Page 84 of Empire of Wrath and Ruin
When she whispered my name, it came out broken and desperate, and I felt the last of my control fracture. I needed her with a desperation that bordered on madness—needed to lose myself in her warmth before the cold claimed me forever.
I laid her back on my bedroll with shaking hands, following the curve of her body with reverent touches. The shadows writhed beneath my skin, but they seemed muted now, as if her presence created a sanctuary they couldn't fully penetrate. For these stolen moments, I was still capable of gentleness.
"Look at me," I whispered as I settled between her thighs, and when she did, I saw no fear in her eyes. Only love, fierce and unwavering despite everything I'd become. "Stay with me, Aeveth. Keep me here."
When I entered her, it was with the desperate care of a drowning man reaching for salvation. She arched beneath me, her hands gripping my shoulders as we moved together in the ancient rhythm that predated empires and wars and the slow dissolution of sanity. Through our bond, I felt her pleasure mixing with mine, creating a feedback loop of sensation that drowned out the voices in my head.
This was what I was fighting for. Not abstract concepts of freedom or justice, but this—the way she gasped my name like a prayer, the way her body welcomed mine despite knowing whatdarkness lived in my soul. The way she loved me not in spite of what I was becoming, but because of who I still chose to be. I moved within her with desperate reverence, each thrust a wordless apology for what I was, what I might become. Her legs wrapped around my waist, pulling me deeper, and I felt the mate bond flare bright between us—a golden thread of connection that the shadows couldn't touch.
"I love you," she whispered against my ear, her breath warm on my skin. "Whatever happens, remember this. Remember us."
"Thank you," I whispered to her.
"For what?"
"For loving me enough to let me be human one more time."
Her response was a soft sob that she muffled against my shoulder, her arms tightening around me as if she could hold me together through sheer force of will. I felt her tears on my skin, warm and precious, and knew I would carry the memory of them even into whatever darkness awaited me.
We moved together with desperate tenderness, each touch a promise and a farewell. The mate bond sang between us, that golden thread growing brighter as our bodies joined in perfect unity. For these stolen moments, I wasn't the heir to madness or the weapon that would either save or destroy everything we held dear. I was simply a man loving a woman beneath a canopy of stars.
27
The abandoned wine cellar beneath the Imperial Palace kitchens reeked of damp stone and decades of neglect, the air thick enough to taste. Torch flames guttered in iron brackets, casting dancing shadows across the curved walls while the muffled roar of the festival crowd rumbled overhead like distant thunder. Every so often, a burst of laughter or the crash of fireworks would penetrate the stone, a jarring reminder of the celebration happening above while we crouched in darkness, planning to tear the Empire apart.
I sat against the far wall, trying to project the confidence of Crown Prince Jalius while inside, every instinct screamed that we were walking into a trap. The weight of my royal blood felt heavier down here, surrounded by the oppressive stone that had witnessed centuries of Imperial power. This was where my ancestors had plotted their conquests, where prisoners had been tortured for information, where the machinery of the empire ground human lives into dust.
The others moved restlessly in the confined space. Marcus paced like a caged wolf, his hand never leaving his sword hilt.Antonius methodically checked and rechecked his weapons, the soft scrape of steel against whetstone a rhythmic counterpoint to the distant celebration. Sirrax sat still and silent, his eyes closed as though he were sleeping, and yet his posture told me he was completely alert. Tarshi crouched in perfect stillness, Septimus at his side, but his eyes never left his twin brother.
Taveth was the most unsettling sight of all. He sat hunched against the wall, his hands trembling as shadows leaked from his skin despite his obvious efforts to contain them. Every few minutes, he would mutter something under his breath—responses to voices only he could hear. The crystal's proximity was eating him alive, and we all knew it.
"Jalend." Livia's voice cut through my brooding, and I looked up to find her approaching with that determined stride I'd come to love. Even in the guttering torchlight, she was beautiful—not the polished beauty of court ladies, but something fiercer, more real. The kind of beauty that came from surviving things that would have broken lesser people. I still didn’t know how I couldn’t have seen it before she revealed who she was to me.
She settled beside me on the cold stone, close enough that I could feel the warmth radiating from her body. "You're thinking too hard," she said quietly.
"Someone has to," I replied, though I couldn't keep the doubt from my voice. "In a few hours, I'll be walking into my father's stronghold, surrounded by his guards, his dragons, his absolute power. And for what? The hope that I can somehow convince an empire to abandon everything it's built?"
"No," she said firmly, her hand finding mine in the darkness. "Not for hope. For certainty. You're not walking in there as some desperate rebel trying to overthrow a tyrant. You're walking in there as the rightful heir, the prince who chose his people over his crown. You’re not your father. You never will be."
Her words should have comforted me, but they only highlighted the impossibility of what we were attempting. "My father has dragons, Livia. Hundreds of enslaved shifters who have no choice but to obey. Even if we could reach him, even if we could expose the truth about the collars—"
"Then we deal with the dragons," she interrupted. "That's what Taveth is for, remember? The crystal, the ritual. It might be madness, but it's our madness."
I studied her face in the flickering light, seeing the absolute certainty there. She believed in this plan, believed in me, with a faith that was both humbling and terrifying. "You realize that even if everything goes perfectly, even if we somehow pull this off, there's no going back. I'll be a kinslayer, a traitor to my own bloodline. History will remember me as the prince who murdered his father."
"Good," she said fiercely. "Let them remember you as the man who chose justice over loyalty. The prince who refused to inherit a throne built on suffering. You’re all of it—Jalius, crown prince, dragon rider… and my lover. You don’t have to choose one. You’re stronger because you’re all of them."
Her conviction cut through my doubts like a blade, and I felt something shift inside me—not hope exactly, but resolve. She was right. This wasn't about claiming my birthright or seizing power. This was about ending a cycle of violence that had consumed generations. Her lips parted beneath mine, soft and certain, and for a few heartbeats the festival above, the guards beyond the walls, even the shadows twisting from my brother’s hands—all of it disappeared. There was only her.
When I pulled back, breathless, she was smiling."You know, “she said, her eyes sparkling with mischief despite the danger surrounding us. ”If we somehow survive this, if we actually manage to overthrow the Empire and build something better in its place, we could get married, and I'd end up being Empress?Can you imagine—Empress Livia, the gladiator who fought her way out of the arena and into the Imperial palace?"
For a moment, I just stared at her, imagining it—Livia in Imperial purple, commanding legions, reshaping the world with the same fierce determination she'd shown in everything else. Then I started laughing, the sound echoing off the stone walls.
"There's just one problem with that fantasy," I said, pulling her closer.
"What's that?"
"If this coup succeeds, I won't be emperor long enough for you to be an empress." My voice grew serious, thoughtful. "I'll hold power just long enough to give it back to the people. Help them build a republic where no one person holds that kind of absolute authority."
