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Hadrian’s mouth pressed into a line. “Sometimes the lie is softer than the truth. Maybe that aide believed it would break you too soon. Maybe she was waiting.”

He stepped toward the window, the land of Wrathi stretching beneath it. “Now that my son is gone, I can’t afford to crumble. Too many depend on me. But you can let this break you, or you can rise above it.”

“Caius saved me. Your son saved my life.”

For a moment, his expression cracked. “Gods... you look just like her. My mother. You even have her nose.”

Another bloodline. A grandmother. Maybe aunts. Uncles. A fire-lit lineage I had never known.

“Can I meet them?” I asked, almost breathless.

Hadrian hesitated. “You’ve already met one.” His voice tightened. “My sister—Estella.”

My breath caught.

Estella.

The words she whispered before the ward cut her off— You look just like him. I thought she meant the king. But it was Hadrian. Her brother.

“Hadrian,” I said, trying to steady my voice. “She knew all this time.”

“She was foolish,” he snapped. “Reckless when we were younger during our academy days. But I never imagined she’d keep this from me.”

He turned, sudden and brisk. “A servant will show you to your rooms. I don’t condone intimacy before marriage, so you and Archer will be sleeping separately. That is my blessing, should you wish to wed.”

A bitter laugh escaped me. “That’s your first fatherly command?”

His spine stiffened. “I’m trying to protect you, Severyn. Don’t mistake my rules for anything else. The estate is yours to explore. There are no wards to limit your curiosity.”

My curiosity?

“I’ll give you both a moment,” he added, before sweeping from the room.

Archer’s hand slid to the small of my back. “Are you on his side?” I asked. The words were quieter than I meant, yet they struck just as hard. “How dare he?”

“I’m on your side,” Archer said. “But if you want war, Sev... then start it.”

Something wild cracked through me. The urge to defy. To take back control. “Then take me,” I whispered hands against his chest.

His gaze sharpened. “Here?”

“Yes.”

He paused then stepped in, close enough to steal my breath. One hand slipped beneath the folds of my dress, trailing up my thigh. “This rebellious side of you,” he murmured, lips brushing the edge of my ear, “is unbelievably hot.”

A gasp escaped me as his touch climbed higher. But I caught his wrist, breath quick, gaze locked with his.

“You really think we won’t get caught?” I whispered. “This is definitely not modest.”

His grin was pure sin. “Then I guess I’ll have to be quiet.”

“I don’t want to be quiet.”

He closed his eyes. “I’ll respect your wishes about a bond. But let me make this loud and clear, if you decide to change your mind, I won’t even if you beg, because I know you don’t want that.”

“I’m—second guessing myself.”

“No. No bond until you tell me you want it when you’re not horny.”

He swept my underwear to one side and rubbed his finger against my opening. “Spread your legs,” he whispered, nipping at my ear. “I wish to feel you.”

Shamelessly, I ground myself into his fingers, allowing my knees to fall open. A second finger stroked my entrance before he picked up his rhythm in soothing thrusts. “Be a good little heir and fill the library with your moans,” he growled.

“Maybe—this is wrong. I mean he’s a Serpent.”

“No. You’ve been conditioned for your whole life to be the good daughter. I’m your dark night, Severyn. Let me corrupt you.”

“Okay,” I moaned.

He twisted my body, and an audible yelp slipped past my clenched jaw as he picked me up and placed me on the table.

His other hand trailed the entirety of my breast, circling my puckered nipples from the outside of the gown.

He lifted the lace hem, two fingers still buried inside of me before he kissed my thigh, gliding his mouth higher until his lips grazed my heated, wet core and he kissed and sucked until. ..

“Shit,” I moaned, biting back my scream.

He smiled from his bow, slowing his stroking fingers before I forced him to look up.

“You taste like every one of my desires,” he murmured, pressing his lips gently to the flame relic on my palm. “And if Hadrian thinks he can keep me at bay, treating me like some beast after his daughter, then I’ll become exactly what he believes I am. ”

I raised an eyebrow, my voice low, questioning. “You’ll become a beast?”

His lips curved into a sly smile. “No. But it’ll be painfully obvious when his precious heir can’t walk straight after being bent over tables in the dark.”

His fingers stroked deeper, twisting as I hunched over in pleasure. “Bent over?” I swallowed hard. “Are you really that opposed to marriage, Archer?”

His smile deepened, a glint of something I couldn’t quite place in his eyes. “Do you want to marry me?”

Oh Gods, one more stroke and that would be it.

“No,” I breathed, grinding my hips harder into his fingers. “I mean, things seem complicated right now.”

He reached into his pocket, his fingers brushing against something… shiny. What the fuck was happening?

“Oh, shit ,” but that cry was for pleasure.

“I’m already on one knee, Severyn.” He drew out a sparkling iced diamond, its facets catching the dim light and scattering rainbows across the room.

“A North Colindale jewel, won during your father’s bid.

I’d never take away where you came from.

You weren’t trapped in that frozen land. It was your first home.”

He looked up at me. “I want to court you. Properly. In the noble way. Let me parade you through halls, learn your mind before your body. Let me fall for you the way you deserve.”

Surely, there were more romantic ways to propose a courtship than with my legs spread and his fingers just inside me. And yet, gods, the man still made it sound sacred.

The diamond glinted in the low light as Archer lifted my wrist and slipped a dark silver band onto my index finger. My breath caught.

“The blood of silver,” he said softly, “from the mountains of a home you never had the chance to love. And now, I ask to court you in a new one—while my home, my heart, rests within you. ”

His voice dipped. “Severyn Blanche, may I court you?”

“Yes,” I breathed, voice catching. “If it involves more of this, then yes.”

A smile tugged at his mouth as he pulled me close, his arms anchoring me like always. “Good. Now let’s hope this titling goes better than your last one… Severyn Lynch.”

I laughed under my breath, then shook my head. “No. This isn’t a proposal. It’s a courtship.”

He leaned in, forehead pressed to mine. “Then I promise—when this is over, I’ll marry you.”

That … was a big rock.

I stared at the diamond, the icy gleam of it settling in my chest. It was beautiful, almost ethereal and otherworldly. But more than that, it was a reminder of where I grew up. It was a diamond from the North.

“We can wait how ever long,” he said.

Then he lowered to his knees again and buried his face under my dress, and I had a taste of what married life with Archer would be like.