within me before he finally exploded with a gush. He fell forward, his hands on either side of my head as he finally grew still inside me. His breathing was heavy and a bead of sweat trickled down from his temple. A slow grin grew across his face as he leaned down and pressed a slow kiss against my lips.
“So that’s what sex is like,” I murmured, feeling completely relaxed.
“You haven’t been missing much,” Rowe teased, kissing me again before slowly pulling his body out of mine.
I sat up as he sat beside me, flexing my wings. The pain was gone from my right wing completely, allowing me to slowly and carefully dissolve them into a fine black dust. I reached across and touched his arm with my fingers, drawing him out of thought. I wasn’t sure what this meant between us, if things had changed forever or if this had simply been a release of built-up tension.
“Things are different,” he admitted.
“Do you just live in my thoughts?” I demanded, pinching his arm.
A crooked smile lifted his lips as he looked over at me. “That time I wasn’t in your mind. It was just a guess because I was wondering the same thing. Things are different between us now. I’m not sure what’s going to happen, but I do know that I’m not going to let you out of my sight. Unfortunately, for now, we have a new duty before us.”
“Cynnia,” I murmured.
“And the defeat of Aurora. We can’t be free until Aurora is gone.”
“I know. You’re right.”
Rowe reached over and took my chin between two fingers, turning my face toward him. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t steal a few moments to ourselves when we can.”
I smiled as I leaned in and pressed another kiss to his lips, my fingers straying across the scars that crisscrossed his beautiful face. The Fire Starter was right. There was something evil about this one-eyed naturi, but I welcomed that sinister grin and his nimble fingers.
We finished dressing but lingered by the side of the stream, watching fractured bits of moonlight dance across the water as it splashed within its banks. We talked softly of our time apart, of the years that had passed, separated on two different worlds. Unfortunately, there was one reoccurring thought eating at my mind. I was reluctant to bring it up and spoil our companionable moment but afraid that it had a bearing on what we faced.
“What happened to Nerian?” I found myself softly asking when a long silence settled between us.
“The Fire Starter killed him.”
“I know how he died, but I am more concerned with how my brother lived. I spoke with a couple survivors of the first trip to Machu Picchu those many years ago. They told me how Nerian tortured Mira, and deep in my heart I can’t fault her for wanting revenge.”
“If you’re going to pity Mira, then you should know that Nerian wasn’t alone in her torture,” Rowe stiffly said, looking over at me with a stern expression. “We needed her to be our protection when the nightwalkers came. And as it turns out, we needed her more when it came to opening the door.”
“I know about your role in Mira’s torture as well,” I replied in a soothing voice. “You and I are no different in the duties we’ve had to fulfill during our long lives. However, the others spoke of the twisted joy that Nerian took in Mira’s torture.”
Rowe heaved a heavy sigh and his shoulders seemed to slump under a new weight. “I know where you are going with this, and I have to admit that your suspicions are correct. Nerian had gone mad. At first I thought it was just an obsession with the Fire Starter and getting her to do exactly as he commanded. I thought it was just a need to break something that he perceived as weaker than him. But even after our defeat at Machu Picchu and we became more concerned with simple survival, his obsession never waned. In the last years that I knew him, he no longer followed orders; he mumbled constantly to himself and accused others of helping Mira to escape him. I was finally forced to banish him from the rest of the group that remained under my command before he killed someone.”
Pulling my knees up to my chest, I rested my chin on them while wrapping my arms around my legs. “During the brief time that I knew him before the wars, I could see flickers of moments where I knew his thoughts were in a dangerous place. He looked at Aurora with envy and I heard him utter traitorous words about our father. I think if he had remained with the royal family, he would have tried to kill Aurora in an effort to steal the throne.”
“It is a possibility,” Rowe said, slowly scratching his jaw.
“And now I’m only left to wonder,” I sighed, letting my eyes fall shut.
“Wonder what?”
“Has the same madness that struck down my older brother come to claim my sister as well? During the past century, Aurora has come to see conspiracy against her around every corner. People were killed by me in the name of treason, and there are some that I struggle to believe would harbor a single treasonous act against her. And then she turned on Cynnia, who wanted nothing more than to find a peaceful solution instead of pursuing a route that will ultimately lead to our extinction.”
“She also turned against you, her one and only true champion through it all,” Rowe added.
“Is this madness that is eating away at her brain? She was always a cold, distant person, but in the past years I’ve seen her act in the name of sheer cruelty. Has the same madness that afflicted Nerian taken hold of my sister?”
Rowe reached out and ran his hand down my back in a soothing caress, wiping away some of the tension that seemed to be growing in my shoulders. “Aurora is not the woman I remember or the person I agreed to be consort to. She is power hungry and obsessed. While I have no love for the humans, you are right that she will lead our people to extinction if she continues this course of action. She’s not thinking clearly.”
Rowe paused abruptly, and I lifted my head to look over at him. He was staring into the woods but I don’t think he was actually seeing the world around him. Without reading his thoughts, I could feel the pain of him reviewing that night on Machu Picchu when his wife-queen rejected him despite everything he had done for her. I could feel the heavy weight of that rejection and his own self-doubt over his appearance, though he hid both very well from the world around him with a thick veil of confidence and sarcasm.
“I think you’re right,” he whispered, still not looking at me. “I think she has gone mad.”
Reaching up, I placed my hand against his cheek, startling him back to look at me again. “Then we have to stop her. We have to protect what is left of our people before she kills us all.”
A crooked smile crossed his lips and then he turned his face and pressed a kiss into the palm of my hand. “I may not agree with the idea of giving the throne to someone as inexperienced as Cynnia, but she will be better than the madness of Aurora.”
“I wouldn’t worry about Cynnia,” I said with a smile. “She may be young and inexperienced, but she will have us as counsel at her side during her first few years. I feel confident that between the three of us, we will find a way to rejuvenate our people.”
“And what of her new consort Locke?” Rowe asked, arching one brow at me.
“I am hoping that he proves to be more than just eye candy for Cynnia.”
Rowe lunged at me, knocking me on my back while grabbing my wrists with both of his hands so he could properly hold me down. “Eye candy? Where would you learn such a phrase as that?”
A soft giggle escaped me as I stopped struggling against him. “Cynnia has made a friend with a human witch. I overheard them talking and they used the word eye candy when referring to the man Cynnia has chosen to be her consort.”
“Are you . . . disappointed? I mean, I’m not the man you came to care for those centuries so long ago. I’m not . . .” he stammered, his grip loosening on my wrists as he started to straighten.
Pulling my arms free, I sat up and cupped his face so he could not pull away from me as I forced him to look me in the eye. “I would change nothing.” And that statement went for my entire life. There were things I regretted and many things I was sorry had to happen, but somehow that connection of events led me to this moment alone in the woods with Rowe. I would not risk changing anything and miss out on this exact moment. I would change nothing.
