Page 7 of Hymn of Breath and Bone

“It’s amazing,” I mused, sipping the dregs of my wine and deciding that the floor was a good place to stay while my head continued to spin pleasantly. “You’re the king, but you have regular friends and no one ordering you around all day and keeping you safe.”

“The council orders me around,” Caspian corrected, leaning against the door frame to the sky and crossing his arms over his chest. “How many drinks have you had, Urchin?”

“Three, I think?” I said, trying to count. “I barely feel it.”

I made an effort to stand and immediately stumbled. Caspian lunged forward and caught me around the waist as I laughed.

“Clearly,” he chuckled, brushing a strand of hair from my face as he gazed down at me. “I’m sorry that this seems amazing to you. It’s a tragedy that you didn’t have the same freedoms.”

I shrugged, feeling goosebumps erupt down my arms as his fingers tightened on my waist.

“You make a convincing argument for me to stay,” I murmured, meeting his golden eyes and wishing he would lean down and kiss me already.

A half-smile quirked his lips, and as if he felt the desire rise in me, heobliged.

It was too swift and too chaste, and I whined in annoyance.

“You’re drunk, Marina,” he said gently, cupping my face to hold me back from trying to climb him like a tree to kiss him more thoroughly. “And I won’t do anything more with you when you’re not fully in control of yourself.”

“I don’t want to be in control,” I pouted, realizing that it was absolutely true, even if it was a ploy to get him to give in. All of my life had been controlled. I wanted to taste the wild fierceness that was my mate, even if he didn’t know that’s what we were.

Even if it meant I couldn’t leave.

“Marina,” he murmured, placing another chaste kiss on my brow. “Skies, you test me. Tomorrow, Marina. After the council meeting and the library and training.”

“I’ll be too tired after all that!” I protested.

Caspian laughed and scooped me into his arms, carrying me into his bedroom where he deposited me on what had become my side of his bed. He sat beside me and gave me one final, firm kiss. A clear goodnight.

“If I lie down next to you,” he purred, “are you going to try to molest me? Or will you be a good girl and wait until tomorrow like I asked?”

I thought about telling him that I’d be a good girl inotherways, but a yawn hit me, making my jaw crack with the strength of it.

Caspian chuckled again, and I rolled my eyes. “I’ll be good.”

“Hmm.” Caspian slid warily beneath the covers and ran a palm across the wall. The veins of moonstone that webbed throughout the cliffs dimmed at his touch, some property of the stone responding to his innate magic.

We sank into utter darkness as Caspian pulled me to him, settling my head into the crook of his shoulder.

“None of that,” he tutted, catching my hands which may have begun to wander. “Tomorrow, Urchin.”

“Fine.” I sighed in resignation, nestling into him as he kissed the top of my hair.

His wings were soft beneath me, and Caspian had assured me multiple times that I wouldn’t crush them by lying on them. The warm heat of him wrapped completely around me meant I was never cold, and it occurred to me that I could happily stay like this forever.

Except…Home. Parents. War.

Mate.

Beneath my hands, which he had pinned to his chest with one of his own, I felt the huge scar that ran over his pectoral.

“Cas,” I murmured, sleep beginning to claim me. “What happened to your parents?”

I might have imagined the stilling of his fingers as he stroked them over my shoulder.

But I didn’t think so when he replied, “Tomorrow, Urchin. I’ll tell you everything tomorrow.”

Chapter 4