Chapter 1

1

ALEXUS

I t’s early evening when we meet at the main courtyard for dinner with Fia.

We’ve scrubbed all proof of our journey away and have been groomed by the palace’s maidservants until we look like we haven’t been through any difficulty at all these last days.

The outside table—decorated with colorful glass lanterns and tall vases of red flowers—is set for eleven, with Fia residing at the head. She’s dressed in black tonight, regal and lovely.

On the side of the courtyard sit musicians with stringed instruments including a harp, each one playing their part in a quiet song. Raina sits beside me, smelling like a rose and dressed in red again, her neckline plunging to her bellybutton.

I lean over to whisper in her ear. “That dress might be the death of me. Who needs food? All I want is to take you back to our room and make love to you for the rest of the night.”

A soft blush touches her cheeks, something that might always make me swoon.

“We are guests,” she signs, keeping her gestures small and between us. “And so present we must be.”

And yet, she drags her hand beneath the table, from the top of my thigh to my knee and back up a little past halfway, sliding inward, teasing just the tip of my cock.

“Evil woman,” I whisper, and she just smiles.

I’m so glad to see that smile. These are not the easiest of times, and when she checked the waters earlier today, Vexx had arrived in the East, and she still couldn’t see Finn. Worry is eating at her, but I’m hoping that tonight provides a little distraction.

“A toast,” Fia says, standing at the head of the table with her glass raised in the air. “To the future,” she says. “May we be the shining lights who change the days to come.”

We clink our glasses of sparkling wine, and the dinner attendants begin passing platters of food around.

“Where’s Joran?” I ask Nephele who sits across from me. I point to the only empty place setting, the one beside her. Everyone else is here.

At my question, she chugs her wine.

“No idea, really. Maybe he wasn’t hungry.” She fidgets with the ruffle running down the front of her jade green dress, then her hand moves to a small ruby pendant hanging from her neck that I’ve never seen.

I sense a lie. I know her. Perhaps they had an argument.

“Well, I’m famished,” Rhonin says, plucking two bread rolls as the basket passes. Helena smiles, sitting close beside him.

“With all that moaning coming from your room earlier today,” Keth says, voice low so that Fia doesn’t hear, “I can imagine why.”

Zahira smacks at Keth’s hand, though she wears a smile, and Rhonin turns so many shades of red that I’m certain one of them matches Raina’s dress. Everyone seems happy, save for Nephele who looks nervous and on edge. I’m certain it has something to do with Joran.

After dinner, Raina and I walk the terraced courtyards, still sipping wine, before we head back to our room. Standing at the vanity table, I slip off my shoes and strip off my tunic and iron key, neatly laying everything aside. There’s already a low fire burning in the hearth to ward off the desert chill, and the candles around the room have been lit.

When I turn around, I don’t expect to see Raina standing a few feet away, already naked, holding a small golden jar and wearing a rather erotic smile and a display of bright witch’s marks. But that’s what I find, and I couldn’t be more pleased.

I shake my head in admiration of her lovely body and move toward her, returning her smile. Standing close, I tap the top of the jar. “What’s this?”

She unstops the cork, carefully, and hands me the jar. I should’ve remembered. Fia is a woman of tradition.

“Fever Lilac dust.” I hold the jar to my nose to smell that cloying scent, laced with hints of rose and vanilla.

“A gift,” she signs. “From Fia.”

“Do you remember my story about this?”

She arches a brow. “What do you think?”

I wrap my arm around her waist and draw her against me. “We can’t use too much. That’s the only rule.”

Though I’m glad her mind is on us, and that she feels like using it at all.

She makes a face, questioning me, asking why.

“Because, if I paint you in this like the couple from the wedding will do tomorrow night, we won’t leave this room for a month. We still have a king and a world to save.”

She pinches her finger and thumb together, squinting one eye.

I can’t help but laugh. “Gods, you are so adorable. Yes. We can still try a little.”

It is exceptionally difficult to keep myself from covering her in golden dust from head to foot. Trying to think with reason, I lead Raina to the bed and lay her down. Crawling over her, still wearing my black trousers from dinner, I sprinkle a tiny amount of dust between her breasts, right over her heart, where two simple flourishes curve over the swell of her breasts.

The dust spreads quickly, glittering her skin with a soft, golden sheen. Using a small taste of my magick, I draw my hands over her breasts, her shoulders, down her arms, feeling her skin pebble beneath my palms. Then I move lower, straddling her ankles as I rub more dust over the curves of her legs and hips.

It’s such a sensual experience, touching her this way, taking my time to feel her curves, to memorize every little dip and valley on her body. Before I left them behind, I sketched images of her in my journals from memory. But I think I would like to draw her like this, posed for me so that I might be forced to notice everything. Every scar. Every freckle. Every witch’s mark. The sleek line of her spine. The dimples at her lower back.

Already, she’s breathing heavy, massaging her breasts, tweaking her nipples. The sight makes my blood rush and my cock hard as steel.

I move between her legs and use my knees to knock hers wider. She opens for me without any resistance, revealing that slick, pink center I’ll never get enough of.

Carefully, I sprinkle a little more dust, right over her pussy. I rub her gently at first, working the dust into her flesh, watching her writhe as she grows wetter and wetter for me. I can feel the dust working on me too. A heady arousal that feels like we’re in another world, just the two of us.

Kneeling there, I thrust my fingers inside her, fluttering them with a tickle of my power, and she arches off the bed. Her lips part on the sweetest gasp. After long moments, her eyes meet mine, hazed with desire as I work her deep before finding that magickal little place inside that sends her reeling.

“Do you like it when I fuck you like this?”

She nods, a silent whimper visible on her face. It makes me smile as I bend down and drag my tongue up the length of her slit.

“And you like it when I lick your pussy?”

She shoves her fingers into her hair, nodding again, working against my hand.

“Do you like it when I talk to you like this?”

Another nod, and this time, her hands move into my hair.

I lean back down and devour her, fucking her all the while with my fingers, sucking and nibbling her perfect little clit until she’s grinding against my mouth, seeking the magick on my tongue.

When I pull back to look at her, to see that golden skin shimmering in the firelight, her eyes are all but on fire. She shoves up and pushes at me, grabbing the jar I sat aside. I obey and crawl off the bed.

My feet no sooner hit the floor than her hand is on my chest, and she’s driving me backward until I’m pressed against the wall.

I smile, and she holds my gaze while unlacing my pants. Quickly, they drop to my ankles, and I kick them aside. Raina pours just enough Fever Lilac dust in her hand, then she sprinkles the gold powder over my chest. Using both hands, she spreads it over my shoulders and arms, down my torso, and then she’s on her knees—where I think she wanted to be in the first place—gripping my cock with both hands, staring up at me as she twists her wrists, working me in a way that makes me yearn to be inside her.

She strokes me, and the moment she puts her mouth on me, I feel my control slipping. I slide my hands into her hair, ready to fuck her lovely mouth down to her throat. But I pause.

With a tender touch, I brush my thumb over the curve of her bottom lip as she stares up at me with those hungry, dark blue eyes. The sight of her on her knees before me, naked and ravenous and golden, spurns my deepest desire.

But there’s something else about seeing her like this. Something that makes my blood heat in a different way.

Anger, the fire of a thousand suns, an emotion that shouldn’t be anywhere near this moment. But it is, and I need it gone.

Before she can protest, I reach down, sweep her up in my arms, and carry her to bed where I lie beside her and draw her to me.

“This is better,” I tell her.

She pushes up on her elbow, dark hair framing her beautiful face, confusion writing itself into the lines between her brows. “Did I do something wrong?” she signs, a glint of hurt in her eyes.

“Gods, no.” I sit up against the pillows and clasp her face. “Raina, there is nothing I want more than your mouth on my body.” I lean in and kiss her. “I have ached to take you that way more times than you can count since that night at Starworth Tor. It’s just that…” I swallow the tightness in my throat as I search for words, a reason why I stopped her that doesn’t sound like madness. And the answer hits me. “You bow to no one,” I tell her, my voice graver than it has any right to be tonight. “Do you hear me? Not ever. Especially not to me.”

She crawls up my body and straddles my hips. Not another word is said as she takes me inside her, then leans down, one arm around my neck as she moves slowly, taking her time, taking me deep.

I was too eager moments before, so I haven’t yet asked, but I think tonight we both might need tenderness. I can feel it in the way she kisses me, as though that simple connection is enough for her to enter my soul, to memorize who I am, who I’ve become under her care.

I don’t hide anything. I have no fear anymore. Any darkness, she has destroyed with her light. Every shadowy, gloomy place inside me feels remade because of her. I feel healed.

She tightens her fingers in my hair and presses her lips to my throat, tasting the skin over my pulse as her other hand traces my rune. I fold my arms around her and hold her tight, moving with her, and a different kind of instinct takes over, something so intimate that we begin to move in a beautiful rhythm, like when we were in the pool at Starworth Tor. Every movement is fluid, every thrust met with slick grace, our hands and mouths finding that sensual rhythm. It’s a dance, one our bodies have learned these last weeks, but tonight it’s perfected.

Raina kisses me, her mouth brushing mine, the soft drag of her bottom lip enough to give way to sweet pleasure.

I plunge my hands into her hair to the wrists and inhale her. This kiss is so much more than just a kiss. It’s a promise. An oath. I already know that before she presses one word to the skin over my heart.

“Mine.”

“Yes,” I whisper. “Always. El om ze pera. Lohanran tu gra.”

She pulls back, and I see the question in her eyes, the recollection.

“I was supposed to tell you what that means when we were in Malgros.”

She nods, eager for me to continue. “It means, there is no other . You are my only temple. I love you, Raina.” I’ve said those words before, when things were different, but tonight, I can see that she hears me. That my words are etching themselves across her heart. “I meant it,” I tell her. “I swear I have loved you all my life. And when we are gone from this world, I will love you still.”

“I love you the same,” she signs, and I cannot stop the smile that breaks across my face. My heart feels discovered. Like a lost thing finally found by the one meant to hold it.

Tears fill her eyes, and when they fall, I kiss them away. Again, we begin our dance, making love as though we might never have the chance again, lost in a euphoria that makes it feel as though we’re floating among the stars.

Suddenly, a strange feeling comes over me. I grip her hip.

I can feel her.

I can feel her through the bond.

Clasping her face, I stare into her eyes. Now, when I look for her in my mind, she’s there. As though she never left.

The threads of our magick begin weaving together, a tight braid chasing along the bond.

I shake my head, confused.

“I healed the bond,” she signs, laughing and weeping. “I did not know if I could.”

It is impossible to express the joy I feel. I’m not certain even Raina would understand it. But this—being with her—feels like my fate has finally arrived. The overwhelming relief of this night is incalculable, because the thing most precious to me in this world is with me, in my arms, and she’s mine.

Hungered like never before, I turn her over, pressing a kiss to the smooth skin beneath her delicate collarbone that used to bear her rune. That still does, I suppose. Inside.

“I hope you aren’t sleepy,” I tell her as she completes the tangling of our magick.

She smiles and shakes her head, and I bury myself inside her “Because tonight,” I whisper, “we’re going to rattle this city.”