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His laugh was gentle and low in his throat and seemed to descend into the lowest reaches of her. “Oh, no, my rose. I hope you will bite me much harder than that.”
With that, he sank his fangs into her throat. She keened and fastened her teeth at his neck with all the force of the pleasure that tore through her. As he began to draw the blood from her in firm, rhythmic sucks, she whimpered, opening and closing her teeth on him.
She threw her legs around him. She felt him alter his stance, bracing himself. Then his long, sure hands were gripping her hips. Borne on his levitation and guided by his touch, she rubbed the wet entrance of her krana over the head of his rhabdos. His fangs plunged deeper into her. Locking her ankles behind him, she tightened her legs and pulled herself onto him, pressing him deep inside her.
His hips jerked as he thrust into her with a guttural sigh against her throat. She sucked in a breath, then tightened her teeth again. She felt his rhabdos throb inside her. A low moan escaped her. She tried to think through her daze of hunger. Deliberately, she matched her bites to his sucks at her neck and his thrusts between her legs.
He drove into her more urgently. She ground against him, needing the overpowering sensation in her kalux and the pressure of his flesh in her channel. She gripped him tighter between her thighs, dizzy as she floated on his levitation. Her hunger roared higher, until she blazed on the edge of satiation. Her head fell back, and she begged him in wordless cries.
Suddenly the weightless sensation left her. He held her securely in his arms and released her from his levitation. She hung heavily on the hard column of his rhabdos. He penetrated her deep and delivered her feast. Her back bowed, her hips arched, and she anchored herself on his neck by her teeth. They moaned together with every deep, gratifying course of her pleasure.
As she undulated in his arms, his body went rigid against her, and his jaw locked on her neck. He drove up into her hard, then harder, then closed his hands around her buttocks and pulsed inside her. She pleasured him with her bites and rode his climax with him.
His levitation supported her again just as she began to tremble. The next thing she knew, he was laying them down on her bed. They panted together in a tangle of limbs and blood.
He held her tenderly, tracing soothing caresses along her neck, her arm, her hip until their pulses calmed. But she did not feel the lure of sleep. She felt ready to challenge the world.
“I suppose it was wise to ask for help tonight,” Lio mused. “Father was kind enough to cover my patrol while I took care of an issue that required diplomatic delicacy. Kassandra agreed to keep the mages occupied in the harbor to allow me time. My father and Ritual mother both appreciate it when a Hesperine dares to play with fire.” His fingers glowing with spell light, Lio held up the tinderbox Kia and Mak had confiscated from Skleros at the library.
Cassia’s mouth dropped open. “Youstarted the fire?”
“The law of Orthros mandates I give Mother a gift. Perhaps I’ll get her a new volume for the library.”
“That was far too dangerous!”
Lio shook his head. “I enlisted Xandra and Nodora to contain the blaze. Before we started, Kia checked for magical traps and helped us remove Skleros’s herbs. Mak and Lyros relished confiscating his remaining smokes and tonics once I contrived a justification. By now, Chargers have delivered the necromancer’s entire stock of herbs, potions, and instruments to Rudhira. It’s all gone.”
“I never imagined diplomacy could be so destructive. I only wish I could have helped you.”
“You were facing your own fire at sea, my rose.”
“I thought I was turning the mages’ own folly against them. But all along, I was making use of the plot you instigated for us, just like when you invited me to Orthros in the first place. You have become expert at making dramatic alterations to the status quo in order to keep me safe.”
“The mages had best watch their backs. There’s no telling what I’ll come up with next.”
21
Nights Until
WINTER SOLSTICE
THE BALLAD OF CASSIA
How Cassia’s world hadchanged since the last time she and Lio had attended a dance. Not weapons, but garlands of roses decorated the Grand Ball of House Kitharos. There were no martial banners, only silken depictions of the constellation of Thelxinos, Ritual firstblood of Nodora’s bloodline. It was the Tenebran embassy that stood in an uneasy knot on one side of the ballroom, while the Hesperines mingled and made merry. The dais was devoted to the Muses of Orthros.
There was no king on his throne, presiding over his macabre festival with watching eyes.
And yet Cassia and Lio still stood on opposite sides of the grand hall.
Well, she would not hold up the wall tonight. When Benedict paused to jot a note to himself, she seized the opportunity to slip away from him.
“Knight is restless in this crowd,” Cassia muttered to Perita and Callen.
Perita shook her head at the multitude of Hesperines. “I should say he is.”
“I’m going to walk him in the arcade and give him some space to calm him.”
Callen nodded and imposed himself between her and Benedict.
