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Her trust in her intuition may have been foreign to him, but it was all she needed. “I’m not afraid of you. I’d take you out before you could kill me, anyway. I’m much more powerful,” she chuckled.

“Fuck you, Fire Queen.” But he gifted her a real laugh this time, creating just enough space within his chest for something else.

“You know, some men woo ladies with poetry.” She slipped her hand against his chest as it filled with another low rumble of laughter in response. She was hooked, desperate to replicate the sound as often as possible, to let it cleanse the sorrow that clung to his bones.

Lux pursed his lips. “I’ve read the poetry you like. I’m afraid I’ll disappoint you terribly.”

“You’ve never worried about disappointing me before.” Astra glanced up at him, his face stoic as always, but he’d left the wall in his chest open. A flurry of colors raced over his lungs, a thousand shades at once.

He caught her chin in the rough grip of his thumb and forefinger.

“I’ve only ever worried about disappointing you.

Every single time I hurt your feelings, or distanced myself, or lied to you, it was not without great personal cost. I felt it in my soul, a thousand weeping wounds, I swear it.

I’d rather never take another full breath again than hurt you any more than I already have. ”

“But you’re no poet,” she whispered, her heart pounding.

He tilted forward, and it was over.

Kissing Lux was like touching a star. Whispers of molten light slipped under her fingertips as his arms contracted around her waist, pressing her into him where she belonged.

She let her hands drift, slipping under his linen shirt, the skin beneath toasted and rippled with soft hair.

She had to focus acutely to prevent a flicker of light from breaking through her hands.

Everything in her was on fire in a new, thrilling way, equally uncontrollable.

Lux broke from their kiss, hissing in pleasure as her fingers crawled further over his hips.

“Astra,” he groaned. She wasn’t sure if it was a plea to stop or a desperate cry for more.

“Don’t stop me,” she begged, dragging her fingers down again and hooking them along the top of his pants, the leather smoldering to the touch. She moved her lips to his neck, his arms squeezing tighter around her as she tasted every available expanse of him.

“I’ve never once been successful at stopping you, Sol’ah .

Why start now?” He pulled at her skirts, his fingers clawing at the soft fabric as he backed her onto the desk.

He settled between her legs, her soft skin bare as he shoved her skirts toward her waist, and she felt just how much he wouldn’t stop her straining against his pants, the rush of riling the commander beyond anything she’d ever experienced.

She tore at his shirt, letting it float to the floor as threads slipped from her dress.

She tried not to choke on smoke and flame as his lips moved over her neck and chest, any semblance of control over his bloodline vanishing into the ether.

Her fingers grazed the scarred flesh on his shoulder, the skin remarkably healed but still tight where she’d hit him.

Before she could catch sight of it, her head fell back as fingers traced the curves of her sides.

Stars fell from his lips as he trailed from her neck to her shoulder, stepping back to dispose of his pants.

Only wisps of lace underthings remained against her skin, a sight that darkened his eyes as they committed every gentle slope to memory. His chest lifted and fell, a hesitation settling within him.

“You’ve seen me less clothed than this.” Astra’s mind slipped back under the steamy waters of the hot springs in Celene.

His lips twitched into a simmering smirk.

“I didn’t get to appreciate it then.”

“I wouldn’t have minded.”

His hazy gaze narrowed. “Yes, I know. You felt it then, didn’t you? The Tether? I was so afraid it was happening, but you stopped…”

She slipped a finger beneath the lace strap over her shoulder, pushing it down over her arm and letting the fabric fall away, baring her breasts as he spoke. His sentence trailed off as his eyes glazed over.

“I didn’t know that’s what it was, but yes. I felt it knocking against my ribs. It was all-consuming.”

“I remember.” Lux flashed a devilish grin that undid any lingering doubts she should have been considering.

The risk was never being with the commander—it was being without him.

Whether he saw it or not, she felt it in the way her blood called out for his, singing through rippled time just like his looking glass or the thrones.

Searching for him.

He moved closer, finally satisfied with his staring, trailing a fingertip from her collarbone to her navel. His voice was dangerously low.

“I’ve thought about that dream every night since we left Celene.”

“Oh?” she managed, thoroughly hypnotized by the proximity of his mouth.

He dipped his head, placing a long, smoldering kiss on her lips, holding nothing back from her now. If he was going to cross this line, he might as well cross all of them and enjoy his Descent into the Nether below.

When he reluctantly broke their contact, desperate for a breath as she ravaged at any remaining sanity clinging to his mind, she whimpered, her breath catching.

“You have no idea,” he hummed into her ear, fingers closing around her neck, wrecked by the rhythm of her pulse in his hands. He’d worried so many times it would awaken something dark within him—but what stirred in his chest was a bloodlust of another nature entirely.

“No idea how badly I wanted to cross the hallway and tear off that moonstone—tell you everything.”

He kissed her cheek with a reverent brush.

His eyes sparkled with memories of lying across the hall, counting her breaths, not even allowing himself the relief of imagining what it might be like to hold her—steeping in the fear it would create an unstoppable beast no moonstone or man could fend off.

“Gods, I wanted to bury myself inside of you. To hear my name on your tongue. To be claimed by your fire for good.”

She snagged his lips in a blazing kiss, slipping her tongue over his softly as his hands found their way over her breasts, worshipping at a crested altar.

The room went up in smoke and ash, flames bursting between them as the rest of their clothes vanished—she wasn’t sure if only she saw the embers or if they’d burn the whole damned palace down, nor did she care.

He pulled Astra by the hand to the chair he’d spent hours sitting in, watching her read or write, lecturing her, teasing her.

Wondering what it would be like to be the man who put that blasted ring on her finger.

“Don’t go wherever you just went,” she breathed, climbing over him and resting a palm on his chest. “Stay right here, stay with me.”

Her knees dug into the soft velvet on either side of his thighs, hesitating as she waited for him to close the gap between them.

Lux’s hand carved a burning trail through the tattoos on her spine, lingering at her hips.

She closed her eyes against the soft pressure between her thighs, holding her breath as he gently guided her over him, a thrill rising from her belly to her chest as they fit together.

“Gods be damned,” Lux sighed, inhaling sharply as she wrapped one arm behind his neck and let the other rest on his chest, gently weaving her fingers into the dark hair that guided her down to where they met. “Dreams don’t do the truth of you justice.”

She rolled her hips forward, enjoying the slow, sweet sting of him inside her. The motion drew low sighs from both their throats, the sound of his hushed need spurring her into a steady rhythm.

His chest bloomed in shades of deep violet and peony pink, scarlet waves, and glittering gold.

The Tether between them shimmered awake as they moved together, though still choked by that damned cord around his neck.

His hands and lips were everywhere, setting little fires all along her freckled skin, connecting the gilded dots as he went.

“Just like that,” he groaned as she sank deeper and twisted her fingers into his curls. “Gods, you’re fucking perfect.”

“Finally,” she laughed, gasping for breath. “The commander has no complaints.”

His eyes closed, and his hold on her hips tightened. Baritone notes poured from his chest and shattered her ability to focus on anything other than doing whatever it took to keep him singing.

He snapped his head forward when she pressed her fingers lightly around his throat, letting the leather of his amulet slide between them.

“Leave it,” he said, his breath hot on her neck. She twisted to catch his heavy gaze, the question on her lips. She tightened her grip on his shoulder, nearly abandoning asking it in favor of the tension building in her stomach, but her eyes gave her away.

“I want you to want me, not need me because of some god of Fate’s meddling.”

Astra savored the heat in his stare before kissing him again, dragging her nails along his chest and sighing his name. He reached for her face, the edges of his vision blurring.

Lux squeezed her hips. His voice strained as he whispered something in another language against her neck. He buried his face in her curls.

“You first,” he whispered, holding her closer to him.

And away Astra went.

Golds and stars and pinks and flames consumed her, consumed both of them.

She drowned in the color exploding within his ribcage, blinding her as she gripped onto the new skin she’d burned across his shoulder.

She cried out, forgetting they weren’t alone in the sea or on a mountaintop somewhere.

His bronze hand reached for her mouth, covering her lips as he followed her over the edge.

She clung to him, afraid that if she let go, the walls might ripple and the seams of time would fall apart in yet another dream. But when she finally worked up the courage to look at him through the sweat and heavy breathing, she knew.

He’d never leave her side again.

Not for Above or Below, Sun or Moon.

She brushed a curl from his forehead, running her finger down the knotted bridge of his nose, marveling at all the hills and valleys of him she’d never allowed herself to notice.

He unleashed the wicked smile she’d grown to quite like. She considered saying as much, but she’d been vulnerable enough with him. She drew the line at stroking his ego. He cocked his head to the side as if he read the string of thoughts in her mind.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing,” he laughed, running his hand through her hair, tickling the bare skin of her back. “Just wondering what comes next.”

“Hour by hour, Commander. Hour by hour.”

* * *

Her knees ached as they slammed against white marble.

Her neck hung forward, the weight of her dazed head straining the muscle.

She squeezed her eyes, something in her chest screaming, as if a pillar of fire was spiraling from her heart. A metallic blade hit the floor, pinging against the cool marble as sparkling gold liquid pooled around her knees.

“Good man,” a deep voice said behind her. “Now finish it.”

Astra woke as another fire burst within her spine, screaming.

“As?”

She’d forgotten he was next to her. She was so used to waking up from her strange dreams alone, forced to slow her breathing and will the images away in silence. Lux’s arms encircled her and pulled her close, her ragged breathing settling as she grounded herself to this plane of existence.

“Who was that?” he whispered in the dark, gently stroking her bare skin as she pushed her hand against her drumming chest, the dull pain still lingering.

“You heard him?”

He hesitated. “I saw him.”

“It was just a nightmare,” Astra assured both of them. “Not everything has to mean something.”

He pressed a kiss into her forehead, not buying the line. She could feel it in the tension burrowing into his shoulders.

“We need to be careful with who we trust. Careful about who knows we’re…” Luxuros trailed off, realizing that there was no word for what they were to one another.

“Whatever we are,” she breathed.

“Whatever we are,” he agreed, his tone dropping into the problem-solving commander he only shook with her. “There’s a reason Selenia wanted Solan and Leona dead. It’s only a matter of time before someone sets their sights on us.”

“Of course,” she whispered, curling her leg over his hips and pressing her lips against his neck until a low rumble answered.

He sighed into her curls.

She cut whatever argument he was about to make with a kiss before saying, “If I have to go back to playing the doting fiancée of your king tomorrow, I’m going to enjoy every second of you I can tonight.”

Luxuros hardly let her get the last word out before he covered her mouth with his, dancing in the shadows of her before the Moon rose, and they faced whatever came next.