Chapter Thirty-Two

Ellesandra

Icrane my neck and reach for his hand in a desperate need for friction.

I'm unable to unfasten my gaze from him when his strong hands wrap around the back of my thighs and tug hard. My hips cant up to meet his mouth when he plants featherlight kisses along my soft belly, the curve of my hips.

A shiver crawls up my spine and I feel like I'll burst in anticipation when he finally runs his tongue languidly along my inner thigh. I'm feverish with need when he removes the grip he has on my throat and lowers further. A wicked sense of delight fills me as I peel my eyes open and find him kneeling on the cold stone below me.

Though words do not pass between us, the thread that houses itself inside of him feels the same thrill of elation. His breathing picks up speed to become more erratic when I look down at him. Inky shadows of midnight leak from his chest when I prop myself up on an elbow and thread my fingers through the length of his silky raven hair.

The bond is frantic, screaming with euphoria as he looks up at me with dark irises, a gleam that speaks of punishment lying within the darkest shade of blue. A midnight tendril snakes up my body and wraps around my wrists, bringing my hands above my head. My mind blanks out of existence as he props my calves on the wide breadth of his shoulders and smirks.

Then the King of Risian devours me.

I cry out and collapse, the back of my skull hitting the headboard in a sickening thwack when he reverently drags his tongue up the length of my core. Raw and potent power courses through me as he laps at the dampness between my thighs.

I'm not of this realm when his teeth graze my sensitive nub with just enough pressure that I'm close to being sent over the edge. Each nerve ending in my body is aflame as he licks and sucks unabashedly. I cry out and squirm when he plunges his ring finger into my core.

The cool sensation of his signet ring against my molten heat is too much. I silently beg all the stars to grant me release when his tongue circles my clit. Throwing my head back, I squirm when a midnight tendril ghosts over the sensitive peaks of my breasts. I'm lost to the stars when he adds another finger and pumps them in and out of me at a punishing pace. My mind is nothing but white noise as I'm stretched to my body's limit. The pressure builds and coils in my abdomen, a kaleidoscope of color that I taste with each pump of his fingers.

My back bows and I whimper when my legs begin to quiver. He looks up at me with a malicious glint in his eye. It's the only notice I'm given before he withdraws his tongue and fingers from me completely.

An ache immediately blooms and pulses between my legs. "It seems as if my assumption was correct. Lies do taste sweeter off the lips of a queen," he murmurs, a slow grin spreading across his face as he brings his fingers to his lips.

I cry out when he lowers his head once more and blows out a long, teasing breath against my center.

"Please." My words are little more than a breathless whisper.

"Please what?" he murmurs into my core. "Be my good girl and beg."

After a long moment of silence, he lifts his head and moves toward me. My hips tilt upwards to meet his hardened length as his rough, calloused hands crawl up my body. Thunder booms in the distance as his fingertips ghost across my sensitive peaks.

He nips at my bottom lip. "Beg."

And though it's nothing short of madness, a soft moan escapes my throat as he pushes his two fingers that are coated with my arousal into my mouth. The thread between us preens in delight with our shared taste. His eyes are the darkest shade of midnight blue, a wicked grin playing on his lips as he pushes his fingers deeper into my throat.

"I'm going to remove my fingers now," he says when tears cloud my vision. "And you're going to beg me to fuck you, Lumina. Do you understand?" I nod. "There's a good girl," he coos, slowly withdrawing his fingers from my mouth.

His thumb sweeps across my top lip and his breath fans across my forehead as he aligns himself with my core. The smooth planes of his face take on a sense of wonder as he looks down at where our bodies are soon to be joined.

He glances back up at me. The way he looks at me is both the beginning and the end, the darkest depths of the ocean that promise to give me everything.

"Please, Felix." The need to feel him moving inside me is too strong, the words fall from my lips like a lover's prayer.

He tilts his head toward the ceiling and closes his eyes. My chest heaves with anticipation. Should he deny me, I won't ask for his touch ever again. His eyes open as the thought crosses my mind, his irises a thin strip that are eclipsed by his pupils.

I gasp for breath when the Risian King pushes into me with a swift, punishing stroke. Heat slithers through my veins and engulfs my blood with flames when he withdraws and slams back into me with a groan.

"My perfect, perfect Lumina," he murmurs, his forehead kissing mine as he withdraws and slams into me.

My being floats into the sky and grazes the stars when I'm stretched impossibly fuller. Each hard and punishing thrust matches my short, staccato breaths.

"This," he growls. An inky tendril places a silken hold on the column of my throat, holding me in place as each of his words and thrusts demolish the walls of resistance in my mind. "Feeling your beautiful cunt clench around my cock? There's nothing sweeter in all the realm."

I squeeze my eyes shut as he rolls his hips and increases his tempo. Sweat rolls down the side of my cheek and I whimper when my sensitive peaks graze his chest with each stroke, needing more. The sound of skin slapping against skin and his panting breaths ring in my ears.

"You're so fucking beautiful like this," he croaks. My eyes flutter open to find his stare ablaze with fire, transfixed on my open mouth as I gasp for breath.

"More." I arch my spine as elation crackles in my chest and sparks through my veins.

"You'll fucking come when I allow you to come," he growls. "Your body will bow to my every whim."

His strokes become wild and frantic with need when my spine arches off the mattress. Time ceases to exist as his grunts fill my ears and a carnal sense of delight stretches through the bond. Yesss, it hisses. Waves of molten fire spread through my pulsing core, each rough stroke pushing me closer to the edge of completion.

"Please." The word is little more than a gasp for breath.

Mesmerized, his gaze drops from my face as his fingers sink into the flesh at my hip and he uses his free hand to reach between us. Bright light flashes through the room as he finds my swollen nub and shockwaves of pleasure rush through me.

"Look at me," he breathes, swirling his forefinger and middle finger in tight, controlled circles. The bond gives me no other option but to obey.

When my eyes flutter open, his gaze scans my face in a trance-like state. "Let go, Lumina."

I'm left with little choice to appease him as my body dissolves into pleasure, every fiber of my being overwhelmed by his scent and the feeling of his cock pounding into the deepest parts of me. My soul shatters and white noise rings in my ears as a scream falls from my lips and I become a thousand shards of the finest glass.

With a final slam into me and a curse falling from his lips, Felix growls and follows me into oblivion. My legs tremble, my pulse fluttering in my core as he stills. A raven strand falls and brushes my brow when his sweat-slicked forehead comes to rest on mine once more.

The soothing rain that drizzles down the window pane and our deep gasps for breath are the only sounds that fill the chamber as silence descends over us. Bright, golden warmth cocoons around the bond and nestles into my bones as the Risian King's lips press lightly to the tip of my nose, then the side of my cheek.

My vision clears and my breathing slows when he withdraws himself from me and collapses on the bed beside me.

"Let me hold you. Just tonight," he whispers when I turn over on my side. He bands his arm around my waist and pulls my back flush against his chest.

For the first time in recent remembrance, I don't fight the peace that's offered to me.

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I blink as the sun's rays yawn into the chamber and soft shades of marigold stretch over my closed eyes. It's so warm.

The sun seeps into my skin, radiating a blissful amount of heat as I snuggle deeper into the furs. A sigh of contentment falls from my lips as my eyes flutter open.

I frown when my muscles scream in protest as I raise my arm to sweep a curl from my brow. Memories of the night before flood into my mind when I stretch my legs and my muscles cry out once more. The bond curls in on itself with comfort as I turn my head to the right.

The King of Risian lies flat on his back, every inch of his tan skin and defined muscles visible. I mutter a silent prayer of thanks to the stars when I shift to my side and his chest remains steady with sleep. Although I have no regrets about the choice I made, the last thing I wish to endure is the insufferable mirror of my soul. Especially at this hour.

His silken raven hair is mussed with sleep, a strand falling into his eyes. The tranquility of the moment sees my contentment rise. My mind gives no thought to disturbing such peace, despite who lies beside me. The tension that seems to have taken up a permanent residence between his brow has faded. He looks almost like the prince I remember with the way the smooth, golden rays bathe his softened features.

"Good morning, Lumina."

The corners of my lips twitch upwards. My name falling from his lips is a sensual, soothing caress to the thread in my chest. My name?

Felix's eyes fly open as I all but launch myself out of the bed. The thick furs that covered me tangle around my legs with the sudden movement.

"What is it?"

My chest feels like it's going to cave in on itself. My fingers tremble as I touch my face and find wetness streaking my cheeks. Stunned, my eyes widen when I pull away and find transparent droplets shimmering with starlight on my fingers.

"What did you do to me?" Looking back up at him, my voice is barely above a whisper.

His hand still frozen in midair, Felix's features are colored with awe as he glances at the tips of my fingers, then back up at me.

In the five hundred years I've ruled as monarch, I've earned the titles that follow me. I've never allowed the emotions that burden me to escape in the form of tears since I was a child. Bearing the title of Queen of Ice is much better than the alternative, after all.

Tiny fissures form in the tightly encased shell of my soul, every suppressed thought bursting to life with each breath I take. With starlight now continuously streaming down my face and dripping from my chin, a boom of roaring thunder cuts through the air to shake the ground beneath my feet.

A wrenching agony unlike anything I've felt before seizes me when I inhale sharply in a feeble attempt to combat the pain. Horrified when the technique the healers taught me to find calm is of little use, I drop to my knees and claw at my chest. It has to come out. It has to stop. I can't control it.

In the faintest reaches of my mind, it sounds like someone is screaming as tendrils of lighting flash and cut through the darkness blanketing the room. Everything around me trembles. Glass shatters somewhere in the distance.

Though my eyes are closed, the earthy tang of the woods wafts to my nose to let me know Felix is close by. I open my eyes as he jerks my chin to see his mouth moving. No sound reaches my ears.

When I drag my gaze upward, he pales and the pupils of his cerulean eyes blow wide with fear. As the pain of his fingernails digging into my jaw becomes more than just a sting, the fog lifts minutely.

Blinking several times, I see that the King of Risian mirrors my position. He's on his knees in front of me, his forehead resting on mine. The pad of his thumb draws soothing circles on my jaw.

"You have to stop, Lumina. I promise there is nowhere you are safer," he whispers, over and over like a prayer.

I'm unsure how much time passes when my senses return to me. My head pounds like a drum. Having removed his grasp from my chin, my cheek rests on Felix's chest as one of his hands strokes down the length of my locks. As his lips plant featherlight kisses on the smooth skin of my palms, directly upon the mating mark, I sigh a shaky breath.

"Lumina?" The hope that laces his breathless tone sends another pang of undiluted agony through my chest.

I become aware of our positions as every muscle in my body screams in protest when I attempt to move. Lifting my head, I find my legs are wrapped snugly around his waist, while one of my arms loops around to drape over the back of his neck. When I shift in his lap, Felix goes so still I'm unsure if he draws breath.

Slowly turning my head, he looks down at me when I mindlessly remove my hand from his.Moments pass without a sound while we stare at one other, but I don't need words. The thread between us begs to smooth the potent anguish that dances across the King of Risian's chiseled features.

The throb in my head turns to an excruciating thump when I attempt to discern the meaning behind such distress. My own or Felix's. Underneath the pain that wraps around both my body and heart in a vise-like grip lies a peace that I haven't felt in recent memory. I can only attribute such a newfound feeling to the week I've been a prisoner in this chamber.

It's then I'm reminded why I do not allow myself to feel at all. Emotions such as these weave a tangled web of unpleasantness. Love and hate, pain and hope. In my experience, each of these end in destruction. I've been buried beneath the fragments of my own soul far too many times to believe this will be any different.

"Ellesandra."

I feel more than hear his words, a deep rumble that reverberates to my core, yet with an inflection of tenderness that I've never heard before.

"Let me go," I manage to croak out, though my throat is raw.

My feeble attempts at wiggling out of his strong arms secured tightly around me are useless. Desperate, I pry each of his fingers away one by one. "Let. Me. Go," I grind out between clenched teeth.

Frustration rising, I push to my feet suddenly, taking him by surprise enough to escape the warmth my soul immediately misses. As soon as my bare feet touch the cold stone, I scamper backward into the nearest corner of the luxurious room. Roughness bites into my skin when my back meets the cracked wall.

I take in the state of the room with bleary eyes. The expansive wooden bed frame is now in pieces, a perfectly formed line running through the middle to cleave the bed in two. Stray feathers float gently in the air amidst the chaos, and every dressing of the bed is strewn about on the floor.

The insatiable tears flow freely down my cheeks when my gaze transfixes on the destruction of the chamber. In the center, my mirror soul sits on the stone floor, untouched.

On his feet now, Felix's stoic gaze remains steadily on my chest, almost as if he is counting each staccato breath I take. The thing in my chest cries out in anguish when he takes a stride forward and I raise my palm.

Though the destruction of my soul happened long before his bringing me here, it was the catalyst to the loss of the little control I did have.

"Get out," I rasp, meeting his gaze.

Ellesandra,

I don't understand how you find the quiet to be peaceful. Each time I'm alone, the silence sits alongside me, clinging to me like a winter's frost to the earth. The cold, I can endure. It's the jagged shards of truth's ice that drives me to the brink of madness. Just as frost, each crystal is laced with the thoughts of you that haunt me. It's maddening.

It's in times such as these I wish I could ask you such questions. Understand how your beautiful mind works.

The silence is smothering without you.