Page 48 of Once the Skies Fade (Immortal Reveries #2)

Chapter 48

Matthias

I t was another half hour before I could even think about getting up from the table once Calla left, and there wasn’t enough ice water in the room to cool me off. By then everyone had departed except Graham and Phillip, and the three of us walked back to our wing together in silence.

When we reached the stairs, though, Phillip cleared his throat quietly and noted, “I don’t know why, but the thought of meeting the subjects with the queen is more stressful than the last two trials.”

Graham shrugged. “It’s not that bad. Usually they’re just arguing over stolen property or need help after a difficult harvest season.”

“But what about the humans?” Phillip asked, quickly looking back over his shoulder as if the queen herself might attack him for even mentioning them.

“They should have all left by now,” Graham said, though by his tone it seemed he didn’t believe that to be true.

I waited a few moments before asking my own question. “Did we ever learn why she banished them?”

Graham and Phillip shared a quick look before shaking their heads. It was Graham who elaborated. “After the king died, she seemed to blame the humans for his death, but she refuses to talk about it beyond repeating her edict that she can’t serve them.”

“Can’t?” I asked. “Not won’t?”

Graham nodded. “The most she ever said to me and General Marlowe is that she cannot be objective with them, cannot rule them as they deserve.”

“So it’s like sending away a lover before you can break their heart,” I mused.

Phillip sighed. “Only to crush it for them when they refuse to go? It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

“Whether it makes sense or not, she’s the queen,” Graham said, as we turned the corner into our darkened hallway.

“Do you miss your old accommodations?” Phillip asked Graham.

“Not really. It’s quieter in this wing, actually. Though, I’ll be happy to move into the royal suite when I win.”

Phillip scoffed lightly and stopped at a door, saying his goodnights before going inside and leaving Graham and me alone. The silence between us—broken only by the soft thuds of our boots on the stone floor—was less awkward than usual, but still far from comfortable.

I lifted a finger and pointed ahead of us. “I’m at the end of the hall.”

He eyed me from the side. “Are you asking me to walk you home?”

“I mean, you’re welcome to come in for a drink. Except, I don’t actually have anything but water.”

“I’ll pass,” Graham said flatly as he paused at a door halfway down the corridor. “Maybe another time.”

“Can I ask you something?” I asked, taking a quick glance around us to ensure we were alone and no queen-hiding shadows lurked nearby.

“What is it?” Graham asked, doing a fairly decent job of hiding his annoyance.

“How did the king die?”

Graham quirked a brow. “Why does it matter?”

Frowning casually, I lifted a shoulder. “He was my best friend’s brother. Would just help him find some closure if he knew for sure.”

“Is that why you entered the tournament? To spy on Calla for your prince?” Graham asked in a low protective voice, though he didn’t show the same hostility toward me that he would have a week ago.

“I entered because no one in Engle wanted to, and it was important to Connor and Lieke to honor the queen’s call for contestants. If I don’t win, I’d at least like to bring home some good news, you know?”

Graham was nodding along with my words. He took a moment to mull things over and then finally asked, “What have you heard?”

“Not much, honestly. The rumor, of course, that the queen killed him. But, you spend enough years chasing down human rebels who are armed with fae-killing poison, and well, you tend to get suspicious any time a fae winds up dead.”

“Understandably so. I know as much as you do, I’m afraid. No wounds. No sign of struggle.”

“So it could have been poison?” I pressed.

Graham pursed his lips. “Perhaps? Stranger things have happened.”

“Like flesh-eating trees and a mythical gold-hoarding beast,” I said. “Do you think Calla could have done it?”

He was silent for a couple breaths, his dark eyes searching mine as if testing to see if I could be trusted. He leaned closer in. “I’ve seen her rip limbs off women for merely mentioning that possibility.”

“So you won’t say either way.” I didn’t bother phrasing it as a question. He shook his head.

Slapping Graham on the shoulder, I gave a sharp nod, said good night, and turned for my own door.

I entered to find my room much like I did most nights—the bed turned down, the fire burning steadily, the drapes drawn closed. Just being in here conjured memories from that night, the feeling of her shadows gripping me––then, and today. My body eagerly responded to the images crossing my mind, and I growled in frustration.

Whether she’d killed Brennan or not, she certainly knew how to drive a male mad.

Kicking my boots off to the side, I stripped out of my clothes and walked to the window, leaving a line of crumpled clothes trailing behind me. I threw back the heavy curtains and dropped my hands to the handle of the window, preparing to fling it open and let the cool night air calm the heat coursing through me.

The familiar cold touch of darkness slid up my spine, and I was about to write it off as nothing but a typical stroke of unease except it circled back down, around my ribs, and lower, gripping me as it had under that stars-damned table.

“Hello, Killer,” I said, my voice a raspy growl. In the window, Calla’s reflection smiled wickedly back at me. “Come to finish what you started?” I asked, trying not to sound too eager.

Her reflection shrugged and then walked away, taking her shadows with her, leaving me even colder and once again begging for release. When I turned I found her sitting on the edge of my bed in a most-unladylike position, her legs spread wide and her dress hiked up to her knees. She leaned back onto her hands, giving a seductive arch to her back. The movement forced her breasts higher until they were nearly spilling over the top of her untied bodice.

It must have been a lie that she didn’t favor anyone, because I certainly felt like the queen’s pet with her displaying herself like this for me. Perhaps I should have been warier—especially since I still lacked any definitive proof of her innocence—but I’d been sent here to get close to her; I was merely doing as I had been instructed.

And having a little fun in the process.

Not that Connor would see it that way, but still. What was the point of life—of duty and service, even—if I didn’t get to enjoy it a bit?

Wetting my lips, I swallowed hard at the sight of her and the thought of getting to feel more than just her shadows consuming me. I stepped toward her slowly and marveled at how confident and powerful she looked even as I towered over her. Her eyes never left mine, except for one brief moment when I caught her glance down at my full length, and I could have sworn she gasped as if she was seeing me for the first time. When she tucked her bottom lip between her teeth, I couldn’t suppress the growl in my chest, couldn’t stop my hand from reaching for her, clutching her neck as if she were mine to possess.

She didn’t flinch, and a wicked fire burned in her brown eyes. Her breasts heaved as she sucked in a slow, deep breath. When she spoke, her voice was rougher than I expected. “Tell me, general, how would you use me if I let you?”

My mind swarmed with images—each one filthier than the one before it, but which could I admit to, and which did she want to hear?

“You don’t want to know all the things I would do to you.”

She pursed her lips. Despite my firm grasp, she shook her head and purred. “I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t want to know.”

Inhaling, I savored her sweet scent and brushed my thumb over her parted mouth. A hungry growl rumbled in my chest.

“I’d see if this mouth of yours feels as good as your shadows.” She hummed appreciatively, as if she were imagining it already. “Thrust myself between these perfect lips.”

Her gaze darkened a bit, the corner of her mouth twitching, barely holding back her wicked smile. With my thumb, I tugged at her bottom lip, and my chest heaved with want as her mouth fell open and her tongue slipped out to taste the rough skin.

“I’d watch you take all of me, as deep as you can, while you fill yourself with your shadows—as I know you like to.” She squirmed, and heat pulsed through me. Leaning in closer to her, I lowered my voice. “I want to see you swallow every last drop I spill down your throat.”

She hauled in a breath. Her tongue swirled around my thumb, and it took all the strength I had not to drag her mouth onto my ready length right now. But I was no fool. This was the queen—a queen who may have very well killed my best friend’s brother, and while I’d say a lot of dirty things, I wasn’t about to act on them until she gave the word.

“What else?” she whispered, her hips shifting ever so slightly on the bed. The scent of her arousal made it nearly impossible to think of anything beyond burying myself between her legs.

Somehow, I forced myself to focus, using my thumb to tilt her chin up even higher so she looked straight at me. My other hand trailed a line down her throat, hooking on the top of her bodice and tugging it down to reveal her breast—pebbled and inviting. I flicked my thumb over the hardened peak and relished in the way her breath hitched and her chest shuddered.

“I’d throw you back on this bed so I can memorize every inch of your breasts and pull those whimpers from your lips until you beg me to fuck you.”

“You think I’d beg?” she asked on a quivering breath.

“I know you would, Killer.”

Her eyes were pure challenge, a dark and delicious dare as her brow angled up, her lips pulling into a cocky smirk. “Prove it.”