Page 105 of Only Flames Remain

If only they knew I had magic…none of this would have ever happened. I would have had enough station to marry Kallias on my own merit. I never would have been sent to Gothryn in the first place.

I never would have met Sorin.

An angry cry tore through me and I pulled at my own hair in frustration, pieces of it pulling out of its plait.

Why in the seven hells did the thought of never having met Sorin plague me so deeply? Why did it awaken a pit in the bottom of my stomach, filling me with uncertainty?

I stopped, turning back toward the castle.

Silence surrounded me as the sun rose high enough to paint a golden blush against my skin through the tree cover. The road to Scaldrithor was silent and empty. There were no carriages or travelers. No animals chattered in the forest but for a single lone owl with black feathers and a silver half-moon painted across its forehead.

It watched me as I hesitated.

All was quiet as I gazed upon castle Gothryn, its onyx spires reaching toward the realm of the old gods among the alabaster clouds.

I had to know.

I had to know what hold Prince Sorin had over me. What had me feeling so entangled? So unmoored. For a woman who was usually the picture of propriety, the dragon prince of Gothryn had me entirely undone.

I took my first step back toward the castle, then a second.

I broke through the front doors at a run, back the way I had come. I stormed up the four flights of stairs, barreling down the corridor toward Sorin’s private quarters.

I knew it wasn’t right—that merely the thought was a betrayal to Kallias—but I had to know for myself. The obsidian doors were shut, and I strode in without knocking. Sorin stood at the far wall of the bedroom. It had once been covered in beautiful arched glass, but now it was exposed to the lake beyond.

He turned at the sound of the door slamming shut behind me, a question in his eyes. His vast black wings tucked against his back as he made to step toward me, bare feet against the shattered glass across the floor.

“Aveline—”

I stalked toward him, silencing him with a finite shake of my head.

I was pressed against him before I even consciously knew what I was doing. My hands braced against his shoulders as I pulled myself against his bare chest. Without question, his arm wrapped around me.

Then my mouth crashed into his.

Sorin’s lips opened beneath mine, hungrily kissing me back as we staggered toward the fireplace together. Threads of magic hummed around me as Sorin turned us, pushing me back against the wall. His body pressed into mine as I tasted him, tendrils of desire unraveling deep within me as the taste of spice and ash spilled across my tongue.

I pulled back with a gasp, my eyes wide as they met Sorin’s. Twisting within his molten gaze were the threads of my own magic, blue and white wisps circling his brown iris.

What the—

But his mouth found mine once more, fire blazing into me. Branding me.

I arched off the wall, pressing my body against his as forcefully as I could. I needed to crawl into his skin. Erase any space between us. I wanted to meld into him—for the two of us to become one. Our kisses were frantic and frenzied, a sheen of sweat breaking out across my skin as I tasted his perfect lips.

It was more than I could ever imagine. Fire seared through me as desire pooled between my thighs. His stubble scratched against my face as he marked me as his.

Sorin was the flame, and I was cool water. He burned fiercely where I lapped softly against the shore. We were opposites in every conceivable way. Even our magic was contradictory.

With startling clarity, I realized I craved him in a way I had never craved another. I had never felt this thrall before. Never felt like if I didn’t have him right now, I might cease to even exist.

He pulled me against him equally as hard, our hips grinding together as I sought friction desperately between us. I needed him. Needed him inside of me. Needed him to claim me.

I was untethered.

I had never experienced passion like this. Never thought that anything could feel the way that this did. As if everything was clicking into place, and I was exactly where I was supposed to be. That I belonged nowhere else but in Sorin’s embrace.

That I belonged to him.