Chapter 17

Hanna

For a few long moments, Kaelan just held me close. I rested my head on the broad pillow of his shoulder, feeling his arms wrapped around me. I was enveloped in his cool, crisp scent, and we could have been in any place, in any time in our past. I could’ve been a girl again, falling in love with the prince as I swayed in his arms on the dance floor; I could’ve been the woman who was about to lose him, nuzzling my face against his as I whispered one last expression of love.

“You’re lucky I’m not punishing you.”

“Is that so?” I arched my eyebrows. I’d always enjoyed Kaelan’s little punishments, given that they were all formed so exquisitely out of my desires.

But right now, I had no desire for that extra bit of vulnerability. It felt good to relinquish control to Kaelan in the bedroom, when it didn’t matter, to let him order me around or tie me up. But it had to be a game.

He ran his hand down the curve of my spine.

“Are you petting me like you pet Finnias?” I whispered, teasing him.

His blue eyes met mine, sparkling and inviting like clear glacier water. “The cat is better behaved. He deserves petting; you deserve something else entirely.”

“Cats have terrible behavior.”

“Mm. But my point stands.” He was looking into my face as if he couldn’t bear to look away, no matter what he said.

Sometimes the way I loved him felt timeless. Sometimes the way I loved him felt boundless.

But we were still tethered to the terrible reality of the world, no matter how much we could escape it for a few dreamy heartbeats.

There was a sound outside, and Kaelan tensed. The moment was broken; he wrapped his arm around my waist and scooped me up easily with him, moving with me to the window. My legs wrapped his hard hips, balancing myself, feeling the cool of his skin against mine, the slipperiness of our combined sex across our bodies.

He was right. There was no dignity between us. But being vulnerable with him when he was the same with me… that was a thousand times better than our dignity.

“What are you doing?” I whispered.

He glanced out the window as if he were searching for someone he knew would arrive soon. “Where’s Thorne?”

“I told you. He crossed the border.”

He let out a hum of irritation that I felt through my body. “Don’t lie to me.”

“He’s not coming back anytime soon, Kaelan.” I pressed a kiss to his broad shoulder, then looked up at him. “We have time.”

“Time for what?”

I wasn’t answering that question. “You asked me where Thorne is. Where’s Dare?”

A frown puckered the skin between his dark brows. “Do you think I need to bring him along with me everywhere I go?”

“Yes. I think you’d bring him along to keep you from killing me and Thorne.”

He let out a huff. “First of all, I’m in control of my actions, I don’t need Dare to guide me. Of all people. And second of all, Dare couldn’t stop me from doing whatever I chose.”

“Mm.”

Kaelan’s brows arched at my grunt. I’d learned from Kaelan, and especially from Thorne, the power of a grunt instead of words. Read from it what you will, Kaelan. “But you did bring him?”

“He’s waiting for me,” he said, arching his eyebrows. “If you have yet another plot to betray me.”

How close? Unexpected excitement stirred in my chest at the thought that Dare was here too. “There was no plot, and I didn’t betray you.”

He inclined his head as if he heard me and understood. I would’ve felt gratified if he hadn’t added, “I can accept there was no plot. Thorne seemed as if he was making things up as he went, and you always seem like you’re making things up as you go.”

“It always works out,” I said defensively. I’d let his implications of a betrayal go for now; I could certainly understand how he felt that way.

“Is that so?” he drawled. “Is that how you became my wife?”

“Maybe I always wanted to be your wife. Maybe that was the plot.” I arched my eyebrows right back at him.

“It was my father’s plot, actually, before he decided you were unworthy.”

“What did you expect before you first met me?” I couldn’t resist my curiosity.

Kaelan gave me a look before he set me gently in the archway of the window. I gripped the sill, feeling how we were stories above the stone street below, but he kept his hands on my thighs. “I’m not going to let you fall.”

“I know.”

“And if you really want to know,” he added, “I expected a spoiled, pain-in-the-ass, plotting princess.”

“So you weren’t disappointed,” I teased.

“Never,” he said, and he leaned forward and kissed me.

I laughed against his mouth, keenly aware of the wild swoop of my stomach from the height, of the cool air caressing the bare skin of my back. “Kaelan. We’re going to get arrested for public indecency. Someone will see us.”

“Thorne will see us. That’s all I care about.” He traced his thumb down the curve of my neck, and I bit my lip at the sensations his touch sparked. “He’ll know you’re still mine. Always mine.”

“He’ll know that you’re a possessive asshole. Actually, I think he’s already noticed?—”

“Don’t make me put you over the windowsill and spank your ass,” he told me, and I let out a laugh, half wishing he would. Funny that he and Thorne seemed to share certain predilections. I’d known Kaelan had a passion for pretending to punish me, trying to make me submit though he’d be bored if I were actually docile and sweet. But now I thought perhaps Thorne shared his desires.

“I didn’t think you’d be insulted,” I teased him. “I thought you knew exactly what you were and you were proud of it.”

“You talk too much.”

I parted my lips with a smartass remark, but then he was kissing me again. It was probably for the best, given my impulse to point out that Thorne liked just how much I talked.

The cool stone pressed up against my skin as his hard body enveloped mine. His lips moved over mine as if in a ritual of worship, his hand cradling my cheek, his thumb sweeping slowly over my cheekbone as if he still couldn’t resist petting me. I rocked back, inviting his cock, and felt the sweep of the night air outside brushing my skin.

”Careful,” he murmured, though we both knew if I were cautious, I wouldn’t be with him. His hands, so deft bringing about both death and pleasure, anchored me firmly against his body.

His kiss was a blade—sharp, precise, splitting me open and leaving me raw and bleeding. With every brush of his lips, I was unraveling. It was one thing to have sex with my husband. It was another to feel every link of armor around my heart snap one by one.

”Mine,” he growled against my mouth.

”Yours,” I breathed back. It was the one submission I could never deny him.

Because it was the terrible truth.

With urgency, Kaelan parted my legs, his movements both reverent and hungry. He dipped his head, his breath hot on my flesh. The first touch of his tongue was like a spark that I knew would grow into fire that burnt me alive.

”Kaelan...” My voice broke on his name, the syllables dissolving into a gasp as he explored me with a devotion that bordered on worship. Here, in this half-ruined castle, I could still be his queen.

His eyes sparked up at me as he sucked at my clit, his tongue dancing over my folds before he thrust inside. I let out a scream, my body arching. My hair fell outside the old castle, strands of it catching against the rough stone. I didn’t care anymore.

The rest of this castle could’ve crumbled to dust, and I would have remained blissfully unaware, lost in the sensations of Kaelan’s mouth against mine. Each flick and swirl of his tongue was a stroke of magic.

”Please,” I whispered. Pleasure coiled inside me, and I was helpless under the lashings of his relentless tongue. My thighs tightened on either side of his head, but he had his arms wrapped tightly around my thighs now, holding me still, holding me open for his beautiful relentless mouth.

”Let go, Hanna,” he breathed against my clit and it wasn”t just a command. It was permission to relinquish control, to trust him utterly. For now.

And so I did, surrendering, falling into the abyss of pleasure with Kaelan.

I could almost lose myself to that sense that we were timeless, unbounded by the plotting and the rises and falls of our destiny, always finding each other and loving each other. I could almost believe the moments like these that were all that mattered.

But this moment couldn’t last.

And I had to protect him.

My mind turned senseless as the waves of pleasure broke over me, and then slowly, my heart reminded me that Kaelan needed me. His bowed head moved across my lap, sucking me with such intensity.

I let out a moan, tossed my head back so he couldn’t see my lips—and so I could gain a tiny separation from this maddening man who stole every bit of sense from my mind and left me lost in love.

I silently recited the incantation, my voice a breath lost in the tide of sounds between us, the sudden harshness of my breathing as I came closer and closer. I mouthed the words of the spell.

I loved him, I didn’t want to hurt him.

The entire purpose of letting him capture me, though, was always to take his blood.

My body shuddered under the onslaught of pleasure as Kaelan brought me to the brink. I clawed at the reality that seemed to slip away, anchoring myself to my love for him and his unrealized need for me, even through this moment of pure, uninhibited bliss.

My fingertips grazed his skin. I found purchase as the tidal wave broke over me, and with the force of my climax, I sank my nails into the firm muscle of his shoulders.

An intake of breath was his only reaction as the warmth of his blood welled beneath my nails. Guilt gnawed at me, knowing he would feel betrayed by this deception.

Thorne’s love for me felt like a protective shield. Kaelan’s felt like a sword that cut deeply. My love for them was both—I might hurt Kaelan, but I’d protect him fiercely. He could hate me if he wished.

I had to save him from this enchantment. From Seraphine.

The blood formed into shiny covers for my fingernails. They looked like mere cosmetic decorations, but when I needed his blood for the magician, I could turn it back to liquid.

As the waves of pleasure subsided, leaving us both gasping in their wake, I tried not to look at the deep red crescent marks I had left on his skin or the blood that oozed over his pale, muscular shoulders.

Kaelan”s lips still lingered on mine, the heat between us hanging in the air like a spell cast. But as my heavy breaths intermingled with his, a shadow of realization darkened his gaze. His kiss, once wild and untamed, slowed into something hesitant.

”Your heart is racing, Hanna,” Kaelan whispered against my lips, need laced now with an edge of steel. ”And I don’t think it’s just desire.”

I searched his eyes. They were all ice again now, that saw too much, understood me too keenly.

He drew back, the warmth of his body retreating like the sun beyond the horizon, leaving me cold.

”Still plotting, darling?” he asked, a bitter twist curling his lips. “Even now?”

The frustration in his tone cut deeper than any blade.

”Kaelan,” I started.

He turned away, leaving my words orphaned in the silence.

With his back to me, the proud lines of his shoulders set in defiance, I reached for the ring he had given me—the ring that was supposed to just carry the promise between us, but also carried his mother’s ghost. He needed it more than I did right now. My fingers trembled as I removed it.

It had meant the world to me when Kaelan slipped it onto my finger. When he gave it to me freely. When he made me his queen.

Silently, I approached him. I slid the ring into the pocket of his trousers. Maybe his mother had shaped more of him than he or she realized. Maybe she would help him come back to himself… and back to me.

He tensed as he sensed my proximity, but he didn’t turn. I stepped back, retreating into the alcove.

The cold air brushed against my exposed skin as Kaelan”s form, rigid with anger and betrayal, began to reclaim his clothes from the floor where we had scattered them. Fabric whispered against stone as he dressed with jerky, controlled movements. The room seemed to constrict, the once comforting shadows now stretching ominously between us.

”Kaelan,” my voice broke the silence. He paused at the threshold, one hand on the polished door, the other clutching his shirt.

He turned then, and his eyes bore into mine. ”You”re mine.” The words were not a declaration; they were a dark oath, possessive and dangerous. “Even if you think I’m some fool under an enchantment, that I am helpless?—”

I stood, the chill of the stone window ledge imprinting its memory onto my flesh. The night air was a caress, heavy with the scent of impending rain and the lingering taste of magic.

”Am I yours?” I countered, my own fury rising to meet his. “Why can’t you believe me? You claim I’m yours, but you don’t even see me.”

But I couldn’t hold onto the anger when he was looking at me with so much hurt and desire intermingled. I pleaded, “Kaelan, see me. See me as your mate who would do anything for you, to protect you?—”

His jaw clenched, and for a heartbeat, I thought he would turn and leave, severing whatever fragile tether still bound us. But then, with a growl that rumbled from deep within his chest, he crossed the room in two long strides.

His hands cradled my face, rough and yet achingly tender. Kaelan”s kiss was a storm unleashed. My lips parted under the fierce pressure of his onslaught, and I let him sweep me away. Our breaths mingled, and for a few magical seconds, it felt as if each kiss could heal the wounds we”d inflicted upon each other.

And when we finally broke apart, I knew that no matter the spells cast or the enchantments feared, this love was the most dangerous magic.

I just didn’t know if the intensity of this love would doom our enemies… or ourselves.