Page 75 of Crownless King

He frowned. “What the fuck isthat?”

“I mean I can bake,” I clarified.

I’d learned how to make the meringue, I could figure out how to bake cookies and bread if I had to. Hopefully, Bavius wouldn’t demand the refined perfection of the royal meals from me.

“Give her your mother’s recipes,” Sauria said. “She’ll learn.”

He rubbed the back of his neck, then stomped to the fireplace and grabbed two more bowls from a shelf on the side. After filling them with the stew from the giant cauldron bubbling on the fire, he brought the bowls to the table.

“Eat.” He shoved one toward Sauria. He then gestured for me to join them at the table. “Once we’re done, you’ll do the dishes.”

I didn’t wait for him to ask me twice. Holding my skirts up, I sat down on the bench next to Sauria, then took a spoon from Bavius.

“Thank you,” I said to him, then turned to her. “Thank you, too, Sauria.”

“Pff. Don’t thank me.” She waved me off. “Pregnant women are a hag’s livelihood. We’re meant to protect them.”

Bavius said nothing.

I eagerly dug into the steaming, fragrant stew. It looked and tasted nothing like the dainty little portions of airy food back in Elaros. And that was how I wished it to be.

Whatever lay ahead of me, I wanted no reminders of the Sky Palace or the man who ruled in it now.

ChapterTwenty

SIX MONTHS LATER

SPARROW

Adeafening clap of thunder startled me awake. The roof over my small room in the back of Bavius’s home was pelted with sleet and hail. High winds shook his sturdy house to its foundation.

We made sure to shutter all windows before going to bed every night. Which was necessary, as a rare night passed without a storm, even now, in the dead of winter.

Lightning slashed the shutters into splinters of blinding light, cutting through the gaps in the wood. A vicious thunderstorm raged out there. Against all my best intentions and firm resolutions, my thoughts flocked to the royal palace, to the man who must be turning and tossing in the silks of his bed right now.

What tortured him so almost every night?

Back in Vensari, a night rain would always end with Voron’s arms around me. I used to be the one to soothe his storms and terrors.

Now, he was alone. Without me, it didn’t look like the mighty ruler of the Sky Kingdom had found anyone or anything capable of bringing him peace. Compassion swelled in my heart, filling it with tenderness.

Through the day, I did my best to keep the embers of resentment for Voron glowing inside me. He had sent me away. He’d made his choice. He had no one to blame but himself for whatever turmoil plagued him now.

But at night, I was too tired to hate him.

Another explosion of thunder sent a shudder through my body, and I allowed the memories of his arms around me to slip in.

“Stay with me, Sparrow, and there’ll be no storms,”he’d said to me once.

I imagined snatching him from his sweaty, crumpled sheets and out of his lavish royal chamber and bringing him here, into my narrow single bed with a squeaky frame and hard mattress. Because despite everything, I believed he’d be much happier here with me than anywhere else in the world.

“Come to me, Voron,”echoed through my mind.“And there will be no more storms.”

The phantom caress of his hand on my breast sent warm tingles down my body. I remembered how he loved spooning me from behind, clinging to me like I was his one true anchor in the eye of the storm. He loved my body with so much passion and devotion, I knew no one would ever look at me the way he did.

The ache for him spread torturously from my chest down to my core. My inner muscles spasmed deliciously, tingling with need. I slipped my hand between my thighs, imagining his mouth there instead.

His tongue instead of my finger stroked my clit, sending a surge of desire through me. His hand instead of my own kneaded my breast. His thumb flicked my nipple, making it pebble at once.

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