AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Sand churned and hissed below.
If I jumped, it would drown me.
I looked up, and through burned clouds, the sun was setting, giving way to a rising moon.
Arin.
He was the only hope I had left, the only one who could stand against Razak. I had to find him before the ceremony, before I killed a whole court… to save him. Again.
CHAPTER29
Arin
After Draven had leftmy chamber for the ceremony preparations, I dressed in white and gold royal finery for the second time, pinned up my hair, and fixed all the golden clasps back in place. In the mirror, my reflection was the same as before, the only difference being the tousled bed in the background, pillows askew, where Draven had tossed them aside in his fervor.
A warmth radiated low in my gut, and in other places, where the warlord’s mouth had skimmed, and his stubble burned. It felt good, like nothing had felt good in weeks. Nothing since… Lark.
Nerves no longer rattled my veins. My hands and heart were steady.
This joining was happening, Razak was here. And everything Draven and I had planned would fall into place. Razak would die this night, without fanfare or flare. Slain by an anonymous assassin. How terrible.
I left my chamber and met Draven in the main hall, beside an enormous palm tree so large it had tried to grow outside the vast glass canopies protecting the hall from sand. He spoke with two men and a woman, smiling, gesturing, while War’s palace staff bustled, setting the places at long feasting tables. Cloths of red and black draped over the chairs and hung in ribbons from large columns. I knew so little about this court, and Draven’s life, his friends. To my shame, I’d been so consumed by grief and revenge, I hadn’t asked. It was time that changed. The group spotted me approaching, and as Draven turned my way, his smile grew, setting my nerves fluttering.
Our joining had been planned to lure Razak, but in light of recent events, perhaps joining with Draven was the right thing to do regardless of revenge and political power.
“Arin.” Draven reached for me, and for the first time in public, I folded my hand in his. “These are friends of mine. Jordan.” Draven introduced a woman with more muscles than most of the Court of Love’s guards combined. She dipped her chin. “Erik,” Draven said, pointing out a burly blond man who grinned broadly. “And Laslo.” The last man had hair as dark and long as Lark’s when it wasn’t tied up, but twice as much muscle as him—and I wasn’t thinking about Lark.
Laslo clapped me on the back so hard I almost swallowed my tongue. “We’ll make a warrior of you yet. Give Draven some meat to cling to, eh?”
“Er, yes.” Heat touched my face.
Draven closed his eyes a beat too long. “Forgive Laslo, he was born with his foot in his mouth.”
“It’s all right.” I laughed, a little nervously. Men rarely married men in the Court of War, but Draven’s friends seemed supportive, which was the best we could hope for.
Erik extended his hand and almost took my fingers off when he shook them. “Nice to finally meet you. We did wonder if you existed or if Draven had dreamed you up.”
Jordan laughed and folded her thick arms over her muscular chest. “He almost looks like you, Erik.”
“Yeah, if I were eighty pounds lighter,” Erik grumbled, setting all their laughter off again.
Draven steered me away as they continued to joke, probably at my expense. “They’re an acquired taste. I hope you’re not offended. They don’t mean anything by it. It’s just how we are…” He rubbed at the back of his neck and frowned.
“It’s fine, really. I like them. I’d like to get to know them…” The implication was out there before I’d considered what I was saying, that perhaps we had a future together
Draven shifted a little closer, and under the shade of the palm we were tucked away despite being in the center of the filling room. “I wasn’t going to get all personal about this, considering our… motives for today, but honestly, I want the ceremony to mean something. And if you don’t, that’s fine, I won’t push it, but I hope you do… want this… for more than, you know, a seat at Ogden’s table.” He winced. “I’m er… I’m not good with romantic words.”
I fought my grin under control. “I appreciate your honesty. It’s a rare thing. And I’d like us to mean something too.”
“Then there’s a chance that you and I, that this, could be… a good thing?”
“There’s a chance.” My father would have been horrified. His son, falling for a warlord.
Draven checked over his shoulder, as though our joining was still taboo among his peers, then tipped my chin up and kissed me on the lips. “But first, I’m going to kill a prince for you.”
That threw ice water on the warm glow I’d been nurturing. Of course, I knew what we’d planned, but that didn’t mean I was as comfortable with murder as Draven was.
Draven drew me back to his friends. “Heard you tried to take Draven’s head?” Erik rumbled.
