Page 108 of A Palace of Smoke & Mirrors
My bewildered gaze drifted up to the High King’s face, his eyes the homing beacon for mine.
His mouth was half-open, the words of whatever he wanted to say caught in his throat, and he shook his head at me slightly. Lucais looked hopeless, the image of someone who had tried everything.
I swallowed hard.
The realisation washed all of my bitterness away. Lucais had wholeheartedly believed that giving in to his desires would kill me, so he held himself back the entire time. Let me work the burning, pent-up frustration and desire that his very presence stirred inside of me out with Wrenlock to avoid being backed into a corner if I’d ever decided to throw caution to the wind andbe even more direct about it than I’d been in the crumbling wing of the palace.
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” I whispered softly.
“I was too scared to mention the outstanding decision of our mating bond to you again in case it prompted you to reject it.” His voice was thick with tension. “The first time didn’t work because the person you were rejecting was wrong, but once you know who your soulmate is, the rejection is permanent. I never would have been able to win you back if you did it properly.”
I took a shaky step forward. “Lucais—”
You don’t want this, he murmured into my mind, halting me in place. The expression on his face was an interesting mix of being afraid, sad, and outrageously turned on.I know that. I tried to avoid it, Aura. I really did.
How do you know what I want?I whispered back, and a thrill went through me at the instant flare of his raging arousal that pulsed through the bond.
Fine,he conceded, his voice rough even in my mind.But I never wanted it to happen because you have no other choice. So now we’re definitely fucked, and not in the way either of us prefers to be.
There was an extended, charged pause. How could we turn it into our own choice, instead of our first time being a last resort?
At the exact same time, we both gradually turned our heads towards Wrenlock, who was still standing there, a brow arched at our silent conversation with clear agitation. A nagging feeling pulled at the back of my mind that there was something I’d been meaning to tell him, but for the life of me, I couldn’t recall what it was.
“No,” Lucais said with audible disbelief, seeing the awareness alight in my eyes. “You have got to be kidding.”
“I didn’t say anything,” I breathed, my tone adopting a defensive edge. But I knew what he was talking about because I clocked the same light in his own eyes.
“You get even more insane by the day, I swear to the Oracle.” He dragged a hand through his tousled blond hair, gripping the back of his neck. “It’s nothing personal, believe me,” he said to Wrenlock, gesturing to him with his free hand turned palm-up towards the ceiling. “But that’s really not my thing.”
Wrenlock blinked—and then caught on like a grassfire. I watched his face contort as he flipped his gaze between us, eyes widening and then narrowing, mouth opening and closing. Finally, he pinned Lucais with a glare and said, “You’re not my first choice, either, you know.”
The High King gave him a withering look. “It’s not about you,” he snapped back, affronted. “It’s about what you”—he waved a hand towards Wrenlock’s crotch—“currently have on offer.”
Wrenlock’s stare was patronising. “You don’t have to touch it.”
“I’m not goingto touch it.”
“I don’t wantyou to touch it.”
“Oh my God!” I exclaimed, tossing my hands up in the air and taking a determined step in between them. “This is absolute lunacy. Forget about it, please.”
“Wrong deity,” Wrenlock said wryly.
“Wrong name,” Lucais muttered.
“This is the dumbest idea any of us have had yet. And that’s saying something, considering some of the plans you’ve concocted,” I added for Lucais’s benefit. “I don’t even know whose idea this was in the first place, but there is no way all three of us are going to be satisfied in an arrangement like that.”
Lucais cleared his throat suggestively as Wrenlock drawled, “I think the end goal in something like this is really just foryouto be satisfied, Auralie.”
“It won’t work,” I argued pointlessly, but I could have melted into the floor at the thought of it. Images rushed forward from my most private fantasies, stored behind doors that were bolted closed with so many locks even my conscious mind couldn’t reach them. “It won’t…”
“It could if we all make stipulations,” Wrenlock proffered, his voice taking on a dangerously seductive edge.
“Can mine be that you’re not there?” the High King asked him hopefully. I knew it was a joke, but it further solidified my very sensible belief that the whole thing was a terrible suggestion.
Even so…
Arousal was blazing underneath my skin hot enough to melt my very bones, and the pink tinge that brightened my cheeks was impossible to hide. The High King tilted his head to the side with fascination, which only made the colour deepen as it spread from my hairline to my collarbone.
