Page 112 of A Palace of Smoke & Mirrors
My hand brushed Wrenlock’s shoulder when I extended it out to the side for balance. Gripping my arm, he pulled me towards him, and I found myself settling into his lap. His scent of sweet candied fruit and bonfire smoke filled my senses, momentarily distracting me from the presence of the High King, who hovered by his dressing table like he was scared to move lest he spooked me.
“Hi,” Wrenlock purred, his voice low and soft.
“Hi,” I said back. A glimmer of self-consciousness broke through as he bent his head to capture my mouth with his own.
The kiss was searing, his touch a brand straight from the crucible. I relished the taste of his mouth, sweet from having downed a glass or two of wine himself. I didn’t protest when his large hands secured themselves around my waist, urging me to shift onto his lap until I was straddling him.We kissed each other in a comfortable, familiar way despite the fact that we’d only done it a few times. The feel of his strong shoulders and torso beneath me chased away the loneliness in my bones until all that was left was a vast expanse of possibility.
I couldn’t explain it.
Wrenlock felt like coming home, but so did Lucais.
The very notion that I would fall in love and come to belong with two men from the Court of Light clashed so severely with my inheritance of the Court of Darkness, but it had been an undeniable factor of the pull between us since the first day we’d met.
Maybe I needed both of them to pull me back from the brink of my inevitable darkness.
I felt Wrenlock harden beneath me as we kissed, felt the pulse of arousal shudder through him as his cock jerked in hispants, and then I heard a soft collection of clinks—like stones hitting the bottom of an empty fishbowl.
Pulling back from his mouth, I turned to see Lucais removing the silver rings from his fingers, dropping them into a small, decorative bowl on the edge of the dresser beside him. My mouth watered at the subtle but unmistakable intimation, and I had to force myself to swallow. He met my stare, a gentle curiosity sparkling in his own, respectfully challenging me to react.
Slowly, I rose from Wrenlock’s lap and took three steps towards the High King.
Eyes on me, he removed the last silver ring with a soft clink that rang out through the air with extended finality, and then he matched my steps until we were standing so close together I felt his breath hitting my skin as he stared down at me.
“So…” I breathed.
The touch of a smile fell upon his mouth at the shaky undercurrent in my voice. He cocked his head to the side, speaking very softly, “So.”
“Do I have to say the magic words?”
His smile broke through the surface. “Yes. Something like…I, Auralie Roberts, am so fortunate to take you, Lucais Starfire, as my Oracle-fated mateshould do quite nicely, I think.”
“I, Auralie Roberts, take you, Lucais Starfire, as my Oracle-fated pain in the ass…”
He let out a delighted laugh, tipping his head back. I watched the way his throat flexed and felt a nearly overwhelming urge to press a series of quick but indulgent kisses across it. “I suppose I could be in a short while, if you asked me nicely enough.”
The humour left my eyes in a blink. “Oh.” I glanced between them, apprehension pricking me like a thorn in my side.“Actually, I’m glad we brought that up because it’s going to be ano thank youon that from me.”
Lucais snickered with the wicked glee of getting the last word, but Wrenlock simply shrugged as if to say that he wouldn’t be bothered either way.
“You don’t need to say anything, bookworm.” The High King tucked my curls behind my ear. “There are stories of some not even realising that there’s a mating bond at play until after sleeping together, once it clicks into place.” He sighed, golden eyes roving over my face. “I do need you to be certain, though. You cannot take its acceptance back any easier than you can its rejection.”
Nervous energy skittered across my skin, but I steeled myself and tilted my head back so that I could look at his face fully.
For maybe the first time ever, he looked at me like he was someone I could trust. I hoped that my expression was brave, even though I didn’t feel much like it at all.Lifting my shaking hands, I tugged at the open collar of his shirt to warn him of what I was about to do before I raised my arms higher and pushed it back from his shoulders. He angled his arms behind his back, letting it slip effortlessly onto the floor.
I’d seen Lucais completely shirtless before, but it was no less striking to see him like that again—and even more so with the glamour removed. My chest felt so tight, I wasn’t sure that my heart was still beating.
“Sure, I’m certain,” I drawled, attempting a nonchalant shrug. It turned into a loosening of my shoulders, rolling them back against the budding tension. My voice was shaky. “What’s a mating bond between friends?”
The High King’s eyes warmed, and his voice dropped to a husky whisper as he asked, “Are we friends, bookworm?”
I wet my lips with my tongue and swallowed hard. “We’ll be friends tomorrow,” I said.
He dipped his head, his gaze transfixed by the shine on my mouth, a satisfied smirk curling on his own that made him look younger, lighter, and freer than I’d ever seen him before. Except for that day on the staircase in the House, perhaps, when he’d stood underneath a halo of light and I’d compared him to an angel in my head. That was the Lucais who grinned down at me with softness and joy decorating his expression, and it eased something inside of my soul to bear witness to it again in the moments right before we sealed our fates.
“We’ll be friends tomorrow,” he agreed, his voice a soft murmur as he nodded gently but enthusiastically and bent to kiss me.
It was soft and lazy, the caress of his lips on mine so patient and revering. He brushed his mouth against me with only enough force to flick my bottom lip, allowing me to taste the faintest hint of him again. I pushed up on the tips of my toes to meet his mouth, parting my lips to capture his kiss, and our tongues collided with a hot, all-consuming sensation that sparked something deep inside my brain before travelling through the rest of my body like a switch lighting up the mainframe.
