CHAPTER TWO
A featherlight touch brushed my shoulder.
I jerked, instinct spearing my magic toward the contact. But nothing happened, my power as burned out as the ashen house around me.
I slouched against Beck’s door, my hair dangling in wet clumps around my face. The pale skin poking out from my fresh shirt was scrubbed an angry red, the Tablors’ blood already washed down the drain and consumed by the Hasting. I’d left my clothes burning in the hearth in my flat.
My fist was inches from the smooth wood, where it had been dangling for the past five minutes. Blood and Beck were a frequent blend. But this? How much accusation would flood his expression when he learned of what I’d done this time? I wasn’t sure I could bear it.
But it didn’t matter. Beck always knew when I needed him, knew when I was desperate for the escape of his hard body and eager kisses. The door opened and he didn’t say a word. He didn’t need to.
He stepped into me and I fisted my hands in the front of his shirt.
My eyes fluttered shut. His heat hit me a second before his lips, each hard kiss as desperate as I was.
I sucked in a wild breath and slid my hands up his chest and behind his neck.
My fingers curled into his scalp as his cupped my ass.
He dragged me up his body, and his answering moan was a purr that cut through the chaos in my head.
I clung to him harder and wrapped my legs around his hips as he kicked the door shut.
He carried me to his bed and lowered me to the familiar spot at its foot, where I’d buried a thousand sins in soft down and silken sheets.
I propped myself on my elbows and watched as he unbuttoned his shirt.
It fell down his arms and he tossed it over the back of a chair, my attention homed in on every movement.
Every flutter of soft light that played on the hard lines of his abdomen.
Each ripple of lean muscle as he started on his pants.
I dragged my bottom lip between my teeth and clamped down, the sharp bite of pain another link on the chain that tethered me to this moment.
The soft thunk of Beck’s pants striking the ground rang like a gong, and I suddenly couldn’t get out of my clothes fast enough.
I tore my shirt off and hiked up my hips so he could tug off my pants.
His composure evaporated and he fell on me, his lips finding mine in the same moment he thrust inside me.
His warmth swept away the chill that had seeped into my bones. I sighed against his mouth and reveled in the feel of having company inside the prison of my flesh. My head tipped back as I lost myself in his grinding hips and the hungry kisses he trailed down my neck and over my peaked nipples.
“Harder.” I angled my hips and dragged my nails down the plane of his back.
He obeyed, his rapid breaths hot against my neck. Pleasure coiled in my abdomen, and I mercilessly drowned absolutely everything in the feel of him. In his hard body and even harder cock that drove me to the brink of oblivion.
I plunged into that silky darkness and clung to it, wringing out every shred of pleasure I could. Beck slowed and rocked into me until my moans shifted into deep breaths and I went limp beneath him.
His forehead fell to my collarbone, a muscle in his jaw fluttering against my flushed skin. I shoved against his shoulders.
He relented and rolled onto his back but shook his head when I tried to crawl between his legs. “No,” he breathed, his eyes drawing open. “I’ll take care of it later.”
“Beck—”
He cut me off with a sharp jerk of his chin. “I just need to know you’re okay. And what happened.” His muddled gaze shifted into razor focus.
Any lingering pleasure evaporated, and my gut twisted with the memory of why I was here in the first place. I pursed my lips and looked away from the sincerity burning in his eyes.
Our scattered clothes and an avalanche of council documents on a table across the room were the only things out of place.
My gaze jumped between a bookshelf with neatly stacked volumes and a jungle of branches and perches mounted to the far wall for Astra, before settling on a tiny crack in the ceiling.
I swallowed hard but tossed my shoulder in a lazy shrug. “You already know what happened.” The words came out weaker than I’d intended. “But I found a note from Griffon telling them where to meet him. He had arranged a shipping contract with the Alarin gargoyles in exchange for a cartload of coin.”
Beck didn’t answer, and I finally turned back to him. He was staring at a corner of the room, his eyes distant and brows knitted together.
I ran my finger over his tight lips and rigid jaw. “Beck?”
He dragged his gaze to me and his expression was a twisted mix of emotions I couldn’t place. His jaw ticked and he opened his mouth but slammed it shut just as fast.
“What’s wrong?” I pressed, anxiety skittering down the ridges of my spine. I scooted closer to him and laid my hand on his chest. His heart was pounding.
His gaze remained locked on mine for another breathless moment, but he shook his head and looked away. “Nothing. I just hate all of this. I miss when we were kids and the worst thing we had to worry about was pissing off Calvin and Jade.” He chuckled but it was brittle; off.
I tried to smile at the memory of our grouchy neighbors but my lips refused to tip.
My cheeks burned, my skin prickling with the shame that gripped my chest. He couldn’t even look at me.
I picked at a tiny speck of blood that I could swear still hid beneath my fingernail and tried to breathe past the tightness in my throat.
“Yeah,” I finally managed. “The stonetalons ruined everything.” I pushed myself off the bed and dragged my pants on, the material rough against my sensitive skin.
“But I’m going to fix it.” A button on my shirt caught in my hair and I jerked it free, the sound of ripping loud in the silence.
Beck watched me, still laying naked on the bed. “Soon, Griffon dies.”
“And then what?”
I paused trying to shove my shoe on my foot. “And then I find the next bastard who had something to do with it.”
His chin dipped in a slow nod, his swallow visible from where I stood a few feet from the bed. “I thought you’d say that.” His fingers fidgeted with the rumpled blankets.
My eyes narrowed on him. “What the hell does that mean?”
The shrug of his shoulders was as affected as mine had been. “Nothing.” He dragged a hand down his face until it rested on his chin. “You know it won’t actually fix it, right? They’ll still be dead?”
“And the stonetalons will be dead with them.” I turned on my heel and stalked toward the bedroom door. “Thanks for the pity fuck,” I tossed over my shoulder. “Or whatever in the four moons this is nowadays.”
“Lyd.” Beck snared me with the word, his soft tone one I could never resist.
I drew a deep breath and whipped back around. “What?”
His gaze lingered again, that tangle of emotions emanating off him in a wave that smacked me in the face. “Be careful,” he whispered. “You have no idea what will be waiting for you.”
I nodded sharply. “Sure.” I flung the door open and stalked from Beck’s room and the now oppressive smell of sex that hung as thick in the air as all the words we didn’t say.
I wandered through Council, taking a long route to the north ferry to avoid the house. The few late-night stragglers roaming the streets gave me a wide berth. Most in Vircann knew my face and the power I channeled. Not many were willing to cross me because of it.
I toyed with the hilt of my father’s dagger once I made it to the stone platform at the edge of the canal, but I didn’t have to wait long for a boat to drift toward me. It was empty save the ferryman, his heavy cloak discarded on the seat in front of him despite the frigid night.
“Where to, Lady Lydia?” he asked as I stepped aboard.
“Just a lap, Jonas. And then the north Dwellings dock, please.”
He nodded and worked a long oar through the water as we drifted down the narrow canals that meandered between the districts. Sheer-sided mountains loomed over the city, surrounding Vircann’s bay on three sides. Their peaks were dusted with snow. Soon, it would blanket the city, too.
I sighed and leaned over the edge of the boat, trailing my fingers through the crystal-clear reflections of Gideon’s and Etain’s moons.
My eyes drifted shut and I focused on the bitter cold and rhythm of the water lapping against the canal walls.
Too soon, Jonas guided the boat to the small dock at Dwellings and I slid from my seat.
Dwellings’ south side was crammed with blocks of small flats and crumbling buildings.
So close to Docks, the din of ships and their nocturnal crews never ceased.
Every step away from the constant noise gave rise to larger flats until the island’s northern tip, where obscene estates were fenced off and guarded.
Not even I could gain entry—at least not without threats.
I trudged to the top floor of my building, a couple blocks south of that fence that separated the poor bastards from the lucky few afforded a life of ease and excess.
It was lost on none of us that we’d been just one different fucking away from life on the other side.
I opened my door and just stood there, staring at the bare walls.
My keys struck the ground and jerked me out of the trance.
My gaze fell to my empty hand. After a moment, I sighed, retrieved the keys, and dumped them along with my socks and shoes by the door.
My toes curled into the thick rug as I drifted to the sleek black piano that sat in the corner, near a large window that overlooked the sea.
I hooked a foot around a leg of the bench and jerked it out before collapsing onto the soft cushion. My shoulders caved and my eyes fell shut. Tears trickled down my cheeks.
My fingers rose to the keys and settled on the left side, where the deep tones of the lower octaves called to the darkness that had long strangled my heart.
My shaking fingers depressed three keys, the chord filling my small flat with a heavy tone.
I teased out a slow melody that shredded the fragile peace I’d scraped together in Beck’s bed.
As the last note rang out, I took a shaky breath. My fingers slipped off the keys. I stared at my hands, but it was Griffon’s face I saw, overseeing the destruction of my past, present, and future. My fingers curled into fists.
“On Gideon’s full moon, you die,” I vowed. “And when your corpse is burning, it will all be worth it.”