Page 84 of An Empress of Earth & Darkness

“I don’t think Stryker could spell privacy if he tried.” Torin laughed.

“You guys are just…delicious.” Artem beamed as he looked between Emara and Torin. “Aren’t you glad the three best friends are back together again, the ultimate trio?”

“Fuck me.” Torin sighed. “If I need to listen to this the full way to the Temple of the Gods, I will place you in the cells next to my father and leave you there until we return. And I will accept the wrath of the chief commander happily.”

“Why do you pretend to have such a cruel heart, my beautiful, brooding friend?” Artem’s lips turned up as he batted his eyelashes.

Torin looked at Emara as if to say, “You take care of this before I do.”

She stepped in. “You actually interrupted an important conversation between Commander Blacksteel and I.”

The minute she announced the title, she could feel the burn of Torin’s gaze on her, and it set her alight internally. He clearly liked hearing that from her lips, he had made that clear in the commander’s office. “Artem, I need you to go and check in on Breighly. Get the news of what happened with her pack and then report it back to Commander Blacksteel and I,” Emara commanded on Torin’s behalf, and as she stole another look at his face, it seemed that her authority had set him on fire. She pushed out her hand, and Artem’s huge mass started sliding backwards towards the door.

“I hate when you do this,” Artem called as the wind pulled at his cheeks, his hair, his clothes.

“See you in the foyer, friend.” She smiled callously, slamming the door in his face.

“I am still keeping my hopes up that I am going to be your ring bearer at the wedding,” Artem shouted from behind the door. “I am still your favourite guard, even if you don’t want to admit it in front of Blacksteel. I know the truth.”

She flipped him a rude gesture that she wished to the Gods he could have seen as she laughed her way to the bathing chamber to get ready for their journey.

Torin moved so quickly he was like a flash of lightning, and his hard body pressed against her spine. “Where do you think you’re going?” he asked as his hands found her waist and then her hips. He tugged her against him so that she could feel his hard length at her rear.

Heat instantly pooled between her thighs at how he sounded, how he was ready for her.

“Do we not need to get ready to leave?” Emara tried her hardest to keep her tone unwavering. “We have a mission, remember?”

A squeal left her lips as he spun her to face him. His forehead bowed to hers. “I have never had an interest in being called Commander Blacksteel.” One of his sinful dimples appeared. “Not until it left your lips.” He walked her backwards, his hands still firmly flexed around her hips. “And now I am just wondering what it would sound like coming from your mouth as you moaned.”

She panted in delight at what he was offering. “And how are you going to do that, Commander Blacksteel?” She smiled up at him.

“I am about to show you.”

Torin pounced on her, and Emara’s back hit the mattress before she could even blink.

The Blacksteel Hunting Clan stood in the foyer, awaiting the arrival of the commander and the Empress of Air. No one knew what was in store for them, as they still needed to have a briefing, but Gideon knew to expect the unexpected. Going on the whim of a vision wasn’t going to be easy, and he had no idea how Torin was going to explain why they were heading to Skyelir. There were a lot of parts that were missing, and his mother had said that visions can change depending on the hand of fate.

He wasn’t going to lie to himself and say that Kellen’s visions hadn’t kept him up all night. Knowing that his brother was a seer and that he had envisioned the Dark Army obtaining the Protection Stone was a scary thought alone, but the fact that it was a race against time to change the fate of the kingdom was terrifying.

What if time wasn’t on their side?

I do not feel fear. I do not feel fear. I do not feel fear.

His childish chants had a funny way of always coming forth to calm his mind, even in adulthood.

His thoughts were interrupted when a ray of sunshine followed Sybil Lockhart through the threshold of the foyer as she arrived from the gardens. The early morning sun shone through her hair, illuminating the fiery red strands that curled all around her wildly. She flattened out her modest olive-coloured skirt before clearing her throat. The earth witch had a softness to her voice, and when she tried to get the attention of the chattering hunters, she failed.

Her creamy cheeks gave a hint of embarrassment as she tried again. “Excuse me, everyone, the portal is ready.”

Still the men spoke over her.

Annoyance ran through Gideon’s veins. It boiled his blood to see her shrink into herself, nervously holding on to the material of her dress. He’d seen her crawl out of her shell over the last few months; it would be a crime to send her hiding away again. Gideon watched as Sybil rose to her tiptoes and tried to yell over the loud men, but again, she failed.

Before he knew it, he had sprung from the wall to stand by her side.

“Silence,” he roared over the din of the crowd, and it cut through every conversation like a dagger. Every person in the foyer looked his way. “The Empress of Earth has important news. Show the Empress of Earth some respect and listen to what she has to say.”

Fuck, he had never sounded more like Torin. As he looked at the men’s faces, he thought they were shocked to see that it was he who stood there and not his older brother.

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