Suddenly, I feel a flash of heat on my back and a rush of wind. I open my eyes and whirl around towards the balcony. My hand drifts instinctively to a dagger at my waist as I search for the source of the strange sensation. But all I see is Verity, dressed in a simple wool shift and wearing the Bloodbane cloak. Her hair is tangled swept hastily away from her face.
“Altair?” She asks weakly.
I burst off the chaise, flying towards her. She crumples into my chest as I bundle her in my arms. “Verity,” I breathe, my heart racing. “How did you get here?”
“Are you the real Altair?” She asks, her eyes peering up at me.
“I’m real,” I say fiercely. “This is real.”
Her shoulder tremble and she nods. “You are. What is this place?”
I pull away, biting my bottom lip as I hold back a smile. My Verity. This time, I’ll never let her go. “A country called Santaya,” I explain. “In the queen’s palace.”
“What are you doing here?” She looks around curiously and I release her so she can poke through the room. When she slips out of my arms, I miss her instantly.
“Recruiting more soldiers,” I say, trailing her. I don’t want her out of my sight.
Verity glances over her shoulder, lingering in the door to the bedroom. “Sadal told me that if we kill him, no one can control the demons.”
I sigh, having suspected as much. “Good to know. Did he tell you anything else?”
She clamps her lips shut. “I can’t,” she stammers, “I can’t say anything more.”
“Verity,” I murmur, brushing a stray hair from her porcelain skin. “You’re safe here. I’ll keep you safe with me, always.”
Verity bites her lip and leans into my chest. “I don’t know how to fix this,” she mumbles against my shirt.
I run a hand down her back, soothing her. “We’ll figure it out together,” I say gently. “How did you get here, Verity? I saw him take you away.”
“He left me in the ether,” she says, shuddering.
Anger ripples through me. “Alone?” I hiss. “Bastard.”
“I’m alright,” she says, her fingers playing against my back. “I made a friend of sorts.”
“A friend?” I furrow my brows. “What kind of creature of darkness could be a friend to you?”
“I don’t know what it is, but it doesn’t seem to want to hurt me. It helped me get here,” she says. She stares up a me through her thick lashes and my mouth runs dry. “I don’t have long though.”
My grip around her tightens. “What do you mean?”
“The energy it takes to keep myself out of the ether is enormous,” she explains, brows twitching together sadly.
I lower my forehead to hers. “Then you’ll have to leave.”
“Yes,” she says softly.
I heave a sigh, every cell in my body pulled towards her like a magnet. Erzur’s words are echoing in my mind but it’s Verity in my arms. I drop a kiss to her lips, soft and gentle but still filled with desperate need. Her lips are warm and pliable. I urge them open with a flick of my tongue and Verity sighs as she complies.
My tongue swirls through her mouth, tasting her. I slip my hands down past the small of her back and clench her tightly. She gasps as I hoist her up off the ground. But then her legs are around my waist and she’s kissing me as if she’s been starved of me for too long. I carry her to the bed, feeling her stiff nipples against my chest.
I growl when I drop her onto the plush mattress. She bounces softly, staring at me with sultry, expectant eyes. My fingers dance over the laces of my tunic and I tear my shirt off over my head. I toss it aside, breathing heavily with desire. Verity’s eyes trail over my chest, to the muscles of my abdomen, before settling on the sharply defined muscles just over the waist of my trousers. Her tongue darts out over her lips and I groan at the sight.
I pounce on her, straddling her waist. She rolls her hips against mine teasingly, thrusting her breasts in the air. I bite my lip, trying to fight back against the urge to rip her thin dress off with my teeth. I haven’t felt this wild since the summer solstice, like a starving mountain lion faced with a sleek gazelle.
Verity’s hands slip over my cheeks and she caresses me gently. “Altair,” she says softly. “I need this. I need one last memory; in case I never make it out of the ether.”
“You’ll get out,” I say fiercely. “I’ll get you out, I promise.”
She smiles sadly. “There’s something else.”
I drop my lips to her neck, kissing her gently. My tongue laps over her pulsing jugular and a moan slips from her lips. “Altair.” She pushes me away gently. “I wear the cloak now.”
“He made you,” I say, eyes flashing.
“He made me do other things,” she says hesitantly. “He swore me to him.”
Her words hit me like a cold wind. “What do you mean?” I murmur, frozen over her.
She closes her eyes and takes a shuddering breath. “After he took me from the castle, he brought me to the Blood Well. I was unconscious or something, I don’t remember any of it. But he made me say the words to that bind me to him.”
“Married,” I breathe. “You married him.”
Tears pool on her lower lashes. “I didn’t want to.”
“This whole time, you’ve been his.” I sit back, the cold settling deep in my chest.
“Altair,” Verity sniffles. “Please, I wouldn’t have chosen it.”
“The curse,” I say under my breath as my mind strays.
“If we kill him, maybe it will be undone,” Verity says, a hint of desperation in her voice.
I turn to her, trying to soften my gaze. This changes everything. I take her hand in mine. It isn’t her fault, I tell myself even though the news has made my stomach roil. “We can try,” I say gently, forcing
