“Damn, Ash. I’m sorry.”
“I knew it would be this way. I wanted … I wanted you to come for me because of what we were. The Fated bond we shared, not because of duty. My sister hurt me too, and I was angry at her, so angry. She disappeared and became someone I did not know. I could not reach her, no matter how hard I tried, and Skuld found me in that place. We both had reason to hate her. The Tower is filled with enemies, Heath. After seeing you with the giant, I am afraid. You can release me.”
What? No. “I’m not turning my back on you.”
“It may be for the better. Heath, I am her sister, and Skuld wants nothing more than to see Silva dead. When you fought that giant, he could see me. Even if you get to me, Skuld has put protection in place to keep me there. You know your truth now and can make things right. Tell Silva I’m alive.”
Not happening. His female was used to being cast aside and he wasn’t going to add himself to that list. She was afraid, unsure of how he’d take the news. He could see it in the way she held her body rigid and struggled to maintain eye contact.
He wouldn’t have abandoned her, no matter what she said. In fact, her confession made him more determined. Skuld had to pay for what she’d done, the games she continued to play, twisting all of them around into nothing. He refused to let his Foraltae face that alone. Heath would not be some fucking coward who left her standing.
“Have you ever taken anything for yourself, baby? Was your whole life service to others?”
“I am the spare for the throne of Seraph in a country that hadn’t seen war in eons. My sister was loved by the populace because they pitied our predicament, and the advisors loved her because she was malleable. She was going to bring Seraph and Daemon together.”
He heard a lot about Silva in that whole statement. “I didn’t ask about your sister.” He cupped her face in his warm hand and brought her closer to his body. “You are my Foraltae, not Silva. You have walked beside me as I’ve traveled to you, even though it drains your power. You were with me through those memories that could have painted your sister as the villain, and you by association. I don’t see a woman alive I could want more than you.”
She sucked in a breath, her eyes widening. “Heath?”
“It’s time I show you, Foraltae, just how much I want what is right in front of me.”
She had always been the spare, ensuring the throne was protected for their House. Before Niamh became queen, they’d been so close. But once things changed, Asherah could not find her place.
This male, this Unseelie, grounded her and created a spot for her no one else could fill. He was hot skin and power, his lips commanding as he took hers. She moaned, the smoky taste of his shadow coating her tongue, the burn of his fire sizzling her insides. He got his fire from Lorack, whom he had forgotten, but his soul had remembered, mirroring the young Fae’s magic as if it were an homage.
This was the sort of man her male was.
One who was fiercely loyal and put himself in danger for those he cared about.
And he was coming for her.
For so long, Asherah had run, sleeping with one eye open. She’d waited for the axe to fall, for Skuld to grow tired and decide she was not worth the effort. Asherah had fought for so long, a lonely battle waged in her stasis sleep.
Now she felt safe, protected, and watched over. Heath’s heartbeat was a soothing, steady beat her heart matched. She stroked across his skin, giving herself license to touch. To feel. Her fingers danced over the flat plane of his stomach as his tongue dueled with hers, and she heard a swift intake of breath.
Asherah found herself pushed back and pinned by a half-naked Heath as she struggled to open her eyes. Gods, he was strong. Heath rose above her like an avenging god. His silver-sparked gaze pierced her soul, and an electric shock zinged through her system. She was on fire as his legs slid between hers and he rested in the cradle of her thighs. He felt so unbelievably good.
His full lips were set in a hard line, and she could see a tic in his jaw where the muscles worked. She thought for a moment about what he felt when he looked down at her, and then his big, warm hands framed her face, and she stopped breathing. She could do nothing but focus on the slow descent of his mouth toward hers. He lifted her to meet his mouth.
“Ash,” he whispered right before his lips claimed hers, and she crumbled. If he had looked at her with disgust when she told him who she was, she would have been able to fight. If he had called her a liar, she would have left him to return to the Tower no matter what her treacherous body wanted.
But he had done none of those things.
As his soft but demanding mouth sought to conquer hers, he had spoken her name and growled with desire, his anger a dangerous reminder that she belonged to him.
And he belonged to her.
He wanted Ash as well as Asherah. He wanted her.
She didn’t have the willpower to deny him.
His tongue slid into her mouth smoothly as if it belonged there. He tasted of lust and spice. Her heart pounded when a callused hand gripped the back of her head, forcing her mouth tighter to his, and his other hand squeezed between her and the bed to grasp her bottom. He pinned her hard against him and tilted his head to deepen the kiss.
The first kiss they shared had not felt like this. There was a promise here of pleasure beyond their stolen moments within this dream. It was real, a moment of them coming together and forgetting the outside world. Here, they were speaking their commitment to each other.
Somehow, she knew Heath intended to take her, and she was powerless to stop him. In the privacy of her own mind, she ached for Heath. She had waited for desire to flare between them. Asherah wanted to know her male. Craved being marked by his touch to obliterate anyone who may have come before.
To erase the long years of loneliness as if they had never happened.
