Page 18 of Court of Dragons and Ashes

“We have both fucked this up,” I mutter, leaning up to him. He doesn’t need any more encouragement before he kisses me deeply, passionately. Any space between us is gone, washed away. We might both be broken, but we can fix each other’s cracks.

I moan into his mouth, pulling at his belt, and he places his hands over mine. “Are you sure, after?—”

Pushing away from the desk, I slide to my knees. “I know what I want and what I want to forget.” Arden is still as I finish undoing his belt on my knees. He digs his hands into the desk as I pull down his trousers, boxers too, until his cock is in front of me. The desk groans with how hard he grabs it when I wrap my hand around the base of his cock and suck the tip into my mouth. I know we should talk. We shouldn’t be doing this to solve our problems, but I need him close. After everything, I need him to show me that I can have him.

“Princess, fuckkk,” his moan echoes around the room. I don’t make him wait before I sink my mouth down his cock, as far as I can go, but damn, he is long, and he hits the back of my throat far too quickly. I use my hand to stroke up and down the base of him as I work the top of his cock with my mouth, feeling him tense with every stroke, noticing his every move. I barely get to suck on him for a minute before he is pulling back, lifting me up, and turning me over the desk. He pushes up my long skirt, rips off my underwear, and pulls my legs apart. Leaning over me, he strokes his hand up to my core. “You’re soaking my fingers, Ellelin.”

“Then do something about it,” I suggest, looking at him over my shoulder. His eyes flash with the challenge, and he lines his cock up. In one thrust, he is inside me, and he feels so perfect. Imoan as he ruthlessly fucks me on his desk, every thrust moving the entire desk across the floor until it hits the wall and it has nowhere else to go. Neither of us notices the desk much, and I can only focus on the feel of him inside of me, the need to come so badly that it almost hurts. “Arden, please. I need?—”

“I know what you need. You’re mine,” he growls, biting down on my shoulder, his hand sliding between the desk and my core. He rubs my clit fast, and I’m crashing into an orgasm within moments.

“Arden!” I cry out his name as I come around his cock, tightening around him, and he thrusts two more times before going still, coming hard inside me. He lifts me, turning me on the desk and holding me against his chest as we both calm down.

I draw circles on his chest, noticing the grooves in the metal of the desk. “I think we broke the desk.”

Arden chuckles and holds me tightly. “It’s just become my favourite desk. Those are marks of honour to me.”

I shake my head, grinning up at him as he lets me down. “Are we okay?”

After I finish pulling down my skirt and tidying my top, he pulls me into his arms. “I love you, Ellelin. No more secrets. We are okay.”

I clear my throat. “Lysander?—”

“I don’t want to talk about Lysander with you. Not yet,” he interrupts, and his tone makes me stop. We have pushed enough today.

“How about you show me your rooms here? What’s your favourite place of yours in the court?” I change the subject. “The Fire Court is so beautiful.”

“Like you are. This is my favourite place, second to being inside you,” he states, waving his hand around, making me chuckle. “It was my father’s place, but it’s now mine. I feel closerto my parents when I work in here. The door is spelled to scare unwanted visitors.”

I look around. It didn’t scare me away, so he let me in. Even upset with me, he wanted me to find him. God, I love him. Science was never a strong subject for me at school, or even one I understood well. “What do you make in here?”

“Cures, potions, changing elements from one thing to another.” I can feel the excitement in his every word. He shows me a load of rocks, some of them absolutely dazzlingly beautiful. “We mix magic and elements together here to fix things too, like this, for example.” He shows me a small purple potion. “I invented this. About twenty years ago, there was an outbreak of a deadly virus. I’m not sure what you call them on Earth. It spread fast and killed dragons, young and old. No one could figure out what it was. My father worked on it for years. Two years ago, there was another outbreak, and I figured out this cure. It took me a while, a lot of experimenting, but no one died. I kept the ones that had caught it alive and stopped the spread across my kingdom. I regularly trade cures with the other courts and mix their knowledge with mine so we can keep disease at bay.”

My smile is wide. “That’s amazing and?—”

I pause mid-sentence, hearing Terrin shout a warning in mind: “Danger is coming for you.” Terrin. I miss him and wish I could simply just take myself to the Spirit court to be near him, but I can’t do that. Not yet. I know going back to the Spirit Court will be different, meaningful to my people there, and I want to be able to have a way to permanently fix what my father did. It doesn’t make it any easier not to be with Terrin, doesn’t push the ache away. He is my mate, and our bond is strong even with the distance. Even with the Spirit Court magic hanging between it. Speaking to him in my mind is like shouting at a great distance, underwater, and even then it’s hard to hear.

“Terrin just said?—”

“I heard him in your mind,” Arden interrupts, taking my hand and leading me towards the door. “You can hear in my mind, too. Just reach.” I hear a dragon roar, echoing loud above the castle, calling for us. “I’m used to dragon roars, but that sounds nothing like anyone in my court.”

“Let’s go outside and face this,” I suggest. There is no point ignoring whoever it is. Terrin is annoyed at whoever it is, but we are too far apart to communicate well. Arden goes out and jumps off the balcony, shifting into his massive black, red-tipped, scaled dragon before swinging around and floating near the steps. After climbing the banister, I get onto his back, and he shoots off into the sky.

Suddenly a dragon slams straight into us, going straight for Arden’s throat, and I can’t see anything but darkness. Before it can dig its teeth in, I throw my shadows at the dragon’s face and it roars, falling off and into the sky. Arden spins so fast I barely manage to hold on before he straightens in the air. The black-scaled dragon, slim and fast, reappears, flying directly in front of us. I know this dragon. It’s the commander’s dragon. My blood runs cold as I look across to see Tsar Aodhan on her back. For a moment…I thought the commander would be sitting there.

He’s dead.

He’s dead.

Aodhan shouts, his voice reaching me through the wind. “You took my army of dragons! You killed my brother. You’re a stealing fucking witch!”

Arden roars, flames spitting between us in a clear threat. I shout right back. “He deserved to die for what he tried to do to me. Do you know what he did?”

“I heard rumours. It’s not like him, he didn’t do it. You’re a liar, sent to my army to kill and steal,” he snarls. The sky is quickly filling with Fire Court dragons surrounding him. “Youeven spelled my dragon into breaking our bond and leaving with the army. The only loyal dragon left is my brother’s.” She snarls at me to make a point.

“I do not lie. And they’re my army now!” I shout back. It’s quiet enough that he hears every word. “They’re my people, my court, and they always have been. Whether they ride or not, they do not belong to you.”

His look will haunt me, the pure anger and promise of revenge. “I don’t know what’s going on in your courts, but I’m coming for you. One day, one time, when you don’t expect it, I will ruin your life.”

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