Page 57 of Court of Bone and Amethyst

I lie back on the fur, pulling Zyren with me. “I need you now,” I growl, reaching for the length of him, guiding it toward my sweet core.

“Not yet,” he says, his voice rumbling across my skin as he kisses my neck. “I want you to remember this night for as long as you live.”

I know I’m in trouble, then, as he begins to kiss his way down my body. He stops to lick each pink nipple, he kisses down my stomach and bites along my hip bone. When he starts kissing and licking the inside of my thigh, a shiver moves over my whole body. He works his way back up until he’s an inch from the opening to my magic. He flicks his tongue along the length of it once and a moan escapes my lips.

Then he pulls back, looking me up and down. “You are so gorgeous, in the firelight. I will remember you, just like this.”

And then he buries his face between my legs.

A cry rips from my throat as he enters me with his tongue, with both ferociousness and expert precision. My hips buck up off the floor, but he just holds me more firmly, tasting me, torturing me, pleasuring me unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. The desperation of this night sings between us, everythingheightened, every sensation amplified. Bliss begins to ripple across my core, and Zyren moves faster, harder, pushing me to the highest cliff, and then over. I break into a million pieces, shimmering, glittering waves of pleasure claiming every inch of my body.

He doesn’t give me time to recover. He pounces when I am still limp and quivering with echoes of ecstasy, climbing over me and then thrusting inside in one swift movement. I wrap my legs up and around him as he slides out and then buries himself inside me once again. He lets out his own moan, and his eyes meet mine, holding me there, so we can both see the pleasure building in our gazes. He slows then, gyrating his hips back and forth, the pleasure building to a crescendo again almost instantly.

My fingers dig into his back as he slides in and out. I can’t imagine doing this with anyone else. He is my heart, the only love I will ever have. Right here, in this moment, our bodies and our magic are one. Shadows begin to spin out of me, as well as golden light. Sparks of gold wrap around us, and Zyren’s shadows merge with mine, soft like an approaching storm, a steady rumble of thunder. The light of the flames flicker over us, and we are light and dark, sun and moon, day and night. A perfect balance.

Zyren kisses me, his tongue tangling with mine again, and thrusts powerfully once, twice, a third time. I cry out against his mouth as those ripples of bliss find me again. Zyren growls and begins to shudder against me, but he continues rolling his hips, moving deep inside me. And then, together, we lose ourselves in a rush of pleasure, the universe fracturing into endless fragments of light once again.

We lay there after our climax fades, clinging to each other, until we fall asleep in the warmth of the fire.

I’m not surewhen the dream finds me. Or when I find it.

All I know is that, quite abruptly, I’m in the Amethyst Palace, in Lilette’s room. I’ve seen her almost every night in my dreams, though in none of them since the second time have I actually been able to speak to her. As if whatever magic connected us in the ice forest is fading. Like she’s slipping away from me.

Tonight is different in another way, too. The palace is dark and silent. Moon streams in through the large windows, illuminating Lilette’s empty bed. My heart stills when I look at it. It’s not only vacant, but the sheets and covers are tangled and pulled off to one side, pooling on the floor. Lilette would never have left her room in such a state; thecoriatahad trained us to be tidy from a very young age.

It looks as if she’d been dragged out of her bed.

My heart resumes its beating, climbing into my throat as I stride quickly from the room. The door is open, as is the door across the hall. That room is already empty, with the bed in similar disarray. I continue down the hall to the next room and the next and the next, and they’re all the same. I begin to run, racing down each hall, looking for someone, anyone, but no one is there. The palace is completely empty, and the courtyard beyond, and the cathedral beyond that.

Lilette and the other priestesses have all been taken.

I sit bolt upright, gasping and clawing at the air in panic. The first thing I see is the fireplace as I blink sleep from my eyes, the next is Zyren as he is instantly awake alongside me, his eyes scanning the room for a threat. I can’t form coherent words at first, but slowly, gradually, I’m able to describe what happened.

“What or who do you think took them?” he asks, his brow crinkled in concern.

I shake my head. “I have no idea. Lilette told me, in the last dream where we spoke, that priestesses were vanishing. But she made it sound like one at a time, not a mass abduction.”

“And you’re sure they didn’t flee on their own? Perhaps they heard of an impending attack?”

“No. The beds were all the same. It wasn’t just that they were unmade, in most cases they were half-ripped off the bed.”

Zyren wraps an arm around me. “I wish we could do something.”

Tears spring to my eyes. “It’s just all…. It’s too much. Avonia. The nightmares. My deal with the demon.” My breath comes in quick gasps as I start hyperventilating, panic coursing through my veins. “Having to marry the baron. All for just thesmallestchance that we’ll actually win. That we can get Valaron back. And now… now Lilette is…”

I can’t even finish. Can’t bring myself to say the words out loud, because I’m hoping against hope that I’m wrong. But my hope, what little spark there was left of it, vanished with the women in my dream. Sobs wrack my body and I collapse against Zyren, sucking in sharp, painful gasps of breath in between shudders.

Zyren holds me, stroking my hair. “I will do everything in my power to make this right, Sarielle. Don’t give up. Not when we’ve made it this far. We ride at dawn, with an army that stands a chance against Avonia’s forces.”

“But if we win, I have to marry Baron Ethanas. And you and I…” I suck in a shaky breath again, burying my face in his chest.

Zyen is silent for several long moments. When he speaks, his words are slow, careful. “I failed you before. I should never have let you stand there, on the steps of Selaye, ready to marry my brother after what he threatened to do to you.” He lifts my chin so our eyes meet. “I will regret that dayforever. And I won’t make the same mistake again. If you want me to, I will tell thequeen our secret, that we married to renew the spell and keep the nightmares at bay. I know you are good and honorable and want to save Valaron, but you don’t have to marry the baron. You’ve sacrificed enough already.”

I stare into those silver eyes, my breath leaving me in a rush. “It wasn’t your fault, Zyren. I went to that altar willingly, to save my realm. And I will do it again if I have to. That is what a queen does. It’s my fate.”

“You and I share a dark fate,” he whispers, resting his forehead gently against mine. “I would burn this entire world if it meant keeping you safe, keeping you happy. I would let every single fae die to save your life alone. I shouldn’t feel this way. It is blasphemy even to say it. But it’s true.”

Shock pulses through me, and I pull back and look at him again. “I don’t—you would really do that for me?”

---