“What would be better is if I could remain alone,” I said. I had gotten too comfortable, assuming I did not have to fill the traditional roles of a princess. I had thought I would blaze my own trail, that I would become the first queen to serve in the Nine Houses, but I was wrong, and that hurt me more than anything. “At least this marriage will save a kingdom.”
If I could not blaze the trail alone, then perhaps I could save our kingdom. My spirits rose a little at that thought.
“I cannot imagine what that creature could possibly want with a wife.”
“You assume I want a wife,” he’d said. “But I came for a queen.”
Except that Adrian had conquered and ruled over Revekka for more than one hundred and fifty years—and he’d been alive far longer—without a queen. At one point, it seemed, he too had desired to be alone, so what had changed?
Your blood is truly a homecoming.
I shivered as I recalled his words and the way his fingers felt as they clasped mine. It must have been noticeable, because Nadia reached for a blanket, wrapping it around my shoulders. I hated how I reacted when he touched me—my head felt light, my face grew flushed, my whole body felt alive and yet on edge, unprepared for the next sensation he might urge to the surface.
I hated it because my body acted as if he were not the enemy.
Nadia was right. You’re a child, I scolded myself and reasoned. Any man can make you feel this way.
“I shudder to think what he has planned for you.”
Nadia was still talking, but my mind had gone into a full spiral. While I wondered what he wanted with me, I thought of the immediate future. What duties did the Blood King expect me to perform? He’d been open about his wish to drink my blood, and he’d offered the promise of pleasure—did vampires consummate marriages differently? If it was done by drinking blood rather than sex, could I abstain for as long as possible to prevent a true marriage?
“Issi?”
My eyes lifted and connected with Nadia’s concerned stare.
“Yes?” I asked.
“Are you okay?”
I hardly knew. I had begun the day hating vampires with every fiber of my being and ended the day engaged to one. I had been through a whole range of emotions—a passionate high and a devastating low. I felt exhausted and yet lustful. The need to be full and stretched and utterly shattered had never really gone away. It had ebbed and flowed.
“Can I be alone, Nadia?” I asked.
She hesitated. “Are you sure?”
“Please, Nadia.”
I rarely said please.
“All right.”
Nadia moved toward the door and cast me a forlorn glace. “Call if you need me.”
When she was gone, I fell onto my bed, sinking into the velvet covers, my eyes fixed on the ceiling.
“What have I done?” I said aloud before closing my eyes. As I exhaled, I relaxed, then drew my legs up and apart, the hem of my shift gathering around my thighs as I trailed my fingers along my skin. I thought about how much I would have preferred another’s touch, because I did not think my own would ease this ache.
Perhaps that was the hold of Adrian’s magic. Was he the only one who could release me?
Suddenly, Adrian hovered over me, his mouth close to mine, his hair, like the sun, curtaining my view, curling softly against my skin.
“Why are you here?” I asked.
“Because,” he said, “you were made for me.”
“You could say that to any woman, just as I could say that to any man.”
“But would it be true?”
“There is no truth where magic survives.”
“There is only truth if magic survives,” he said, and he bent toward me, lips touching my throat as my head pressed into my pillow, and my fingers teased my aching flesh. “Come for me, my sweet, so that I may taste you.”
My body was primed and heated, my entrance slick with need, and just as I was about to dip my fingers into my swollen flesh, the door to my bedroom flew open. I jerked into a sitting position, meeting Killian’s gaze.
“What?” I snapped, angry that I had been interrupted again, that I could not untie this knot deep in my stomach.
“Am I interrupting?” he asked, eyes darkening as he took in my position on the bed.
“Yes,” I hissed, angrier because he knew what he interrupted, furious because of what he dared to say next.
“It isn’t anything I can help with?”
“If I’d wanted help, I would have called for you,” I snapped as I slid off the bed. I crossed the room, putting distance between myself and the commander. “I wish to be alone.”