Page 130 of Shadow Queen
She bit her lip and nodded.
His face was serious now. The game was over. Mikael lifted her up and stepped out of the tub. He carried her to the bed and dropped her onto the silken sheets of darkness before prowling over her. Her skin prickled—from the air against her wet skin or his hunting gaze, she wasn’t sure.
His body held a different hunger now. No more playfulness in his eyes or sweetness on his lips. He stretched his hand across her chest and held her firmly as he moved between her thighs. She realized this wasn’t a taking of passion or of lust, but a taking of need. He claimed her. She was his.
Norah understood this need. She angled her hips to meet him, yielding, and he buried himself inside her. He drove hard, and deep.
She let his madness consume her, knowing it wouldn’t last long. Mikael rolled his body as he bared his teeth, pushing himself even deeper. She didn’t reach up to touch him, she didn’t try to tame him. She let him fill his need, and he did, shuddering to an end.
Mikael held his weight on his elbows as he recovered, panting into her ear. Only then did she dare to touch him. She ran her fingers up his arms and over his shoulders, to the nape of his neck and into his hair. He pulsed inside her, but his body calmed.
He pushed himself up and looked into her eyes.
“Are you back now?” she asked him.
He nodded. Concern marred his brow. “Did I hurt you?”
She shook her head but tightened her grip in his hair. “No,” she whispered. “But I’ll hurt you if you think you’re finished.”
A smile came to his lips, and he lowered himself to kiss her.
Chapter thirty-eight
Weeksfelltomonths.Norah wanted to believe she’d settled into a new normal, but the hole in her heart still lingered. She wondered how her grandmother was faring, and Alexander. She’d received two letters with reports of the kingdom, but that’s all they’d contained—reports.
She passed the sparring fields on her morning walk and smiled when she saw Cohen. The boy was coming along nicely in his training. He’d been doing well ever since coming to the capital with his sister, Calla.
Cohen was matched with a young Kharavian soldier, and their blades sang through the afternoon sky as they practiced their skill. She stopped and leaned against the fence to watch them.
“He’s unbeaten, out of all the earlies. Even second years,” Calla said proudly as she came up beside Norah, beaming at her brother.
Norah’s eyes widened. “That’s impressive.”
Earlies were men in the army who showed special promise. They were pulled from the normal regimen and put on an accelerated training plan with the hope they might make the Crest. Even so, less than half of all earlies made it to the Crest. Norah knew all this since Soren regularly told her Calla and Cohen didn’t deserve to train with them. Yet, he still had them train with the earlies, the same as he had done with Adrian.
“He’ll be a soldier of the Crest one day,” Calla said. “The best swordsman in Kharav.”
Norah smiled at the girl. Calla was a strong spirit, who loved with the same fervor as she fought, and her loyalty to her brother made Norah emotional sometimes. “I’m sure he’ll be amazing.”
“He’ll never be in the Crest,” Soren’s voice called behind them.
Norah sighed as she rolled her eyes.Destroyer of hopes and dreams. “Way to inspire, Lord Commander,” she said.
“False hopes will see you starved in the winter,” he said dryly.
Calla scoffed. “But he’s the best swordsman on the field!”
Soren cut the girl a daggered look. No one questioned him among the soldiers, and Calla brought a new test he wasn’t accustomed to.
He leaned close, using his size. “He can’t hear, so he can’t control his sound. He’s deaf, but he doesn’t know what silence is. He can’t talk, so he can’t command. And at any moment, I could come behind him and slit his throat.”
Calla’s eyes blazed, and her hand clenched the dagger at her waist.
“Calla,” Norah said, breaking the girl from a rash reaction. “Get your brother and go on to your studies.”
The girl fumed for a moment before she slipped out from under the commander’s force and went to fetch Cohen from his match.
Norah looked at Soren and shook her head.
