Page 165 of Lady of Shadows

“I meant in the bedroom, you damn idiot,” she snapped back, a gust of wind blowing through the trees.

“Let it out, Talwyn,” Azrael said, his tone softening a fraction. “You barely held it together back there. Let it all out.”

“I can control it,” she snapped back, her breaths becoming short and ragged.

“Maybe, but you do not have to here,” he replied, still circling her. “This isn’t your typical rage and temper. This has been repressed for so long, I do not know that youcancontrol it.”

“Enough, Az,” she ground out.

“Let it out, Talwyn. Let out all the rage that has been accumulating since she arrived here.”

“Stop!” Talwyn shouted, the earth shuddering beneath their feet.

“Let it out, Talwyn.”

The winds were whipping around them now, the leaves on the trees straining under the gusts.

Suddenly Azrael was in her face, gripping her shoulders. “She came here, and everyone willingly bowed before her. She did not have to earn any of it. She came home, not alone, but with a twin flame and could not even see it. She came home and will not even reside where she belongs. She came home, trusting Briar more than she trusts you, her own cousin. She came home with friends she is willing to risk everything for, while you have been here, abandoned in your own realm,working tirelessly to keep the entire world safe.”

“Stop!” Talwyn screamed. She reached up to push him away from her, but he only gripped her shoulders harder, his fingers digging into her flesh.

“You lost everything because ofher,” he whispered directly into her ear.

And Talwyn lost it. That leash she had been holding so tightly snapped in half. The ground shook beneath them and small boulders that had littered the forest grounds exploded. Lightning flashed in the skies around them, and Talwyn sank to her knees. Her wind gusts had blown in clouds that mixed with the energy she was shaping in the skies. Thunder sounded, and it began to rain, the ground turning to mud beneath her. She sobbed into her hands as power poured from her, bursts of pure magic that would have sundered any other place but this one of magic as raw as her own.

She felt the outpouring weakening after several minutes, and she wiped her eyes, looking up to see Azrael, who had shielded himself, standing over her. She took a shuddering breath. He only reached down for her hand, helping her to her feet. The rain was soaking them both, and her hair was sticking to her face. He brushed some from her eyes, then took her face in his hands.

“Youare a queen, Talwyn Semiria,” he snarled softly. “You have sacrificed much for these lands. You have been forced to grow up faster than any Fae should have to. You have been betrayed and hurt by those you trusted and faced pain and loss. You have deserved none of it. Do you understand?” She felt tears slip down her cheeks again, and Azrael wiped them away with his thumbs.

“She risks it all, everything I have sacrificed for. Everything I’have fought to keep safe and protected and the revenge we seek,” Talwyn whispered back to him. “The realms, the Courts, believe me to be a heartless, cruel queen. I have never cared. I have never cared what they thought as long as my people and my kingdom were safe. What if it was all for naught?”

“Then we will adjust our strategy,” Azrael answered. “We will meet whatever is to come head on, and you will not face it alone.”

Silence hung in the air between them. Then Talwyn whispered, “I am scared, Azrael. I am scared I have failed. I am scared of what is to come.”

“You have only failed when you give up, Talwyn. Fear is natural, but you do not yield to it,” Azrael answered. He pulled her into him, and this time, he held her close to his chest. She could hear his heart beating beneath her ear, strong and steady, as he’d been for her since the day she had shown up in his Alcazar. “For the next few hours, let someone else worry about it, Talwyn. Let someone else make the hard decisions. Let someone else bear that burden,” he murmured into her hair.

“It is my responsibility,” she replied, not even bothering to lift her head.

“But it is asharedresponsibility now,” Azrael countered. “Let it be so.”

“And what exactly am I supposed to do in the meantime?” she sighed, exhausted.

“I can think of a few things…”

She could hear the invitation in his voice, and she lifted her head to look into his eyes. “You have declined my request for distraction twice now.”

“Then allow me to make it up to you,” he answered, bringing his lips to hers.

His hands slid down her torso, clenching her ass as he hoisted her against him. Her legs came around his waist, and tongues and teeth clashed. “Not in the rain please,” she murmured onto his mouth.

“Whatever you say, your Majesty,” he answered, and he stepped her through the world right into his private rooms at his Alcazar. He spun, pressing her up against the wall, and she snarled at him, clawing at the various buckles securing weapons to his body. Talwyn unwound her legs, sliding them slowly down his torso and hips as his hands removed her own weapons.

She reached for his shirt, but he caught her wrists, pinning them behind her back and forcing her to arch into him. “Let go of control,Talwyn,” he snarled, his canines nipping and scraping along her neck. “It is just us here. Let go.”

“This is not distracting me, Azrael,” she growled back, tugging her wrists, but he held firm, pressing his chest into hers. The wall was cool, and she could feel it against her hot skin through her shirt as he pushed her back against it. The contrast made her body shiver against him.

“It will be if you would stop fighting me for control,” he retorted, shifting her wrists to one hand. His other hand came around and pulled the strings at the top of her tunic, letting the front gap open. He tugged it roughly to the side, his large palm sliding over the band on her breasts, eliciting a moan of need from her.

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