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Chapter Twenty-Two

RUNA

Despite my exhaustion from both the trials and the party, sleep eluded me. The uncomfortable floor I slept on didn’t help.

Something large thudded against my bedroom door, and I jolted.

“You’ll keep walking if you know what’s good for you,” I shouted, clenching the vase that rested beside me.

Locks tripped, and sloppy footsteps stumbled through the doorway of my quarters.

Holding my breath, I peered beneath the bed frame.

From my position at the backside of the bed where I lie between the bed and the wall, I made out a pair of linen-clad legs and bare feet.

Men’s feet.

I braced for battle. Flarking guards. I knew I couldn’t trust them. No way I was letting anyone catch me unaware again.

After the party ended, we’d been escorted back to our rooms. Milani had helped me undress, twittering on about how exciting it was to serve not one but two finalists in the trials.

While her status among the brownies might have been elevated, mine hadn’t improved.

I was still a prisoner in Idris’s castle, subject to both the king’s and my sister’s whims. Honestly, I trusted the guards not to stab me in my sleep more than my sister.

Wait a minute.

If my intruder was one of the guards, he’d still be in uniform. Fates save me if this was Idris invading my room.

I clutched the vase tighter. It was a pathetic weapon but all I could find in this useless space.

“Runa?” My name was a slurred, rasping whisper.

I struggled to place the voice. Idris wouldn’t whisper in his own castle.

“Runa, are you awake?”

Is that…?

Again, I eyed the pale, dare I say, elegant feet.

Feet that haven’t walked through the hillsides barefoot in quite some time. If ever.

My would-be attacker wobbled a step, then shuffled toward the bed. Earlier, I had placed pillows down the center so it would look as if I was asleep and unaware. While it was an amateur move, all I needed was a moment or two to prepare.

“Bloody hell. The chit sleeps like the dead,” the intruder grumbled to himself, standing over fake Runa. “What if some deviant were to sneak into her room while she slept?”

What if?

“And yet she’s shown zero appreciation for my protection. What would she have done without me?”

Custodis. It was definitely Custodis.

I lurched from my hiding spot, vase held aloft. “She’d have done just fine. Better in fact.”

“ Bah! ” The vampire reared back, losing his balance before he disappeared.

“Oh, fates,” I gasped, scrambling across the mattress, laying on my stomach to peer over the other side .

It was there I found the mighty Victor Custodis sprawled on the floor, his brow lined with confusion.

“What is wrong with you?” I snarled down at him in a harsh whisper. “Are you trying to wake everyone in the palace?”

“You know, you’re quite attractive from this angle,” he slurred, peering up at me with glassy eyes. “Lovely, in fact. Then again, you’re lovely in everything. Even those burlap tunics they made us wear. Did I tell you how beautiful you looked tonight? Most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

Now I get the compliment? “Are you drunk?” Could vampires get drunk?

“Most definitely.” He struggled to his feet, wobbling at my bedside.

I sat back on my heels, mouth gaping. “How?” He hadn’t drunk that much alcohol at the party. Seeing as how he was a vampire, I imagined it would take an entire cask to get him this inebriated.

He scratched his chest. His delightfully bare chest.

Goddess save me. Where were his clothes? The uptight aristocrat had come to me half-dressed in little but thin linen pants.

Damn the bastard, but drunk looked good on him.

The glow of the twin moons shone through the window, casting his lean body into perfect shadow.

Every contour of his chiseled torso was on display.

May the fates strike me down, but I could swear he’d grown larger since we’d first met.

His carved and elegant muscle was now bulkier, growing more defined.

No way was he hiding all of this under his fine suit when he’d arrived.

Whatever Carcerem was doing to him, I was here for it.

“I did it for you, my treasure.”

I scrubbed a hand down my face, clearing the fog. Despite the tingles his words evoked, I asked, “By any chance did you hit your head when you fell?”

He performed an awkward twist and flopped into bed beside me. I peered down at him, and he stared back. Gold flecks twinkled in his glowing eyes.

I didn’t care what he claimed. This color was unnatural for a vampire. Despite the torques we wore, energy practically sparked off his skin.

“Did what for me?” I leaned closer.

“Drank them, peddling my venom.”

I stiffened. “Drank whom?” Did he dare visit me after gorging himself on his whores?

“The guards.” He sighed. “All of them. Yours and mine. In all my years, I’ve never consumed so much blood in one sitting.”

By the goddess, he really was intoxicated. I flopped onto the bed beside him.

“Why?” I dared to ask.

“Because my instincts demanded that I remain at your side tonight,” he growled, disgruntled at the admission.

My pulse skipped. Next question a bit breathier, I repeated, “Why?”

“Because I’ve never needed anyone as much as I need you.”

Oxygen seized in my lungs. Nobody had ever said anything quite so moving to me. The vampire was full of surprises tonight.

While I suffocated on the emotion, he stirred, frowning at the ceiling. “After all, you’re the only one who can help me regain all I’ve lost.”

“ Puh .” I release the breath I’d held, my exhale punching from my throat. Bastard. My heart shrank beneath the weight of his words.

“Before coming to you, I also paid Thorne a visit.”

“Lucky Thorne,” I huffed.

“Together, we formulated a plan. Tomorrow, when the torques deactivate, you will create an illusion to hide our activities while Kronk removes the sand covering the hidden passage and Thorne unlocks the grate with his enchanted key. He claims to have someone on the outside ready to assist us.”

Hopefully, Thorne was sober for this conversation. “And what of the trials?”

“While the three of you work on our escape, Drazen and I will provide protection from whatever it is that Idris unleashes upon us.”

“You intend to take on the other challengers—and who knows what Idris sends our way—with just Drazen at your side?”

He stiffened beside me. “You think I can’t?

Goddess, save me from males and their egos. “I guess it doesn’t matter what I think since it’s the only plan we have.”

Silence stretched between us. My late-night visitor fell quiet, staring at the ceiling.

Apparently, he’d gone to all the trouble of sneaking into my room simply to protect his investment.

Because all I was to him was a means to an end.

I, too, stared at the ceiling as I pondered the bigger question. Was that all that he was to me ?

My mind flipped back to the span we met.

The span I’d tossed him to the ground to save him from the gallspawn.

For a second, as I rested on top of him, there had been a moment.

A spark that exploded between us. The sensation had felt important.

At the time, I’d blown it off, believing it was the fates at work, putting me on the path that would protect us from Vex while providing for White Bridge. Which obviously wasn’t the case.

He turned to his side, propping his head on his hand. Silver hair spilled over his shoulders, his steely eyes sparking with gold. His winter-green fragrance enveloped me, clouding my senses. I stared back at him, spellbound.

Touch feather-light, he trailed a finger along my temple and jaw, then brushed his thumb over my lips.

My lungs swelled. My heart raced. Then, those teasing fingers drifted lower, over my collar bone, and along the thin strap of the silken nightshift I wore, teasing the outside of my breast, causing my nipple to pearl.

“You’re so beautiful like this.”

“Like what?” I gasped.

“Soft.”

Soft? As in weak?

I pursed my lips, and he followed the action, mesmerized. “What do you m—”

Victor crashed his mouth into mine. At first, I was too stunned to react and then…

Then .

Sparks exploded inside of me, and I kissed him back, applying pressure of my own.

At my response, a throaty moan rumbled in the back of his throat.

Gone was the uptight leader I’d known. In his place was a passionate, hungry male who kissed me like he was drowning, and I was the only thing keeping him alive.

My brain floating in a haze, I hardly noticed when he moved, pinning me beneath him.

His hips settled between my thighs. The warmth of his bare chest seared me through the thin material of my shift.

Very little separated us. Needing to touch him, I skimmed my hands down the flexing muscles of his shoulders.

Hot and minty, his tongue teased the seam of my lips, and I opened, eager for a taste of him. The kiss deepened, and my mind emptied. The only thought left, one of more. In that moment, we were no longer captives of a mad king, but two people consumed with each other.

He snaked his fingers into my hair and tugged, breaking our kiss. “What sort of spell are you working, sorceress?”

Panting, I peered up at him in confusion. “Spell?”

“I feel…” He squeezed his eyes closed, and when he opened them again, two golden orbs glared back at me. “I feel raw, fractured… ”

“Out of control?”

“Yes,” he hissed.

“Same,” I whispered.

While I was no scholar, I knew the threat of certain death was known to evoke strong emotions in people. Desperation being one of those emotions. Tonight, I ached to share a sense of connection with someone—to know I wouldn’t be alone as I faced the gallows. The desperate need to feel good .

I dragged my foot up his calf. “Question is, what do you plan to do about it?”

His golden eyes brightened, scanning my body. “What would you like me to do?”

“Touch me.” I arched my back.

He dragged a hand across my shoulder, sliding down the strap of my gown, baring me to his hungry gaze.

“Where shall I touch you?” he asked, blowing a hot breath over my eager nipple.

“My breast,” I groaned, squirming in his grip.

His glowing eyes darkened with something undefinable. “Beg me,” he demanded with a flash of fangs.

Anticipation scratched beneath my heated skin. Irritating bastard. I should have known he’d be commanding in bed.

“Please, Victor. Please touch my breasts.” My plea emerged on a rasping exhale.

As if he couldn’t wait, he didn’t waste time with a reply. Instead, he plumped my flesh, his mouth descending to my stiffened peak.

“Yes,” I purred as the heat of his tongue laved my aching nipple—swirled, stroked, leaving me panting.

Warmth flooded my core, and I rocked my hips, delighted by the hardened shaft that pressed between my thighs.

He groaned, grabbing my hip. “Be still, pet. Or you may incite more than you bargained for. ”

The vampire’s command had the opposite effect. An image of our naked, writhing bodies flooded me with heat.

Tonight, something had come over me. Perhaps it was the pull of Carcerem’s twin moons drawing together.

Sane Runa should have punched him the second he kissed me and thrown him out of my room.

Crazy Runa was throwing caution to the wind, as well as her common sense.

Why not? Tomorrow, we’d face impossible odds against a ruthless opponent.

Tomorrow could very well be our last. But tonight…

Tonight, we’d live.