Chapter Nineteen

Ellesandra

Time carries a curious nature.

It's often more foe than friend, bathing me in shadows when I dare to glance over my shoulder. The existence of such inky darkness is why I refrain from indulging in sentimental notions. Memories of old are often in the past for a good reason.

Sometimes, however, what you've left behind dares to resurface, remembrance's light sinking its claws deep into the shadows. As is my lot now.

Words fail me as emotion explodes through my chest at a nauseating pace. I'm unable to tear my gaze from him. On the cusp of seven hundred years old, the soft, boyish features I once traced are of the past. In their place are the hardened features of a king, all sharp angles that demand reverence. His silken hair is the same midnight shade my soul remembers. The soft rays of sunlight bathing the chamber in gold makes his hair look more blue than black.

When the blemish beneath my thumb flares to life, I scowl. It's a burn of recognition that recalls every arrogant smirk and broken tear between us. My gaze skips past the bright, cerulean eyes that scan me from head to toe. Much like the men on the battlefield, the cuffs of his onyx doublet are stitched with the Risian crest.

I've known for quite some time that this was inevitable, but the truth is a bitter taste. Each moment over these five centuries has brought me closer to him. Seeing him before me is akin to inhaling a phantom breath and drowning in a current beneath the sea.

Much like his father, when the King of Risian wishes for something, nothing will stand in his way.

The bond sings a symphony that carves out a space in my hollow soul when I meet his gaze. I'm unsure anything could have prepared me for this moment. His eyes are the most vibrant shade of blue I've ever seen, the icy depths swirling with chains that have held the bond and I captive for five hundred years.

In one fluid motion he stands and my breath is stolen. His gaze drops from my face, drinking me in with purpose. Fire licks at every inch of skin his eyes touch. While I'd once believed that Felix was the most beautiful creature the stars bestowed upon the realm, he's devastating as he is now.

His steps are an equal measure of power and grace. Of absolute dominance and control. I crane my neck upward, unable to break the connection that sends a tingle up my spine as he takes a final stride forward. The warmth of his breath fans across my forehead.

"Get out," he commands. The low timbre of his voice skates over my skin.

Strange and familiar faces alike stand at once and filter from the chamber. Despite the dawns rays that stream in, shadows are cast over Warwick's face as he shuffles out of the room.

It's Sianna who threatens to be my undoing, though. Her hand grazes my arm as she passes us by. The pity and admiration swirling behind her bright green eyes when I glance at her waver on the precipice of being more than I can handle.

Each of the remaining fae—who I assume make up the Risian King's council—are silent as they pass. The faint click of the door behind the last man hangs over the pregnant silence descending between us.

As he leans forward, so close that I'm a hair's breadth away from being crushed by his large chest, the bond rejoices. The smirk falls from his lips as he lifts his hand. His bright, azure eyes are far away when he wraps one of the stray curls framing my face around his finger. Despite the fear I've evaded for so long coursing through me, I lean into his touch when his nose skims my cheek.

"It appears your time has run out, Lumina," he whispers. The use of a name I once begged to hear sees gooseflesh erupt over my skin.

Each nerve ending in my body comes to focus as he leans closer and the warmth of his breath caresses the shell of my ear. "You're mine, now and forever."

The faint echoes of footsteps in the corridor fade to become white noise as he inhales deeply. My mind wars with the bond, desperate to remind me of the tragedy that has befallen me at my mirror soul's hand. To remind me of the lives lost, of the blood spilled, and the end I'm sure to meet if I surrender an ounce of my will. Ever resilient, the bond flares to life, countering each thought with a memory of its own. The remembrance of his strong arms that once cocooned me with safety, the utter devotion he's proven a thousand times over.

He doesn't allow me a moment to search for the steely determination that has kept me alive thus far. My sharp inhale fills the chamber as he strikes. His long, elegant fingers sink into the thick locks of hair at the nape of my neck. The pebbled peaks of my breasts brush against his chest as he wrenches my head upward.

His thumb grazes my cheek in a featherlight touch and he hairs on the back of my neck rise. The fire ablaze in his indigo eyes caresses the innermost shadows of my being and singes a hole through the darkness shrouding my soul.

My tongue darts out and sweeps over my bottom lip. While I know my mouth is dry because I need water, the Risian King's eyes drop once more to track the movement. Tales spun of stolen moments and stories fought in the name of agony reflect in his eyes.

No.

Regardless of the frayed thread we share, I won't allow him the satisfaction of holding such power over me. I avert my eyes when his gaze returns in an attempt to break the palpable tension between us. Yet another piece of myself will slip from my grasp if I show him the weakness he covets.

"No." he growls.

Mere inches of space separate our lips, our breaths mingling. My vision becomes a haze, each fiber of my being coming to focus on the delicate balance of pleasure and pain as his grip on my hair tightens.

The bond coos in delight as his thumb strokes slow circles on the apple of my cheek.

"You've only just returned to me." The breathlessness of his words sees an ache bloom between my legs.

I'm still as the calmest water when his gaze searches mine and he angles his head. A bright ray of sun flickers through the room as his mouth comes to meet mine. His lips are the softest cotton and the finest silk, gentle yet fervent as they run languidly along the seam of my dry, cracked lips.

Felix seizes the opportunity to deepen the kiss as the bond pries my lips further apart. His tongue delves into my mouth, his need to assert dominance clear from the first moment. My lashes flutter when he suddenly wraps his hand around my waist to drag me flush against him.

In the farthest reaches of my mind, I know I shouldn't allow the King of Risian even a semblance of control over me. He'll sink his claws in deep and bleed me dry if I allow this foolishness to continue. Raw need shoots through my core when his tongue twines with mine. I swallow back a moan with the glorious punishment of forbidden paradise that is his hardened length pressing into my stomach.

I push against the breadth of his chest with all the force I can muster and stumble backward. The thread instantly mourns the loss of contact. A fresh ache lances through me with my next ragged breath, making my soul feel as if it's being cleaved in two.

Time slows to a crawl as I await a reaction that doesn't come. His eyes remain shut, his hand aloof and poised as if he merely has to extend his fingers to cradle my face. His softening features see an ache lance through my rib cage, but I calculate the risks of turning and fleeing.

Even if there are no Risian soldiers close by, an entire army surrounds the Amber Palace. The window would be the only true means of escape. I don't require the thread in my chest to remind me that Felix wouldn't allow that to happen.

Desperate now, I reach deep into the well that houses my magic and will it to the surface, praying to the stars that at least some semblance of my power has returned. Closing my eyes, I imagine that I'm back on the battlefield. The Risian King's eyes fly open when parchment rustles in the soft breeze filling the chamber.

It's a feeble attempt. The wind dies. No rain lashes against the window panes nor does thunder boom in the distance. His lips stretch into a smirk that tells of my defeat as our gazes collide. I step to the side when he takes a long stride forward, reversing our positions. Although I'm desperate to return my emotions to the trunks they belong in, I force my features to remain impassive.

"You're insane," I hiss when he stalks forward. The backs of my heel meets the war table's leg.

Only a sliver of blue remains around his irises. A thrill of emotion I've long forgotten ricochets through my chest with the hunger staring back at me. He leans closer and my spine meets the wood as he cages me in with his hands.

He shifts into me, angling his head as I crane my neck upward.

"You're no better than your father," I whisper, my tone dripping with the sweetest of honey.

The muscle twitching in his well-shaped jaw feeds the flames of malevolent desire pooling between my legs. When his large, calloused hand wraps around my throat, the bond's elated call rings through my ears. The mingling scents of pine and blackberry fill my senses as he chuckles.

"My, my, you've most certainly grown bold," he murmurs, the words coasting across my cheek as his lips skim the corner of my mouth. "But you forget yourself, Ellesandra. You were on your knees before me long before the fools of your court knelt before you."

Memories flood me with the words, leaving sensual carnage in their wake. The softness of his lips as they trace patterns onto my skin. How my body preened beneath his praise. How his rough hands felt sliding down my curves, worshiping every inch of my body. His fingers slick with my desire pressing between my lips. The low, guttural sounds that escaped him when he pushed into me. His grip on my throat tightening until stars exploded behind my eyelids with completion.

I'm in danger of losing myself as he inhales deeply once more. "Stars be damned, I've missed this," he murmurs.

Parchment crinkles beneath my hands as the knowledge that I'm his prisoner fights to claw the surface. The obsidian pawns used for strategy fly through the air. The pangs of lust ricocheting to my core are nothing more than the attraction of the bond we share between us. Limerence burrows into his soul, painting the illusion of love.

The bond fights with equal strength to convince me otherwise. Images of nights beneath the stars and the love held within dark blue eyes dance in my mind and steal my breath.

All of my good sense drowns beneath a wave of need as his grip tightens, applying a dangerous, pleasurable amount of pressure on my throat. My lashes flutter closed when he pins my hand, gripping the table's edge above my head. I feel more than hear the second deep inhale he takes.

"Do you have any understanding of what the last five hundred years have been like for me, Ellesandra?" he murmurs into the shell of my ear.

Erotic images of the ways he would use his mouth on me see specks of white burst to life beneath my eyelids as he lays a long swipe of his tongue up the column of my throat.

Please, please, please, the bond chants into the recesses of my mind. My breathing is reduced to short pants when the pads of his fingers ghost across my breasts I stay the whimper on my tongue as each nerve ending in my body is set alight with wanton need.

"I've had many, many moons to contemplate all the ways I will have you," he breathes, each word dipped in lust and spun with darkness.

A shudder wracks through my body as his fingers move lower. I suck in a sharp breath when the rough wooden edges of a strategy pawn graze the inside of my thigh.

"Do you want to know the ways I've imagined each night?" I squeeze my eyes shut in response, my tongue resting on the tip of my teeth. Although my body screams, and the bond cries out in protest, I won't lower myself to begging.

I realize my mistake a moment too soon. My eyes fly open and I shriek as the Risian King presses the heel of his palm to my swollen clit. My body betrays the wordless vow of silence I've taken and brings me to a perilous impasse. His forearm bands across my chest in a vise-like grip when I try to scramble away. He leans forward as the heel of his palm begins to rock back and forth on my most sensitive area.

"I see every perfect inch of you sprawled before me." I tip my head back and close my eyes.

"Hear the sounds you'll make when I bury my face between those beautiful thighs and wring each drop of wetness from your glorious cunt." Light dances behind my eyelids.

"The way your body would speak to me as I drag the head of my cock through the place you ache most." My hips cant up to meet the slow circles he makes with his palm, needing more.

"How you'd cry out as I sink so far into you that you'd feel me with each breath you draw until the end of your days." I suck in a sharp breath.

"Tell me," he whispers, his staccato breathing matching my own. "Tell me how many times you've closed your eyes and imagined it was my cock buried inside of you instead of your precious General's." My breathless moan echoes through the chamber as I tug my bottom lip between my teeth.

My spine arches to press into his muscular chest. The table beneath us creaks as he blessedly rocks his palm against me faster. Felix groans when the pressure builds between my legs and I whimper. Rain lashes against the window pane as I suck down large gulps of air on the precipice of meeting my completion.

He chuckles darkly in my ear. "I do love the docile queen you are when you want something." My eyes fly open as his pace stutters, then slows. "But you no longer hold the reins. Be a good girl and beg me for your release, Lumina."

The embers of fury roar to life when his hand stops moving. A self-satisfied smirk plays on his lips as he stares down at me, waiting for something that will not come. Despite my heaving chest, the glare I shoot at him would reduce another man to ashes.

His smirk stretches into a full grin, revealing the dimple in his left cheek. "You'll quickly learn that your stubbornness will be your undoing, Lumina."

Ellesandra,

Sleep does not find me. I spend each night beneath the stars until dawn creeps onto the horizon. By a sense of fortune (or misfortune, I can't be sure) there are nights in which shades of silver burn brighter and you come back to me. I close my eyes and allow the ghost of memory of your hand within mine to lull me into oblivion. Although I know it will be nothing more than an illusion when I wake, I tuck the last peaceful moments of consciousness into the crevices of my chest.

Your coronation was a fortnight ago. Though you don't wish to speak to me, you must know that I'm proud of you. The stars bestow a blessing upon Minalis with your reign, as I know the kind of Queen you'll be, my brightest star.

I love you.