Page 88 of Healer to the Ash King
He’s still looking at my mouth with a dazed craving that’s unmistakable. He wants to kiss me.
I can’t allow him to do that. If he kisses me and then marries someone else, I won’t be able to bear it.
“Shouldn’t you be spending time with the Favored?” I whisper.
“They are resting after their grueling day,” he says. “I thought it best to give them time to discuss what happened during the challenge without me around. I’ll see them tomorrow.”
I nod, expecting him to ask for sex. Perhaps afterward, if he does his part well, I’ll tell him the secrets I’m holding for the Favored.
The Ash King shifts his thumb, stroking it across my lips. Then he inhales sharply and shakes himself, as if he has come to an abrupt decision.
“Get dressed,” he says. “There is something I want to show you.”
I choose the simplest of the dresses I’ve been given since my arrival—a dark blue one with a scooped neckline, a form-fitting bodice, and swishy skirts. Naughtily I omit any underthings, because I have a suspicion that my King will want access to me sometime tonight. And despite everything that happened today, I crave him. I have the strangest feeling that sinking onto him, being entwined with him, would make everything right and solid and whole again.
I love him even when I hate him. I need him in every way. And if he does not try to seduce me, I will do everything in my power to tempt him.
I’ve barely finished dressing when the Ash King opens the door between our rooms and leans in. “Count to one hundred and then meet me in the pantry.”
I assume he means the one down the hall, behind the painting, where he treated me with such delicious roughness after he thought I’d slept with Rince. Strange how my exhaustion has sloughed away. My heart beats fast, and every nerve is alight with eagerness. What does he want to show me?
After counting to a hundred, I wander out of my room, nodding at the guards in what I hope is a casual, nonchalant manner. When I reach the painting that conceals the pantry, there’s a guard outside it.
“The King is currently occupying this room,” he says, and I smile at the sound of Owin’s voice.
“I know,” I murmur. “I’m supposed to meet him here.”
In the opening of his helmet, Owin’s eyes widen. “So you really are sleeping with him. I didn’t think the rumors were true.”
“They weren’t, until—” I wince. “Never mind. Just let me pass, please.”
“My shift is up soon,” he says. “I can leave this post unguarded, if you prefer not to have someone listening in on your—festivities.”
I can’t see how any harm will come to the King in the pantry, so I shrug. “As you wish.”
Owin’s eyes crinkle at the corners as he smiles. “Enjoy yourself, Healer.”
“Thank you.” I sweep primly past him and duck into the pantry, closing the secret door behind me.
The shelves are uplit by three tiny fire orbs circling over the King’s palm. The light flashes on his rings.
“What are we doing?” I whisper. “I enjoyed our interlude here last time, but don’t you think a bed would be more comfortable?”
“You think I brought you here to fuck you?” His low chuckle vibrates along my skin, tingling between my legs. “No, Healer. Put this on.” He hands me a cloak identical to his. “Are you too tired to walk a while?”
“I’m fine.” Truthfully I’m not sure how long I can last, but the illicit delight of being with him like this is too much to resist.
While I put on the cloak, he walks to the back corner of the pantry and adjusts a few things on a shelf before reaching into some dark recess. There’s a flare of his fire magic and a series of clicking sounds—and then an entire section of shelving swings outward, like a door opening. Stale, dank air wafts up from the dark tunnel beyond.
A secret passage. Depending on where it leads, this is the kind of information the Undoing would kill to possess.
“We must be quiet,” the Ash King says. “This tunnel passes between rooms, and in some places the walls are thin.”
I follow him inside, and he leans past me to pull the secret door shut. For a moment our bodies are aligned, and my skin hums with the intensity of his nearness.
But he continues along the passage, guiding fire orbs ahead of us to light the way.
We walk and walk, descend some steps and walk more, until it feels as if we’ve gone far enough to be outside the palace.
