Page 11 of Wings of Cruelty and Flame

“A pretty answer.” It wasn’t a compliment.

He cast me a sharp look. “It’s the truth. I’ve never used this magic on a friend or relative, and I don’t intend to start with my wife.”

I believed him. He was angry enough to tell me the truth. “Good,” I said. “Don’t control me, and I won’t kill you.”

His laughter was sudden and loud, echoing off the golden stone hallway we turned down. Very brave of him to laugh about murder when I could kill him with a single touch. “Noted,” he said, still smiling, his eyes creased in an annoyingly attractiveway. “You’re in no danger from me, Ameirah. I give you my word.”

Hmm. We’d see about that. Fae vows were binding but who knew what freedoms his magic allowed him?

I finally looked around us when we emerged into another hall with rooms on either side of us, each doorway framed with delicate carvings, like lace made of stone. I supposed if I had to be taken anywhere to live the rest of my days, there were certainly worse places. The air was full of earthy spices and fragrant florals, and the quietude was worth all the gold in the world.

I startled when bells tolled from the city, distant but ringing with power that could only be magic, the ripples shuddering through my ribcage. “You have a bell tower?” I asked, giving Varidian a questioning glance.

He nodded, still unfairly attractive after a long ride. His hair was still gorgeous. That defied logic. “It became necessary when our muezzin was conscripted to a legion at the border.”

I frowned. I was aware of men leaving Strava every summer to fight our enemy along the Wall of Hydaran, but it seemed cruel to leave a city without someone to sing the call to prayer.

“Can’tyousing?” I asked him. “Surely you’re capable of more than brooding glances and looking pretty.”

Varidian laughed again, just as loud. “I’m a warrior often called to battle, Ameirah.” He sounded both astounded and delighted. He caught my wrist, his thumb sweeping over my pulse through the glove. I wondered if he felt the sudden uptick in its tempo. “But I’m pleased to know you find me pretty.”

I rolled my eyes and pulled my wrist free of his grip, my skin tingling beneath the cotton, my face warming several degrees. “Don’t let it inflate your ego.”

“Oh, too late for that, dearling.” His eyes sparkled so brightly it was as if a jeweller had alchemised amber into irises. Hesnagged my wrist again, bringing it to his lips for a lingering kiss that made sudden heat flare down my throat. That pulse started again between my legs.

“This is a private prayer room,” he said against my skin, the words muddled in my mind. “I thought for your first night, you’d prefer not to meet the whole kasbah. They’ll be eager to meet you, to shower praise on your beauty and grace.”

What beauty and grace? I snorted.

“I’ll introduce you to them in the morning, when you’ve had time to become acquainted with the Diamond.”

“The what…?”

“That’s the name of our home. The Diamond of the South.”

I lived in a house that had a name. I felt like a princess. Oh god, Iwasa princess. I had people who wanted to meet me, who wanted someone with grace and beauty, not a woman who had to bribe a wyvern to help her dismount.

It was daunting enough that I barely noticed Varidian kissing my gloved wrist and slipping into a room beside the door I stood in front of.

Shaking myself out of it, I opened the beautiful door and ducked inside.

“I’m a princess,” I whispered to the dim room, blinking at the golden walls until I shook myself out for it, hurrying to the basin and jug set on a table before me.

If only I could cleanse my panic as easily as I cleansed my body.

CHAPTER SIX

AMEIRAH

My eyes bulged so wide it was a genuine worry that they’d pop out of my head. I couldn’t decide whether to stare at the mammoth four-poster bed in front of me or the ring Varidian held out to me. It was fashioned from a band of fae gold burned in a flame so hot it turned black and set with dragon opals that sparkled a dozen different hues of purple, turquoise, and pink. It was beautiful, the play of colour in the stones pulling me closer. I didn’t even want to think about how much a single dragon opal cost. Enough to run my father’s home for a year.

“How many stones…?”

“Ten.”

“Ten,” I echoed, staring at the insane piece of jewellery.Tendragon opals. In blackened fae gold. I was going to pass out. “You’ve lost your mind. Show me yours.”

Varidian’s smile was unrepentant despite the astronomical sum the ring must have cost. And he was giving it to a woman he’d never met—was he truly insane?

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