Page 180 of A Baron of Bonds
We were to leave by portal in one week for the north, stopping to spend time with Geyrand and Vivianna’s family before heading to the Attatok Mountains to meet the channelers Madame Zoreyah had chosen. We’d give them their Offerings, then head to the Spire to do the same before coming back to Hyrithia to meet again with the Queen. There, we’d form a solid plan in our expedition to the Blightress’s heart.
Karus hadn’t heard from the Blightress since the transfer of power, and though she told me everything that had happened in the trials, I still waited for her to show when we least expected it. So I kept my guard up at all times, practicing my portal magic so that I could create two at once if I needed to get Karus out of herreach quickly. She’d never leave if there was danger and I could only produce one.
“When do I get to learn portal magic?” she asked, her bare feet propped up on our massive wood desk in our study, dropping her quill in her Baron journal and rubbing her eyes.
I glanced to her beside me, two black chairs shoved together on one side of the desk before the enormous window that led to Felgren. “When you can make the bed without splitting the footboard.”
She pushed my arm in laughter, and then pulled me back toward her, reaching for a kiss.
I obliged as I always did and shut my own book, the task of writing the day’s training suddenly seeming unimportant and droll when her mouth opened on mine, pulling me in deep.
“You know, Karus,” I mumbled over her lips as she searched my pockets for our styris tea flask, “I used to be a much more productive Baron in this study.”
She took a long swig and handed it to me, a wicked, fiercely beautiful smirk on her red lips as she hopped up on our desk, leaning back and swinging her legs. “Productivity has many forms, Baron Revich.”
“Mmm.” I stood and slid my hands up her legs, splitting them apart and bundling her skirts at her waist. I leaned toward her, between her legs, both of my hands on either side of her hips.
I’d imagined this exact moment so many times in the past, a burn that snaked underneath my skin, painful and damning, and here she was, her black eyes filling green, her crimson lips parting in her anticipation of my touch.
“You dropped this,” she revealed, slipping the rhyzolm into my front pocket. I didn’t even need to touch it for it to thrum. Every day its pull to Karus and her power grew stronger, and this day was no different as it buzzed softly against my ribs.
I watched her, waiting, her smirk growing into a joyous smile as she tilted her head back and laughed. “Well, Baron Revich? Aren’t you going to kiss me?”
“Eventually.”
She shrugged, her fingers toying with the buttons of my vest. “Then I’ll wait, my love.” She caught my stare, her face softening and she inhaled deeply, pushing herself into me. “I’ll wait for you forever.”
As it was and always would be, I knew I’d do the same.
Chapter 80
Karus
“Doyou think that when we die, somehow, some part of us will remain here?”
Figuerah’s eyes met mine before we burst into a laugh matched in joy and mirth.
“Clairannia, where did that come from?” I chortled, weaving her crown of golden blooms in the same field of yellow we’d met in many times before.
I pulled another flower, lying on my stomach, elbows dug into the dirt. Figuerah already wore her crown, the light petals complimenting her dark skin and honey eyes.
“I just want there to be something, you know?” Clairannia turned her head to me, lying on her back, staring up at the brilliant blue sky. “Something of us like this that stays here forever, taking up space if our bodies no longer can.”
“Goodness, girl, it’s nine in the morning. Save the heavy talk for afternoon tea at least.”
Clairannia threw some of my stock of long-stemmed flowers at Figuerah who laughed, pulling them off her chest.
“Hey!” I shouted. “I need those!”
She giggled, helping me pick them up, setting the flowers back into my pile.
“I know what you mean.” I sighed, weaving another one through the stem of the chain I’d made. “I don’t come here when you two aren’t here. It’s not right. It always feels off, like I don’t belong in this space without you both.”
Figuerah smiled down at me, leaning on her hand. “Let’s do it then. Let’s promise that when we die, many, many years from now, we send a part of ourselves here. We bask in the sun, lie in the fields, and our color will be yellow.”
“Our sky will be clear.” Clairannia sat up, her brown eyes agleam, her black hair sliding over her cheeks.
I rose as well, placing the completed golden flower crown on her head. “Our sun will be bright. Our love will live on together. Right here. Promise?”
