Page 117 of The Kingdom of Flames

The Lord of the Black Banner. Blackdawn.

“Yet none approach.” Celestine bit into the bread, scented and spiced from the kitchens of Calendar.

“Yet none approach,” Aidric’s voice agreed.

Celestine drank from a flagon of wine and finished her meal. She stared at the wooden bowl and wooden spoon she had found tucked away in her saddle.

A final gift from him.

Her fingers ran over it, feeling the work of his knife. She wanted to keep it, to hold it close. But that would have been the same as keeping Garo in the stable and never riding him again.

She tossed it into the fire, watching it split and blacken and glow as it danced alight.

Celestine withdrew the pipe he had left her as well, and she packed it, lighting it with a twig. She puffed, watching the potent form of Aidric scanning the darkness, protecting her.

Somewhere deep in the woods, the largest wolf she had ever heard howled. Aidric shifted, bringing his spear up to stab, but it did not come any closer.

Celestine knew that nothing would touch their camp. It was just a certainty. The air buzzed as if it were alive when she was near Captain Aidric. She felt she recognized him somehow. She knew him.

“You said you protect us from Him. Is he close now?” Celestine looked around the forest.

“Yes,” Aidric said. “He waits. All walk to him… in the end. You are the Final Bride, lady Celestine. But he is the final groom of all. We are all wedded to him in the end.”

“What is his name?”

Aidric turned to the forest, spear gripped tight.

“You only know his name in the end.”

The shadow that seemed to envelop the camp finally lifted. The firelight glowed brighter, and Celestine stared into the fire.

That night, as she slept, she dreamed.

There was a dark throne in a court of shadow. Something waited for her there as she marched towards it. In the dream, she had been on such a long journey.

He waited for her. But in the dream, when she took his hand, her eyes still upon the floor, her very life seemed to drain away.

“All come to me, in the end.”

When Celestine looked upon his face, she saw her own ruin. She stepped towards it. The darkest union, the darkest marriage. Such finality and eternity. When she saw a face that she couldn’t see, she woke.

Aidric watched her in the flickering firelight. He stood above her, spear in hand. Protecting her from the wolves and shadows that prowled somewhere beyond them.

Celestine stared into his mirrored eyes and mask.

Her hand crept lower to the sweet lust that was growing between her legs. The dream had been so terrible; it felt like she had seen the face of annihilation, and beyond that, a void so dark it had a color. Celestine’s body cried out in desire against such a blankness.

Aidric watched her, and she wanted him to. This Captain of the Guard, always there. Always watching her. Protecting her.

When she spread her legs, his helm moved down, taking her in. She peeled her trousers off proudly and played with herself in the firelight while he stared. She saw the morphed image of herself, stretching and contracting, in the polish of his mask.

When she reached out to pull him down towards her, he didn’t obey. He stared at her, stopping himself. Perhaps from fear of what the Lords of Season would do, perhaps he didn’t have that within himself. But he watched her, and she came for him, a finger in her own mouth, thighs clenched under the need of her quim. Her own image an eternity staring back at her, his cloth-covered eyes watching her.

Wanting her.

Celestine rolled over, staring at the firelight. Aidric watched her until she shut her eyes and slept again, staying close to keep away any bad dreams.

Chapter 27

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