I reached up, caressing his face, running my thumb along his lips, and suddenly, I knew what I needed before I could finish the mission my mother had sent me on. I had no more excuses. Rute was dead, the hyenas were in the palace, ready to pick at the bones of the Imperium, and the time was now.
But I needed something from him first, a balm to soothe my conscience, a way to make amends for the horrible way I’d just realized the sea serpents weren’t the Imperium to Tallu. The sea serpents werehim.
“Tallu, take me,” I begged.
He stilled, then lowered his face to my neck, and I felt the delicate tickle of his eyelashes.
“I can’t,” he whispered. “Not yet. Not now.”
And then he pressed forward, yanking my pants down and pulling at his own until we were rubbing together, the soft velvet of his cock making something in me give in, give up.
I squeezed my eyes shut, every nerve alight. “Tallu.”
“Airón,” he whispered into my ear. “Airón, husband.”
He thrust desperately, and I yearned for his cock inside me. What would it feel like to have that much power pushing inside me, taking me apart from the inside out?
He bit at my shoulder, nipping at the flesh until I was alight with him. When his hand wrapped around me, I couldn’t feel anything but him, anything but his skin on mine, his flesh keeping me from rising to the heavens.
It was over too fast, and Tallu came hot, his come coating his hand, but he didn’t stop pumping us—my hard cock and his softening one. I came at the thought of him doing that, overstimulating himself so that I could find release, at the knowledge that he was turning his pleasure to pain so that I could finish.
He panted against my neck, but I didn’t shift away from the tickle of it. His body was lax.
Carefully, I drew out the blade from my sleeve, my hand finding the hilt. I had never wielded it, but I knew the shape intimately. Nudging him onto his back, I straddled his thighs and drew the blade up, waiting for him to realize what was happening, waiting for him to try to stop me. His hands were free—why wasn’t he going to stop me?
One of the curtains had been kicked open during our lovemaking that it let in just a sliver of light. Enough that I could see his face, read the expression on it. It was blank and resigned.
“Is that blade for me?” he asked, repeating the question he’d asked earlier. And this time, I understood. I knew he meant it.
He wouldn’t resist me. He’d asked me in the forest if I was going to kill him, and he would have let me do it there, andnow, he was willing to let me kill him with our come still on his fingers, with the scent of him clinging to me.
“Yes,” I said, forcing the word out.
I pressed the blade down, the tip of it slicing into his throat, a droplet of blood beading up. He watched me, his eyes empty, and I leaned forward, but I couldn’t press the blade any further down. I couldn’t force myself to finish.
I leaned back, pulling the blade away from his neck.
We lay there in the near darkness, breathing the same air, his eyes fixed on me. I could barely see him, but I thought something changed in his expression, as though I was watching hope bloom on his face.
Finally, I rolled off him, staring at him, my knees pulled up to my chest, arms tight over my shins.
“Why were you going to let me kill you?” I asked. “Why didn’t you stop me?” Then, because I still didn’t understand, “Why did you give me back mydragon egg?”
“I have something to show you,” Tallu said, and he pushed himself up until he was sitting up, perpendicular to me. He pushed open the bed curtains and stepped out.
As he straightened his clothing, his hair fell over his forehead, and he looked… sad. Defeated. Then his lips tightened, and he turned to me, offering a hand.
I hesitated but reached out, letting my palm wrap around his. The contact sent a spark of pleasure down my spine, and it was impossible, but my cock twitched, wanting to get hard again, wanting, wanting, wanting.
Tallu tugged my hand and led me to the hidden door behind the tapestry. Inside the room were maps and diagrams, models of different war machines. Tallu released my hand, stepping toward the table in the center of the room where something that looked like a boat with wingshoveredabove the wooden surface.
He looked down at it. The boat floated in the air, and he raised one finger to nudge it, the whole thing tilting to keep itself upright. It was impossible. It was a flying ship. Itflew.
“This is how the Imperium will conquer the Northern Kingdom.” He finally looked back at me, his russet eyes catching mine. “And I cannot stop it by myself.”
