CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO #3
The only thing that mattered was the gentle press of Kodhan’s lips against my shoulder.
The careful way he lied next to me, gathering me to his chest with another feather-light kiss to my forehead.
The small circles he drew across my back while I fought to calm the thundering beat of my heart.
Not that his was any calmer, though the steady hammering against my palm was a welcome reassurance that he was here. Alive.
That nothing, or no one, could take him from me.
I couldn’t see anything, not when I was tucked so closely to him. But I knew that the shadows had retreated. Proof of it lay in how my chest felt lighter, my head clearer.
I had to tell him. It would be unfair if I didn’t, considering what we’d just done. And the way his arms tightened around me led me to believe that he was under the impression that I would disappear like sand through his fingers if he dared to move an inch.
He could have left. Could have grabbed his clothes without another word and walked straight out of my room. But he didn’t.
Allies. Friends. Something more. Too many invisible lines had been crossed.
She is mine and you will not have her.
Too much damage had been wrought on both ends.
But my tongue was heavy in my mouth. My lips were bound with adhesive.
“I can hear you thinking,” Kodhan murmured into my hair.
“You don’t have that kind of magic,” I forced out.
“No,” he hummed. “But I can feel those wheels turning nonetheless.” A kiss to my temple. “Right here.”
He deserved to know. “There’s something…” I swallowed hard. Tried again. “There’s something I need to tell you."
He tensed right away. "Do you regret what we’ve done?”
“No!” I pulled back to look at him. “No, I don’t. Not at all.” The frown pulling at his lips eased. “Here, with you, I feel lighter. I feel happy.” Happier than I’d ever been. Content.
His sigh of relief blew strands of hair from my face. He tucked the rest behind my ear. “Then you can tell me anything. I’m listening.” He gazed down at me like he could soak up each one of my words. Like his very next breath depended on them.
This changes nothing, we’d said.
And what liars we’d been.
“You’re going to think I’ve gone mad.” Which wouldn’t be entirely far from the truth.
“I’ve already made up my mind where you’re concerned, Eloise. And there is nothing you could tell me that will change what I think about you.”
The admission wove countless strings around my heart. Tied each of them off in tight, neat little bows to ensure none of them could be undone.
“Nothing at all?”
“Nothing at all.”
I traced the line of his collarbone as I rallied a breath of courage. Then, blurted, “I’m running out of time.”
His brows pinched together.
“What do you mean?” Already, violence shone in his eyes.
“It started when we first entered the tower. I thought nothing of it at first, but I’ve been seeing—”
Three knocks hit against my door.
We both sat up straight, but made no other effort to move. Whoever bothered to knock wouldn’t have the gall to enter without a response.
“What do you want?” Kodhan called out before I could.
“Sir Dreadmourne?” a man answered from the other side of the door. One whose voice I failed to recognize. By the shake of Kodhan’s head, he didn’t, either. “Gods above, I’ve been searching for you everywhere.”
“And now you’ve found me. Which means you have three seconds to explain the importance of your presence. I’m rather occupied at the moment, so if it turns out that your presence is meaningless, then it’ll be one of your limbs you will be searching for next.”
“My apologies, Sir Dreadmourne, it isn’t—well—”
“Out with it,” Kodhan barked.
“I’ve been tasked with finding both you and miss Fennhaven, actually, and I haven’t had any luck in finding her either,” he blabbered on.
Kodhan’s irritation was a contagious thing that had a scowl forming across my lips. “I’m right here.”
He laughed quietly behind me.
I turned halfway to question him, but he was already there, pressing a kiss to both corners of my mouth.
It was almost enough to make me forget the man at the door. He’d grown silent.
“Oh,” he said finally. “Yes, well, this is your room, isn’t it?” The question barely made it past the door, almost like he was talking to himself instead of me. He cleared his throat before speaking again. “His Majesty has summoned you. I am to bring you both to him.”
Kodhan growled. “He can wait.”
“My orders are to bring the both of you to him at once,” the man pressed. “And I will not defy His Majesty’s orders.” He couldn’t be a guard, not with that attitude. And a guard would have likely already broken down the door. A high-ranking servant, then. No doubt one of Maverick’s.
“He’s not going to leave,” I huffed, readying to swing my legs over the side of the bed. But Kodhan caught my knees and swung them back towards him instead.
“I can make him.”
“Maverick will send someone else.”
Ire flashed across his face. He glanced at the door, and for a moment, I thought he would set it on fire. I almost wished he would, if only to deter the man and grant us more time. I hadn’t expected reality to crash down on us both so quickly.
But instead he leaned down to capture my lips with his once more in a kiss that left me gasping for air. He nipped at my bottom lip, then sucked, hard, bringing it into his mouth.
Only when it began to sting did he let go. And smiled at the swollen, tender skin.
“Alright, then. Let us go see the king.”