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Railan chuckles softly. “Had to? Or wanted to?”
“Can’t it be both?”
“With you, it usually is.”
He stares off into the distance, toward Síra. You can’t see it from the palace; the Shadow Realm is too vast, but even so, I can picture its landscape and the jagged mountains surrounding it.
An icy wind howls constantly through the unforgiving peaks, broken only by the occasional scream or frantic prayer or desperate plea. But once they’re sentenced, nothing saves them. Their fate is permanent.
“I saw Garrick’s latest report.”
Eyes fixed on the horizon, I nod. “Your thoughts?”
He hesitates, weighing his words as he takes a deep breath. “It looks a lot like the early reports we used to get. When we first noticed there was a problem with the veil. With the power running through it.”
That was precisely what worried me about Garrick’s report too. I’ve spent hundreds of years fortifying the Shadow Realm with my blood and my power. Until one day it wasn’t enough.
Decades ago, Garrick brought me the first report that souls in Meren were coming too close to the veil in the east. As if they could sense its power in a way they hadn’t been able to in all my centuries in the realm.
I’d fortified them. The veil and the borders around both Meren and Síra. Because if Meren falls, Síra isn’t far behind. It worked well for a long time. Until it didn’t, demanding more and more blood and power to hold it together.
Then Elora arrived, and the realm has been stronger than I’ve been able to make it in years. If it’s starting all over again, then I was wrong about her. I don’t want to be wrong about her.
“I think,” Railan says, pulling me back to the present, “we should be careful about Elora and what she might mean. For the realm.”
I turn to face him, eyebrow raised. There’s a clear double meaning in his words. I could ignore it, but as Railan is likely to have already guessed what happened between Elora and me in the forest the night before, it seems pointless.
“I’ve always been careful where the realm is concerned. It has been my top priority since it was created.”
“I know that.” He shifts from one foot to the other, still not meeting my gaze. “I spoke to Nevon this morning. About your…appearance at the hot springs.”
“Did you? I hope he enjoyed his walk.”
Railan snorts softly. “Seems to me he was hoping to enjoy a lot more but was interrupted.”
“Yes,” I reply, unable to keep the jealousy from my voice. “He was.”
Railan opens his mouth, then closes it again, shaking his head. “I’ll make sure Nevon gets the message. Thieran,” he adds when I turn to go. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“The closer I am to Elora, the more I can watch her. The more I can watch her, the fewer chances she has to escape.”
I can tell by the look on his face he doesn’t quite accept my logic. The reason is sound enough, but even I know it’s not why I want her close.
Railan gives me one last look before disappearing, and I push into the palace, glancing down the hallway leading to Elora’s rooms. I know she’s down there. It would be easy to go to her, coax her into a bed. Take my time with her. Make her scream for me again, feel her nails on my back and her legs around my waist. But as much as I would enjoy the distraction, I have other responsibilities.
Veering down the opposite hall and crossing the wide expanse of the palace’s center, I take the last set of stairs up, turning toward my rooms. I smell her before I see her, the faint scent of pine and ash hanging in the air.
Iluna steps out of the shadows and into the halo of light from a torch, the jewels in her tiara glittering when she moves. Even the fitted bodice of her black dress is dotted with tiny blood-red stones.
I had hoped for a little more time alone, maybe enough to sneak away to the hot springs for a bath. My hand on my cock and Elora on my mind.
“My lord.”
Iluna bobs a curtsy, and her smile is sharp. I assume she’s here to ask me about Elora and finish whatever she’d started to tell me at dinner last night. Before I cut her off and never came back.
“Iluna. Can it wait?”
“It could. But I think you’ll be interested in what I have to say.”
