Page 57 of Heart Cradle (The Melrathen Saga #1)

Steam curled lazily around the deep tub, faelights flickered along the ledges, their soft light casting golden warmth across the tiled walls of the private chamber.

Maeve sank deeper into the water with a sigh, the day’s efforts catching up with her all at once.

Her muscles ached, in a good way, from hours of combat, flight, and finally, her first real breakthrough with her magic.

Across from her, Eiran lounged at the opposite end of the bath, one arm slung over the edge, hair damp and curling slightly from the steam.

“I’m being serious,” Maeve said between sips of chilled fruit wine, “if I’d known he was going to hand me a real blade instead of a practice one, I’d have asked for a helmet too.”

Eiran grinned, eyes warm. “I heard you didn’t need it. Soren said you moved like someone who’s been training for years.”

“He also said I move like I’m trying to disarm people with sarcasm.” Maeve smirked.

Eiran shrugged. “That isn’t far off.”

They laughed, easy and familiar. Maeve glanced over. “How did it go with Davmon?”

Eiran’s smile faded. He shifted, wiping a hand over his face. “No real progress. Still insisting on the same contradictions. Calen and Fenric are ready to throw him into the bottom pit.”

Maeve tilted her head. “And you?”

“I…” He hesitated, jaw tensing. “He’s an ignorant prick. Won’t talk and it’s futile to be honest.” His fingers twitched against his knee. “I interrogated the man who tried to kill you.”

Maeve froze. Her eyes flicked to him, something taut winding through her chest. “You… what?”

Eiran nodded once. “He talked. Not much but enough. Said he was forced to use death magic. Willed into him by a necromancer. They killed his family in front of him. The magic was designed to target any female fighting alongside the Melrathian royals.”

Maeve stared at him. “So… me, Nolenne, Aeilanna or Hayvalaine. ”

Eiran nodded again. “Yes.”

Maeve looked away, lips parting slightly, breath shallow.

Eiran’s voice dropped. “He said he couldn’t even name the caster. Blood-bound to silence. But the order was clear, disable with immense pain and kill quickly. Didn’t matter who, just that they were females, and that they stood with us. And then I… ” He stopped, voice thickening. “I ended it.”

The silence between them was brittle.

“You killed him?” Her voice was tight, disbelieving.

“Yes.”

“Was he fighting?”

“No.” Eiran shook his head once. “He asked for it. Said he couldn’t go back, that death would be a mercy.”

“And you just… what, gave it to him?” she said, incredulous.

“I gave him justice . ”

Maeve’s voice exploded. “That’s not fucking justice, Eiran!”

“I watched him almost kill you!”

“He was traumatised! He was broken! You said it yourself!”

“And that excuses him trying to gut you like a fucking deer?!”

“He wasn’t a threat anymore!” Maeve screamed. “You killed him when he was done, when he was on the ground, when he begged you… ”

“He knew what he was doing!” Eiran seethed, moving into her space. “He took the power they gave him, and he used it!”

Maeve jabbed a finger at his chest. “So what? You decided you’re judge, jury and executioner? That’s what you are now?”

Eiran’s face hardened, voice cutting clean through the air. “Yes.”

She stared at him, shocked.

“He was a problem,” Eiran said, calm and cold. “So I solved it.”

Maeve’s voice cracked. “He wasn’t even fighting back.”

Eiran shrugged. “That just saved me time. ”

“You…” she faltered. “You didn’t even try to spare him.”

“I wasn’t interested in sparing him,” Eiran said, gaze steady. “He was a weapon waiting to be pointed again. I broke it.”

Her breath caught. “He… ”

“He talked,” Eiran corrected. “Cried a little. Didn’t change what he was or what he did.”

“You sound like a monster.”

“No,” Eiran exploded, voice cracking like thunder. “I sound like someone who almost lost their mate!”

Maeve jolted, eyes wide as his voice echoed through the room and he stepped towards her, fists clenched, the mask of cold detachment cracking at last.

“Do you not get that?” His voice shook now, but it didn’t soften. “Do you even fucking understand what that did to me?”

“He was fucking traumatised!” she shrieked. “And so are you! He didn’t need death, he needed help, he needed someone to see he wasn’t a fucking monster!”

“He was a monster!” Eiran bellowed, eyes burning. “A monster who looked you in the eye and chose to kill!”

“You’re not hearing me…”

“I hear every fucking word, Maeve!” he roared. “I just don’t agree!”

“Of course you don’t!” she spat. “Because this is easier for you, isn’t it? Just kill and walk away like it doesn’t cost anything!”

“Easier?” Eiran laughed bitterly, loud and sharp. “You think it was easy for me?”

“You didn’t even hesitate!”

“I didn’t have a choice!”

“There is always a choice!” Maeve shouted back.

Eiran’s hands flew through his hair. “What would you have done? Let him go? Hugged it out? Sung him a fucking lullaby?”

“I would’ve tried!” she shouted. “Because I’m not a fucking murderer, Eiran! ”

That stopped him, his face froze. “Right, you only killed to escape, out of desperation.” he said finally. “And I guess that’s the difference between us.”

“Don’t do that.” Maeve’s breath hitched, hands trembling. “Don’t you fucking do that.”

“If it had been me,” he said, voice rising again, raw and loud, “on the ground in Haleth, if it was my blood soaking into the ground, would you have spared him?”

Her voice cracked. “Don’t…”

“Tell me!” he shouted, chest heaving. “Would you have let him live if I died screaming your name?!”

Tears flooded her eyes. “This isn’t about us…”

“Yes, it fucking is!” Eiran roared, fury crashing like a tsunami. “It’s always about us. I would burn the fucking world before I let someone touch you like that again.”

She staggered back, water spilling over the edge of the bath as she climbed out. “You don’t get to stand there and pretend it was noble.” Her voice trembled with fury. “You didn’t do it for justice, you did it because you’re scared.”

“Of losing you! YES!” Eiran was shouting now like his throat might split. “You want the truth? That’s it. I was terrified. I still am. I see you hurt, or bleeding, or gone, and I lose my fucking mind, Maeve!”

She was sobbing now, not from weakness but from fury, pure and blistering. “You can’t love me like that, it’ll eat you alive. It will eat us both alive…”

“Too fucking late!” he barked, following her.

They stood, panting and torn open. Two fires colliding, burning everything between them.

Then Maeve stepped forwards, her hands shook as they reached for his.

They stood in the wreckage of it all, raw and aching and still holding on.

Maeve closed her eyes. “We’re at war, but if we forget who we are, if we become them, we’ve already lost.”

Then she kissed him, not soft or tender, she collapsed into him like a wave breaking, wild, furious and starving.

Her hands clutched at his shoulders, pulling him in with all the anger and grief still boiling in her chest. Eiran froze for a breath, stunned by the force of it then answered like a man drowning.

His hands seized her face, fingers tight in her wet hair, mouth claiming hers with brutal emotion.

There was nothing gentle about it, just teeth, heat and the desperate need to feel something that wasn’t pain.

“Mine,” he growled into her mouth. “You are mine.”

He pulled back just enough to look into her eyes, his grip firm on her jaw. “Don’t ever fucking doubt me again, Maeve.” His voice was low, clipped, lethal. “I have only ever done right by you.”

Then he leaned in and bit her neck, not in fury, but with ruthless intent.

His teeth dragged against her skin, not enough to break it, but enough to make her shudder and moan.

Maeve tried to speak, but he kissed her again, silencing her with heat and possession.

His hands slid down her waist, strong and unyielding, guiding her back, pressing her to the cold wall.

She gasped at the shock of it, but his body was already pinning her there, hot and solid and utterly in control.

“Look at you… trembling and dripping, love,” he growled. “Tell me to stop. Go on.”

She shook her head, lips parted.

“Say it.”

“No,” she breathed. “Don’t you dare.”

He smiled, a dangerous, knowing thing. He caught her wrists in one hand and raised them above her head, pinning them to the wall. His other hand slid between her thighs, parting her, finding her wet and wanting. “Open for me,” he ordered.

She obeyed, heart pounding and Eiran watched her, studied every flicker of her breath, every twitch of her thighs as he stroked her clit.

And then, with exquisite slowness, he slid two fingers into her, watching her crumble.

Maeve gasped, bucking against him, but he didn’t release her wrists.

His mouth crushed hers again, and this time the kiss was domination, deep, consuming and totally unrelenting.

When he broke it, he bit her lower lip, sucking it before letting go.

“I’m going to fuck you now,” he whispered, dragging his cock along her slit.

“And you’re going to take every inch that you were made for. ”

He pushed into her in one slow, devastating thrust. Maeve cried out, her back arching, legs locking around his waist instinctively.

She was soaked and stretched around him, every inch of her clenching and fluttering.

Eiran groaned low, not from surprise, but from the ruthless control it took not to lose himself in the heat of her.

She gripped him like a vice, her body pulsing with need, and he had her, completely and utterly, just where he wanted her.

“Good girl,” he growled, beginning to move.