyes locked with mine, and through the haze of lust I saw an unbridled joy in his gaze.
“You do?” he asked, as if he hadn’t dared himself to hope that I would choose him. Choose us . And that it was still a surprise to hear it from me.
“I want you. Forever. But especially right now ,” I said, unable to keep the neediness out of my voice as I tugged at the waistband of his pants.
“You have me,” Tristen said, shedding his pants and tossing me back onto the bed.
I laughed, but in a flash, he was upon me, a hungry kiss devouring my laugh as he rested in the cradle of my spread legs. I could feel his massive velvety length pressing against me, and I felt my hips buck against his—desperate for the friction, for the fullness I craved.
“Please,” I begged as Tristen teased his cock at my entrance. “I need you inside of me, Tristen.”
“So impatient,” he whispered in my ear, and then sheathed all of himself inside of me.
I sucked in a gasp as he slid inside, pleasure echoing deep into my bones as my back arched once more and I clamped down around the delicious fullness of him.
His gaze met mine, his body stilling as I adjusted to him.
He reached down, brushing a piece of hair from my face, his gaze tracing my skin like an artist preparing to paint a portrait of his beloved. The gesture was so loving, so filled with care that I nearly burst, so many sensations rushing through me at once as I felt my hips move against him on their own accord, wanting him deeper.
Tristen groaned, his forehead falling against mine as he started to move, withdrawing and then thrusting deeper inside of me. “Fuck, you feel perfect, Saffron.”
I let out an answering moan as his lips went to the sensitive juncture where my neck met my shoulder.
He started moving faster, and I felt my core coil tighter like a spring building to release as we moved together, my moans breathy and urgent. I felt the whispering feel of his shadows ghosting over my body like a lover’s caress or a light breeze, and then a stream of them slipped underneath my low back, propping me up to allow Tristen to thrust even deeper inside me.
His hand dipped between us, and as he found my clit and toppled me over the edge of my desire once more. He thrusted into me at a punishing pace that hit every nerve ending deep within me.
Waves of release shuddered through me as I cried out, and I clung to Tristen as he followed, filling me with his seed.
I went boneless in his arms as he held me, my head on his chest. We lay together as our breathing slowed, still joined. Then, he reached down, brushing my hair out of my face once more as I looked up at him.
“I love you, Saffron,” he said, the words resonating through me like a perfectly struck chord. “I loved you as you were before, and I love you as you are now.”
“You’re a hard person to hate,” I said, and he laughed.
“I’ll take it,” he said, leaning down to kiss me. Every unspoken feeling he had held back in the trials tumbled into that kiss.
When he pulled back, I reached up and brushed a stray piece of his dark hair from his obsidian eyes. “I love you, Tristen. What memories I have of you so far don’t do you justice.”
He grinned. “The real thing is much better, isn’t it?” Then, he pulled away and disappeared into the bathing room. I heard running water, and then he returned a moment later with a damp washcloth.
“May I?” he asked, and I nodded as he went to gently clean me with the warm towel, his movements reverent, kind, gentle.
He stood once more, placing the towel in a clothing basket by the side table before returning to bed with me, scooping me back into him as he held me, our bodies fitting perfectly together.
“You feel right,” I murmured.
“Do I now?” Tristen asked, and I pulled myself closer to his warm body, marveling at the feared Shadowfire Assassin—the sole heir to Stormgard—who had kneeled before no one, except me. Who had loved no one, but me.
Who had knowingly entered The Ash Trials, knowing he might have been going to his death—all to save me.
I tipped my head back up to look at him, to admire the one I had chosen to share a bed with—only to see him already watching me with a smile so bright it chased away every corner of the dark that followed him.