“No.”
Rhaif pushed Ash aside, his fingertips darkening. He grasped her throat in her hand and rose her off the ground.
“Do as you’re told, sister,” he hissed. “Take your rightful role in this kingdom.”
She swallowed hard against the heat of his fingertips. “I’d rather die.”
She was thrown backwards out of his grasp. Fog wrapped around her body beneath her. She fell into darkness and the void of its core.
Her eyes closed, and she accepted the consumption of death surrounding her.
—Her back hit dirt. She winced at the pain of a rock hitting her rib.
Stand.
Stand.
Stand.
Slowly, she felt her normal core returning. Aydra pushed herself to her feet again. The adrenaline coursing through her made her breaths short. The Berdijay paused before her. And then it did something she did not expect.
—It bowed.
The shadows evacuated the clearing in a split, as though time were rewinding around itself.
Aydra dizzied on the spot.
Breath returned to her lungs.
Her body collapsed onto the ground.
The wet of the stream wrapped itself around her again. Water babbled in her ears. And then she heard the splash of someone coming towards her.
Arms grasped beneath her shoulders. They pulled her out of the water and onto the bank. She was sat up against someone, and palms pressed to either side of her face.
“Aydra—Aydra, come back—”
Draven’s hands were on her cheeks, pushing her hair back off her face as he squeezed her. “Can you hear me?”
When she didn’t speak, she heard him curse under his breath.
“Dammit, Aydra, answer me!” he finally shouted.
“Stop begging, Venari. It’s unbecoming of such a King,” she managed.
His body relaxed, and he muttered another curse under his breath. The strength she’d felt standing up in front of the Berdijay flowed through her veins.
She’d survived the mind games of the Berdijay.
Sitting there. With his arms around her. Her heart began to pick up pace again at the warmth of his grasp.
“You’re crazy!” he declared, palms pressed to her cheeks. “Have you no fear for anything?”
A jagged huff of amusement left her as she continued to try and catch her breath. Draven’s fingers softened on her face. She could hear his shortened breaths, feel the wind of it on her lips. Her own breaths slowly evened, and she reached up to feel his cheek, wishing she could see his eyes upon hers. See the desperation that she heard in his words on his features. Her thumb stroked his lip, and she felt his nose touch hers. Her heart thudded in her chest as she felt an intense pull in his direction.
And when he pressed his lips to hers, she swore the wind stopped whirling around them.
Perhaps it was the adrenaline. Perhaps it was the darkness.
She wasn’t sure if she cared.
All that existed in that moment was the pair of them.
Fucking curses, what was this?
Their chests pulled flush together. He kissed her hard, his hands not knowing where to explore on her first, but the need swelling between them did not give to much time. She threw her leg straddle over his waist, and groaned into his mouth upon feeling him already hardening beneath her. His fingers tugged in her hair, quickly followed by the grasp of his digits in her hips. The moment he touched her wetness between her legs, he groaned into her neck, and she nearly came apart at the way he teased her clit.
She wanted him. Right then.
She found her way into his pants then and gasped at the girth of him in her hands. Her hips bucked, and she captured his mouth with hers once more, distracting him long enough that she could move herself onto his length.
Her heart stopped. She had to pull back from his face and pause a moment as she felt him fill her. A warm tickle radiated over her every muscle. He grasped her hips and pushed himself deeper inside her, curse words emitting from his lips against her collarbone. The feeling washing over her body was of fire and ice all at once. An addiction, affliction, she never wanted to rid herself of. Every muscle in her body relaxed, and her entire being surrendered to him. She felt his thumb on her lip, and his forehead rested against hers once more.
“What are you?” she heard him breathe, apparent that he felt the same bewilderment as she.
“Yours,” she whispered back.
He paused, and she wished she could have seen his face. She pressed her hands against his cheeks, and he pulled her flush against him as she started moving her hips, slowly up and down, savoring the feeling of him inside her as no other had ever filled her before. She didn’t understand what sorcery or bewitchment it was radiating between them, but she knew wanted to savor it, to feel it linger and radiate through her bones and muscles. She knew she would never feel it with another. And when she felt herself coming to her end just moments later, her hips digging deeper and faster with his, his mouth open on her neck, the stars danced above her with her final gasp, and she came apart with him beneath the forest canopy.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
THE FLARE OF the sun washed over her face. She felt herself moving, as though she were lying atop something breathing. A warmth she was unfamiliar with surrounded her. She nuzzled herself into its depths, not sure she cared who it was she was so comfortable against, but when she heard the grunt of him beneath her, she remembered the night before, and a small smile grew on her lips as she opened her eyes.
Draven’s thick hair was splayed out over his shoulders and the ground. She couldn’t help herself from reaching up to his neck, entangling her fingers in his hair.
The sudden seizure of her hand in his made her eyes widen.
“No one touches my hair,” he growled,
