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Was it really only a week before that we had killed King Azim?
The heavy wood door swung open, revealing Ruslan seated across from Drazen. Their conversation died when Ruslan’s gaze collided with mine. We remained locked, even as he rounded the desk and swept me into his arms, squeezing me so tight I could barely breathe.
“Fuck, sprite, I’m so glad you’re safe. It took everything in my power not to race home to you.”
“I know, but you needed to show off for the other kings.”
“You know you are far more important than they are. Nothing in this world is more important than you.”
The sincerity of his words wrapped around my heart, warming it as his professions of love always did.“I love you.”
“Love you more.”
Ruslan finally released me, but he tugged me along behind him and settled me in his chair before rounding and bracing his forearms on the back of it. We faced Drazen and Zuriel, the latter having settled himself in a high-backed chair beside the former.
“Someone was watching me while I was trying on dresses,” I blurted out, needing to get all the information out of me before someone else had a chance to direct the conversation elsewhere.
Behind me, Ruslan tensed, and I sensed his rising anger.
“But when I turned around, I couldn’t see anyone. I just had this awful feeling like I was being watched. No one else saw anything either. The dressmakers even went outside to check. That’s when I ran to Zuriel.” I cleared my throat, prepared to confess more knowledge. Craning my head, I tried to show my mate the depth of my worry. “Kazimir cornered me yesterday at the horseback riding event and told me that you were manipulating me by teaching me to read. Except, I’ve never read in front of him, and you’ve certainly never helped me in front of him.”
A muscle ticked in Ruslan’s jaw, and he tilted his head to one side, then the other, cracking his neck along the way. “If he’s been watching you, I will fucking kill him.”
Good thing I hadn’t told him what Immonen said after her vision.
Drazen slapped his palm on the wood in front of him, jolting both me and Ruslan. Some of that bloodthirstiness drained from him, and he sucked in a long breath before blowing it out. “You can’t kill him now, Ruslan. Not while he’s a guest here. It would go against our other goals.”
“I don’t give a fuck. Like I told Izidora before,shematters more to me than uniting the realms, freeing the Félvér, or welcoming others to our shores,” Ruslan snapped.
Definitely a good thing.
“We can’t even be certain he is the one following her. What if it’s one of the other Night Fae? They can all fly,” Drazen pointed out.
“But none of them can turn invisible or fully cloak themselves in shadow or light,” Zuriel argued. “Both feats used to be possible, but in the last few centuries, that power has weakened.”
“And that’s why the Félvér are superior,” Drazen muttered under his breath. None in the room disagreed, not when three of us had mixed blood and Zuriel was an Angel. He blew out a long breath, dragging his hand over his long hair and fidgeting with the pile of it atop his head. “I’ll check out the dress shop and see if I can find anything there. A place someone could have been hiding across the street, perhaps.”
“Thanks, Drazen,” Ruslan said, his body still tense against my back. The half-Dragon pushed off from the arms of his chair and made to leave. Zuriel, with one last glance at me, followed, offering to help Drazen in his search.
As the two departed, I spun to my knees and faced my mate. “How were the mines?”
“King Airre was very impressed with what we were mining, and King Consort Geza was very impressed with how we were mining. I didn’t reveal the extent of the tunnels in and under the mountains though. That’s a secret best kept among those in the Iron Realm.” His gray eyes still pinched with worry at the corners. “Are you sure you’re okay? Why don’t I take you to Roc to soak in the hot springs?”
That sounded incredible.
“Please do,” I grinned, threading my fingers through the hair at the base of his neck and scratching lightly. He released a low groan, head tipping back to rest against the back of his chair. Without rising, he chanted the words to the spell that would move us, and within moments, we stood in the steam in the grotto beneath our home, my legs wrapped firmly around Ruslan’s waist.
I slid to the ground, the safety offered by the springs and the session with Zuriel putting me at more ease than I had been in days. There were no windows, only one way in or out, and Ruslan was with me. Kazimir couldn’t reach me here. No one could reach me here. Ruslan seemed to sense that I wasn’t in the mood for sex, and when I stripped out of my clothes, he watched with the adoration I’d come to expect from him when he wanted to show me just how much he loved me.
Leading me into the rolling water, he guided me along until we were in the deepest parts, and then he cradled me, whispering sweet affirmations in my ear and stroking soothing swirls along my back. With each passing breath my body unwound, and the water seeped into my bones, chasing away the last of the chill that lingered there. Floating in the healing water, I felt lighter, freer, than I ever had before, and with Ruslan attending to my every need, I let go, allowing the grip around myemotions to fall away and trusting that one of us would catch me should I need it.
32
Béke Day Eight
“You’re certain you can summon them?” I asked the Iron Realm’s High Priestess as she perched on the edge of a chair across from me. The midmorning sun glinted off the polished wood in my office, and I leaned forward to remove the glare from my line of vision.
“Yes, as long as we have enough herbs and a distraction for our guests,” she confirmed.
