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Lara made a soft humming noise, feeling entirely boneless and incapable of speech.
A soft laugh exited his throat, then Aren kissed her lips, her throat, before meeting her gaze. “Good,” he said. “Because I’m going to have you again.” His eyes were dark, his cock already hardening inside of her. “And again.”
Tilting back her head, Lara smiled.
He was hers. She was his.
Tonight, tomorrow, and for all the tomorrows they ever faced.
5
AREN
“Feeling sated?”Jor asked as they walked down to the harbor.
Aren snorted and cast a dark look at the older man. “That’s none of your fucking business.”
“You want to keep your encounters secret, you’re going to need to gag that queen of yours,” Jor said, kicking at a rock. “Lass has a set of lungs on her, so the whole damn palace was reminded over and over again of your name.”
“Kiss my ass,” Aren muttered, then added, “Thank you, though.”
Jor shrugged. “When you’ve romanced as many women as I have, you learn a few things. I’m surprised your grandmother didn’t mention it. Amelie knows all the tricks.”
“Likely because she takes perverse pleasure out of making my life more difficult.”
Aren abandoned the conversation as they reached the entrance to the harbor cavern, which was a scene of organized chaos. Fishing boats leaving to haul in more catch. Larger vessels loading families and their belongings, ready to abandon the city that had been the prison to return to their homes on other islands, which would do much to ease the burden of supplying Eranahl.
But he and Jor were here to deal with another matter, one that couldn’t be put off.
Climbing into a small canoe, they paddled down the tunnel, following the grating echo of metal saws. Aren’s eyes went to the roof of the tunnel, following the deep scrapes in the rock that the portcullis had made as Silas’s ship dragged it out. During a break in a storm, they’d been able to move the massive steel structure to one side of the tunnel to allow boats to pass, but the larger task of removing it and replacing it remained.
He blinked, and a vision of Lara on the far side of it filled his mind’s eye. Bleeding and half-drowned. Dying before his eyes and him unable to reach her.
“Morning, Your Grace,” one of the smiths said. “Once we’ve broken it down into pieces, we’ll bring them back into the city and reforge the portcullis, though we might need to source more steel from Harendell as we lost the chains.”
“No,” Aren answered, staring at the twisted metal but seeing Lara caught beneath it. The bubbles rising from her lips and the light going out of her eyes. “Drop it in the sea. I’ll make arrangements to purchase steel from the Harendellians.”
The man made a face. “The cost—”
Jor whistled sharply. “He said drop it in the sea, so that’s what we’ll do. Get to sawing, you lazy arse.”
The men grumbled but complied. Having no desire to sit idle and watch, Aren took up one of the saws and set to cutting bars himself. Section by section, they cut down the twisted metal, dragging pieces out to deep water and allowing them to sink. There was some catharsis to the work, ridding the island and himself of something that held so many awful memories, though the work was exhausting.
Wiping sweat from his brow, he stared out over the sea, catching sight of an approaching vessel. A small outrigger with only three men aboard, both of whom he knew. All lifted hands in greeting as he was recognized, one shouting, “News from the mainland, Your Grace.” As they drew closer, he added, “Not fresh, I’m afraid, but the storm kept me cooling my heels in the bridge. But fresh or not, you’ll want to be reading the report straight away.”
Aren’s stomach tightened. Nothing he needed to read right away would be good. “Hand it over then.” The boats bumped together, the man jumping into Aren’s canoe and handing him a wax-wrapped packet. Aren remained standing, balancing instinctively on the rocking swells as he unwrapped the package, scanning a report compiled at Southwatch of news from the continent. “That bitch,” he hissed as he reached the last item, handing the page to Jor. But before the other man could begin to start reading, screams echoed out of the tunnel.
Cries for help.
6
LARA
“You seem refreshed, Your Grace,”Lia said. “Stronger already.”
Lara wasn’t sure about that, but shedidfeel happier despite having not gotten a tremendous amount of sleep. Not because of the sex, though that had been…intensein a way that still gave her shivers, but because telling Aren her thoughts and fears had lifted a weight from her shoulders. There was a comfort that came from him standing at her side despite knowing the worst, a security that made her feel strong though her body was not. “I want to walk to the harbor.”
Lia exhaled, her displeasure over the request apparent. “I’d advise against it. All it takes is one well-placed arrow and—”
