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He gave me no time to adjust, to brace myself. His breath turned to a low growl as he slid out and buried himself back into me, a relentless claiming I welcomed eagerly. My fingers gripped his shoulders, knotted in his hair. His fingers dug deep into the flesh of my hips. Faster and faster he moved, fucking me with the frenzy of the beast who’d stood on that deck and brought down an army, with the fury of a lover who’d do a hundred times worse for me, with the bottomless despair of a heart that could not forgive itself. There was no sweetness to this release. No grace or control. Something raw and wild grew between us, something unhinged that unfurled in the darkness and sank its hooks and nails deep below my skin, and I gave myself over to it in that perfect, horrible, impenetrable silence.

He clawed his way up my body, fingers finding my belly, breasts, throat. I wrapped my legs around his slender hips and arched even closer to his ruthless thrusts. The quiet, desperate harmony of panting breath and skin slapping together filled my ears, mingling with the thunder of my heartbeat; senses bled together until I could taste the pressure of his fingers, smell the darkness of the night. He grazed his teeth over my ear. I scraped a nail over his wing. He snarled and slammed into me even harder, and I just had the presence of mind to repeat that caress a last time as every muscle in my body clenched in surrender.

We blew apart together, one silent creature of teeth and nails and convulsing limbs in that soft, narrow bed.

I clung to him throughout our shared release, biting my tongue so hard I tasted blood, the pain nothing but a faint, discordant note amidst the ecstasy. Creon’s lips never left my skin. He kissed my jaw as I clenched around him, my throat, my shoulder, until at last my climax faded and he slowly pulled out of me, lowered himself to his side, and tucked me against his chest so tightly I could feel his heartbeat through the thin layers of shirt and dress.

I closed my eyes, struggling for breath, for composure, for the sense to care about anything beyond the feel of his body against mine. His breath was rough against my ear. His arms were warm and powerful. One wing curled around me, invisible but recognisable by the soft brush of velvet in the night, and I realised we hadn't shared a moment like this since the last night we’d slept in the Underground, not so much lust but simple, unhurried intimacy.

A sigh of contentment escaped me as I nestled even closer against him.

Time thickened to a slow, syrupy substance. Far away, I could hear the voices of the others for a while until they eventually became silent, too. The crickets had gone to sleep. In their place rose the sounds of a forest at night, the hooting of owls and the scurrying of small animals. Barely audible and yet infinitely reassuring, I could distinguish the distant rustle of the sea. I hadn't realised until that moment how much I’d missed that familiar backdrop of my old life in the quiet Underground and on the middle of the endless continent.

‘If we’re lucky’, I murmured drowsily, stroking the wrist he’d locked around my waist, ‘we’ll be having conversations in the dark tomorrow night.’

He stiffened for an instant, then let out a long, unsteady breath and released me to roll over. I fumbled for his body in the dark and found his half-hard cock first, still sticky with the traces of his pleasure.

‘Oh, damn it’, I grumbled, and he breathed an audible laugh. ‘Perhaps we do need a little light.’

A spark of yellow broke through the darkness, and my blanket glowed up – a change to create luminescence, the same technique that was used to create the orbs illuminating the fae courts. In that eerie, silvery shine, Creon’s half-naked glory became even more inhuman, moreother, his sharp features highlighted by the shadows. His cock stirred under my appreciative gaze, and I chuckled and patted it before he could button up again.

Much as I cherish your good opinion, he signed dryly after he’d finished that task,you should probably get some sleep before you save the world tomorrow.

I should. My day had been too long already, with the afternoon shifted into morning after I’d returned from Zera; I suspected I’d sleep within a heartbeat the moment I allowed my body to soften into my bed. But it was with some apprehension that I glanced at my rumpled blankets and muttered, ‘You’re not staying here.’

He did not avert his gaze, watching me with those inscrutable demon eyes. In the silver light, the black of his pupils sparkled like a star-flecked night sky.Do you want me to stay?

Yes. No. The usual conundrum, want versus should, desire versus strategy; of course I wanted him to stay, but what if Helenka’s spies would see him slip from my dome tomorrow morning? I swallowed and whispered, ‘If we’re right about the Cobalt Court …’

There was no need to finish that sentence. If we were right,everythingwould change. He’d have his voice and his magic. We’d stand a chance to win this war. And unless that mysterious shield gave us more trouble than expected, we’d be back in the Underground by nightfall.

Where I could come clean to Tared and Beyla and Agenor without spending gods knew how much time locked in the same small travel company.

We could handle one last night, after the many we’d spent apart.

‘Tomorrow’, I said quietly, which was by no means a sensible continuation of my sentence, but brought a small smile to his lips regardless. He held out a hand. I crawled into his lap, flung my arms around his shoulders, and kissed him with that word still pulsing in my thoughts, warm and silky like a promise –tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.

For a single perfect moment, nothing existed except his hands and mouth on me and his strong legs below me, our tongues dancing together in the intoxicating rhythm of our hearts. One moment in which I was simply here, simply his, touches muting all worries and concerns, blurring the thoughts of battles and challenges to come …

Then Tared’s voice said, ‘Em? Are you—’

And silence.

Deadly, damning silence.

Chapter 30

Abucketoficewater could not have been more effective to separate us.

With a gasp I tore away from Creon and jumped back, a lightning-quick movement that would have been reason for praise during any training session. Away from the bed. Away from that glaring, incriminating transgression of our kiss. For one last moment I dared to hope –hadto hope – that I’d been fast enough, that the world had been dark enough, that Tared’s familiar voice hadn't truly sounded as close as it had seemed through the panicked rush of my thoughts …

And then I whipped around and found him standing in the low doorway, frozen mid-step, his gaze fixed on Creon like an arrow about to fire.

Oh no.

Oh no oh no oh no oh—

‘Tared?’ I choked out. ‘Tared, it’s not – I’m not …’