Page 102 of The Half King
She braced her hands on his shoulders and leaned down to align herself with him. Then, one gradual inch at a time, she sank onto his length until she was seated. The fullness inside her was as exquisite as she remembered, but now there was no pain to hold her back. And so she rocked against him, gently at first, testing the way each movement and angle changed the sensations in her body. She discovered that she liked it best when she leaned forward, and even better when she undulated her hips as though she were in the saddle.
Kian gripped her backside. She liked that, too.
“Grab me tighter,” she told him.
He did as she asked, all the while clenching his jaw in a struggle for control. His fingers bit into her flesh, but he didn’t try to change the pace. He let her experiment with him until she found a natural rhythm, and from there, she let her body take over. She rode his hips faster and increasingly harder. When she craved more pressure, she pushed against his shoulders for leverage, but it wasn’t enough.
“Harder,” she commanded him.
Their eyes locked and held. She saw her own need reflected in his gaze, the same raw desperation for closeness, as if to collide their bodies into one. He gripped her hips and thrust up from the ground while she sank onto him with all her weight. The impact was exquisite. She crashed into him again, and then again, watching his gaze go wild. With one last thrust, the tension broke, and they cried out together. She tipped back her head as chills cascaded over her skin and pure energy surged in her veins.
Nothing in her world had ever felt so incredible.
Afterward, she lay atop his chest and listened to his heartbeat while he held her in one arm and used his free hand to trace her spine. She waited for his breathing to slow before she propped up her chin and said, “I’m ready for my next lesson.”
His chest shook as he chuckled. “My lady of the temple, you can’t be serious.”
She wagged her eyebrows at him. “Maybe a little bit serious.”
“If you have the energy for another lesson right now, then I must not have done my job properly,” he said. “You should be spent. I know I am.”
Strangely, she wasn’t the least bit drained. If anything, she felt stronger than before. The fire in her blood seemed to respond to pleasure, maybe even increase from it. But then again, she had only made love twice. She had no way of knowing if the energy pulsing in her veins was permanent or temporary or related to the act of love at all.
She would need more experience to test her theory.
Biting her lip, she glanced again at him. “I’m ready when you are.”
He answered with a weary groan but shifted his weight and rolled her onto her back. He settled above her as a crooked grin formed on his lips. “As my lady commands.”
28
In the days that followed, she almost always found an entrance to the Below, and then she and Kian would sneak off at sunrise, enter the cavern, and spend hours talking and embracing and making love.
A lot of love.
True to his word, he had continued his lessons while insisting that she direct his every movement and touch. He showed her a dozen different ways to join their bodies, and with each new, delicious act, she felt her magic grow stronger, not weaker. At times, the power within her cells felt like it would burst her apart if she didn’t release it, and so she began to discharge her energy by practicing her defensive drills before she and Kian returned to camp. There was no denying it anymore: the Order had been wrong about the act of love weakening a woman’s gift, or at leasthergift. How could they have been so wrong?
The farther the caravan traveled toward the base of the mountain, the fewer stone slabs she was able to find. She knew that she should be grateful for each click that brought her closer to the palace, but she treasured her time with Kian in the Below. She would miss it.
The final day of their journey arrived. They would reach the palace in the afternoon, leaving them plenty of time to plan and hold a ceremony before sunset. Kian would get another chance if they failed, but Daerick wouldn’t. Cerise found her palms sweaty and her hands trembling as she folded her tent into a lumpy square.
Faith, she reminded herself.Don’t lose faith.
Sometime later, long after she had mounted her horse, she glanced over her shoulder and watched the blighted mountain shrink into the distance. A hint of wistfulness stirred inside her, and at first, she didn’t know why. She wouldn’t miss the desert heat or the thin air at the mountain summit. She certainly wouldn’t miss the shrieks and howls of nocturnal hunters consuming their prey. She wouldn’t miss the taste of jackrabbit or the ache in her bones after a day in the saddle. It wasn’t until she faced ahead and the palace loomed in the foreground that she realized what had been bothering her.
She didn’t want to return to her old life.
She didn’t want to change into her black-and-white temple gown. She was more comfortable in breezy linen pants and leather sandals. Her loose travel clothes made breathing easier, as well as climbing and stretching and running—all of the improper things she wasn’t supposed to do. Now she would have to learn to glide again, and the thought made her shoulders slump. There would be no more meals around the campfire. Tonight, if everything went well, she would dine at a mile-long table in the company of people she didn’t like, or else alone inside her bedchamber, or worse still, in the company of the priests in the sanctuary.
The sanctuary. How ironic that the place where she had once felt safe was now the source of her greatest fear. The priests had never warmed to her, not even when Father Padron had treated her with respect. Now she had lost his favor, and when she returned to the palace and word spread that she was the king’s lover, the priests would resent her even more. She would have to be twice as vigilant as usual in hiding her gifts. Her power had grown, but all of the defensive drills in the world wouldn’t save her from the collective energy of the Order if they decided to attack her.
Blue must’ve sensed her agitation, because he nudged her ankle with his snout to get her attention. She glanced down at him, and just like that, her fears gave way to love. The dark eyes peering back at her overflowed with adoration and with another emotion—a fierce determination, as though Blue would protect his mama from whatever threat had made her worry. He didn’t seem to know that he was still a pup and it washerjob to protecthim. Not that he looked like a pup anymore. He’d grown as tall as a pony and nearly as broad. His bulk had smoothed out the wrinkles from his coat, displaying his namesake blue birthmark. As large as he was, he was bound to raise eyebrows at the palace.
“You’re my very best boy,” she told him, reaching down to scratch his head. “My sweetest, strongest—”
“Ha!”Daerick called out from behind. Just as she glanced over her shoulder at him, he burst into a fit of wild, delirious laughter that turned her blood cold. “I see it now!” he shouted, swaying in the saddle as he pointed at Blue. “The particles of magic from his sire! I’ve been wondering how a titan hyena could possibly mate with a hound. Now I know!”
All of her worries returned in a rush. This was the first time since leaving the blighted peak that Daerick’s curse had touched him. She’d hoped the distance from that dark place had shielded him—and maybe it had, just not completely. Tomorrow was his Claiming Day. If she couldn’t break his curse, he would exist like this for the rest of his life, lost inside the fathomless depths of his own mind.
