Chapter 17
SEVENTEEN
GAVIN SMYTH
I want to let myself think about what life could be like for us after all of this. If “us” is even possible. But if I let myself get lost in those thoughts, I’m not sure I’ll ever leave.
—UNSENT CORRESPONDENCE FROM QUEEN ARYELLA I TO THE BUTCHER OF NYRIDA
13th of Helios, 402 Years Ago
We rode out of the city on a black horse to a small, secluded lake with clear water, surrounded by foliage.
The only break in the trees was an alcove large enough to tie off the horse to feed in the grass and rest. My friend Victor and I had been coming here since we were young.
I dismounted and offered both arms to lower her.
“I can get off a horse on my own, you know,” she giggled.
“I know, but let’s not pretend I’m willing to forfeit an opportunity to touch you. May I?”
Her chest brushed mine as she kissed me on the way down. She watched as I removed my shirt, biting her bottom lip at the sight of my bare torso.
“Can I touch you?” she asked breathlessly. Just when I thought my erection couldn’t get any worse…
I laughed, the sound gravelly and hoarse. “Never ask me that again.”
“Why?”
“Because the answer will always be yes.”
Smiling bashfully, she trailed her fingers down my abdomen, lingering over the dark chest hair across my pectoral, then following the trail down to my navel. She stood close enough that her short breaths stuttered across my skin.
I didn’t want her to stop. It was pure, beautiful torture.
My eyelids fluttered closed when the tip of her finger met the top of my belt.
Keep it together.
“Swimming?” I asked, voice strained.
She blinked multiple times and stepped back. “Sure. You start. I’ll watch.”
I jumped right in to cool myself off from more than just the heat.
While I swam, she sat on the edge of the rock, bare feet dangling over turquoise waters so clear you could see the bottom.
The sun’s rays danced in the water’s lazy flow.
Below me, the rocky floor dropped off sharply.
Where I stood now, I could reach it, but she wouldn’t be able to.
I hoped she would join me, but her heart-shaped face was drawn tight in thought. Something was bothering her.
I reached into the back pocket of my pants beneath the water, retrieved a silver coin, and rested it in her lap. “For your thoughts?”
Her eyes watered. “You remembered that?”
“Of course.” I folded my arms on the rock and rested my chin on top. Was no one listening to her in that castle? “I remember everything.”
She hummed nervously. “That sounds like a lot of work.”
Not when you’re all I think about.
“What’s on your mind?” I rephrased.
“Nothing.” She shook her head and forced a smile. I suspected she’d grown accustomed to forcing her smiles. “It’s your birthday.”
“Then, for my birthday, I’m asking you to tell me what you’re thinking about.”
Her delicate throat flexed with a swallow. “I should tell you something.”
My mind started to race with what it was. She had a betrothed. A lover. An injury. An illness.
“I have… powers,” she admitted.
My mouth opened and closed a few times before I managed, “Please go on.”
Sharing details about her secretive life was a risk she chose to take, despite hardly knowing me. I wasn’t sure I’d ever understand what I’d done to deserve her trust, but I wouldn’t squander it.
She primly folded her hands in her lap. “I have a power for each of the twelve gods.”
My heartbeat whooshed in my ears. I’d only heard of magic, never seen it. From her, mostly. Her uncle’s spells and potions, her mother’s clairvoyance, Molochai’s corrupted shadows.
Gracelessly, all I could offer was, “ Twelve? ”
“You don’t believe me.” She stared at her hands, uncrossing her legs to stand, lost to her panic. “I shouldn’t have?—”
“Ella.” I stopped her with a hand on her knee. “Of course I believe you. Why wouldn’t I?”
She warily searched my face. She was flighty, so eager to give her trust but quick to withdraw it at the slightest sign of betrayal.
She longed for companionship but was told she couldn’t trust anyone.
And could I blame her? Twelve powers? On top of being the future queen?
It had to feel like an insurmountable burden.
I patiently held her gaze until she finally relaxed. “Will you show me?” I asked, brushing my thumb over the bare skin of her knee. “If you want.”
“You want me to show you?”
“Of course!” I shouted a little too excitedly. A few birds scattered from the trees, but she finally smiled and laughed again. Worth it.
“Well, my uncle gives me something to tame the powers. I take it monthly.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. “Why would he want to tame you?”
“Because I could easily hurt someone. I can’t control it well. He doesn’t make it strong enough to suppress them entirely. It’s safer for everyone.”
For everyone but her, I deduced.
Her uncle could go fuck himself.
“I’m not worried about you hurting me.” Not physically. Emotionally, she could destroy me. “But show me one of the safer ones to start, if you’re more comfortable.”
She settled into serene concentration and hovered her palm over the water. Delicate shoulders rose and fell with a slow, controlled breath. She wiggled her fingers gently over the water’s surface. The lake’s surface tension began to ripple and break as if she was touching it.
She turned her hand sideways and curled her fingers inward, cupping the air.
When she lifted her hand up, the water followed , rising and recycling in a continuous stream.
When she turned her palm toward the sky, the water flowed up like a gushing fountain.
The water’s movement was almost as entrancing as she was.
Her hand turned, and a small ball of water broke off and drifted left, hovering in the air between us. Her mouth twitched, and the water took the shape of a tiny horse that ran circles around the fountain.
“My gods.” I shook my head at her in utter disbelief. “You’re a miracle.”
“Hardly,” she scoffed. When she dropped her hand, the water fell to the surface with a plop .
“That was the second most spectacular thing I have ever seen in my life.”
She peered at me curiously. “And the first?”
I looked her straight in the eyes and said, “You.”
Her warm, apple cheeks reddened. “I don’t?—”
“ That look specifically.” I pointed to her face, nervous minutes ago, now bright with joy. “You, happy .” Her magic was brilliant, but it was her smile that made me a possessive madman eager to whisk her away to somewhere we’d never be found. “Will you show me another?”
She rolled her lips together. I followed the movement while voracious heat stirred low in my stomach. Everything she did was delectable.
“Which one?” she asked.
My thoughts shifted to the gods. I’d read about them plenty, but the specifics eluded me. I would remedy that as soon as I returned home. I pressed my tongue to the inside of my cheek and felt the heat on my skin. Heat . My birthday month. “Can you do fire?”
She cringed. “That one’s not very safe.”
“We’re surrounded by water. It’ll be fine,” I assured her. “And if you burn something, I’ll help you put it out.” I smirked. “But only if you want to.”
Her nerves galvanized the air between us, but the moment I placed my hand on her knee, she relaxed. Her gentle exhale caressed my cheek. As much as I calmed her, she calmed me, too.
“Okay.” She lifted her hand. Just like before, her concentration stilled the air around us.
Within seconds, a flame ignited and burned at the center of her palm.
She stared directly into the fire, her wide eyes a mirror of heat and angry light.
Goose bumps spread across my body when, for the first time, I saw something I didn’t know she was capable of.
Anger. Traces of it. Weaker than her love and kindness but still there. I wasn’t afraid of it. Hatred and fury were old friends of mine. But I knew, watching her, that only the gods themselves would be able to save whoever deserved her wrath.
I calmly rested my hand on her outstretched arm. “Come back to me, Aryella.”
At the sound of my voice, her eyes cleared. The flames scattered, and white-hot, searing pain erupted across my upper arm.
“Shit!” I reeled back. The initial sting faded quickly into heat and a dull ache, which told me the burn wasn’t deep. This wasn’t my first encounter with fire. “Well, damn.”
“Gavin!” She stared in horror at the straight line of the burn across my arm and grabbed my wrist. “Oh, gods!”
My smile disappeared at the sight of her distress and onslaught of tears. “Hey, no, it’s alr?—”
“I’m so sorry! Gods, I’m so sorry!”
“I’m fine, Ella.” I flattened her hand between my palms and stroked her knuckles with my thumb to calm her, then peered over the arch of my shoulder. The skin was bright red and indented where the outer layer had melted away. It was gruesome, but I’d seen skin charred deep enough to reveal bone.
“But I hurt you!” Her wide, fearful eyes reached places inside me I didn’t know existed. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen her distraught or the first time I wanted to kill whoever made her so distraught. Only this time, that person was me.
“I’ve been burned plenty of times before,” I chuckled. “I’m a blacksmith, remember? Besides, you’ve marked me.”
“ What? ” she croaked. “What do you mean?”
I cupped her face. “I mean I want every part of you I can get. I want your mark on me.”
Every time I looked at the scar, I would remember this moment.
Her in a light cotton dress, bare feet dangling in the water, silver-blond hair mussed from my hands and damp with sweat at her temples, flyaway hairs glowing around her heart-shaped face like a halo.
The freckles over the bridge of her nose, her lips swollen from my mouth, curved into the most breathtaking smile I had ever and would ever see.
Those green, gold-specked eyes that saw me as more than just a bastard blacksmith.
If ever she decided to leave me and move on to something or someone better—though I detested the thought—I would cherish these moments with her for the rest of my life.