Page 31

Asha clutched his fingers over the rings, a shiver going through him. One he thought he wouldn’t like. Fear boiled in his gut that turned to heat. His mate was vicious. His mate was cruel and protective. “What did you do?”

“The best I could as a gift for my mate.” Rath trailed a claw down Asha’s neck, the prick and scratch giving him a sting of pleasure. “I hope it pleases you.”

“What?”

“I had Earl Tippen stripped of title. I had his earldom demoted to a barony, then the favor removed from the earl and his sons,” Rath said.

“Where’s he going to go? Who is he going to filander and beat now that he’s destitute?” Asha laughed and tilted his head back, relishing the sensation of Rath popping the rings one at a time on one of his horns.

“Hopefully, to the burning afterlife.” Rath traced a claw tip down Asha’s horn and hummed.

“If only.” Asha snorted a laugh.

“It’s true. The last thing he saw was my fire and teeth. Your name was the last he heard.” Rath leaned in to Ahsa, brushing lips over his ear.

“What did you do to him?” Asha feared that he knew and feared that in his deepest heart, the thought made him giddy.

“I shamed him, told him he’d remember what he did to you, watched his servants turn cold eyes to him.

I brought nobles to witness the king himself call out his misdeeds.

They gave Tippen Valley to a new noble in favor.

And I cooked Vierbalt alive and ate him in a single bite.

” With a sudden finality, Rath bit Asha’s earlobe.

“He tasted foul, but vengeance is sweet.”

“Oh gods.” Asha’s breath whimpered.

“Ancestors. Call to them, ours and yours. We are gods. We hold the balance of life and death and we must use this power righteously. When faced with your half-brothers—I ate Leza, too. Bel? He’s disfigured by my fire and will serve to aid the new barony transition.

” Rath chuckled and nuzzled farther down Asha’s ear.

“And did he scream?” Asha reached for the front of Rath’s jacket. “Did he cry?”

“Leza ran. Bel showed great bravery and accepted his fate. For this, I spared him. Leza ran, so I hunted him. Vierbalt tried to run and threw Bel in my way. He tried to sacrifice his son to save his own ass.” Rath snorted. “Cowardly fool.”

“And I never have to see them again. I have Lyss back. I—thank you.”

“Will you wear their signets?” Rath reached into his pocket and pulled something silver out, toying with the metal before pressing down on the tips of Asha’s horns, something metallic scraping down them.

“Yes.” Because the thought of wearing that gold, letting anyone who looked at him see what his mate would do, made him shiver.

“But for now, until the jewelers set them tomorrow—wear these.” Rath leaned down and kissed Asha again, their mouths crashing. Pure want coursed through Asha’s veins, his heart thundering.

“What did you put up there?” Asha glanced up and found his horns out of sight. He always felt like they should be visible in the corner of his eye, but they never were.

“Something I shaped with my magic itself. Your silver.” The reverberating sensation of metal being traced by a single claw made Asha nearly groan with pleasure. “Does it please you?”

“Your touch pleases me. Your thoughtfulness pleases me.” Asha leaned his head into Rath’s touch and sighed. “Tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow. I promise.” Rath stared at Asha with that intensity in his eyes.

“And then you can show me my dragon? My other form.”

“Your true form.” Rath coaxed Asha into another easy kiss and hummed. “It is a spectacle for a dragon’s first turn. An Ashen’s transformation is unique, and you will need to be monitored. You are my mate, after all.”

“Monitored?” Asha pushed up, lifting his head to chase Rath’s lips but missed.

“I made sure your enemies were dead and taken out the right way so you wouldn’t try to on your own.

We are not to meddle in the affairs of humans—until they meddle in ours, and only then may we act within their ruler’s jurisdiction.

” Rath grinned, and Asha couldn’t agree more that the very core of him, with his newfound power, wanted to taste blood and feel revenge.

It wasn’t much like him at all and by the time it fully settled in, Asha’s eyes stung with unshed tears.

“Shh. I see the hurt.” Rath placed a delicate kiss over Asha’s brow. “As my mate, you’ll feel the anger I harbor. It is powerful and to control it is difficult. There’s nothing left to burn for you.”

“Lady Wyverncrest still lives. Or should I say, Mother ?” Asha leaned into Rath’s attention.

“When Ramolia and Monsmount are no longer at war and her former in-laws can find her… I feel like she’ll suffer quite a bit.

Her own family, had they known you were Ashen, would have sent you to live in Sauria until you called out to me.

She, too, kept you from me. And that will simply not do.

So, it may please you to know that there’s a grandfather and a few of your mother’s siblings on their way.

They’ll be far more likely to curb her than I.

Relish that.” Rath nuzzled into Asha’s neck and sighed pleasantly.

“Now go find Slath and try on your jacket. I worked hard on it.”

Asha took a deep breath and leaned up for a kiss that never came, only a cold whip of air and a sudden loneliness as he had gone away.

“A day might as well be another year.” Asha glanced toward the end of the hall and approached the window. The lack of light peeping from around the curtain told Asha all he needed to know. “Not yet.”

The full moon would be his undoing.