Chapter 30
Iyana
Iyana used the bronze key to unlock the door before squaring her shoulders and sighing.
“You may as well come in, Altair.”
Her star—but he wasn’t her star, she reminded herself—melted out of the shadows and stalked towards her. Iyana had to calm her heart from racing. It wasn’t fair for him to be so handsome. And it wasn’t fair for him to look at her like she was everything to him.
“How long have you known I was there?” he asked.
“Since I walked in.”
That was why she’d convinced Emmeric to stay downstairs. Iyana understood herself and knew she needed time alone with Altair to have closure on their relationship. He didn’t scare her anymore. She held the door wide open, and he strode past her, his arm brushing against hers.
Emmeric, she projected down the bond. Iyana felt his surprise; it was the first time she’d actively reached out to him this way. Altair is here.
Now there was pure panic, followed swiftly by rage.
Are you okay?
I’m fine. Don’t come up. I need to talk to him for a minute. I’ll call for you if I need you.
Iyana could feel his hesitation, but Emmeric relented.
Be careful. Something like a caress traveled over her mind, and Iyana shivered. Altair quirked a brow at her reaction, and she hoped he didn’t think it was because they had touched.
The room was small, and most of the space was occupied by the bed, so Iyana was forced to stand in close proximity.
She debated sitting on the bed, but she didn’t want Altair to look down on her more than he already did due to their height difference, and she didn’t want to convey the wrong message.
Altair reached out a hand like he was going to touch her face, and Iyana flinched back from him.
His hand dropped awkwardly to his side, and his eyes flashed.
“Iyana, I’m sorry.”
Iyana crossed her arms. She leveled him with her best healer’s glare—the one that would force the truth out of stubborn men who didn’t want to tell her how they had actually injured themselves or what they’d eaten that had upset their stomach.
“I never wanted to hurt you. I love you. You’re my astalle. I need you to know I never wanted to hurt you.”
“The sad thing, Altair, is that I believe you. That doesn’t change anything, though. You still made your choices and you hurt me. I loved you, and you threw away any chance we might have had.”
Altair winced, probably at her use of past tense. Iyana gazed upon his chiseled face with his striking, golden eyes and his bright blonde hair, and she felt…nothing.
“I can’t believe I ever thought you were beautiful,” she murmured, but of course he still heard her. Iyana was almost sorry because of the hurt on his face—she hadn’t meant to say that out loud.
“Tell me what I need to do to fix this, Iyana. Please.”
She shook her head.
“So, what, you’re just going to run into Sullane’s arms, then?”
Iyana frowned. “I don’t love Emmeric.”
Altair leveled her with his own stare. “Don’t you?”
And because she was too much of a coward to delve into that question any further, she brought it back around to the star who had betrayed her instead. Anger was easier to wield than facing uncertainty.
“Emmeric has nothing to do with us, Altair. I think I was extremely vulnerable after my village had been attacked, after Imo’s death—”
Altair winced.
Understanding bloomed within Iyana, churning her stomach and threatening to lose the bland soup she’d eaten for dinner. Tears flooded her vision.
“You killed her,” she whispered.
“Iyana, you have to understand, that was before—” He took a step towards her and Iyana scrambled backwards until she hit the door. Fresh rage overtook her.
“Before what?”
“Before I knew you were my astalle.”
“And the necklace?”
Altair’s hand drifted towards his pocket, and Iyana was surprised to find that he had kept it.
A war broke out between her heart and her mind.
She’d loved that necklace because it was made from her grandmother’s ashes; it had brought her significant comfort, but it had been forged by this duplicitous creature standing before her.
“I felt terrible,” Altair said quietly. “I know how much she meant to you, and I wouldn’t have done it if I had known you were my astalle. But it seemed necessary at the time. She knew too much about the stars. She would have told you everything, and I never would have earned your trust.”
She almost wanted to laugh. Iyana couldn’t believe she’d been so na?ve. The answer had been in front of her the entire time, but she had fallen into Altair’s easy embrace, absorbing his comforting lies, and willfully ignoring all the warning signs.
“Get out,” she said softly. She wanted to be alone for a minute before Emmeric came up to bed. Iyana could already sense his questions on the other side of their bond. No doubt he’d been feeling her emotions flowing from acceptance, to anger, to sadness and back.
“Iyana, please, let’s—”
“Get. Out.”
“Please, astalle—”
That word. That godsdamned word shattered something inside of Iyana. All the fire within her body was suddenly in her hands, and she thrust them towards this person she used to love, who had broken her so thoroughly.
“Get out!” The fire streamed from her hands in a blaze, heading straight for Altair’s heart. She would burn him. She would kill him for what he had done to her. To Imo. To Emmeric and Zane and Talon.
Altair’s eyes widened, and then he was gone—disappeared in the blink of an eye—and all that magic barreled into the opposite wall, catching the drapes on fire.
Iyana collapsed to the ground, her magic doused by her rage, and she dropped her face into her hands and wept. The door burst open behind her.
She heard Emmeric’s voice. “Iyana—oh shit.” It sounded like he was beating at the fire, trying to put it out. Then his arms were around her. She leaned into him, soaking up his warmth, taking comfort from the one person she could always count on.
Don’t you?
Altair’s accusation floated through her mind, but she shoved it away and clutched onto Emmeric’s shirt. He hauled her into his lap and sat there with her on the floor, stroking her hair and whispering comforting words.
Don’t you?
Gods, Iyana needed her mind to shut up. All she was asking for was a few moments of silence so she wouldn’t have to think or feel. Her sobs slowed, and she emerged from Emmeric’s shirt, gazing up into his deep blue eyes. He wiped the tears and hair off her face, his throat bobbing as he swallowed.
Surging forward, Iyana found his lips with her own.
She remembered what he had said—that he wouldn’t fuck her until she wanted all of him—and after she’d bypassed her anger, Iyana had understood his reasoning and even respected it.
It was why she hadn’t propositioned him again or sent him any dirty thoughts, despite the hilarious look on his face that day.
But right then, she needed something to take her mind off all her myriad of problems.
Please don’t pull away. Iyana didn’t think she had sent him the thought, but Emmeric gripped her hair in his fist and brought her closer, deepening their kiss. She moaned into his mouth. Their tongues danced together, and Iyana felt like she could drown in the sensation.
Emmeric broke apart to trail warm kisses across her jaw and down her neck before nipping at her ear.
“You need a distraction, Mouse?”
Whimpering, she nodded.
“I can do that.” His hand caressed her side, brushing against her breast in a featherlight touch. She needed so much more from him.
“I thought you said you wouldn’t fuck me until I wanted all of you,” she said, breathless, and Iyana hated that the words exited her mouth. But she needed to know that he wanted this too, and that she wasn’t manipulating him into doing something rash.
Emmeric tugged her back slightly so that he was looking directly at her. Those beautiful blue eyes conveyed an amount of intensity that took Iyana’s breath away.
“I did say that. But I find myself weak and unable to deny you anything. You could ask me for the moon right now and I would find a way to give it to you, even if I had to defy Yrza herself.”
More protests and questions sprang to Iyana’s lips, but then he was kissing her again.
Emmeric turned her so that she was sitting sideways in his lap, and then he began trailing his fingers along her waistband.
Tingles followed in their wake. She needed more.
Iyana thrust her hips forward and Emmeric chuckled against her mouth.
“Patience,” he murmured.
While one hand kept a firm grip on her hair, his other traveled underneath her tunic, grazing lightly over her skin.
He was teasing her, but her mind was blissfully blank.
Iyana gasped when he pinched her nipple, rolling it between his fingers.
The pain shot a bolt of pleasure right to her core. Emmeric nipped at her lip.
“My timid mouse likes things rough.” His voice was a deep rasp.
Emmeric caught her lower lip in his teeth and tugged gently.
Iyana moaned. Her fingers wound into Emmeric’s dark hair, eliciting a moan of his own.
Smiling against his mouth, she pulled his hair slightly.
That small motion seemed to break Emmeric.
He crashed his lips into hers, thrusting his tongue into her mouth.
Iyana gladly took all of him—wanting and needing it all.
His hand finally ventured below her waistline, and Emmeric groaned when his fingers found her wet center.
Iyana gasped as he rolled light little circles around her clit.
The harsh quality of his kissing mixed with the gentleness of his hand made her dizzy.
He ran his fingers down, and excruciatingly slowly inserted one finger into her.
Iyana’s hips bucked against his hand. She wasn’t too proud to beg, but Emmeric was occupying her mouth so thoroughly, she was unable to speak.
A small whimper was all she could manage.
Emmeric took the note of encouragement and withdrew, only to slam two fingers into her aching pussy.
His thumb continued their circles over that most sensitive area, but he gradually increased the pressure.
Iyana clutched his body to hers as she teetered on the edge of bliss.
Her pleasure built and built, and when Emmeric curled his fingers in just the right spot, Iyana exploded.
With a cry, Iyana came around Emmeric’s fingers. He coaxed out every drop of pleasure possible, and then she collapsed into his arms. Emmeric peppered kisses across her face, mouth, and neck.
Iyana dropped her hands to Emmeric’s pants, feeling how much he wanted her.
And then, in a way that she knew would embarrass her in the morning, her body went entirely slack.
The emotional and physical exhaustion overtook her, and Iyana’s eyes drifted shut.
She felt Emmeric press a small kiss onto her forehead, and then she was being lifted and carried into a soft bed.
With a satisfied hum, Iyana curled her body around Emmeric’s and fell into a deep, restful sleep.
Emmeric
He was so fucked.
How quickly he had folded up his own boundaries and tossed them out the window was honestly impressive. But when Iyana had looked at him with that teary gaze...
Emmeric didn’t regret offering her the distraction.
There was no world in which he could regret pleasuring her, or having her warm body nestled next to his.
He glanced down at her sleeping face—actually relaxed, for once, and free of nightmares.
A smirk crossed his face. He had done that.
Primal male satisfaction suffused him. It didn’t matter that his cock was still hard and aching to be touched.
He could wait. He would wait, because he knew Iyana still had doubts about them and didn’t actually want to be together.
Emmeric would try his hardest to hold out until she finally saw what was right in front of her, and how great the two of them could be.
Just how long he’d be able to last before giving in, though, Emmeric didn’t know.