Chapter 15

H eep lost no time in finding her, which Vala took as a bright moment in an otherwise terrible evening. She had left the dinner hall and walked—no, drunkenly staggered —along a marble corridor with the two guards, when he materialized from a Dynn opening before her.

"I need to speak to your charge," he said to the guards. "A private matter on behalf of Emperor Luiximor."

The guards quickly stood to attention and she remembered he was an imperial advisor. Standing in such elegant surroundings, he looked like a scarecrow with his scrawny body, black suit and limp, straw hair. Even the hint of gold in his lapel did not save the frightful impression made.

He turned to her and his face sagged because his mouth had opened. "My dear girl. What a joy this is."

"Heep, I assure you…" She stifled a hiccup and tried to curtsey. "The pleasure is more mine than yours."

He looked her over. "Stop with the pretense. I need to talk to you."

She twirled her gown, head thrumming with alcohol. "What do you think? Do I look like a janitor now? If you didn't know me, would you bow to me as if I were a lady?"

He looked disgusted and held out a hand to stop her movement. "I can simply feel your rage. You are a terrible actor."

"I only do this because I need your help," she said, trying to sound injured.

He waited.

"Can we talk in private?" She stepped closer to him, her voice pleading. "I can't speak with the guards so close…you understand."

"Anything you have to say is hardly a private matter,' he replied.

She glared, confused. "What you told me in the car…that is not secret?"

He shrugged. "It is the same as knowing Theves and the Empire hate each other and so plan a marriage between their rulers to prevent a war. If you are not privy to the strategy, then the knowledge is meaningless. Indeed, practically anyone with some Dynn knowledge assumes the Emperor will have a great trade strategy to save his runes during the eclipse. Do you really think so little of the world's Exchanges? You, who simply know how to form equations and perform some nifty trades…you think you know what we have planned out these past decades?"

She gulped down the fear threatening to spill forth. Heep was not going to help her. Indeed, he gloated over the fact that she needed him to escape her fate. Fury rose within her.

She crossed her arms. "Since we first met, you've lied and deceived me. You shoved me in prison for seven years and only freed me to control me again, mocking and belittling me around at the Academy whenever you felt like it. Do you really think I would take such treatment and try to do nothing to stop my fate? "

His lips tightened but he did not look angry. Instead, his lanky frame only shrugged in sad recognition of her response as he turned to the guards. "Please follow us at a distance."

She grimaced as his scrawny fingers poked her arm, forcing her to walk forward. "I will talk to you and you must listen. You can hate me all you like…and trust me when I say there is no fondness on my end for such an entitled, bratty drunk as yourself. But I am stuck with you and have to keep fixing your problems for two more days. Too much has been prepared and the Noventury is too close to see you painfully attempt to ruin Luiximor's future…no, the world's future now."

"Here we go about my unique, opposing rune path." She rolled her eyes as they walked along. "I never… hic …asked to be a part of all this. You stole my future like the monster you are."

She was surprised to see that Heep looked genuinely offended. "Oh, grow up. This is a life and death matter that I speak of. The empire stands to collapse and you're grumping about how unfair your life is. Why is it my rune path? Why am I the chosen one? Well, that's just how things shook out for you in the Pillars of Helel. Do you think that someone like you deserves special treatment? You should be glad of the opportunity to serve the empire, you, whose life is meaningless, can save the emperor's life. That is a noble task for which you should be proud."

She wanted to retort but, damn it all , Heep had a point. She was useless. But was saving the emperor the best use of her pathetic life? She felt like a huge rune equation spun around her head, each part scintillating and shimmering…promising a brilliant and yet wrong solution. A small, cold voice told her that he was right. That the only future for her was to submit to forces greater than fate. Forces that had dictated that she was destined to save the emperor through living the opposite of his vaunted, splendid life. And she hated the idea because it meant that everything horrible that had happened in her life had been her rightful future after all. This was a truth she could not accept. It was all too unfair.

"Do you have anything more to say?" Her response was very quiet.

"Yes, a lot. This is why I found you. You see," and his voice sank lower, "Your hyper-dependable rune path that has been stable for years is showing signs of growth…interference on the eve of the Noventury."

She stared, grasping for words amid a headache that ruined any chance of actual thought. "What does that even mean?"

"Do recall, a market short is a surprise...an unforeseeable event that shocks nearly everyone who expected and traded runes on a different future outcome . Now you're living in the palace, your rune plants are starting to grow and flourish like the emperor's. Your opposing future is growing more aligned to the emperor's runes. You're dining with the emperor, conversing with him, sharing his bed?—"

"I'm not sleeping with Luiximor." She blushed as red as her dress.

"I don't give a damn what you do with your personal life. But the more you engage in similar activities with the emperor, the more YOUR runes positively align to HIS runes." His voice sank to a whisper she barely heard. "You're supposed to be his short…his great opposite, remember? The eclipse is two days away and our trade strategy already falters. You know our machines compute too slowly for revisions to occur in time. We stand the risk of being sitting ducks for the countries of the world to prey upon." He straightened and analyzed her reaction, a thin smile curving his face. "Now have I impressed upon you the terrible urgency of my news?"

They walked up a staircase, Vala barely noticing the ascent, mind buzzing with Heep's speech. Either way, she easily recalled the way back to her room. Her photographic memory had made sure of that, even as her mind spun with questions and wine. "I don't understand. Why would the emperor bring me here if it risks his future?"

"He is a fool in love," Heep sighed. "That was why you needed to board that sunship…to avoid further deviations to your runes. I came so close to succeeding but the emperor disagreed with my advice. He sabotaged me at the docks because he wanted to watch after you himself after you were nearly murdered by Titus and then hunted by Hel…I mean, the police. We all know you were with Titus when he died and he has a powerful friend who desires revenge."

"Well, that's…good?" Was Princess Helen the woman who wanted her dead? It would make sense. Maybe Titus had been a secret lover of hers. Gross. But then, she supposed that gross attracted gross. Cold fear pooled within her stomach. Heep's argument, loathsome though it was, made sense. The emperor was the Masked Man. He had saved her life. He obviously loved her beyond any reason and to the point of harming his future. Heep asked that she realize this unassailable fact and do something to end it.

"So…I need to leave the palace so my rune plants can be pruned back to their original shape and I can still be the great short for the emperor."

"Yes. And you need to leave at once."

She blinked, desperately wishing that her buzzy, happy edge still remained. "And then what? After I've saved Luiximor's future, what happens to me? Do I get to escape or must I marry him?"

He shrugged. "Do you think he really intends you to be his empress?"

Her face went numb at the insult.

Heep stepped closer to her. "You're a mud slummer and an ex-convict. A murderer . Whatever fevered dream of reincarnation Luiximor entertains will soon fade when he realizes your complicated upbringing will hardly appeal to his advisors, politicians and other business entities whose approval he so carefully maintains. The best you can hope for is the role of a mistress. Maybe you want that but I assure you, he will not empty his bed for you."

Her lips clamped shut. Heep loved to belittle her. Make her feel worthless and helpless. He was unaware of the emperor's secret identity. Luiximor as the Masked Man had saved her life and loved her with a passion that felt raw and oh, so real , even if he was annoying, confusing, and prickly at times. It didn't matter if Luiximor thought he knew her from a prior life. His emotions were real and as such, they protected her. She was done with Heep's lies. Going forward, she would negotiate her terms of freedom with Luiximor himself.

"My rune path does not belong to you," she coldly interrupted. "The emperor saved me from you and your lies. He brought me here." She continued, choosing the words Heep would hate most to hear. "I'm going to become the empress, Heep. I will not help you."

It was his turn to be furious. "You're a selfish, stupid girl. Don't you care about the millions of people who will suffer if the market crashes and Luiximor falls from power? We will have global war as countries attack a weakened empire, eager to become the next superpower. How does that not spark you to support a greater cause?"

Her body filled with such anger, she thought she would be sick. "Greater cause? I rotted in prison for years and no one cared about me. Why the fuck should I help the world now? My friends are dead and hiding because of me. You had over a century to figure out how to save the empire from this eclipse. Go find someone else to help you."

"There is no one else. Your rune path is highly unique."

He looked so miserable that under any other circumstance, she would have pitied him. They halted before her closed bedroom door. The guards decorously remained further down the hall. Heep glanced at her and weariness replaced the rage within his pale eyes. "Am I to understand that you will not leave the palace?"

"No, I will not." She would be damned before Heep knew how badly she wanted to escape.

"The emperor may be powerful and clever, but I unite my sense of reasoning with the runes and yours are not adding up in your favor. I trained you upon the knowledge of the Dynn. You must know that I speak the truth."

"No, Heep," she clenched her teeth, "You did not train me. That is a lie. I figured out the knowledge of those books. I designed those equations over years of practice. You have done nothing for me and you never will."

Heep spared a look over his shoulder at the guards and dropped his voice even further. "Then I will tell you this, and I hope it is enough. Be careful your senses do not deceive you during your brief interlude in the emperor's favor. Not all good things glitter."

It was the same witticism that the Thevian prince had used. "I don't understand."

Heep's thin laugh mocked her even as his whisper shivered in her ears. "It's a common enough saying around this palace, as you will soon learn. It means to be careful of Luiximor's magic."

He opened the Dynn and departed into the black world without a farewell.

Greeta had a merry blaze going in the bedroom fireplace. The heat felt warm and enclosing as Vala entered the room and slammed the door upon the watchful guards. She met her with a broad smile that faded.

"Are you alright?"

Vala was so distraught by the events of the evening and the compression of the dress which made it difficult for her to breathe, let alone think, that she barely remembered that Greeta could shape up to be her only friend in the palace. Besides, Greeta asking a question was progress .

"I am not doing well at this whole nobility act." She waited as Greeta loosened the clasps on the dress, taking a grateful breath. "I wish the emperor had never brought me here. I don't belong and I don't want to belong."

The woman assessed her with inscrutable eyes. "You wish to leave?"

Vala wondered if it was really that easy. "Yes."

"Hmm. Many say that to feel less guilty for staying. In all the years I have worked here, they always come. But, no one ever leaves."

Vala felt that she needed the answer even as she already guessed it.

Greeta handed her a dressing gown of thick velvet. "I like you. I hope you are different."

"Wait," she turned to her, "Why can't people leave?"

The woman paused by the door. "They don't want to. I see you like the velvet robe. Perhaps you are just like the rest after all." With that, she slipped out the door and closed it.

She clenched her fists tight. If Greeta thought money could buy her loyalty, then she was wrong. But then, Luiximor had obviously thought so as did Helen, the drunken Thevian prince, and likely the Imperial Court as well. They were all wrong. She could enjoy feeling warm and with her belly full and yet still want to find her freedom, no matter the cost. She felt the gold and diamond pins in her hair. Part of her wanted to rip them out but she was exhausted. She would tug the pins from her hair later. Scrub off the makeup of the evening. Fall upon that bed with a tired sigh and hope that a few hours of rest as the four moons spun through the sky transformed her problems into opportunities in the morning light.

Heep, damn him , she thought, pouring a glass of wine from a decanter, the crimson liquid a loud splash in the dark stillness. She badly needed to drink after that awful dinner and their conversation. The sharp, painful edges of reality and a hangover were closing in around her and she hated the feeling. A solid gulp and she felt the fiery rush smack her stomach with delicious, steadying warmth. Imperial magic, indeed. She had felt magic when Luiximor, disguised as the Masked Man, had healed her from Titus's attack. Nothing that she felt about Luiximor remotely hinted that he magically manipulated her now. He sought to persuade her to other means…namely, a marriage bed and the intent to keep her safely imprisoned in the palace, but those were obvious, non-magical machinations.

Heep only cared about protecting her, Luiximor's precious short. Her future was not her own. The empire owned her rune plants…or trees…or whatever evil foliage that her runes were sprouting within the Dynn. Despite all the wishes of her heart, she could not enter the Dynn and protect or change her runes. No matter that she was clever and fast with calculations, or that her work had solved important issues across the realm. She was always going to be useful and controllable until?—

She tossed back the rest of the wine. Until her death , she suddenly realized. But of course. Why hadn't she thought of it before? No one had told her what happened after the Noventury. For the emperor's plan to work, he needs a completely, utterly dependable event that is the equal opposite of his power…and that must fail. Heep's words echoed in her mind. After her conversation with Heep, fail held an ominous and final portent.

Yes, that was the answer to this riddle. Her life and her runes would be sacrificed for the emperor. Surely Luiximor did not know her death must occur for his future to grow strong upon her murdered runes. How could he treat her as lovingly as he had? He wanted to marry her, for the sake of all the gods. Unless, he simply played her like a snake toying with a mouse.

She felt the truth of that sentiment and the accompanying rage. She had been deceived in every possible way. Worse, she had allowed such trickery to happen to herself.

The wine glass slipped from her nerveless fingers and smashed onto the floor, red shards skittering across the marble. Suddenly, she had to scream. That itching, aching compulsion to release all the horrors and fears of her heart in a single, loud cry. If she made a sound, the guards would come. The emperor would find out. Everyone in the palace would know she was out of control. The room heated, the fire burned, and the walls folded upon her as their dying cries echoed in her ears ? —

She staggered to the windows. She must not scream.

Her trembling fingers closed on a latch and shoved hard. The window panel swung outward into the night. She leaned over the sill, the icy wind smacking her face. And snow. It was snowing. Gentle, light flurries melted upon her hot skin, falling to speckle the rocky mountain slope. Beyond, a thicker blanket of white partially obscured the golden lights and dark skyscrapers of the city spread out below her. She took a deep, shuddering gulp of air, sucking the cold into her lungs. This was much better. She felt alive again.

A shadow reflected in the open window pane—a man with a hood pulled low upon his face and a Dynn opening vanishing behind him. She spun around as she felt a singular awareness of his presence cause her heart to thump hard.

The Masked Man stood on the far side of the fireplace, the black covering obscuring his face, a heavy cloak shifting around his broad form. Black leather gloves upon his hands shone in the lamplight but his breast no longer twinkled with knives.

" You again. " She exclaimed, unable to breath as emotions too complex to name swelled within her.

His gaze strayed to the shattered wine glass. "You really shouldn't drink so much."

"I'm only drinking because I figured I was alone." She snapped in response, unable to hold back her rage any longer.

He frowned. "You're never alone in the palace. "

She stepped away from the window, around the broken glass, watching him. He met her gaze with sky-blue eyes, stern and assessing. She felt that terrible throb of loneliness that emanated from his form. Why had he come here in his Masked Man garb? She contemplated his concealed face, a warming thought melting through her rage. He must have come to apologize for their dinner quarrel in the guise she preferred. The empire may control her but the god emperor lived within a human frame. He loved her past self and thus, her present body and mind, no matter whether she remembered or not. How absurd that she had thought he wanted her dead. She had been ridiculous. The fears and worries of the past few days had created a monster in her head. His desire to make amends after their quarrel could prove useful to her plans of escape. She needed to figure out how to get him to release her rune plants…at least, enough runes so that she could be free. Then, she needed to get the Helel out of the palace…the empire, too.

She realized that she was no longer out of control with a mission to accomplish. She suddenly felt so much better.

"Why won't you show your face to me?" She joined him before the fire.

"Have I ever?" Came the taut reply.

So, they had gone back to playing games to hide their feelings. She stepped closer, feeling the warmth of his broad shoulders, studying the way his face glowed in the firelight. The magnificent, firm jaw and throat that bobbed suddenly. Was he nervous?

"Luiximor, you don't need to hide from me."

The Masked Man's body reflexively jolted but he made no further movement. She saw a vein twitch upon his neck; felt a wave of anger break from him. She placed her hands upon his chest, upon the reassuring hardness of his toned body under the cloth and leather. He took a deep breath but did not reach out his arms to enfold her as before.

"Luiximor, what is wrong?" She stepped back to study what she could of his face.

"I do not answer to that name." His voice was barely a whisper.

She understood. The pressures of the empire must be heavy and the mask afforded a brief release. "What name do I use? The Masked Man?"

His lips twitched with sudden mirth. "It's not bad."

The attempt at levity melted her heart. Yes, the feeling she loved. She felt so comfortable in his gaze now. Her lips crooked into a smile. "It's awful and you know it. My friends made it up."

He shrugged, studying the flames as though fascinated by their red dance. "Perhaps the name is growing on me. Let me think about it and I will give you my answer by morning."

She deeply breathed. Should she…dare she call him by another name? Would he be swayed or resent her for trying too hard to win him? Well, if he acted weird about it, she would blame the wine.

"How about darling?" Her heart skipped a beat. "Or dearest?"

Whatever humor drifted in his face immediately drained. "None of those names are suitable. We can never belong together like that."

"I'm sorry—" She paused. She did not feel the ugliness that should have accompanied those words. He did not mean them. Heep had probably gotten to him after the dinner and told him about her tampered rune plants. Was this why he had come to her in this old disguise? To request she return to the city below? He did not want her to go and leave him alone again but he was too proud to say so. This was useful information , she thought. Perhaps, he did indeed want her to be gone…but in what way? She bit her lip. She had to be sure they both had the same goal in mind.

She kept her voice neutral, testing the currents of his desire. "If you ask me to leave…I will go."

He wheeled upon her then. His eyes were shards of blue within the shadowed depths. "I want nothing more than for you to depart from this cursed place. But I will not ask it of you. That decision is your own. Your choice. The one freedom that is utterly yours to shape."

She frowned. Everything felt so strange. He stood so withdrawn and sad by the fireplace, arms folded, hard eyes judging her. She needed his touch for reassurance. She laid a hand upon his arm. "Please…what is wrong?"

"Nothing," he breathed angrily.

It was all part of her strategy, she reminded herself, to get him to release her. He had loved her and loved her still. She would use that to her advantage.

She stood on her tiptoes and kissed his resisting lips.

She did not like the tingling, warm feeling that drenched her body when his lips melted upon hers. Feelings at such a time were dangerous.

"Is that what I said during dinner?"

"Stop." He thrust off her hand, sinking back into the deepening shadows. "You should never apologize for speaking your mind."

She stared at him, mouth agape. "I don't understand. Then why? Why do you act so hot and cold?"

His lips again clamped shut as though to prevent a flood of words. "You don't know what is happening. What controls you."

She had never seen him so distraught. Anger overcame her. "I know perfectly well you control my future. You own all of my runes. You dragged me into your palace. You insisted I become your empress. You upturned my life to save your empire from collapse. You have all the strings in your hands." She paused, watching the words take effect. His eyes glimmered upon her lips. She badly wanted to kiss him once more and shoved the feeling away. "But I swear I will endure it all if I can have your love." If he wanted to make her empress, she thought, at least he would be flattered to hear that she wanted him.

"This is all so wrong," he murmured.

"You said you were no gentleman," she bitterly replied.

"Yes, I did say that," his voice was low and hard. "Why couldn't you just obey me and wait in that hotel room? You were safe there."

"I'm here with you now."

His lips thinned. "Always so argumentative…but you're wrong. I can't protect you here."

"I don't believe that."

"Good gods. What will it take to convince your stubborn mind to listen?" He thumped a fist upon the mantle in sudden anger. "What do you need from me? Tell me because I'm at my wits end."

She touched his outstretched arm and felt the muscles tremble under her palm. For all the aloof, distant exterior, he quivered in a mess of emotions. Like her. She wanted to remove that stupid mask and gaze upon the countenance of the greatest man in the world. Make him finally bend to her and break his pretense for good. Then, perhaps, with his control shattered, she could find some respite from the Noventury and plot a way to escape. But she needed to distract him first. Her trembling fingers found the bathrobe cord around her waist. Gingerly, she untied it, letting her robe drift open.

"What are you doing?" His voice was strangled now.

"I need to feel your lips on mine," she sweetly replied.

A slight shrug, and her robe tumbled from her shoulders, and pooled onto the carpet. She stood naked before him, trembling from the cold and adrenaline. She saw his jaw clench hard as his eyes swept the full length of her body with a feral stare that made her heart slam against her chest.

"Don't ask me for that." Again, that muscle pulsed in his neck. "If I do as you wish, I won't be able to stop myself. It won't just end with a kiss."

But he had shown no issue with kissing her at dinner. Why the sudden reluctance? Her lower lip trembled and she made sure that he noticed it. She had a plan to enact and his mask to remove. "I didn't ask for my runes to be a part of all of this."

"That, unfortunately, is not a choice that was given to you," he replied sadly.

"I want you to kiss me again. Please." She flung her bare arms around his shoulders.

His eyes roamed along her skin, burning a path down her bare throat, her heaving breasts, stomach sucked in from the cold, and lower to the part of her thighs; memorizing and claiming every inch of her flesh. Her insides lurched under his stare and an unfamiliar, blissful warmth shuddered deep within her abdomen.

His lips twitched with sudden humor. "By the dark god of the Dynn, Vala, I believe you're begging me."

"I'm not begging!" She blushed, thinking of that night in the hotel. Your mask for a kiss.

"You never have to beg for anything from me."

"But you said?—"

"I changed my mind. I should be the one begging you. I should be on my knees before you and always." He fell silent as his eyes devoured her flesh. "Do you have any idea how much I want you? How many… centuries …I've waited to kiss you again?"

She shook her head. She hated Luiximor, she reminded herself. He simply told her what she wanted to hear in order to get her to obey him. She had to admit he did have a way with words.

"I want you. I want you more than anything I've ever wanted in my life and I've lived a long time."

"This is making it all so difficult," she gasped out her inner thoughts before recovering enough to finish with, "To ask for a kiss."

"You never have to beg me twice." And he was upon her, crushing her lips as if starved.

Somewhere in that breathless kiss, her knees collapsed and his hands grabbed her hips to hold her up. Somehow, all time stopped in the whirl of snow and hiss of embers. His lips were of fire even as his hands clutched her close to his chest, firmly against his body. But he was still in control. His kiss placated her demand but hardly with uncontrollable passion. So, she pressed into his body, melding them together as one. The hardness through the leather pants was unmistakable, as was the shudder that passed through his muscled arms clasping her to his unyielding chest. He did want her. Swiftly his hand grabbed her waist and his leg knocked hers wider, drawing her body even tighter to where she felt his unyielding ridge shove into her throbbing need. The tremor upon his lips suggested his iron grip had slid. As was hers. If she kept kissing him like this, any and all reasonable plans of seduction and revealment would swiftly evaporate. A dim thought broke upon her with burning awareness.

Remove his mask.

And yet, before her fingers could even touch his face, he snatched her wrist. He was so quick, she cursed to herself. For a long moment, his hot eyes burned into hers and his jaw clenched with fury. Then, he smirked .

"Well, that was not at all a nice trick," he flatly stated. "You nearly had me there."

She wriggled under his grasp. "Let me go!"

"But why? You try to seduce me only to tear away my mask? After I poured out my heart? Bright Eyes, you may yet become cruel."

"Cruel?" She winced at the word.

"Hardness and desperation can turn even the best in the world to cruelty. But you are not cruel. Not yet. Only very desperate." His voice softened as if with pity.

She felt like hitting him. Who was he to judge her? "Fine. I want my robe back."

"But why? I'm rather enjoying the view." He grinned.

"You're horrible!"

"Well, yes, I thought we had already established my character." His eyes hotly slid over her breasts and hips.

Her breath caught in her throat. His gloved hand pressed warmly upon her arm. And that other hand clasped her waist with a possessiveness that made her breath catch.

He should be angrier , she thought. Where were the guards to drag her away for trying to attack the emperor? Perhaps, he acted like a different person as the Masked Man…which was an interesting thought. "I don't understand. Why the continued pretense?"

His eyes shone like shards of sky. "I would protect you with my life. I have sworn it before and I do so again. But removing my mask is something you need permission for. As of now, I'm not willing to give it up."

"Luiximor, enough. I'm tired of these stupid games."

His fingers tightened upon her wrist. "Stop calling me that."

"You're not making any sense. Why can't I see your face right now? I've seen you before, several times already."

He languorously sighed. "I now recall a demand made some nights ago. A mask for a kiss. You're rather persistent, aren't you. I should have expected it, given everything else you've done."

She struggled under his clasp. Whatever had happened to staying in control of the narrative? Of seducing him to gain her rune freedom and escape from the palace? Her brain spun and no thoughts were of help to her.

"I don't know what you mean."

He appeared deeply amused now. "Do you remember what I said in return?"

She swallowed hard. "No," she lied even as the words echoed in her mind. I will kiss you in such a way that will make you entirely forget your demand.

His mouth twitched again with humor. "Come now. That fantastic memory of yours can be fairly selective when you're mad."

His lips brushed the full length of her neck, from ear to jugular where his mouth closed hot and firm, lingering in heady need. Her stomach clenched hard in response. It would be useful, she told herself, to fuck the emperor. Perhaps then he would agree to her terms. If there was one thing prison had taught her it was how to shelve her feelings and get the job done in such a way as to not have to repeat it. Further, she did not like the part of her that had begun to want him in every possible way.

He must have caught her intent. Before her knees could bend, he swept her into his arms. "No. I will not have you tonight. Not like that."

"Is it because you're the… emperor ?" She whispered the last part, remembering his denial of his name.

"No," he said shortly.

"Is it my rune path then?" She fought back a smile. The conversation had turned absurd. She lay in his arms and he seemed incredibly damned happy about the situation. He wanted her as much as she needed him. They could be lonely for each other, together.

He frowned bemusedly. "I suppose that should also be a reason I retain my cock to myself tonight."

"So inappropriate," she borrowed his method of smirking and saw his eyebrows shoot up in surprised reply.

"You have no idea how inappropriate I can get." He carried her to the bed. She lay naked before his gaze but she felt no shame. His eyes were too gentle upon her, his touch, so firm and reassuring. He knelt before her and she felt gloved hands brush along the length of her thighs, the leather excitingly coarse upon her skin.

"Look at you, spread out for me like all I could ever desire." He whispered and his breath caused goosebumps to rise. He looped her leg over his shoulder, pinning the other upon the covers with a large hand.

She suddenly moaned as his lips traced up her inner leg. "Wait, should we even be together? Heep said you're influencing my runes badly?—"

He chuckled darkly. "Heep should get laid for once in his life. Maybe then, he'd invent new ways to prune his own runes."

She fell silent. She was fully out of her depth and in uncharted territory as he retained and toyed with Dynn information she had never learned. Could runes be impacted by sex? Was it an intimacy thing or did some physical acts influence the runes more than others? She knew people performed assassinations to shape futures by eliminating rune plants altogether but…what happened if runes could be altered from this world by changes to the human body? The thought was distracting but then so were his gloved fingers. They were making slow, coiling motions upon her flesh and she trembled. The need for his touch pulsed through her, a growing ache that made further thinking impossible. He ran a gloved finger between the lips over her core and then—meeting her eyes—licked it.

"I'm sorry." She had no clue why she was apologizing but… did that even taste good? She saw ecstasy heat his eyes to blue fire. Guess he didn't mind too much then . Then… what did he taste like? She suddenly and badly wanted to find out?—

"—If you're curious, it reminds me of a midnight peach from Islae." His voice was breathy, heady with bliss. "I could eat from you all night. A thousand times more."

She was still processing this statement when he buried his head between her legs and kissed her there . A spasm of fire coiled and twisted in her belly at the initial contact of his lips. His mouth sucked upon her center and his tongue curled within her, devouring her. She moaned, her spine arching hard as the heat spread up her abdomen, tightening her nipples into peaks, making her hands grasp the covers?—

"Do lie still." He leaned forward to plant a kiss upon her neck. His black, leather clad shoulders looming over her, muscles rippling, eyes glinting hard upon her. "Move less and feel more."

He sank upon her with fresh hunger, his fingers thrusting deeply within her. The pulsing heat jerked upward, elevating her nerves into a burning frenzy. A deep, aching throb burst forth from her awaking nub that his tongue enfolded and stroked, answering currents of heat bursting into life within her hips, sending hot shivers to curl her toes. His hold was unyielding. Now his thumb stroked those swollen parts of her and still he kept sucking upon that hardening pearl. Delicious, thrilling pain rocked through her, convulsing her hips and waist with hard shudders. He smiled, his eyes focused upon her arching breasts, her quivering gasps, the sobs that burst from her lips. Perhaps this was too much—a terrible, unanswered ache and desperate need for more . He slipped one and then two of his large fingers within that trembling, shaking center.

"Oh my god!" Her head thudded back into the pillows.

"You're so tight," he muttered, disbelieving. "So wet and needing me. Oh, Vala?—"

He rose and fell upon her then, his mouth devouring her lips as his fingers thrust deep into her core. And she moaned, her body spasming under his weight. She rode his hand, bucking as his fingers did strange and wonderful things to that aching, throbbing spot within her. She wanted more of him inside of her— wanted him with a wild hunger—and she grabbed at his waist belt.

"No, I said not tonight," he groaned, his arms trembling even as his voice clipped out the words in tight control. "One day, we may fuck as strangers or perhaps enemies, which would be horrible, but not tonight. Tonight, this is about you."

A wave of fire broke from her, hot and ready. She trembled before the precipice and saw the flames lap hungrily below. Waiting for her leap. And she wanted their heat now. She wanted to fall. A scream tore from her lips against his clamped fingers, so that the guards outside would not hear.

"Come for me, Bright Eyes." He moved down and languorously swept his tongue over her throbbing nub, licking the cream that ran from her core. That last touch, soft as a feather stroke, proved too great and she fell, crashing into the flames.