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I moaned, feeling him all the way in. His breath hitched, and he snapped his hips forward, and I saw stars, groaning with each movement.

He moved faster, his hips slapping against mine, each thrust harder.

He was devouring who I was; my world narrowed down to his cock, the pleasure he was dragging from my flesh.

He drove into me, and every ounce of my attention contracted to the feeling of his cock inside me.

I could feel his arms trembling, the muscles of his shoulders jumping against my calves. He was everything.

I would be his; I would let him consume me to just have him continue doing this. My cock was trapped between us, and I had resigned myself to a life of endless pleasure when he reached down, wrapping his fingers around me.

The touch was too much, the pleasure and pain and everything too much. I came over his hand, whimpering and crying out as he kept thrusting, kept going even as I tightened around him. I couldn’t bear it.

One, two, three hard thrusts that rubbed against something deep inside me, wringing pleasure out of my wrecked body. He shuddered above me, arms straining to keep himself from falling against me.

His hips jerked, and he grabbed one of my ankles, hand tight as he ground in, trembling with pleasure. “Airón.”

He let my legs slide off his shoulders. The tug of his cock pulling out of me left me feeling empty.

Everything inside me was gone: all the years of anxiety, all the years of terror, all the want and hate and misery. He had pulled it from me, and all that was left was a small blossom of hope.

When he collapsed next to me, trailing his fingers across my chest, I couldn’t look at him.

This was too dangerous. I had set out to seduce him, and instead, I had found that if I joined with him, he was everything, and I was nothing.

I couldn’t let that happen. I had to keep myself apart from him. I couldn’t let him pull me under and believe and hope . His hand went slack, and I finally looked over.

In sleep, his face was peaceful, the tension that pulled his features tight loosened, and all that was left was him . His beauty struck me, and I fiercely understood why Liku, the electro mage, had stolen away to live in the forest with his wife, a blood mage he should have killed on sight.

I closed my eyes against that beguiling sight. No. No, I couldn’t let this happen.

I had to remember my goal wasn’t Tallu; I couldn’t let him do this to me: mold me, form me. It was too dangerous to trust him when he had the power to remove everything that made me myself.

It was much safer to distrust him, to believe what I knew to be true: the Imperium was dangerous, and the emperor the most dangerous man in it.

I wasn’t sure when I drifted off, but I woke to the creaking groan of the metallic lock opening, his chamber now free property for any servants or Dogs that wanted their piece of the emperor.

To no one’s surprise, when I pushed open the bed curtains, Sagam and Asahi were already inside, two other Dogs with them.

Sagam’s eyes went wide, and he blinked rapidly.

I was still naked, although at some point, we had gotten under the covers. Beside me, Tallu rolled up onto his elbow and glared at the Dogs.

“We require clean water and more privacy.”

“Of course.” Sagam bowed. “I’m glad that last night went well?”

“Out,” Tallu ordered, and I let the curtain fall closed. I lay back on the bed, turning finally to face him.

He was on his back, eyes looking up at the canopy above him. “We can talk more tomorrow evening.”

I nodded, the back of my head rubbing against the soft pillows. “Of course.”

I needed to find out what secrets he held. Why he was so certain the man I’d seen was a blood mage, why he wanted his empire to fall. Powerful men share secrets between the sheets , Topi had said.

But that felt wrong. Not because it was beneath me; Eona? had been expected to do it, and since when did I think I was better than her?

No, it felt wrong because of the way Tallu said, “I don’t deserve you” and “I trust you.”

Last night had been a good reminder that I couldn’t trust him, not when he could so easily make me come to heel like one of his Dogs.

“Well, I guess you don’t live the life of a dragon monk after all,” a strange voice said.

“Here you are, all debauched and languid . How many years have I been telling you, just go out to the Flower District in the capital, and the girls and boys there will truly show you a way of relaxing that I, with every wretched, perverted bone in my body, couldn’t even?—”

I threw open the curtains, desperately curious to see which of Tallu’s servants dared talk to him like that, dared speak to him with the familiarity of friendship when he acted like a lone wolf without any pack or love.

The ragged man in stained maroon clothing I’d seen in my garden earlier stood in the middle of the room.

Moving fast, I grabbed at the nearest thing, a silken length of sheet, and leapt at the man. I’d use the sheets to wrap around his neck and his wrists, and then?—

With a crash, I passed through him, falling into the table.

“Blood debt , what are you—” The man’s eyes went wide, and he gaped. “Can you see me?”

Tallu was up on his knees on the bed, his eyes wide, his mouth hanging open, and he looked as though he had no idea what to say, but I did.

“Guards!” I yelled, and the door slammed open, Asahi and Sagam the first in the room. They looked around, their eyes passing over the man in his ragged, blood-stained clothes, his matted hair, the face with a long, curved tattoo going from the corner of his eye and disappearing under his collar.

“What is it?” Asahi asked, heading to the window. Sagam checked the rest of the room, but they completely ignored the blood mage standing in front of me.

“Consort Airón?” Sagam asked.

“Leave us,” Tallu said, his voice booming. He had finally struggled free of the bedding, and he looked every inch the emperor, even wearing nothing.

“Emperor?” Asahi asked, his eyes glancing at me.

“Leave us. Now .” Tallu’s words left no room for any hint of argument, any defense, and the Dogs slowly moved out of the room. Tallu strode to the door, shutting it. Then, with a pulse of blinding lightning, he pressed his palm to a spot on the door.

Gears moved, twisting and creaking, and the clockwork pushed the bolts back in place. He turned to me, eyes dark and unreadable. I was again locked in a room with him. And a blood mage.