Page 35 of The War Queen's Daughter

He stills. “It’s not always about what you can do for others,” he says. “There’s always time for that. Tonight’s fun was for you, Remi. To clear your head. And to prove something to myself.”

“Which was?” He’s as exasperating as he is delicious, and I’m torn about how to feel.

Liar. I know how I feel.

He grins, seriousness faded, a flash of white teeth in the darkness. “We’re more fun than playing courtly games, aren’t we?”

“Moderately,” I say.

He shrugs. “Then perhaps we can do this again sometime. But for now, it’s time for you to go back into your cage, pretty bird.”

“I don’t want to go back.” I speak before I can stop myself, the frustration, the dullness of all the nothing that is the Citadel weakening me. “Tonight, I feel the most alive I have since I left Heald.” My voice is low, honest.

I’ve surprised him with my candor. It’s clear as his face softens, his grin falling away. Amber eyes pierce me through the darkness. “That’s because you belong to the wild, Remi.” He uses the nickname that only my aunt is allowed to as though he came up with it, and I don’t fight him over it. “Not to the cage.” His voice drops, soft and serious, laced with an unfamiliar depth. “There’s a power in the world, a truth suppressed. The sins of the past still echo. They touch everything, taint the heart of our lands.” Zenthris pauses, lips a thin line as he looks up at the Citadel that towers over our position, crouched there together on the roof. “I can’t tell you more, not yet. Your questions must wait, my means. But my motives.” He returns his attention to me. “My motives will serve you, too, Remi. I look forward to being able to show you how.”

I shake my head. “You’re not making sense.” Does this have to do with Atlas? With Heald?

“I know.” He leans in, breath hot on my ear again, making me shiver. “Just know that some of us are trying to set things right, no matter the cost. And that I trust you’re on our side.” His lips brush my cheek before I can speak again.

That spark, the back-and-forth sizzle, it wakes. I’m turning my head before I know I’m doing it, and my lips are locking to his. Zenthris kisses me as I kiss him, and I’m lost, lost in the way he tastes, in the heat of his skin and the thrust of his tongue that battles mine for a place inside me. I’m grasping at him as though he’s the only thing in the world that can hold me afloat, a burning sense of recognition for the hidden currents that pass between us, as that spark that ricochets turns to flame.

I’m on fire. And all I want to do is burn.

He pulls away, and I cry out in the agony our parting causes. A gush of wetness precedes my groan as I come in his arms, his body shaking beneath me. I’ve somehow managed to pin him tothe rooftop as I’d planned playfully to do not so long ago, only I don’t remember doing it.

My body has carried on while my mind was devoured by fire.

“Remalla.” His voice is husky, one hand deep inside my armor, fingers inside me. I writhe from the inferno he’s roused even as I fear it.

“What is it?” I pant over his lips, but I don’t care if he answers. I just want to take him and devour him, harsh as I grasp the heated length that I free from his clothes.

He moans this time, pushing against my hand. “It can’t be, not now.” His amber eyes seem to catch fire too, flickers of flame inside them. I’m imagining it, a trick of the moonlight, surely. And yet, the fire is there and it’s in me, too.

His voice drops. “Kinspark.”

The word curls inside me, curves against the sensitive parts of me, and I shudder all over again as his fingers finish what that word started. I melt as the wave of pleasure crests and crashes, my hips heavy on his hand.

He pushes me off, rolling free, tugging at his breeches. “Enough,” he says as I reach for him again. “Remi,enough.”

“Notenough,” I snarl, gaining my feet, the clasps that secure my armor loose, the sweat and moisture he’s made chilling my exposed skin as the breeze catches it.

“It must be,” Zenthris steps back, wiping at his face with both hands. “Remi, if I have you now… I won’t let you go. There’s no time for that. Not yet.” He shakes his head, voice in wonder. “Kinspark, of all things. Of all times and with all people.” His chuckle is choked, almost broken. “I’ll see you soon, princess.”

He’s gone, leaping away and vanishing into the night.

And I let him go. I fumble for the clasps, secure my armor, hug myself as I crouch in the shadows, and shiver.

Despite the release he offered me, he’s stirred far more than he set free.

Kinspark. What by the fire is that?

Chapter 19

The morning light filtering through my quarters feels particularly cruel after the intoxicating, frustrating night with Zenthris. My skin still tingles with the phantom touch of him, and my body hums with unspent energy, the mystery of the current that not only took me over but lingers still.

I barely remember returning to the Citadel, to my bed, though the seemingly endless dreams of heat and need and fire won’t let me rest.

A bath helps little, though the cold plunge does clear my head somewhat. I’m distracted as I head to breakfast, the usual ritual of courtly discomfort at least familiar and allowing me to focus on something other than the unanswered questions that my mind and body both crave solutions to.

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