Page 430 of Flirting with Darkness

Together, but also to his chest. My nails dig in deeper as the ephemeral bindings lash me to my king. My gaze finds his, blissful and fiery.

“Offer me your most valued thing in this realm and the next, and I vow to always take care of it.”

The king’s eyes roll back and my hips grind against him faster and faster. My peak is close and his must be too.

“Tell me, King of the Darkness. King of Shadows. King of the Night. Tell me your name.”

And with my last word, a strangeness falls around me. Tingling like excitement, like anticipation, like newness, and hope.

“King Hale of the Dark Court, Ruler of the Night Fae, Champion to the lesser ones, and Guardian of the Secret Forest.”

The words tumble from me, bypassing my mind entirely.

I keep riding him, hips working faster and faster until we both find our pleasure.

He roars into the night sky while my screams chase his to the stars.

After some time, moments, hours, weeks…

A lifetime, even.

The king stares up at me, mouth slightly parted. “You just true-named me, Liesl Aderyn, Queen of my Night.”

“I did, didn’t I?” I murmur into his bloodied chest as his shadowy bindings release me.

He strokes my hair and down my back.

“You never told me, did you?” I ask.

“I did not. Not in your dream or your mind. But I needed you to find my name on your own.”

“Why?” I ask, propping myself up to gaze into his eyes.

“Because you haven’t yet met the court. I haven’t officially returned to the kingdom yet, and I haven’t officially introduced you as my wife.”

“Wife?” That is the second time he said that. “I don’t recall ever agreeing to marry you, much less the act of doing so.”

He nods, tracing the sigil on my back. “I can see how you wouldn’t. But the moment I marked your skin with my family sigil, I claimed you as mine. By the law of this land, you are my wife, and I am your husband.”

I twist around, trying to see the invisible magic on my back. But I can’t. I can’t see the mark on my shoulder either, or the one on my wrist.

“You’ll only see it when it’s actively working its magic. The one on your wrist is for protection. Your back is my claim to you, and your shoulder is for strength and speed.”

“What if I don’t wish to be your wife?” I ask, tone neutral.

The king—Hale—glides a finger down my back, swirling idly all the way to my tailbone. “Then as much as it pains me, dear wife, I’d burn the sigil from our skin and send you back to your family. Is that what you want?”

I shake my head. I love my family and I have plans to visit often, but I found myself a fae king.

There’s no one better.

No one more made for me than him.

“I’d like to stay your wife,” I whisper.

“I love you, little bird, and I’ve done my utmost to give you every advantage when you meet my court. You survived the woods, you found my name on your own, and despite being human, you have an impressive knowledge of the arcane. Now, it’s time to see how far you fly.”

Time is strange here, and I don’t know how long we stayed in that cocoon of night and sex, feasting on one another.

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