Chapter Eight WITCHING MOON

Chapter Eight

WITCHING MOON

Week Two, Day Two

Year 3000

Sachi had felt the kiss of fire before. Washing over her skin, under it, scorching every part of her. She knew what it was to burn. But this? Was something beyond her experience, even her comprehension. It was different from their previous bond, less emotional and more physical. Less muted and more viscerally immediate.

And so she felt the moment Ash loosed his tight grip on control. His kiss didn't change, but he did. A tension melted out of him, as if he'd been holding himself very, very still and had simply ... relaxed.

There was nothing soft or languorous about it. His arms were steel around her, and his fangs grazed her lips and tongue. His kiss was rough, needy. But for the first time ...

Entirely him .

Her breath caught, and her eyes stung. When Ash lifted his mouth from hers, she realized he was sitting on the end of his bed with her on his lap, her legs locked around his hips.

She licked her lips and felt a wave of foreign but familiar lust wash through her. Ash raised a hand to stroke her jaw. Flames danced down his arm, eager and sweet. They encased his fingertips, and when they faded, his broad fingers ended in formidable claws. He drew them up her face, the sharp points kissing her skin with aching tenderness.

Perhaps he still expected her to flinch or jerk away. Instead, she tilted her face to his touch, scraping her cheek against one claw. It stung, but only for a moment, and then heat rose in place of the pain.

"I've told you a thousand times," she whispered. "I am not afraid of you."

His lips curved into a dangerous smile, and something heady and satisfied throbbed deep within her. He traced that single claw down the vulnerable column of her throat and growled a command. "Stand up. Undress for me."

"Heresy." Sachi caught one layer and rubbed the gauzy fabric between her fingers. "These aren't meant to be carefully, systematically removed. And certainly not by me."

His fingers curled around the back of her neck as his thumb stroked over her pulse. "Already you disobey. Do you want so desperately for me to tear them from your body?"

She turned her face to hide a smile. "Very well. You've shredded enough of my clothing."

That throbbing need followed her as she slid from his lap. It pulsed beneath her skin, between her thighs, as she slowly untied the braided belt around her waist.

He held out a hand in silent command.

"So imperious." She gathered the braided silk in one hand and placed it on his outstretched palm. "Dare I ask what you plan to do with it?"

Ash stroked his thumb along the soft cord, but his gaze never left her. "Do you remember the night we were bound together?"

How could she ever forget? She'd been numb with nerves but vibrating with promise, ready to bed him as soon as humanly possible. Because it was the proper thing to do, both as his newest consort and to satisfy the most immediate goal of her long-term mission.

But mostly because she had wanted to .

"I said and did all the right things, but you saw right through me." The memory was enough to elicit a rueful laugh. "I was a terrible seductress."

"You were a maddeningly adept seductress," he countered, his voice low and dark, like distant thunder. "I could feel your fear like a knife through the heart. I should never have even crossed the threshold of your chamber. But the thoughts you conjured in me ..."

Another pulse of hunger made her hands tremble, but she lifted them to the fastening on her outermost robe anyway. "Illicit thoughts, I hope."

"They'd wrapped you in cords like this, as an offering." He stroked the braided rope again as his gaze followed her fingers. "I wanted to know how they'd look against your skin. If you'd like it as much as I would."

"Being tied up, my lord? Or being at your mercy?"

"Both." He rose with predatory grace and circled her slowly. "But I forgot all that the moment you wrapped your lush lips around my thumb and sucked. Wicked, wicked girl. I almost put you on your knees then, in spite of everything."

The heat of his body at her back made her want to sway toward him, but she remained still. "That would have made for a far more enjoyable night."

"If only I hadn't been able to sense your fear," he murmured. His hands touched her shoulders, claw-tips curling into her robe. With one effortless tug, he shredded the fabric and left it hanging around her in ribbons.

A rumbling growl rattled in her own chest even as another reached her ears. Ash closed a hand around her throat and dragged her back against him, his lips brushing her ear. "You aren't scared now."

Her only thoughts were of whether he'd slide that hand down to toy with her breasts, or up and into her mouth in a lewd echo of that thwarted seduction. "I never was, Ash. Not of you."

"So you tell me." He used his free hand to strip away the shredded robe, leaving her completely naked and pressed against his equally bare body. His cock was a line of steel against her lower back, hotter than the rest of him. But every inch of him burned , especially his claws as they ghosted back up her body to tease around one tight nipple. "Though I can feel the truth of it, sometimes I still don't believe. Even the consorts who came to my bed willingly came nervously. Especially when they met the Dragon."

"Then they were shortsighted fools," she whispered. They'd deprived themselves of something more than pleasure or companionship or even love.

They'd deprived themselves of Ash . Of his warmth, his humor. Of the protectiveness and caring that formed the very heart of him.

Fools, indeed.

His mouth brushed her ear as he turned them toward the wall, where a massive mirror stood next to a wardrobe. Their reflections stared back, her skin gilded by firelight as he loomed behind her in shadow. A trick of the light—or exactly what the Dragon wanted the fire to show. Her, on display, pinned against his body by one gentle hand at her throat.

"You're so beautiful," he whispered against her ear. His other hand traced the swell of her hip. "So soft and sweet."

She'd never thought much about her body. For the longest time, it had merely been a tool, the greatest weapon in her arsenal. Then, with Zanya, she had known for the first time what it was to truly hunger. But she hadn't considered her own dips and curves, the supple lines that made up the shape of her.

Now, through Ash's eyes, she could finally see. Wet heat pooled between her thighs as she drank herself in with his gaze, his carnal appreciation both tempered and multiplied by love.

"Is this how you like me?" Hot anticipation slid through her as she raised one hand and drove her fingers into his hair. Then it tightened into a knot of pure satisfaction as she clenched her fist, pulling Ash's hair. "Sweet?"

"I like you every way." His growl vibrated through her body everywhere they touched. Fangs pricked her ear. "Especially bad. Sweetness is so much more rewarding when I've coaxed it from you."

"With your claws around my throat? Or by teasing me until I give in?"

In answer, fire sprang up around the hand on her hip. It was a sharper sort of flame, almost like a caress, one that stung and soothed in equal measure. As she gasped for breath, Ash drew his hand up, along her side, to her bare breast. The magic followed in his wake, lingering on her skin in a literal trail of fire.

Sachi whimpered, and Ash's cock twitched against her back.

Slowly, he circled her nipple with his claw. With the heat of the fire in play, it felt almost like a pinch—or a bite. She fell back against him, leaning on him for support as the flames spread to the other side of her body, and the fire consumed her.

She stared at their reflections. She burned, fingers of flame licking over her skin. But Ash was burning, too, and that made her smile through the hint of pain. "Sometimes I think you try to scare me."

"No, Sachi." The flames traveled down her body like phantom hands, warming her inner thighs. She held her breath as they began a slow journey back up, but they stopped just short of entering her. "I've held back. I've always held back. Until now."

"Don't." She wanted to arch her hips to the fiery caresses, drag Ash's hands and claws and mouth closer somehow, but she remained still. "I crave every part of you, Ash. Everything you are."

The hand at her throat vanished, and his gaze caught hers in the mirror. "On your knees, Princess," he ordered gently. "Show me what you can do with those wicked lips while I play with you. If you can break my willpower before I make you come, I'll give you a reward."

Sachi turned. "And if I fail? What is your reward?"

"Then I will feast on you until I'm sated."

"Fascinating." She slid to the floor, careful not to touch him as she knelt before him. His skin steamed , the last of the water burning off of him as he stared down at her. Her hands trembled, so she locked her fingers together, then leaned forward and licked the tip of his jutting erection.

The contact sizzled , and Sachi swallowed a moan as Ash gathered her unbound hair and wrapped it around his fist. He didn't pull, barely even breathed as she slowly closed her lips around him, but the silken promise was there, all the same. For now, he was in control. But eventually—if she teased, coaxed, pushed him high enough—he would give in.

And then he would take.

So she teased, gliding her tongue around the crown of his cock. She moaned when she felt Ash's sensual torment as he slid into the molten depths of her mouth. She coaxed, lightly drawing her fingernails down his thighs. And she pushed , taking him deeper and deeper, until Ash sucked in an unsteady gasp.

His fist tightened in her hair. His hips jerked, thrusting deeper still. Then he froze, and here it was—the moment he would usually have pulled back. But that flash of hesitation melted with a groan as she pressed closer, digging her nails into his hips.

Fierce, feral satisfaction washed over her as he hauled her back by the hair until the head of his cock just brushed her parted lips. He loosened his grip so that she could rub her cheek against his rigid length. "You're so eager to please."

She couldn't deny it, so she didn't try. "Does your challenge still stand, my lord?"

"Oh, yes." The gentle tug at her hair made her scalp tingle. "I thought to give you a head start, but I don't think you need it."

Fingers of fire spilled down her spine, a ghostly caress that somehow felt like the softest kiss and the sting of nipping teeth at the same time. The fire split midway down her back and circled her body, surging up to tease around her breasts in ever-narrowing circles.

Everything was wet heat and a grinding need that settled at the base of her spine and made her entire body ache. There was no way she'd be able to resist her searing pleasure along with his, but it didn't matter. Either way, Sachi would win. So she turned her attention back to Ash's cock, wrapping her fist around the base and squeezing with every pulse of pleasure that rocked her.

A growl escaped him and rumbled through the room. The flames spiraled to tight points, as if a pair of mouths had closed around Sachi's nipples and sucked so hard her vision blurred. Only the heavy, slick glide of Ash's cock on her tongue muffled her scream. He shuddered under the reflected wave of pleasure, his hips jerking again, driving him deeper.

"It's too bad Zanya can't see you now," he rasped, his gaze alight with wild fire as he watched her lips stretch taut around his cock. "Can you feel her fingers sliding down your back and over that sweet, curvy ass?"

Sachi's eyes widened. She could feel it, the phantom trace of a touch that moved exactly as he described.

Her knees wobbled as he went on. "Has she ever spanked you, Princess? I've seen you act like such a bad girl, almost begging her for it."

The fiery touch spread out over her ass, stroking teasingly and then sliding lower, between her parted thighs.

"I could teach her how. Hold you down for her and show her how to do it so it hurts just the right way." His voice deepened. "Do you know how hot she'd get, watching you squirm? Listening to your whimpers? Slipping her fingers inside you only to find out how wet you get when someone takes you the way you need to be taken?"

The words washed over Sachi, through her. She trembled with the effort, but still she couldn't stop herself from straining toward the fiery touch. It pushed inside her, at first a sensation more of heat than pressure. But as Ash continued to rasp his filthy, delicious words, the heat expanded until it felt like fingers fucking in and out of her body.

"I'd keep spanking you, and Zanya would fuck you with as many fingers as you could take until you fell apart for her. How many would it be, Sachi? Three? Four?"

Sachi moaned around his cock. Her legs were quaking now, just like Ash's hand in her hair. Just like his voice, dark and quavering and hungry .

"Would you still want more?"

She came with a sudden pulse of pleasure that startled her with its intensity, and she barely managed to throw her head back before her jaw clenched. The orgasm went on and on, curling her toes and tightening her muscles until they ached. Ash groaned, but his fire stroked her through it, calming and consoling.

Then his strong arms closed around her, lifting and steadying even as his voice soothed her. "Good girl. Good, sweet girl." The words rumbled against her temple, and she found her forehead pressed to his shoulder. "Can you look at me?"

He held her effortlessly, as if she weighed nothing, and yet Sachi could scarcely draw breath. "You won," she gasped.

"I won," he agreed, turning toward the bed. He let her slide down his body until she was kneeling on the soft sheets at the foot of the wide mattress. He cupped her face, his thumbs gliding over her flushed cheeks before tracing her lower lip. "But it was close. Your mouth is so hot, your tongue so sweet."

The room was still tilting wildly, as if she had literally become drunk on pleasure. So Sachi pulled Ash into a kiss, unsure if it would center her or send her spinning even harder, knowing only that she needed it.

He knew, too. Of course he did. He kissed her with indulgent pleasure, as if he had all the time in the world to explore the way her lips moved against his, the way they parted when he teased her with his tongue. He kissed her until the world stopped tilting, until the spinning started inside her again as every slow drag of his tongue promised something beautiful.

Only then did he break away, his lips hovering over hers. "Crawl to the head of the bed. Do you see the chains?"

Sachi swallowed a moan. "I do."

"Hold on to them and offer yourself to me."

No elaboration, no further instructions ... but Sachi knew what he wanted. Here, in his lair, he could take anything as his due. But what he desired, what he truly needed , was her willing surrender.

She crawled up the bed on her hands and knees. She remained in that position as she wrapped the warm chains around her arms and gripped them with her hands, her elbows on the plush mattress and her ass in the air.

A wave of dark craving swept through her, eliciting a sharp gasp, and she looked back at Ash. For a heartbeat, she saw the fiery outline of wings flare out behind him. Then the bed dipped and he was on her, his hands gripping the chains above hers, his chest a wall of heat at her back.

"Do you remember your welcome feast?"

"Before—" Her voice broke as his lips brushed the top of her spine ... and slid lower. "Before or after you fled, my lord?"

Fire kissed her fingertips before weaving down her arms in the wake of his fingers. "After."

"I enjoyed dessert." She bit her lip as his fingers traced over her waist and the flare of her hips. "And far too much wine."

"All I could think about was tasting you. I wanted to launch myself off that mountaintop and land in the courtyard. I didn't care if the whole court watched me lay you out on the table and spread your legs wide."

Her cheeks flushed, but she couldn't be too scandalized. Not after the night they'd spent under the moons and stars at Aleksi's home. "That might have required speaking to me."

He bit the back of her thigh in warning, then pushed her legs apart. "You would have been my feast. I would have savored you for hours." He licked her then, a slow circle around her exposed clit, followed by a quick flick of his tongue. "I will savor you for hours."

Her voice sounded high, breathless. "I had no idea you'd given it so much thought."

"Liar," he rumbled. He punished her with another teasing nip, this time on the curve of her ass. Then his tongue returned to her clit, hot and ravenous, teasing a little before thrusting into her, as if he craved nothing more than the taste of her.

Sachi jerked, rattling the chains. She writhed as every wet caress sent a shock of pleasure up her spine, but still she kept her grip on the chains. Her nipples began to ache, and at first she chalked it up to the sheer depth of her arousal, or maybe the friction of her upper body rubbing against the soft furs beneath her. But then the ache bloomed , and she understood.

Ash had set her on fire again.

He stroked her, with his tongue and with his magic, until she was teetering on the brink. Then, as Sachi strove for release, he backed away, softening his caresses and quieting his fire. When she could breathe again, at least enough to gasp his name, he started all over again.

He did it again and again, pushing her up and then easing her back down. And every time he did, his fire spread a little more. By the time it had completely engulfed her, Sachi was begging, nearly insensate with desperation.

"Shh," Ash whispered. The sound barely penetrated Sachi's haze of need, but she could feel the emotions behind it—longing and lust, both tinged by something deeper, warmer. "I'm here, my love."

"Don't stop this time, don't—"

And he didn't. He pushed her higher, demanding more than her pleasure or even her release. Demanding her surrender . He thrust his tongue inside her, growling when she shuddered, shrieked. When her legs quivered and she almost collapsed to the bed.

He fucked her until he had to grip her hips to keep her from squirming away. And it was his fingers on her flesh that sent her flying, not just the pressure but the absolute satisfaction that flooded Ash as he held her captive to the demands of his ravenous lips and lashing tongue. Unable to escape, to do anything but come in his mouth.

Sachi fell into it, arching toward Ash's tongue with a long, low moan that slowly turned into a scream that she muffled against the inside of her arm. The world blurred, and her entire body shook—from ecstasy, yes, but also from the thrill that snaked through her.

There were no words to describe it, what it was like to feel Ash's determination, his shocked pleasure at her responses. His longing to be loved .

Ash didn't release her as he feathered tiny kisses over her lower back. Each one made her shiver anew, and she breathed his name again. When Sachi collapsed to the bed on her side, he continued those featherlight kisses across her hip.

He rubbed his thumb over the inside of her thigh. "Are you with me?"

How could she come so hard, with the taste of her own pleasure on her tongue, and still be so hungry? "I'm here." Now her voice sounded low, hoarse. "I'm here, Ash."

"Good girl." His thumb drifted higher, gliding through the slick evidence of her desire, until he reached the deliciously sensitive heart of her and bit off a curse. "You're so wet for me. So ready to be fucked. You'll take anything I give you, won't you?"

Carnal appreciation for her own curves filled Sachi again. She untangled one hand from its golden chain and trailed it up her rib cage, over her collarbone. A light graze across one nipple left her shuddering and cursing. " Fuck , yes."

Reaching for the chains once again, she rolled to her back with a hungry moan and draped one leg over Ash's shoulder, opening to him. Two fingers slicked through her folds, spreading wide to part her. At first, she didn't know why ... until she looked down her body to find him watching her intently.

The moment their eyes met, fire touched her again. Not a single flame, licking lightly across her skin, but a searing heat that felt like the pressure of his tongue, only it moved so fast , almost vibrating on her clit. She cried out, her hips bucking, but he held her tight with his other hand.

"That's it," he soothed, his fingers splayed on her stomach. His massive hand held her in place, pinning her to the bed so she couldn't escape the writhing flame. "That's the Dragon's tongue. Can you take it, Sachi?"

"Ash— fuck —"

He worked his finger inside her next—just one, but she was already so sensitive that she whimpered.

"By the first flame, you're squeezing me so tight. So close to coming again." He licked the inside of her knee with a groan. "What do you want, Princess? Do you want another finger?"

She gripped the chains so hard they almost cut into her hands. "Yes, please."

He pushed two fingers into her this time, fucking deep. The slick sound of it made Sachi shake, and she bit her lip to hold back a moan as a sharp stab of hunger pierced through her.

Oh, but Ash felt it, echoed it with a rough groan. He leaned over her, his free hand on the bed next to her face, holding his weight as he pressed his lips to her shoulder—and curled his fingers inside her.

He licked her nipple next, and Sachi's tongue tingled. She arched, chasing the sensation, only to shudder through a shocking bolt of pure ecstasy when her thigh slid against the hard, pulsing length of his cock.

Fascinated, Sachi rubbed her leg against him harder, then choked on a cry when Ash accompanied the hot rush of pleasure with a deep, hard thrust of his fingers.

"Are you trying to make me come all over you, Sachi?" He curled his fingers again as he pumped them in and out of her.

"I want—" The words broke on a sound that was half sob, half growl. "You're so hard it hurts. How can you want this much and not be going mad?"

He looked at her, his eyes glowing white-hot. "Because I know it will be worth it."

Sachi splintered. This time, her inner muscles clenching around his fingers doubled the sensation, prolonged it, and she bucked wildly under his touch.

"I'm not going to stop fucking you," he whispered. He withdrew his fingers, but only to add a third, stretching her open with a searing heat that had little to do with his magical flames. The heel of his hand pressed against her swollen clit with every thrust, and Sachi's scream almost drowned out his hoarse words.

"Take it for me, Sachi. Take the pleasure."

She lost count of her orgasms. It seemed like she'd always been coming, arching her back and pleading as her toes curled and her body tensed and released, over and over. Instead, she marked the time by Ash .

There was his voice in her ear, urging her on. "Sweet girl, you can take it."

His skin beneath her grasping hands and scraping fingernails. "Go ahead and scratch me. I like feeling your nails in my skin."

His fingers inside her, wide and talented, demanding even as his words teased. "I wish Zanya were here to see you like this. Flushed and shaking, so wet and ready she could fuck you with her whole hand."

And the hungry fire, always the fire, sizzling over her skin, under it. Burning her alive, holding her over the edge of a chasm so deep and fathomless she would never survive the fall.

But Ash kept going. "That's it, Sachi." His low, smooth commands now trembled with a metallic hint of tortured desire. "Just like that. Let it come."

She barely recognized her own voice, either. "I can't, Ash."

He stroked her hair back from her damp cheek. He kissed her, the sweet gentleness a contrast to the possessive thrust of his fingers and the way that fiery tongue flicked her closer and closer to madness. "For me, Sachi. One more."

"I can't ."

"You can." His teeth closed on her nipple, a sharp bite that broke through the rolling waves of unceasing bliss and made them crash in around her until only darkness remained.

She came back to herself sprawled on her back, with Ash stroking a soothing path up and down her side as he pressed soft kisses to her forehead. "There you are," he murmured.

Panting, Sachi stared up at the ceiling and willed it to stop spinning. "Are we certain?" she laughed, only half joking.

Suddenly he was there, blocking out the world. He braced his weight on either side of her head, caging her in flexing muscle and heat. A tenuously banked fire lurked in his gaze as he stared down at her, and across their bond she felt his ravenous hunger spark her own again, somehow even stronger than before.

"We can stop now." His voice was dark with need. "Or you can take more. For me."

The chains still hung down above her head, abandoned in the throes of pleasure. Sachi reached for them, winding them around her arms and hands once more. "For us ."

Words couldn't describe the feelings that flooded her—primal satisfaction, accompanied by a jolt of something that Sachi almost wanted to call shock tinged with hope.

It made her heart ache, this tentative yearning. After thousands of years and probably just as many lovers, Ash was still terrified by the possibility that he might incite her fear, just by being himself. No wonder he controlled himself so rigidly and refused to ever let go. All he wanted was to be accepted, and it was the one thing the world had denied him.

Until now.

Sachi gripped the chains, using them for leverage as she pulled her upper body off the bed until her lips hovered just under Ash's. Then she whispered, "Don't make me wait."

He moved so suddenly that Sachi dropped back to the mattress, but he didn't follow her down. He straightened, running his hands over her curves as he sat back on his heels ... and pushed her thighs wide.

"Watch." He gripped his cock in one hand and guided it into her. "Watch me take you."

As wet as she was from his fingers and the endless, slick pleasure, the gentle but insistent invasion still threatened to overwhelm her. She arched her hips, trying to take him faster, but Ash held her firmly in place as he slowly rocked deeper.

He took his time, merely growling in response to her whimpered pleas, teasing her with his words. "That's it, take all of me. I know you can."

By the time his hips were tight against hers, Sachi was writhing on the bed. He'd warned her that having her here—in his bed, in his lair —would unleash something feral in him, and that his desires were darker than she'd imagined.

What he hadn't said, at least not aloud, was the fundamental truth that whispered across their bond: nothing short of her complete and utter surrender would satisfy him.

So Sachi gave in. She melted before him, grinding against him as much as his iron grip would allow.

Yes.

He finally released her, but only to wrap his hands around her spread thighs. "Hold on."

And then he fucked her, fast and deep, harder than she'd anticipated, but so, so good. He used his near-bruising grip on her thighs to drag her into every greedy, unapologetic thrust, and Sachi wanted to scream from sheer relief. It was more than desire. It was more than bliss. It was a kind of madness, coming and feeling the tightness of her own body at the same time. Seeing herself, flushed and screaming, even though she was looking up at Ash. Fucking and being fucked, pleasure and breathless, persistent need weaving together until every sensation threatened to tear her apart.

This moment was theirs , shared and amplified because of it.

"I love feeling how fucking good this is for you." His hair hung over his forehead as he drove into her again and again, and Sachi longed to smooth it back. "Tell me you want more," he groaned, words that sounded less like a command and more like a plea.

An easy answer, one she felt in her soul. "I always want more, Ash."

Fire flashed, and he lifted a hand to her chest. His claws scraped over her skin, lightly at first, then harder. He circled her nipple, teasing the hardened flesh, then closed tight in a rough pinch.

"Ash!"

Both hands traced down her body and across her inner thighs, his claws leaving thin red lines in their wake. "Tell me."

"Always," she panted. "Always."

He cupped his hands under her knees and pushed them up, over his shoulders, as he leaned over her, using his weight—and another deep, angled thrust—to pin her to the bed. Sachi's vision blurred, going red and orange and then white around the edges of her field of vision. Fire, she realized vaguely, and a gorgeous, sparkling array of colors that filled the entire room with light.

The room burned, and so did she. Sachi clutched at Ash's shoulders and back, the chains forgotten, her nails pricking his skin until he threw back his head with a hiss. His claws did the same to her, scratching the delicate skin of her thighs until she could no longer separate the pain from the pleasure of coming.

"Can you still take more, sweet Sachi?" He rode her orgasm, every powerful thrust setting off another shower of sparks, until she couldn't even scream.

She had to whisper her answer. "I'll take anything."

Ash drove a hand into her hair. He slid the other beneath her hips, canting them for his next thrust.

Look at me.

Sachi wasn't sure if he said it, or if his need for it was so strong that their bond whispered the idea into her mind. But she obeyed, opening her eyes to lock onto Ash's beautiful face.

Love me.

I do.

The flame ignited between them once again, the one he'd called the Dragon's tongue. It slipped over her clit, curling around it. Sachi felt Ash's arousal reach a delirious, fevered pitch as he watched her writhe against him, riding his cock and the searing caress of his magic until everything was burning.

And then Ash bit her, his fangs scoring the sensitive skin of her neck.

Sachi's breath caught on a hoarse cry. Then she couldn't breathe at all, so great was the pressure of the orgasm quaking through her, and it didn't matter, because no one could survive this. It was too good, too much pleasure—

And then it exploded in a rain of pure fire that swirled around them, blocking out everything but the two of them. And then even that deafening blaze was drowned out by Ash's inhuman roar as he came. Her entire body tightened, sharing his orgasm as he spilled into her with a few final, desperate thrusts.

Sachi wasn't sure how long it took him to move, but when he began to stir, she opened her eyes and caught a glimpse of falling ash ... and a few glittering hints of pure white light still twinkling above the bed.

Then Ash rolled over and pulled her with him. He was still inside her, his cock pulsing in time with the aftershocks that gripped her. She hissed lightly when he pulled her even closer, and he hummed a soothing noise of apology.

"It's good," she assured him. "Just ... a lot."

"I know." His eyes shone. "I feel it, too."

Sachi laid her head on his chest and listened to the strong thump of his heart beneath her ear. She'd missed this. They'd both been so busy—and, in a way, stepping lightly around one another. They might be lord and consort, joined and formerly bound, but there was still so much distance between them sometimes. So many things they didn't know.

But they could find out.

Sachi lifted her head, loath to lose this sense of physical closeness but driven by curiosity. "Is your name Sevastyan?"

He blinked at her, brow furrowing. "Wherever did you hear that?"

"In the Dream." It was all she knew for certain, and she rushed ahead to explain. "There was a woman. Your grandmother, I think. We spoke, and she told me things. But she couldn't have been real , right?"

Ash stroked his fingers through her hair, his eyes troubled. "No one has called me by that name since my grandmother died. Even my mother called me Vash. And by the time the High Court formed, I'd been Ash for so long ..." He trailed off, his fingers still moving restlessly. "You spoke with her?"

"Yes, I think I did. Even though I know it's impossible."

"Are you so sure it is? A year ago, I would have deemed much of what Zanya can do to be impossible." His fingers slid down over her shoulder to linger over her heart, where not even the tiniest scar marked her desperate attempt to shatter a curse. "You died, Sachi. But she took that death into herself and delivered it to another. Everything I've ever learned about the world says that cannot be. But she isn't of this world. She's made of the darkness and stardust that created it, and so are you."

There had to be a way to know for sure. "She had silver-blonde hair gone gray, wound up in braids, and brown eyes—the same color as yours—that crinkled at the corners when she laughed. Her clothes were all shades of purple, even the furs, and she was cooking a stew over an open fire. The first stag of Isere's Moon."

"It's good luck," he murmured, then laughed softly. "I haven't heard anyone talk about the first stag of Isere's Moon in three thousand years. Not even Elevia keeps to the old ways anymore. Maybe it was her. How else could you know?"

Perhaps I pulled it from the Dream itself. The words died on her tongue. As an explanation, it was no less fanciful and impossible than a conversation with Ash's long-dead grandmother. If Sachi could do either of those things, then it had to be true. She had to have, at the very least, an unimaginably strong connection to the Dream.

And that had to be worth something . "I will find the Phoenix," she promised Ash quietly. "And I will find out what they know. I won't let you go through another war, I swear."

He upended them in a surge of muscle, laying her back on the bed. With his head propped on one hand, he smoothed the damp strands of her hair back from her face and smiled. "Do you know why I've taken a consort every one hundred years? Why I continued to do it, even when they came to me full of hatred and dread?"

"No." She'd tried and tried, but she hadn't been able to figure out why he would persist in tormenting himself.

"Because three thousand years ago, when we stood on shattered land and begged the Everlasting Dream for a path forward, we heard a whisper from the world. A prophecy, I suppose you'd call it, though none of us have ever spoken of it outside the halls of the High Court."

"What did it say?"

"That the Dragon's consort will break the Builder's chains, and the people will dream again."

Sachi ached for him as the final piece of the puzzle slipped into place. "You kept trying because you were looking for someone special."

"I kept trying because that was what I owed the world. I didn't protect it back then." Regret shadowed his features as he stroked the backs of his fingers over her cheek. "I let harm come to it, so the Dream asked me to wait for the person who could win the fight without destroying us all. And then it sent me you." He stopped with his thumb pressed against her lips. "Every one of us heard the prophecy, but I also heard something else. A promise inside the whispers."

"Tell me," Sachi murmured.

His gaze held hers, searching. "It was a promise that I would never be alone again."

A question lurked beneath the words, one she could clearly sense across their ephemeral bond. One she could answer, gladly and freely.

So she did. She stretched up and whispered the words against his lips. "You won't, Ash. Never. You will always have me."

He slipped his arms around her with a groan, and Sachi poured every bit of her devotion into the kiss, putting her vow into action as well as words.