Page 53 of Queen of Stars and Shadows

I’d known this conversation was going to be a battle. When Isthsharyn had shown up, she’d interrupted us before we could finish talking about the realm merge. And then we’d been so busy preparing the city, and the coronation…

I take his hands in mine. “What way?” I implore. “There is no other way. Even if we beat Avonia and Isthsharyn both, Valaron is still dying.”

A sharp jerk of his chin, back and forth. “No. We can close all the rifts. The more we close, the more power you’ll get back. It may take some time, but—”

“Time we don’t have,” I say. “You heard Xinius. There are hundreds of rifts. We’ll never find them all before this realm falls. It’s already declining too quickly. I felt three earthquakes just today. Distant, but still…”

“I am your guardian, and I won’t allow it,” he snarls.

“Zyren, don’t be—”

“Remember what you said earlier? That you would let it all crumble to save me? Well, I feel the same way. I amnotlosing you, Sarielle.” He runs one hand up into my hair, cupping my cheek, his eyes pleading with me. “I may not remember our time before, but even in the short time we’ve had, I know that I love you. Do you hear me? Iloveyou, and you arenotsacrificing yourself.”

“That’s exactly what a queen does,” I say softly. “You can’t stop me, and you won’t. Because you know I’m right.”

“You arenotright. You are stubborn and headstrong and maddening.”

“I love you, too, you know. No matter what happens, Zyren. I will love you in this life, and I will love you when I am nothing but stardust.”

Zyren’s jaw flexes and he spins and strides away from me. When he reaches the doorway, shadows spinning off of him, he turns again. His storm-colored eyes burn into mine, and then he lets out a growl and stalks toward me.

We collide in a rush of heat and magic and a desperate song of farewell.

Zyren yanks my dress down, ripping it into pretty purple petals that fall to the floor. Then he lifts me and tosses me back onto the bed. But he doesn’t join me there. Instead, he kneels at the side of the bed, grabbing my thighs and pulling me right to the edge. Then he lets out another growl and buries his face between my legs.

A cry rips out of me as his tongue lashes me mercilessly. He is fierce but by no means sloppy. He works with practiced finesse, alternating between entering me and sucking my clit, adding teasing flicks with his tongue here and there. My back arches up off the bed, and my fingers wind into Zyren’s hair. His arms hook underneath my knees, pulling me firmly against him when I writhe with pleasure, bucking up off the bed.

When I start to shake and cry out, Zyren growls, and the vibration sends me spinning over the edge. I break into a million shimmering pieces of sky, of shadow, of magic. I exist as nothing but pleasure for an uncountable length of time. Zyren doesn’t let up until I’m limp and buzzing with heady bliss. Then he kisses his way up my stomach, over my breasts, and finally to my mouth.

He lays down beside me and kisses me slowly, tenderly, as if we have all the time in the world. And I wish that we did. I wishthis night could last forever, and the one after that, and the one after that. But we both know that it can’t, and we kiss each other with a hundred goodbyes, a thousand. We kiss each other like each one could be the very last, and we kiss each other so we never, ever forget.

Abruptly, I need more. I need Zyren inside me, need us to be as close as we possibly can be. I roll on top of him, and he moans as I reach down and slide him into me. I rock my hips, taking him even deeper, and this time we both cry out together into the chill night air. One hand presses into the hard planes of his chest as I grind against him, gyrating my hips back and forth. Stars start to spin behind my eyelids, pleasure spiking through me with each roll of my hips.

Zyren grabs my hips with his hands, his fingers digging into me. I move faster, my breath coming out in sharp gasps, each one pushing me closer to the edge once again. When Zyren moves one hand down and rolls his thumb against my clit as I grind forward, I shudder and cry out. Another roll of my hips, and another, Zyren swirling his thumb again and again until the room fades into a fuzzy, sparkling dreamscape. And then my pleasure explodes outward, and Zyren releases with me, crying out and thrusting upward as we finish together.

I roll to the side, collapsing into the bedsheets, feeling boneless, bodiless. “Oh, my love,” Zyren says with a wicked grin, “I am nowhereneardone with you.”

Where I’m lying on my side, he presses himself up against the back of me, kissing the backs of my shoulders, up the side of my neck. His hot breath tickles my hair, and he flicks his tongue over my earlobe before teasing it with his teeth. A shudder moves through me, and I feel the length of him harden against me once more. I pivot my face toward him, and he kisses along my jaw before claiming my mouth with his tongue once more. His free hand travels along the curve of my breast, and onefingertip circles over the top of my nipple until it’s hard as a diamond.

Then, slowly, he teases at my entrance. Entering just the tiniest bit before pulling out again. He keeps this up as he continues to skim his finger over my nipple and nibble at my earlobe. My senses are so overloaded, it feels as if I have three distinct stars of pleasure about to supernova. Bliss ripples through me, but he keeps his movements so slow that it just builds and builds and builds…

“Zyren,” I moan. “I can’t—”

“You can’t what?” His voice is so dark, so velvety, so dangerous, that it nearly sends me over the edge all on its own.

I try to speak several times but nothing coherent comes out. Zyren lets out a dark chuckle, and then he slowly slides the length of himself all the way into me. A gasp and a moan rip out of me. He pulls out slowly and then drives in again, harder this time. His teeth move from my ear to my throat, and he bites along the flesh there as he thrusts again. I can feel an enormous wave of black, velvety darkness hovering over me, and I know when it breaks…

“You are my queen, Sarielle,” Zyren growls as he enters me again.

“You are my heart…” Another thrust.

“You are my soul…”

And I am lost as the wave crashes over me, spinning me, crushing me, carrying me. Zyren cries out and joins me as we dissolve together. Our magic crashes around us like a storm inside the tower at the top of the mountain.

Zyren keeps his promise. We stay intertwined the rest of the night, losing ourselves in each other again and again until the first streak of dawn lightens the world. We finally rest then, once day has fully broken. We lay there for a few minutes in silence when it does, just looking at each other, neither of us wantingto say anything. Because we know that this day will change everything.

One way or the other, by midnight the world will be irrevocably different.

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