Chapter 32 #3
“Drink.” I dropped to my knees and slid an arm behind her back, trying to lift her enough to sip.
Her eyes squeezed shut. Air rasped in her throat, thin and strained.
“Greaves!”
He was beside me in a heartbeat. Fingers wrapped around her wrist, expression hard as stone while he counted her pulse.
I set the cup aside and leaned back to give him room. He frowned and shook his head, then pulled her upright despite her weak protest. She shoved at him, batting his hand away, but he ignored her and pressed his fingers beneath her jaw, testing the glands there.
Another violent cough bent her forward. Her palm struck her chest.
Greaves tipped her chin back and forced her mouth open with his thumbs.
She bit down.
He grunted and tried to pull free. She held on, coughing around his hand.
“Stubborn woman,” he hissed. He pushed his fingers in further to pry open her jaw.
“He’s checking for poison.” I gripped her knee.
The attack had come so suddenly, without warning.
Her nails dug into his bare forearm, crescent marks rising on his skin, but she endured the search, letting him inspect her tongue and throat for residue or foam. At last he withdrew, studying the imprint of her teeth on his hand.
“Not poison.”
“I could have—” A brutal cough tore through her again. Something gray struck the carpet. “—told you that.”
She bent forward, wheezing. Tears streamed down her cheeks from the force of it.
My gaze dropped to the ashen clump on the floor. “Send for a healer.”
“Only the medics remain in the city.”
“Then fetch one.” The edge of my command cut deeper than intended.
Greaves stiffened, grabbed a dagger from the bedside table, and left without pausing to dress.
“It’s the smoke,” she rasped. Her pulse beat fast beneath the skin of her throat.
I lifted the cup once more. This time she drank, water spilling down her chin as she swallowed in heavy gulps.
Smoke seeped through the tower’s cracks, tainting the air with the bitter scent of char. Night cloaked the sky beyond the windows. The beasts had gone quiet, yet the city still burned. Thick plumes rose high enough to swallow the stars.
Nienna would be fine. She was raised among dragons. Smoke had been her companion since childhood. She likely inhaled more than I ever would. Even so, worry gnawed at me. She carried my heir. Would soot settle in her lungs and harm the babe?
She set the cup down and wiped her mouth. “I don’t need a healer.”
“You are the queen. When you wake choking in the night, a healer attends you.” I bristled, then rose to my feet.
“Kallias.” Her voice scraped raw. She stood and took my hand, guiding it to the gentle swell of her belly. Warmth pressed against my palm. “We are fine.”
My jaw tightened, knowing she was right. Still, I shouldn’t have allowed her to ride into that siege. Could she? Yes. Should she have? No.
Love was messy, unraveled logic. It was easier when I had one goal in mind—to secure Radaan’s future.
Now I lay awake over a cough. It was absurd.
Greaves would say I had softened, and he had every right to insinuate as much.
As queen she could’ve remained in Reem, ruling in my stead.
Instead, she chose fire and bloodshed. She wanted to be here—and I wanted her at my side.
I was selfish, just as Bac had accused. Yet I couldn’t bring myself to order her away. Not that she would actually go. Tsunami would probably swallow me whole if I tried.
My fingers pressed against her stomach while her breath rasped in the quiet room. I forced my shoulders to ease and let out a sigh. “Blow your nose. Clear as much from your lungs as you can.”
A faint smirk curved her mouth. “You behave as if I have never stood near dragonfire.”
“I’ve never been dragged from sleep by someone hacking up a lung.” I followed her into the bathing chamber.
She wiped her nose, and the white linen came away smeared with black. Water splashed in the basin as she rinsed her mouth and flushed her nostrils. I remained in the doorway, watching each movement.
Moonlight pierced the drifting smoke outside and brushed her in silver. The thin fabric of her nightgown caught the glow, outlining the graceful line of her body.
She was no forged warrior. Her frame lacked heavy muscle. Yet steel hardened beneath her skin. Each time I tried to restrain her, she pushed back. Nereus’ words returned to me. She was my Tsunami. A wave powerful enough to drown me—my own wild dragon that would not be contained.
“I tire of this already.” She groaned, then faced me with arms folded tight across her chest.
I gestured to myself, still planted in the doorway. “I’m not doing anything.”
“You cluck like a hen.” She stalked toward me. “All puffed-up feathers, squawking worry over nothing.”
“My dear wife, did you just compare me to a chicken after I stormed an entire city?” Ease settled into my bones. This came naturally, this friendship with her.
“If memory serves, my dragons definitely had something to do with that.” Her fingertips danced across my chest, then drifted lower, skirting the grooves of my abs.
“I’ll keep that in mind the next time you erupt in a fit of coughs.
” I lifted a brow, pretending her touch didn’t light a fire within me.
Greaves would return any moment, medic in tow.
And I already had my fill of her after the siege—it would be too much to take her again so soon. “I shall attempt to suppress my guilt.”
Her hand closed around the front of my trousers, a breath above where I craved it most. “I would burn them all—every soul who dared rise against you. Every enemy of Radaan would turn to ash. A few coughs are but a small price for such pleasure.”
Her jaw stiffened with fierce certainty. Dark eyes gleamed—and I knew without doubt she would like nothing better than to set Tallon and his followers aflame. My breath hitched when her fingers slipped beneath my waistband.
“Your Majesty?” The chamber door creaked open.
My frustration surged, hot and irrational, followed by the agony of her touch leaving my skin. Her soft laugh teased my ears as she moved past me to greet the medic.
I couldn’t send her away. I could no more smother her fire than command my own heart to stop beating.
She would blaze.
And I would bask in her light.