Page 49 of The Princesses of Ruin
Fuck.
I grip her hair and pull her head back, claiming her deeper. She moans, her hands grasping at my thick tunic.
She breaks from my embrace. “We don’t have long.”
I reel her back in, pressing her flush against my body. “We have all night.”
She takes a hand off my chest and flicks it in the direction of the dropped supplies. They move effortlessly at her command, and I fall into her farther.
This powerful woman is beyond understanding, and I don’t want to. I don’tneedto know how she directs the world around her with a simple gesture. I’ve grasped several of the rune-scripts to perform spells, but she has far surpassed me.
Another reason to love her fiercely.
My intrepid fighter.
My warrior queen.
White wind whistles around us and the world itself makes way as she sets up our dwellings. Rocks clank as a firepit forms at the center, and a rumble heralds the rolling of three logs that surround it.
With a final flourish of her hand, she smiles. “Woulda been a much nicer trip the first time if I could’ve done that, huh?”
I chuckle, but it hides a sense of dread I dare not voice. She was touched by Ashai. She wasinhabitedby her. Scarlett may have removed that piece, but Lily hasn’t been the same since. This display of power only makes my concern deeper.
Her expression droops. “You’re unhappy.”
“No,” I say, quickly. “No. I am…”
Her eyes widen asshe stares up at me.
I let the demon recede and face her as the man I am.
“I’m worried.”
She gives me an incredulous smile. “What about now?”
“You.”
Her eyebrows drop and her face becomes neutral, sending my stomach through loops.
“Lily, I only meant—”
She pushes off me and turns away. “Don’t bother.”
“You’ve expressed more control over your power in the last week than any other time. It’s not coincidental. Shechangedyou.”
She stops, the snow seeming to avoid her presence by blowing around her rather than touch her skin. My breath catches in my chest as I watch the very essence of Gaien bow before my wife.
Her voice is barely above a whisper. “And what if it was for the best?”
My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth, still tasting the inside of hers but shocked into silence.
“What if…” She turns back to me, her eyes dark and skin pale. “I have the power to defeat her now?”
“You may, but it would be your death.”
We stare at one another as the shock holds me. I don’t know why I said that, or where it came from. I don’tbelieveit.
Do I?
