Page 53 of Autumn Queens & Shadows

“You started it. Go on, bird. Tell me your pretty little secret,” he leaned to whisper in my ear, making me shiver like I’d just experienced my first ever winter chill.

It was silly and immature, but I know he thrived on secrets that were slightly embarrassing to me. “I've never kissed. Suppose I don’t have to go into detail about the lack of other things that usually follow kisses that I’ve not done.”

“You can fuck without kissing. You can do many other things without kissing.”

I sighed, trying to hide my red embarrassment. “That usually comes first in my book of rules.”

“Not even once?”

I was nineteen. Was it really that late for me to have not? Was I helpless? “The closest I’ve let a man or a woman touch me for more than a second it’s this.” Looking up from his chest, I said, “It’s you.” Because it was how I wanted it. I only wanted to touch him.

“Why?”

“Because I can ruin you.”

“You can ruin many men, Thora,” he said, ghosting a finger down my cheek and wrapping a strand of hair around his finger. Watching me. Waiting for me. Smiling when I didn’t react at the slightest in the way I reacted with others.

“Not like I can ruin you.”

He pulled my strand of hair to his face, inhaling the scent. “I slipped.”

Too distracted, I stuttered, “You…you slipped? Where?”

“Between worlds. Life and Death. Just as we crossed from one realm to the other. Not only did I feel Kil die, I felt just about everything else, too.”

“Felt all what?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper clogged with tears.

“Just felt. All and everything like I’ve told you. A sick person in the distance. Someone in love. Another one dying. Except that we were in a graveyard of sorts filled with miserable spirits. And the woman standing over my dead brother wasn’t just someone, so I presume you can connect the other dots. I can numb my body, tire it, but I can’t do that to my mind.” He grinned down at me. “Yet—can’t do it yet, but I will find a way.”

“You should have told me. Why didn’t you tell me?”

A wicked smirk titled up his lips. “Because you wanted to know it. Really, really wanted it. I knew you’d give me something in exchange for it. Something you wouldn’t have told me otherwise.” Leaning in, he murmured right over my lips, “For whatever reason.”

A heavy weight pulled between my thighs, and I barely managed to mutter a breathless, “Idiot.”

He grabbed my chin and rubbed his thumb hard over my mouth and smeared my lipstick in the process. “Don’t pout, you’re not a duckling.” His eyes darted somewhere behind me, and he dropped his hand from me. “Yes, brother?”

Kilian stood there, hands in his pockets, head cocked back and gazing back and forth between us. His grey, terrifying eyes narrowed on my face and then on Malik’s hand that had just been there, stained pink with my lipstick. “Meet us in the night gardens in Amaris.”

“Has Snow finally decided to sacrifice you for the greater good?”

“I’m marrying her before the gods.”

Malik barked a laugh. “Look, brother to brother, she’s cute, but she’s a little insane. Reconsider or at least think about it for a bit longer.”

Silence fell between the brothers for a while and then Mailk’s smile fell. “Shit, you’re not joking.”

Kilian simply blinked once. “I’m a king, brother. I do not joke.”

“Does she know you’re marrying her?”

“Funny,” Kilian said, and then faded away.

Malik turned to me, frowning. “You think she knows?”

“I bet it was her idea.”

He still looked confused and then made to grab me to fade us both, but I stepped back and out of his hold. “Not in the mood for a game of catch, bird. Now, come here.”