Page 25 of Lady of the Drowned Empire

He was still missing key information, information I was trying to find the courage to say out loud without bursting into tears, without falling to pieces. Hating Arianna for what she’d done, for the role she’d played, was still at odds with the part of me that had loved her my entire life—that still loved her and wanted this all to be untrue.

“Are you okay to be here?” I met Rhyan’s gaze in the reflection. The bells were ringing, and small blue lights lit up the sky. He was skipping out on patrol duties, and without my father, I wasn’t sure how much protection he’d still have if he were to get in trouble.

He sighed loudly, stepping closer behind me. His hands glided down my arms until his calloused fingers entwined with mine.

I closed my eyes and leaned back against him, feeling his warmth, his strength, and his sturdiness. Alone in my room with him, I finally felt safe again after all I’d seen downstairs.

Rhyan took my weight, supporting me as he always did, but he remained silent.

When he still hadn’t answered after a minute, I opened my eyes, meeting his gaze again through the mirror’s reflection. That same look of worry painted through his expression.

“Rhyan, don’t you have guard duty?”

His mouth tightened. “You called,” he said simply. “I came.”

When Meera’s vision had become violent, I hadn’t had the strength to fight back. It had happened again—her voice had changed, becoming something monstrous, something inhuman. Her eyes had turned black. She’d called me Asherah again in a voice completely foreign to her own—a voice that had left me terrified.

The moment she’d spoken the words, she’d touched me, her hands on my shoulders, and my heart had felt like it was aflame. The contract with Mercurial, the Valalumir, had begun to pulse, the heat so intense, I hadn’t been able to breathe or fight her off of me.

I’d always been able to handle Meera, to fight back, to hold her down. I’d been getting better and better at it over the years. And with my training, I was stronger than ever. I should have been able to handle her. To protect her. To protect myself.

But tonight…somehow, her words had activated the contract. My chest had been on fire, and she’d pushed me off the bed in my weakened state. I’d been desperate. Morgana had been on the floor, fighting her own battles. I had been in so much pain, and Meera had been screaming so loudly, I’d barely managed to get Rhyan’s vadati out from beneath my armor before she’d knocked me unconscious. I’d scrambled away from her just in time to shout his name.

He’d come instantly despite having been on duty and put himself between her and me, helping me, restraining her until the vision had passed.

But he had soturion duty now. I’d heard Aemon order him back to his post in the Seating Room.

“Rhyan, you can’t get in trouble for me.”

“Yes, I can.” He wrapped his arms around my waist, hugging me to him. “I’m right where I’m supposed to be.” His scent flooded my senses, his aura and warmth cocooning me.

“We shouldn’t be doing this. We said we weren’t going to.”

“I know. But I can’t….” He groaned, tightening his hold on me. “I can’t stay away.”

The wind howled, banging against my balcony doors. A torch flamed out, smoke hissing in a corner. I closed my eyes and leaned against him, as I breathed him in.

“Are you alright?” he asked, his breath warm against my neck.

I snuggled deeper into his embrace. “No. Not even close.”

“Lyr.” He bent his head, kissing my shoulder. Shivers ran down my body. He squeezed me tighter in his arms, pulling me back into him. His nose pressed against the curve of my neck, inhaling, before he kissed me where his breath had been. “Sorry.” He started to pull away, to loosen his grip.

But I turned my head, capturing his lips with mine. His kiss was soft and tender with the worry and concern plaguing him. For a moment, the kiss seemed to exist in its own world, a world where it was just me and him and our lips moving against the others. Our bodies pressed together but didn’t seek friction, didn’t escalate this into something more. This kiss existed for the sake of itself.

Then he groaned, his mouth opening to me. The kiss deepened as his tongue moved against mine with such a slow sensuality that heat coursed through my belly, sliding lower and lower.

His hips lifted so his arousal pressed into my backside. He released my hands, his palms scraping my ribs. I arched against him, writhing and urging his hands higher and higher. Groaning into his mouth, I reached behind him and tangled my fingers in his soft curls. I gripped the nape of his neck as we kissed and kissed. My breasts swelled in his hands as he kneaded them, and my breath hitched as he gripped my dress straps and slid them off my shoulders, forcing my arms down.

I gasped as the cold air hit my bared skin. His kisses trailed down my neck, but his eyes remained on my breasts in the mirror, on the star between them. His hands slid over my curves, searing my skin. My nipples hardened in his palms, as his fingers pressed down over my heart. His lips found mine again.

And then, just like during Meera’s vision, my heart beat too fast. It was thumping with my blood, pounding with the pulse of the Valalumir—with Mercurial’s soul.

You’re the fire.

I cried out, “Gods!” I was burning alive. Flames were firing inside my chest.

Rhyan’s eyes flew open. He broke the kiss at once and spun me to face him. I stared down, gasping and sweating as the seven-pointed Valalumir between my breasts glowed with blinding golden light. It had never been this bright before, not even when Mercurial had forced the star into my heart.