“No one can be sure of Audric the Lightbringer’s last words, but in the days before the Fall, whispers traveled fast across the world. His last words, the whispers said, were for his murderer: ‘I love you, Rielle.’”
—The Last Days of the Golden King author unknown
Three days. Rielle dragged herself up to her rooms long after the sun had set. Three days until the fire trial.
And then…what?
“My lady,” chided Evyline from the door, “you really must try to get more sleep, at least until the trials are over.”
“You’re right, Evyline,” Rielle replied. “It’s only that when you’re soon to be thrown into a death pit of flames, you find yourself wanting to study your prayers as much as you can.”
“Prayers are well and good, my lady, but sleep is better. You can neither pray nor fight fire if you’re exhausted.”
Rielle, yawning, untied her braid and shook her hair free. “I’m inclined to agree. My father, however, is not.”
After checking to make sure Atheria had taken her usual nighttime post on the terrace, Rielle stumbled into her bathing rooms.
And froze, suddenly and wholly awake.
Audric sat on a settee by the far window. His hair was a mess of curls, as though he’d been running his fingers through it for hours. He stood to face her, hands clenched at his sides.
He gave her a tight smile. “Hello,” he said quietly.
Rielle stepped back into her bedroom. “Evyline,” she called over her shoulder, “I hope you don’t mind, but I wonder if you might give me some time alone.”
“My lady, it isn’t safe—”
“I’m quite safe with Atheria on my terrace.”
As if on cue, the chavaile snorted from beyond the curtains.
“Grant me this wish, would you please?”
“Just tonight,” Evyline said sternly, after a moment. “The least I can do, I suppose, after everything you’ve been through.”
“That’s right.” Rielle ushered her out as kindly as she could manage. “Good night, Evyline, and thank you for your vigilance.”
“Of course, my lady.”
Rielle shut the door, locked it, took a breath to brace herself. When she turned around, Audric was standing in the middle of the room, looking rather abashed.
“I’m sorry for sneaking in,” he said, “but I wanted to see you. I won’t make a habit of it, I promise.”
“Maybe you should,” Rielle teased—but her voice came out shaky.
Audric’s dark gaze searched her own, then fell to the floor.
A flurry of nerves danced up her breastbone. “Did you want to talk to me about something?”
“Yes, it’s—” Now his voice was the unsteady one. He cleared his throat. “I’m afraid, though, that I shouldn’t. That I’m a fool for coming here tonight.”
“You know you can tell me anything.”
“I know.”
“Then talk to me.” She reached for him. “What is it?”
He brought her hand to his lips. “Rielle,” he whispered against her skin, “Rielle, Rielle…”
“You’re frightening me. Say something other than my name. Say something real.”
“Something real.” He laughed a little and stepped away from her. “It’s just…”
When he fell silent again, Rielle thought she might scream. “Audric, if you don’t start talking this instant—”
“You understand what all of this means, don’t you?” He gestured at the castle around them. “I will be king someday, and you will be the Sun Queen.”
“Well, not if the fire trial—”
“Oh, Rielle. You’ll conquer that trial as you have all the others. You’ll be glorious, and then…” He dragged a hand through his hair, turned away, then back to her. “Then you will serve me, and if I have to send you into battle to save the kingdom, I will do it. That is the Sun Queen’s foretold purpose: to defend and protect. And I cannot stray from that simply because I love you.”
His voice caught on the last words.
Rielle approached slowly, her heart pounding. She touched his arm, and when he looked down at her, his eyes warm and troubled, she cradled his cheek in her hand.
He leaned in to her touch, cupped her hand in his, and kissed her palm. “I know I shouldn’t touch you,” he said, his voice rough. “We decided it. We had good reasons. But, God help me, I’ve been able to think of little else since that day in the gardens.”
Rielle moved closer to him, drawing his hand down to her waist. “Remember, Ludivine doesn’t care. She wants us to.”
“It’s not Lu or her family. Not anymore. Now I’m wondering…” He leaned his forehead against hers, closed his eyes. “If only I could stop loving you.”
“What are you saying?”
“As Sun Queen, you will be sacred to our people, Rielle. A symbol longed for and prayed for since the dawn of our age.”
“Let’s not call me that unless it actually happens. I’m nervous enough as it is.”
“The Archon will bless you in front of the entire city. I cannot interfere with that. I cannot tarnish it.”
She stepped back from him. “Are you saying taking me into your bed would tarnish me somehow?”
He looked at her helplessly. “I don’t know how to both love you and be the person who sends you to war.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Are you just now realizing that could happen? What did you think the trials were for, exactly?”
She followed him. “Audric, I want you to listen to this, for I will only say it once.”
He looked up at the change in her voice.
“If you ever sent me into battle,” she said, “I would go gladly, and I would burn our enemies to ashes. But I would not do it for you—or because of the prophecy. I would do it because this is my home too. And if you tried to keep me near you for love of me, you would fail.”
He stared at her, the air between them snapping taut and furious. She lifted her chin and dared him silently to defy her.
But he didn’t. Instead he strode toward her and caught her mouth hungrily with his.
She gasped into his kiss, stumbling back from the force of it. He steadied her, hands at her hips, and moved with her until she stood pressed between the wall and his body. She opened her mouth to him, wound her fingers through his hair.
His hands were everywhere—first cradling her face, then cupping her hips to pull her closer against his body. When he trailed his lips down her neck, and lower, kissing along the neckline of her gown, Rielle arched her body up into his.
The fire popped and hissed.
“Yes,” she whispered, tugging up his shirt to find bare skin. “Yes.”
His voice was a low rumble. “Yes what, darling? Tell me where to touch you.”
“Where you did before. Please, Audric.”
He moved back to her mouth as he gathered up her skirts, then slid his palm across her thighs. At the first touch of his hand on her belly, Rielle jerked against him with a gasp.
“Spread your legs for me, Rielle,” he murmured, his voice shaking at her ear. “I’ve got you.”
She complied, and when his hand found her, stroking softly between her legs, she cried out and clutched his shirt in her fists.
The wall at her back trembled.
He slid one finger inside her, his thumb still stroking her. “Every night since that day,” he whispered against her mouth, “I’ve dreamed of this. I wake with your name on my lips.”
No matter how Rielle moved, she could not get enough of him. She dug her fingernails into the small of his back, pulling him closer. “Faster, Audric. Harder, please.”
He obeyed. “Like this?”
“Yes, yes.” She felt herself stretch around his fingers; he had added another, thrusting faster. “Like that, oh, God—” She let out a sound she had never made, a low, throaty groan that shook her to her toes.
“That’s it.” Audric kissed her temple, her hair. His voice was full of wonder. “That’s it, Rielle.”
She clung to him, ground her hips against his hand until the tingling wave that had been building deep inside her crested, sweeping across her skin and down her spine. She jerked against him, gave a sharp cry, and shattered.
The room shook around them.
The lit candles across the room sparked, jagged flames leaping inches into the air. The hearth fire snapped; embers scattered across the carpet. The walls quivered for a few seconds, as if caught in a small quake, then fell silent.
“What was that?” Audric whispered.
“It was me.” Rielle closed her eyes, her cheeks flaming. “I’m sorry.”
“You?”
“We shouldn’t have done that. Let me go, please.”
He released her, and she moved away unsteadily, straightening her gown. She could think only of her father’s voice, so many years ago:
You might lose control one day, hurt him.
The last thing Audric needs is someone like you hovering about.
“You should go,” she said, folding her arms over her chest.
Audric was quiet for a moment. “I will, of course, if that’s what you want. But first, would you tell me what happened?”
“Four trials, and I was fine. I made it through; I felt stronger than ever before. And now? A few moments with you, and I make the room fall apart.”
“Nothing’s fallen apart. Rielle, it was only a little tremor.”
She whirled on him. “Only a little tremor? And what if we had kept on? What if I had lost control? What if the floor had cracked open beneath our feet? My father was right. He could see it before I did.”
“What did he see?”
“That I love you!” she burst out, tears splitting her voice. “That for all my years of work, every night alone, every prayer… It’s undone when I’m with you. You touch me and I burn, and I could take everything burning down with me!”
“Rielle, look at me.” Audric took hold of her hands so gently that she began to cry in earnest.
“I’ll hurt you,” she whispered.
His eyes were steady and warm on her face. “You won’t.”
“If anything happened to you because of me, I couldn’t bear it, Audric. I won’t do it. I’ll be alone forever if I must.”
“No, no, not you.” He tenderly turned her face up to his, feathered soft kisses across her cheeks. “You deserve only happiness. Not a cold bed and an empty room.”
She closed her eyes at his touch. “I’m too dangerous.”
“You’re just my kind of dangerous.”
“This isn’t a joke, Audric. This is your life—and mine.”
“And my life is pale without you in it.” His hands cupped her face. “I’m not afraid of you, Rielle. I trust you, and I want you.”
Rielle leaned into his chest, breathed him in—his sun-warmed skin, the cotton of his tunic.
“What if I asked you,” she said at last, “to kiss me again?”
“I would kiss you all night and never tire of it.”
She pulled back to look up at him. “And if I asked you to take me to bed?”
“Then I would take you there,” he said, “and not rest until you’d had your fill of me.”
“That’s just what I want.” She kissed the triangle of skin above his collar and whispered, “I want you to fill me.”
She stretched onto her toes to kiss him before he could reply, and when his arms came feverishly around her, she grinned against his mouth and let out a delighted laugh.
“Bed,” she whispered, pulling him blindly toward it.
He backed her up against one of the bedposts, his mouth never leaving hers. He kissed her as if the air inside her was what he needed to survive. She put her hands behind her, against the post to brace herself, and arched toward him.
“Yes,” he said breathlessly, fumbling with the line of buttons down the front of her gown. He slid the bodice down her torso so that it pooled around her waist. Her breasts fell free, and he lowered his mouth to them at once, groaning against her skin.
Rielle twisted beneath him until she could bear the ache between her legs no longer. “I need you,” she gasped, clutching his shoulders. “Please, Audric.”
He pulled his tunic over his head, then undid his belt, kicked off his boots. He moved her toward the bed, sucking gently on her bottom lip. Together they tugged on her gown until it fell to the floor.
Audric murmured, “My God, Rielle, you’re beautiful,” and helped her down onto the pile of blankets strewn across the bed. His hands traced the curves of her breasts, her waist, her hips. He kissed each of her bruises from the shadow trial, murmuring her name against her skin more lovingly than any prayer.
When his hips settled on hers at last, Rielle barely managed to stifle her scream. He threaded his fingers through her own, pressed her hands gently back against the pillows. At each shift of his hips, a new wave of pleasure surged inside her.
Shaking beneath the hard, warm lines of his body, she said desperately, “Audric, please.”
“Wait.” He kissed the curve of her chin, pulled slightly away. “Wait a moment.”
“No, now.”
“Before we do this—”
She heard the cautious note in his voice and understood. “I’m taking a tonic for it.” She tenderly touched his face. “Please don’t worry.”
He nodded, lowered his mouth to hers, murmured, “I love you, Rielle,” and entered her in one smooth movement.
She cried out, bucking against him. She felt impossibly, deliciously full and touched his face with a breathless laugh.
“Are you all right?” he whispered.
“Fine.” She clutched his arms, smiling up at him. “Don’t leave.”
“No. Don’t be sorry. I’m fine.” She touched two fingers to his lips, let out a shaky laugh. “I’m more than fine.”
He grinned, kissed the soft skin beneath her eyes, and began to move inside her. Rielle gasped, arching up against him.
“Look at me,” he urged her quietly, and when she locked eyes with him, the focused devotion on his face made her heart swell. “I’m right here, and I love you. I love you, I love you.”
“Kiss me,” she whispered, trembling.
He obeyed, his mouth warm and slow on hers, echoing the gentle thrusts of his hips.
“Should I stop?” He kissed along her jawline. The soft scrape of his teeth sent delicate chills across her skin. She closed her eyes and shifted beneath him. Pleasure swelled slowly up her body, warm and unhurried.
“Don’t stop,” she murmured. “Not ever.”
“Rielle. Rielle.” He moved a bit harder against her, his voice darkening. “Tell me what you want, and I’ll do it.”
She twisted in his gentle grip with a sigh. “I want to hear what you want. That is my wish.”
“I want to make you come apart in my arms. I want you to forget your fear, your worries, whatever darkness haunts your thoughts.” He slid one hand down her body to their joined hips, stroked between her legs.
She cursed, slammed her palm against the bed, fumbling for an anchor. His hand found hers, steadied it in his own.
“What else do you want?” she murmured, gazing up at him. She moved her hips against his own.
“I—” His voice broke. He shook his head, shuddering as she slid a hand up his arm. She brought his hand to her mouth, kissed his palm.
“You want to make me scream.”
He made a small, choked sound. His hips jerked sharply.
“God, yes,” he groaned.
“Faster, then.” She touched his lips with her thumb. When he took it in his mouth, his eyes drifting shut, she shivered and smiled and hooked her leg around his. She could have watched him like this forever—losing himself in her, coming unraveled in her arms. “Please, Audric.”
Even as he obeyed, his gentleness astounded her. His hand released hers to cradle her face, then slid down to caress her breasts. The sweet ache of him inside her drew shuddering waves across her skin. She arched up into his touch, clutched the blankets in her fists.
She let out a frantic little sob. “Audric, please—”
He murmured into the hollow of her throat, his hands shaking around her, “Yes, Rielle, yes, that’s it.” The rough longing in his voice set her afire. When she slid her hands into his hair and tugged hard on his curls, he cried out against her neck, and the desperate, utterly male sound was her undoing, sending her spiraling up and up, until she fell back against the bed, pulsing golden with pleasure. She clung to him, helpless and limp, her vision a buzzing haze, and stroked his hair as his hips slowed.
And with the solid weight of Audric above her—his lips in her hair and his voice hoarse with love, her own body feeling blissfully boneless—Rielle watched the sparking bright flames around her room with no fear in her heart and thought nothing of Corien at all.
