Chapter 67
AMEIRAH
“You should take it,” I said, pushing the Jiang amulet across the table to Liwei in the Diamond’s riad.
The sun beamed down today, and after weeks of intermittent rain the plants around us reached greedily for the sky, leaves unfurling to soak up every bit of warmth.
At the heart of the garden, the stone fountain trickled, the sound calming even if the medallion on the table and the memory of everything it was attached to made my chest tighten painfully.
We buried Nabil weeks ago, but it still didn’t feel real.
I was nowhere close to accepting he was gone.
I didn’t even notice when we’d become friends, when he’d become so important to me, but his absence was a constant gnawing ache when the Legion of Fyrevein flew.
And we’d flown almost every day in the month since the second Zalaam war.
Rogue wyverns and tigers needed to be rounded up—that was the new name given to those who’d been abducted and controlled by Xiu but fled when her compulsion was torn away—and the corrupt gentry needed to be hunted before they got any ideas about making a power grab.
The dark clergy who forced true, genuine imams from our mosques had vanished into black ash, as did most of the wyverns and the commanders who led the armies.
And the river remained silver, not as black as a void.
The amulet had wiped out every last trace of Zalaam power in Ithanys—and Cirestia.
Which brought me back to this, with Liwei shaking his head as my cousin refused to accept the Jiang amulet.
“The women of Riverren guarded the last sliver of the first queen’s crown for centuries. It’s only right that they guard this, too. It wouldn’t even exist without them.”
“Mmhm.” Liwei sat back, arms crossed over his chest. There was no armour present today for either of us, no protections needed.
Ithanys was at peace. For the first time in anyone’s living memory, we weren’t at war with Kalder, either.
Both sides signed the treaty a week ago, and for now the river was still guarded on both sides, but to ensure no other dark beings walked out of it, not to wage battle on each other.
It felt… strange. Welcome, but strange. Having a family—an entire family, full of aunts and cousins and uncles whose names I could barely remember—was also welcome and strange.
“They won’t have it, you know?” Liwei said with a small smile, brown eyes twinkling with amusement.
“Mingyue and Hsiuying shot down the idea immediately. Hongran does whatever makes his wife happy, so he agreed you should be the one to guard it. My mother is the world’s biggest enabler, so you can guess her opinion on the matter.
Plus, she likes you,” he added. “She keeps calling you my heroic niece.”
I groaned. “I never set out to be a hero. I just wanted revenge.” And yet that word met me wherever I went. It followed Varidian and the legion, too, and Kamaal and Silverstorm.
After a battlefield full of winged soldiers and legion commanders turned against us, and a council that had collapsed into ash, people were quick to accept that the king had been betrayed by his council.
Murdered by them, instead of me. I was completely free, not even a whisper of my name in condemnation.
The opposite, actually. The reports of Fyrevein battling in the sky over Morysen presented us as defenders, trying to save the king and tragically failing.
Kamaal didn’t even have to put his whispers out to create that rumour; it started itself and by the end of the week had cemented itself as fact.
“Tough shit,” Liwei said with a grin, rising to his feet. “You’re a hero, and you’re keeping the amulet. Guard it well. And guard those gentry, too. I don’t buy for one second that they’re suddenly remorseful.”
No, neither did I. Falael Jaouhari was one of them, along with a handful of familiar faces.
All of them watching Kaazhim torture my magic out of me.
All of them sat there and did nothing, with only the promise of power keeping their asses in those seats, not compulsion like some of the others.
A grand total of three gentry, actually—that was how many had been compelled to obey Xiu.
The others were willing. The entire power system of our country was corrupt. I hoped Kamaal gutted the whole thing.
“I’ll see you next month,” I said as Liwei rounded the low table, having to look up because he was so damned tall.
He still looked like a prince, all golden skin and perfect hair.
Part of the family I’d always dreamed of and never expected.
“Or will you be too busy gallivanting around Riverren with your guard to come to a family dinner?”
His eyes narrowed. Stayed there as he stared at me. “I don’t know how, but somehow, some way, my mother told you to say that.”
I grinned. “You can’t prove that.”
“I’ve never once heard you say gallivanting before.”
I shrugged. “I’ve used it often. It’s my favourite word.”
He glanced at the door when it opened, Varidian strolling into the garden with his hands in the pockets of his fine trousers, the Marrakchi vipers stitched down the sides continuing up his dark blue tunic, matching the ink on his throat.
His hair was loose around his shoulders, his face stubbled, expression relaxed for once.
Seeing him so casually—and clean—after weeks of leathers, and mud and sweat did something to me.
“Your wife is lying again,” Liwei told him with a smirk. “I know for a fact my mother’s recruited her to guilt me into spending more time with the family.”
Varidian reached my side, his hand resting on my shoulder blades.
He rarely stopped touching me these days.
The tight stretch of the bond that was uncomfortable when we were apart soothed into mellow warmth and satisfaction when we touched.
I reached up and covered his hand with mine, a knot unwinding from my chest.
“To be fair,” he told Liwei, “you have been gallivanting around Riverren a lot lately.”
“Not you, too,” Liwei groaned. “I’m surrounded by my mother’s sycophants.”
“There, there,” Varidian said, patting his shoulder. In the weeks that we’d spent tidying up Xiu’s mess and making sure the gates remained guarded at all times, my cousin and husband had become friends. Mostly, they traded well-mannered insults and teasing.
“Did they get settled?” I asked Varidian when Liwei made his goodbyes and headed for the wyverns ready to carry him and the Riverren guard to the fortress gate.
Varidian sank into a seat beside me and pulled me onto his lap, his arms locking around me as a deep sigh left his chest. “They’ve all got places to stay in the city for now, but Emmahin mentioned helping Daurith rebuild.”
“No doubt for a price.” The Torn Isle were nothing if not businessmen.
But I’m sure Chakir Kissami would appreciate the offer nonetheless.
The refugees from the sacred city finally arrived in Red Manniston last week, homeless now the king had Daurith razed to ash.
Zaarib’s family were living in the Diamond for now, our home full of noise and life.
It was comforting when my head became too full of ringing silence.
Varidian’s lips brushed my temple once, twice, and a weight slid from my shoulders at the same time another sigh moved his chest. “I don’t doubt the island will turn the rebuild into a profit. Speaking of money.” I lifted my head off his shoulder, curious. “I had a word with the old bibliopegist.”
“Varidian,” I hissed. “Don’t use such sexy words in public.”
“We’re in our own garden, dearling,” he replied, his voice dropping into a purr that made my stomach flutter.
He kissed the edge of my mouth, then captured me in a deep, thorough kiss that woke up every inch of my body, sensitive and desperate for his touch.
“He’s retiring soon.” It took me a moment to remember what we were talking about, my mouth full of the taste of him and his addictive scent muddling my senses.
“His daughter will be taking over the business, and she’s looking for an assistant bookbinder.
She’s willing to offer training if, for example, a highly regarded war hero wanted to learn how to do the job. ”
A gasp caught in my throat and I grabbed his shoulders, squeezing. “Are you serious? Don’t lie to me, Varidian, or I’ll make you regret it. Do I have to remind you of two nights ago.”
He groaned, a wicked darkness chasing through his eyes—brown once more, now the lightning had left him.
Elinour had moved into the Red Star, though I didn’t know where exactly she lived.
But everyone knew when she was angry or upset because the heavens opened and lightning chased across the sky.
Varidian had tried to help her manage it, but she’d snapped that she was a lightning soul and she had it totally, completely handled.
I gave her another week before she caved to his help.
“You nearly murdered me,” Varidian grumbled, his lips finding my throat.
“You wouldn’t have actually died,” I protested.
Sure, I edged him three times until he was whining and pleading with me to take him inside me, to finally give him the pleasure I’d denied him thrice.
When he finally came, his eyes rolled back and his entire body shook.
I was utterly delighted and already planning a repeat performance.
“I would.”
I laughed, then groaned when he sucked on that sensitive spot on my neck. In seconds, I was molten and wet with need.
“I did get another gift for you,” he said against my neck, the brush of his breath making me shiver and clutch him closer. “Four gifts, actually.”
“Four is excessive,” I breathed, moving until I straddled his hips, my clothes conveniently loose and lacking any trousers to inhibit my plans.
“Four is the bare fucking minimum,” he growled, “but I’m working on the rest.”
I rolled my hips, following the hard bulge in his pants. “The rest?”
“I have a list of everyone who’s ever hurt you.
I’m clearing it one at a time.” His hands landed on my hips, bunching my djellaba at my hips.
“You’ll be happy to know Falael fucking Jaouhari is ruined.
Penniless. No longer a gentry. No rank at all, in fact.
And tragically, his kasbah has passed in ownership to his wife, who you never mentioned as mistreating you.
But if I’m wrong, say the word and I’ll destroy her, too. ”
The low, growling tone of his voice made me ache. I took his face in my hands and tilted it back so I could kiss him as I ground my hips into his. His groan tickled my tongue and I kissed him harder, not satisfied until his fingers dug into my hips and he was breathless.
“I don’t care about ruining Khadija. Let her have the house and all his money.”
He immediately surrendered to another kiss, fumbling between us to pull out his cock, to brush it over the pulsing, slick heat of me.
“Wait.” I drew back. “You said four gifts. Who else did you ruin?”
His grin was wicked and vindictive. “Every damn one of his sons. No one will employ them. No commander or leader will accept them. They’ll find they’re unwelcome in every corner of Ithanys.”
Without a way to make money… “That’s a death sentence.”
“Oh, I hope so,” he said and kissed me deeply, guiding me up so his cock could fit at my entrance and then tightening his grip on my waist when I sank down. “I hope poverty slowly saps their life until they die, alone and suffering.”
I sank my fingers into his wavy hair and kissed him. “Have I told you how much I love you?”
“Tell me again,” he said immediately, pushing my shirt higher, his hands exploring the curves and planes of my body. “Tell me every second of every day, and it will still not be enough.”
“I love you, Varidian. I love you so much, I finally understand your madness and obsession. I love you so much, I want more of your marks on my body.” I lifted my hips, the drag of him inside me making my toes curl, and sank deeper, our groans filling the riad.
“I love you so much that I could make the world stop and drag the stars from the sky with the force of this love.”
“Leave them where they are,” he breathed, panting when I rode him in earnest, sparks shooting into every nerve ending at the angle, the depth, the stroke of him each time I moved. “How can we have romantic stargazing nights with no stars?”
“Fair point,” I replied, biting my lip when his mouth fastened to my throat, knowing just how to ruin me.
“I want to try something,” he said between open-mouthed kisses. “Do you trust me?”
“More than anyone,” I panted, my ass slamming into his thighs, faster and faster. A warm wind brushed my skin, fluttered through his hair, and I laughed. “We’re outside again.”
“If the Diamond wasn’t full of people, I would take you in every room, against every surface,” he groaned, two fingers finding my clit and stroking in circles that made my breath catch. “Still trust me?”
I nodded—and squeaked when violent sensation crashed into me. The climax hit me so suddenly, so brutally that my mouth hung open, my toes curled tight, and my entire body seized. Varidian’s other hand covered my mouth when a scream ripped from me, the pleasure slamming into me in endless waves.
Varidian’s breathless groan joined my muffled sounds as he came, the relentless grip of my muscles squeezing him demanding the release.
By the time I stopped shuddering and pieced my thoughts back together, Varidian was breathing heavily, his head on my shoulder and both arms wrapped around me. We were still in a state of disarray, out in the garden where anyone could see, and he was still inside me.
“Did you just,” I panted, “send a bolt of lightning through me?”
“Just a little one,” he said with a gravelly laugh. “I didn’t expect an instant reaction.”
I shoved his shoulder. “Bastard.”
“I was careful. I’m in full control of this power now.” He kissed my shoulder, my neck, my bite.
“Could you do it again?”
I felt his grin against my skin. “Not in the garden. Then I can really make you scream for me.”
I didn’t realise he meant right this minute until he set me on my feet, pulled my clothes back into place, replaced his own, and then took my hand. Laughing, I let him pull me back into our home, along the warm corridors, and into our room.
And he made good on his promise to make me scream, as he’d kept every promise he’d made to me since our wedding.