I admired the hell out of her for that.
Because I would do the same thing in her situation.
It was the responsibility of a royal to put others first. Which, consequently, was exactly why I loathed Emelyn Jyn. She only thought of herself, not others. When I told my father that, he merely shrugged and said it was my future duty to keep the woman in line. So, yet another task to fall on my shoulders in my future role.
Pushing the annoyance away, I focused on Aflora’s thick black hair falling in waves down her back as she led me to her room without another comment. She really was beautiful, in an otherworldly way, with her creamy skin, soft curves, and heart-shaped ass.
Any other lifetime, and I’d bend her over her bed, plunge deep inside her, and make her moan my name for hours.
But this life denied me the ability to follow through on that lust-crazed fantasy.
I caught her hand as she entered her room and led her to mine instead, desiring the familiarity of my personal space for the conversation we needed to have.
She didn’t fight my nonverbal request, just allowed me to take her into my quarters and shut the door. Stopping a few feet inside my room, she turned and watched me warily.
“I have no idea what this is going to do when I put it on you,” I admitted in the stillness between us.
Her throat worked as she swallowed. “I guess there’s only one way to find out.”
“Actually, I see there being two approaches here.” Hence the reason I wanted her in my room for this discussion. I was breaking about a dozen rules, but the idea came to me while on my journey home.
Collaring her felt wrong. Like a steep path I didn’t want to risk going down because I probably wouldn’t enjoy whatever I found waiting for me at the bottom.
However, I’d give her the choice of where we went from here.
“My concern with this upgraded collar is that it’s going to handicap you completely, leaving you unable to defend yourself.” Something I suspected she was going to need now that she’d proven herself capable of producing WarFire. That was an advanced, difficult skill to master. And she’d displayed it beautifully in the worst possible way.
Aflora stepped backward to my four-poster bed and sat down without an invitation. Not that she really needed one. “If you don’t put it on me, I could lose control and hurt more people.”
“Yes,” I agreed. “But how are you going to learn control if you are shackled so completely?” I pushed off the door to join her on the bed and handed her the upgraded device. She flinched as it shocked her skin, much the same as it’d done mine when Chernhad given it to me. “You can feel it, right? How it’s sucking the power right out of your fingertips?”
Her throat worked again, her tongue slipping out to dampen her full lips. “I’ll do what I have to do.”
“I know.” I reached out to tuck a lock of her dark hair behind her ear, then ran my fingers over her current collar. “But sometimes the safe way isn’t the right way.”
Bright blue eyes met my own. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that in order to survive, you need to learn control, and none of us can teach you that while you’re handicapped.” I allowed my hand to drop to cover the device in her palm. A zing of discomfort immediately drove up my arm. Placing it around my neck would suffocate me entirely.
I suspected it would utterly destroy Aflora, likely belittling her to a near-human state.
“How about we hide the collar for now and save it as a backup plan. Then, in the interim, you can work with me and Zeph on how to master your new gifts. It won’t be easy, and we certainly won’t perfect this overnight, but with a little trust and guidance, I think we can make this work.”
“That’s an option?”
“It can be one, yes.” It was a huge risk on my part, especially as it went against the Council’s decision. But my father had trusted me with this assignment, claiming it as one of my trials, which allowed me to do this my way. And that collar just felt wrong on so many levels.
“Your Council didn’t approve this option,” she said after a beat, her intelligent gaze reading my face a little too well. “Why would you risk this for me?”
“I’m the future king, and sometimes kings make unpopular decisions.” That was a lesson my father taught me at a young age. “This would be included in that category.”
I released my hold on the item in her hand, kicked off my shoes, and twisted around on the bed to face her. It placed my back near my mountain of pillows and the headboard. I relaxed against the silky haven, pulling up one knee to wrap an arm around it while my opposite leg dangled off the edge of the mattress.
Much more comfortable.
“Have you never had to make an unpopular decision for your people?” I wondered out loud, studying her and catching the grimace my question evoked. I knew her answer before she admitted it.
“Yes.” She mimicked my pose, only she didn’t have a headboard to relax against, just air or the dark wood post. She chose neither and set the collar aside, her fingers wiggling as if to regain feeling. I understood because I’d felt the same twinge of loss in my hand from touching that power-sucking choker. “When Chancellor Elana attacked last spring, I absorbed a lot of her dark energy into myself to protect my people.”
