Chapter Sixty
We made love twice more before finally succumbing to sleep, and then I woke him up early in the morning for another round. And every time I found completion, it felt like dying, but in the best possible way—as if I temporarily left my body. It was total bliss.
“Why don’t people spend all their time doing this?” I asked him after. I was again lying on his chest while he caressed my back in soothing, swirling patterns.
“Because they have to do silly things like eating and working,” he answered.
Both seemed entirely pointless at this moment. “I fear that you have created a monster. That I am going to become insatiable.”
I felt the laughter rumbling in his chest. “I am always here to satiate your needs, anytime that you would like. You really are the woman of my dreams.”
“More accurately, you’re the man I brought into my dreams.”
He laughed again. I propped my head up so that I could look at him and said, “It’s hard to believe that I used to be frightened of this. Letting someone have this much power over me.”
“If it helps, you have even more power over me.”
“I don’t think that’s possible.”
His eyes twinkled at me. “I promise you that it is.”
The love and joy that I felt abated a bit as I remembered that there was information I still had to share with him. “I need to tell you something.”
“Is there another prophecy?” he teased.
“I told you that I promised the goddess to go back and reopen her temple in Locris. Reinstate her worship there. She said she would hold me to that promise but that there might be another way to accomplish it. She wouldn’t tell me what it was, though.”
When I’d imagined telling him this, I had thought he might get upset.
But he looked utterly serene. “Then we’ll find out what the solution is.
Together. I know that a king should put his people first, but they mean nothing to me without you.
You have seared your name into my soul and I’ll never be whole again if you’re not with me. ”
“This is why I love you. Because you’re so romantic.”
“And here I thought it was because of my talented tongue.”
Now it was my turn to laugh, and he chuckled along with me. “So you’re not worried?” I asked.
“You are the one who said the goddess told you that you would have children. How would that be possible if I was in Ilion and you were in Locris?”
Oh. He was right. I hadn’t thought of that.
“You know, Thrax told me what you wanted,” he said.
It was such a strange thing for him to say that I wasn’t sure how to respond.
“To be treated like the princess that you are, to never let you be unhappy, to make you feel loved and adored every day of your life.”
Then I remembered. “I was talking about Quynh.”
“I’m talking about you and how things are going to be with us. We will always be together, and I will give you everything you’ve ever wanted and needed.”
“I love you,” I told him.
“Not as much as I love you.”
I smiled. Was he going to make everything a competition? I feared that I would welcome it.
“Unfortunately, there are things I have to do today,” he said. “Training with the troops this morning and then war council in the afternoon, followed by a review of the defenses. Would you like to join me for the last two?”
“Yes.”
“But first we should probably take a bath and clean ourselves up.”
It was an excellent suggestion and we raced together into the washroom. Not much cleaning took place because, once we got into the pool, sliding against him in the water was every bit as pleasurable as I had once imagined it would be.
We finally did manage to bathe and get dressed, and it was disappointing that he had to wear clothing again.
A sentiment he shared. He pulled me into his arms to kiss me goodbye and said, “I’m looking forward to taking this off you later.”
I shivered. “Me too.”
“Where are you off to now?”
“My sisters need to know about what the goddess told me.”
“And about the unimaginable, exquisite pleasure you’ve recently discovered,” he added.
How could I still blush around him after all that we had done? He noticed and laughed, kissing me quickly before finally leaving.
I was still in a haze of bliss as I went next door to find my adelphia. The door was slightly ajar. I let myself in, but only Zalira and Ahyana were there.
“Where are Io and Suri?” I asked.
“Io wanted to go down and help the healers in the lower cavern and Suri went to watch over her,” Zalira said.
I was glad that Io wanted to spend her time that way—getting back to what she had loved most from the beginning. Helping others.
“So . . .” Ahyana said with wide eyes. “Has anything interesting happened to you lately?”
She was teasing me, but I ignored it. Instead I told them everything that I had seen and heard in the world beyond this one, what both Maia and the goddess had said. I also told them about how the red soil interfered with our abilities when we stood on it.
“But Suri making holes, my cicadas, Zalira’s lightning—that all worked against the enemy and their dirt,” Ahyana pointed out.
“Right. Because you weren’t standing on the soil.
When we make contact with it, our aspects won’t work right.
” I thought of how I had considered attacking Artemisia in her camp, when I’d been searching for Xander.
The camp had been covered in that dirt, so it would have gone very, very badly for me.
“I’m just glad Artemisia can’t use the eye,” Zalira said, and I nodded.
“My fear is that she’ll realize it and destroy it.”
Ahyana shook her head. “I think she’ll be too busy focusing on her attack to figure it out.”
I hoped that was true. Then I told them about Luna, about how I could hear her speaking in my mind, that returning with her had been my trial of aether, which meant I’d completed all the trials of the elements. I also told them about her abilities.
Zalira tapped a finger thoughtfully against her chin. “So she has wings and can fly, she can swim in water effortlessly, and she breathes fire? You add in some big scales, and she has the abilities of all the other dragons.”
She was right. I hadn’t even realized that. “But Luna’s so small I’m not sure what good that would do us in a battle.” If she were full grown, she would be unstoppable.
Ahyana got up and moved to sit right next to me on the bed. “So can we now please talk about the best part? What happened with you and Xander last night?”
I had kept so much of my relationship with him to myself. Some of it because it was embarrassing and other details because they felt too personal. Our night together should have fallen into the latter category, but I found myself sharing more than I had intended to with my sisters.
They were both so giddy and thrilled that it was infectious, and every new thing I shared heightened their excitement.
“I can hardly wait for Rokh to get back,” Ahyana said with a sigh.
Her sister looked down shyly before admitting, “I told Stephanos about the vow. We are going to get married as soon as this conflict is over.”
“Zalira! Congratulations!” I shouted, and both Ahyana and I rushed over to tackle her into a hug. She was laughing, we all were, but I was so happy for her. She had been so completely miserable before and I was thrilled that she would be able to have the life she had always wanted.
So would Ahyana.
I glanced outside and realized that I had been in here so long that it was time for the war council meeting. “I have to go,” I said as I stood up.
“We’re going to go down and see if Io needs help. We’ll tell her and Suri what you told us,” Ahyana promised.
When my eyebrows shot up my forehead, she hurried to add, “Not the parts about Xander. Obviously. But everything else.”
“That sounds good. I will see you both later.”
I hurried off to the council chambers and immediately went over to Xander’s side.
He kissed me on the temple but was in the middle of arguing with an officer, so I sat quietly and listened.
I had never defended a city before. I’d read about wars and sieges but hadn’t gained any practical knowledge, while warfare had been part of Xander’s basic education.
The entire war council was chaotic. People were arguing and fighting about what would happen and what we should do to defend ourselves. It made me worried. I had hoped there would be a clear plan. It would have made me feel much more confident.
When I said as much to my husband after the meeting had ended, he told me not to worry. “People want to be heard and to feel like their ideas are being considered. But this is my nation, and I will run the army and the defense of the city in the way I think is best.”
He was taking me to the outer wall of the north gate.
“I forgot to mention it earlier,” he said, “but your brother sends his love.”
Guilt lacerated my heart. I should have gone and looked for him, checked on him, made sure that he was all right. I’d been so, well, caught up in everything happening around me. And to me. “Where did you see him?”
“He was training with the troops this morning.”
I came to a stop, pulling on his arm. “Haemon shouldn’t be training. He should be resting.”
“He’s doing much better,” he said, tugging on my hand so that I’d keep walking. “Io’s potions have worked miracles and he’s been eating nonstop. I thought we had enough supplies for a long siege but your brother is making me reconsider.”
Even if he was doing better, it still bothered me that Haemon was training and being with the army. I wanted him in the cavern with the others so that I would know he was safe.
Xander seemed to sense exactly what I was thinking.
He stopped and put his hands on my shoulders so that he could look me in the eye.
“I think after being a prisoner for so long he’s enjoying being with the soldiers, doing something to fight back against the people who stole him from his loved ones.
He feels like he’s accomplishing something. ”
“I understand that,” I said reluctantly. “I just want to protect him.”