Page 211 of Mother of Death and Dawn

Caduan’s guards tried to turn me away, but I refused to leave. I pushed past them, went to his chambers, and pounded on the door until he answered it himself.

He hadn’t washed Nura’s blood off him, either. It dotted his cheeks.

“What is it, Aefe?” he said, clearly in a sour mood.

“Do not ignore me.”

His expression was indecipherable. “I am not ignoring you.”

No. I was sick of this. He gave me affection, and then he pushed me away. He took my body, and then he abandoned it. He saved my life, and then refused to speak to me.

All while he waged the greatest war the world had even seen inmy name.

He was already shutting the door in my face when I spat, “I thought we were done being cowards.”

He froze mid movement. The door swung open again, sharply.

“Don’t you dare call me a coward.”

“Then stop deserving it,” I snarled, and then my mouth crashed against his.

The kiss was nothing like before. It wasn’t gentle or shy. We threw ourselves at each other like we were in combat. The door slammed closed, and he pinned me against it, his tongue claiming my mouth, the warmth of his body surrounding me. I didn’t know how to do this—I didn’t know what I wanted to touch, only that I wanted to touch everything. My arms wrapped around his neck, my fingers tangling in the waves of his hair.

The need from that night had never gone away, only lowered to a simmering heat that now roared back to life. Desire swept up the insides of my thighs, tightening at my core.

I didn’t want him to touch me the way he had before. I wanted more than that. I wanted to become intertwined with him. I wanted him to mark me.

The taste of blood mingled on our tongues. I yanked him closer, kissed him harder, closed my teeth around his flesh until it earned a hiss from him and a returning bite that sent a spark of pain through my lip.

I liked it. I liked feeling so many things at once.

We parted just enough for his eyes to look into mine. I must have had more of Nura’s blood on me than I realized. Crimson smeared his cheek, his throat, his hair where my hands had trailed through it.

“You asked me if you frightened me,” he breathed, then kissed me again, harder. “The answer is yes. You terrify me.”

His lips moved to my jaw. One of his hands slid down my body, making the need that rose to the surface of my skin nearly unbearable. My knees parted, offering him room—his hips aligned with mine, and the hardness there made my breath hitch.

I didn’t have the language to describe what I wanted, only that I wanted it, needed it, desperately.

His mouth brushed the soft skin where my jaw met my throat. “You terrify me because you make me want what I cannot have.”

Take it,I thought.Take all of it.

My hands were shaking. Even my fingertips ached for him—ached for his skin, his breath, his heartbeat. But I forced them away from him, to the straps of my shirt. I slipped one from my shoulder, and then the other. Then my trousers, loose enough to fall easily to the ground. I wore nothing beneath any of it.

Caduan’s nostrils flared.

“There is nothing you can not have,” I said, my voice weak, breathy. For all my boldness, for everything that blood and vengeance and power and death had instilled in me, I now felt almost… shy.

Time slowed. He leaned closer again, his lips ghosting over my skin—barely brushing me when I wanted them to seize me. His knuckles skimmed the curve of my waist, running up my ribs and pausing at my breast, where his breath shuddered slightly, his thumb lingering at the hardened peak of my nipple.

“This is not true,” he whispered, voice rough against my cheek.

“It is tonight.” My hand covered his, gently trailing it down all the places I wanted him to touch me—down past my waist, my hip, my stomach, and finally, guiding him between my thighs, to that yearning emptiness that begged for him.

He groaned, pressing against me harder, his mouth again moving to mine but stopping just short of meeting it.

“We take what we want tonight,” I said, and kissed him—the kind of kiss that did not ask but demanded.

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