Page 116 of The Starlight Heir

“Gone. Vogon killed him. Morvarid is dead, too. What exactly do you remember about what happened?”

He frowns, a host of emotions flashing across his face. “I remember most of it. I remember Morvarid’s sword pinning me to the wall. It hurt like hell.” He rolls his shoulder, one hand pressing to where the wound had been, a furrow notching between his brows. “I knew I was bleeding out and dying.”

“You did die,” I whisper hoarsely. “Your heart stopped.”

“I felt it. You saved me, Suraya, because there wasn’t any pain anymore. I remember feeling so much darkness creeping through me, and then you came and banished it. I remember thinking you had never looked so bright, and then there was nothing but light. So much dazzling light. It was hot and blinding and vibrant, like I was seeing the real you for the first time.” His words weave a spell around me, and when he leans in to seal my lips with his, I can only yield to the sweetness of his kiss. “My lovely, infuriating, brilliant star,” he murmurs against my mouth, his hand curving around my waist. “I felt everything—every beat of your pulse that somehow became the beat of mine. You know how I know this?” he says, grazing his lips against my jawline to my earlobe.

I can barely get the word out. “How?”

“Because I love you. Even if you don’t love me. Even if I have to prove my love to you over and over again to earn back what I lost.”

The poignancy of the moment nearly kills me. “I do love you, Ro.”I exhale and push forward. “But as much as I’ve come to care for you, what you did was wrong—keeping something like that from me was devastating.” He opens his mouth, eyes shining with remorse, and I hold up a hand. “I know you’re sorry, I believe you. But what’s to say you won’t lie to me again to protect me in the future over something that you deem more important than my own choices?”

“I won’t,” he says fervently.

“Not even to save the realm?” I ask.

His face is grave. “Not even then. I swear it on the maker and any god in existence.”

We stare at each other, his forehead resting against my brow for an eternal moment. I never want to let go.

“Can I please kiss you now?” he whispers.

Nodding, I barely open my mouth to say yes before his lips crash into mine, the familiar iron, spice, and bergamot scent of him filling my nostrils. His tongue sweeps in to tangle with mine, devouring me as if he can’t get enough... as if the whole time he was asleep he was starving for me. The kiss goes on and on, neither of us wanting to release the other, but eventually we pull apart, breathless and panting.

“We should probably tell the realm you’re awake,” I say. “I shouldn’t be selfish and keep you all to myself.”

“Well, it’s just as well I wish to keepyouto myself for a bit longer. And since I’m the all-powerful king, I can do what I want,” he murmurs, his arms gathering around me, and I’m glad for it. He feels like home.

“If your head gets any bigger, it’ll explode all over us.”

“I can tell you what’s getting fit to explode.” He points at his lap with a heated smirk, and I gasp at the prominent bulge there, glad to know I’m not the only one whose passions are out of control. “Promises, promises.”

“I’ve only one promise for you.” Roshan leans close, even though there’s no need to whisper. “When we get to my chambers, I’m going to kiss every inch of you, and then I’ll dine on my favorite dessertuntil I’m good and satisfied, andthenI’m going to make love to you until you can’t walk straight.” He bites my earlobe, making me gasp, and swirls his tongue over the shell of my ear. “Because the maker only knows how much I’ve missed the taste of you and the feel of you clenching with pleasure around me.”

I go boneless at his wicked words. “I’ll hold you to that. My altar has been bereft.”

“Your altar will be flowing by the time I’m done with you.”

I gulp, core clenching and already well on the way to said goal. Sands, could a girl combust from sheer anticipation?

He grins as though he knows exactly what kind of reaction his words have caused, and with a husky growl, he crashes his mouth to mine. Between whispered words of devotion and deep kisses, Roshan keeps me close, tucked into his side, until the doors break open and the chamber is flooded with a sea of jubilant, reveling people.

“The king is awake! Long live the king. Long live Oryndhr!”

The cheers are thunderous, but I hear none of it. Instead, all I can see is the man sitting before me, and I savor the precious words of love that had fallen from his lips. I know without any doubt that I’m right where I’m supposed to be. We might not be soul-fated, but love, like my father said, is a choice.

And I choose him.

Epilogue

God of Night

The Oryndhrians might call her Starkeeper.

I call her my fucking end.

The azdaha beneath me spreads her enormous wings and roars a mournful song for her own mate—a male taken captive by the new king’s brother a year ago. We had both felt it when he had met my soul-fated, the burst of akasha that had connected them in the space beyond the realms. His pain had been agony, but until that single moment, he had been lost to us, his magic dampened by forces insidious enough to render him invisible.

Indira had been inconsolable, mindless in her rage.

Is it time, Darrius?she rumbles in my mind.

“Soon, my friend.” I pat her venom-spined neck with gloved fingers, feeling her restlessness. I’ve promised to get her mate back. I might not desire to keep mine, but bonded azdahas would weaken over time and eventually die. Indira is strong, but she isn’t invincible.

Unlike me, she needs her mate.

And Vena, that meddling diviner of the fates, is not wrong... the winds of prophecy have spoken.

War is upon us.