Page 114 of King of Fire and Flames

We dried each other quickly and threw our clothes into the blood-tinged bath water. Then he wrapped a towel around my shoulders.

“Please, no flying this time,” I begged. “Can we walk through the river room? I want to see the waterfall window again.”

“The one you jumped out of? Certainly. But forgive me if I hold on to you too tightly.”

I laughed. “I wouldn’t dream of fleeing. I couldn’t possibly be a more willing guest.”

“Not a guest, a permanent resident,” he corrected. “I hope.”

As we entered the river room, deep peace enveloped me, the large leaves of tropical plants brushing my arms and legs and soothing my fractured nerves. The sounds of the river teased my senses. A bubbling lullaby where it entered the room, growing into a raging chorus as it tumbled over a sloping marble ledge, through the window, and into the pool in the city street below.

It could have triggered traumatic flashbacks of my time held captive here. But it didn’t. Instead, the past and the present collided, and memories of the green-eyed boy I’d once loved—the brother I had killed—raced through my mind.

Our loud yelps as we ran through the lush forest of our childhood, then leaped over a waterfall into a rumbling river below. The Mydorian palace. Running with our hands linked through white-washed hallways into our parents’ loving arms.

Then the images changed, and I saw myself jumping from the very window I now leaned upon. Smelled the stench of Bonerust. Gorbinvar’s forge. Watched the Storm King blow it all to ash.

I shook the past off, turned and smiled at the fae who I loved and trusted with every part of my fragile human heart. He smiled back, folding a wing around my shoulders.

Together, we leaned over the sill, our palms braced on the window frame. He whistled long and low. “Quite a distance from here to that pool. You’re brave, love. And stubborn. Reckless. Perfect. And forever mine.”

“I do adore arguing with you, but I can’t disagree with anything you just said.”

“Never thought I’d hear you say that, Leaf.”

We laughed, and then raced each other up the staircase to the sitting room. “You let me win,” I said at the top, adjusting the towel under my armpits.

“Can you blame me?” he teased, his hungry gaze roaming over my body. “In this case, the loser’s view was spectacular.”

Through fluttering gauze curtains, I caught glimpses of the shimmering city lights and the silhouette of distant mountains. I looked with longing toward his crescent-shaped bedchamber on the next level up, but ignored the stairs leading to it and walked instead along the stone pathway that connected my pavilion to the sitting room.

“Follow me,” I said over my shoulder, entering the gilded prison.

Crouching, I snatched two large feathers from the tiles and waved them under his amused nose. “Remember when I thought these belonged to a rare breed of night hawk?”

“Yes, and instead, they belonged to me—your stalker.”

Laughing, I walked to the edge of the pavilion and tossed them into the breeze, the warm tiles a comfort under my bare feet as I watched Arrow’s feathers float toward the desert.

I remembered lying naked on my back in the center of this very floor, my restless feet scraping against the tiles as forbidden desire heated my blood, and Arrow above me, taunting and teasing until I thought I’d break apart.

But my feelings for him were no longer forbidden. I could do what I liked with the King of Storms and Feathers, and he would happily allow it. I could break him if I desired. Cleave his heart from his chest. Kill him.

But at this moment, violence was the furthest thing from my mind.

Letting my towel drop, I eyed his still-damp body, drinking in the sight of smooth, hard planes flowing into dips and valleys between muscles. His cock twitched under my scrutiny, a bead of moisture already forming at its tip.

I licked my lips. “Lie on the floor.”

His eyebrows rose as he pointed at his chest, mouthing a silent question, “me?”

“Yes, you. And hurry, please.”

With his eyes on mine and his fists clenched at his sides, he did as requested.

I nudged his hand with my toe. “Arms over your head and keep your wrists together. If you move them even slightly, this ends. Do you understand?”

Throat bobbing, he nodded.

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