Page 88 of A Queen Of Broken Realms
A fleeting gasp of relief tumbles past my lips. “If we live through this, you are getting the blowjob of a lifetime,” I whisper, trying to swallow the tremor in my voice. Ashen’s snakeskin wings flare wide and he drops the spine, vertebrae snapping beneath his boot as he strides toward me. Fireballs burst around us and I curl into myself as I cover my head against the flames and sparks spilling heat from every direction.
“It’s all right, vampire. I’ve got you,” Ashen says, wrapping his arms around my shaking ribs. His wings drape over us like a fire blanket, a burning cannonball landing on one of their edges. He tightens his grip when I flinch and cry out, letting go only long enough to pat out the flames that crawl toward us beneath his wing.
“I can’t, Ashen.” Tears stream down the soot on my cheeks as the sound of raging fire mixes with the swell of villagers’ chanting voices as I burned a lifetime ago. Seared leather. Melting flesh. Singed hair and embers that eat skin. I can’t tell what’s real from what’s a terrible memory I can never run far enough from. “I can’t.”
“I know,” Ashen says as he presses me to his chest. His wing shudders as an arrow tears a hole through the snakeskin, pinning it to the road. “I promise, it will be okay. It’s hellfire, Lu. It will not hurt me. I will not let it harm you.”
No sooner do the words leave his lips than a blast of flame hits his back, heat and light rolling across his wings, brightening the edges of his scales. He takes the hit with little more than a grunt.
“Ashen—”
“Trust me,” he says, grasping my face between his stained hands, his eyes holding mine and not letting go. “TheShub Lugalare coming. Cyrus will not let us down.” My lower lip trembles despite how hard I try to keep from falling apart beneath the weight of my worst memories. Ashen’s eyes soften as they rake across my skin. “Do you know what Cyrus said, Lu?”
I shake my head between his hands.
“That no one deserved to lead the Shadow Realm more than you. That it had never felt like a place that could foster light until you came along.” Ashen leans forward and presses a kiss to my lips, brushing back the tears that still slide down my skin. “They will come,” he promises as he pulls away. “And I will keep you safe until they do.”
Time slows. I count every color in Ashen’s eyes, the copper seams, the crimson rings, the black flame. Sweat beads our brows in the heat. Tears dampen my lashes and Ashen wipes them across my skin. We breathe together, slow breaths like deep waves that fill my chest. The fire growing around us glows behind the curtain of Ashen’s wings, but in a strange twist of fate it shields us from the view of the archers in the distance. Silver arrows fall like rain through the flames, but most clatter across the stones.
Most.
Ashen’s wings take another hit. Then another. Two more arrows pin the soft black skin to the stone, smoke spreading between us to shield the damage from my view. Ashen’s shoulder drops toward me as an arrow strikes his back, blood rolling over his metal armor to drip on my cheek like a tear.
“Ashen—”
“Just a little longer.”
I grip Ashen’s hand in mine, pressing my forehead to his as he takes another hit. His jaw clamps shut around the pain and my heart cracks apart. “I love you, Ashen,” I say. Smoke fills my throat. “I will love you for every second of a thousand lifetimes.” I slide my hand free of Ashen’s, pressing my palm to his cheek. He leans into my touch before I pull it away, the confusion in his eyes shifting into awareness as my hand rises to his forehead.
“No, Lu—”
“It’s okay. You take care of me,” I say, laying my palm across his skin as I close my eyes and pull his mind into darkness, “and I take care of you.”
When I open my eyes, we’re standing in front of one another on the dance floor in Bit Akalum. I’m in the same white dress as the first time we came here, and Ashen is wearing his immaculate black suit. But this time, the space is all ours. There are no eyes filled flames of predatory desire to follow our every move. There are no hidden traps, no enemies with saccharine smiles that spill venomous revelations. No fangria or Rakomelo either, which is probably for the best. It’s just me and the Reaper, and the twinkling lights reflecting across the polished stone.
“Bit Akalum?” Ashen asks as his eyes take in the black crystal chandeliers and the candlelit tables. “Why here?”
I shrug, giving him a sly smile. “Why not? It’s where I first let myself really wish for what I wanted with you.” Ashen’s brow flickers and I reach out, pulling his hand with me. “Actually no. Not here. More likehere.” I tug the Reaper into place and kick one of his feet back a step, shifting his shoulders as he grins. “Perfect. Right here.”
I place Ashen’s hand to rest behind my back and grasp his other one to hold it aloft, arching backward and pulling him with me until he dips me toward the floor. “Do you trust me, vampire?” he asks, catching the memory from those months past that seem so long ago.
“I trust you, husband,” I whisper. The smile shared between us is slow to unfurl its bittersweet bloom. Ashen curls my hand against the beat of his heart as he keeps my weight hovering above the floor, my eyes only drifting closed when his lips press to mine.
“Dance with me, vampire,” Ashen whispers when he pulls away.
“Took you long enough to ask.”
Ashen gives me a wicked grin. In a blink, I’m whirled from inches above the floor to high in the air, my feet off the ground as Ashen presses my body to his and spins. My laugh is a riot of sound in the still space of our shared illusion. Music swells around us from a source unseen and Ashen sets me on my feet only long enough to take my hand and lead us into the steps of an elegant Viennese waltz. Each spin is more dramatic than the last, every turn more sweeping, every lift a little more risky, all to make me laugh. We glide across the floor and I start to sing.
I’ve always sung someone else’s song. But this time I sing my own. My song for Ashen.
When I couldn’t trust, you changed it
When I needed love, you gave it
When I broke my heart, you saved it
Even your darkest stars still shine
