“I’ll sleep in here tonight. You should have your own bed back.”
She gave me an opaque look, but didn’t reply directly. She simply turned around, lifted her hair and presented me with her back. “Laces, please.”
It wasn’t easy, one-handed, but she stood patiently as I plucked at them. Though I’d just had her, emptied myself in her in spectacular fashion, the familiar sight of her flawless skin through the parting velvet affected me as always. Perhaps because she’d torn down some of the walls between us, or because I’d lost some essential strength of will battling the nightmares and fever, this time I gave in to the crippling need to touch her.
I traced the line of her spine from the nape of her neck down between her winged shoulder blades, into the valley of the small of her back, and just to the top of her sweetly curved buttocks. Then yanked my hand away, lest I be tempted to do more. She looked over her shoulder at me, just as she had at Lianore. “I’ve missed you, Ash,” she said, her voice throaty.
“I’ve been right here.”
She shook her head. “No, you haven’t. You were physically here, but you withdrew deep inside. You’ve been pulling further and further away from me since we left Annfwn. Do you miss it that much?”
“It’s not that.”
“Then what is it?”
I shook my head. “We’ve talked this to death already.”
I expected a flare of anger, but she only studied me. “That’s the thing. You think we have, but we’ve only talked around it.”
“Well, we’re not having some heart-to-heart conversation now. I’m going to assess the situation in the tunnels.”
“Fine, fine.” She dropped the gown, leaving it in a puddle on the floor, and stretched, gloriously naked. Then bent over to pull on the leather pants, knowing full well what the sight would do to me. Cursing her and Glorianna both, I turned away to at least get my own pants on without her help, lest she see the evidence of my helpless need for her, and use it to distract me again.
We went through the silent kitchens, lit only by the fires under the baking ovens, the air warm and full of sugary spices. Cakes and other delights were arrayed on the counters, in various stages of assembly and decoration.
“Are you expecting an army for the Feast of Moranu?” I asked Ami.
She rolled her eyes at me. “When I say Windroven is virtually empty, that means only a hundred or so people are on the mountain. So, yes, we’ll need a lot of cakes for the party tomorrow night. I invited everyone.”
“Everyone?” I lifted a brow at her.
“Everyone,” she repeated firmly. “The Three belong to us all equally, queen or milkmaid.” She gave me an arch look. “Or Tala part-blood ex-convict.”
I didn’t rise to her bait, simply allowed her to lead the way through the cellar storerooms and into the labyrinth of tunnels beneath the castle. She hadn’t worn her fighting leathers, acquired for our journey to rescue Stella from her abductors, since we’d left Annfwn. Besides the fact that they hugged her figure adorably, highlighting the sway of her hips and the play of muscle in her curving thighs and tight ass, they brought back a wealth of memories of those weeks together. Riding and camping. Me teaching her to use a knife. Ami in the firelight. Fierce. Exhausted. Weeping over her injured sister but working to save her life with practiced determination.
A lot of that time we’d been alone but for Astar, and he’d been much younger, a sleeping infant. It seemed so long ago in a strange way. So much had happened since. But we’d been united in our mission, newly reunited and flush with the joy of it. With her dusty from riding, wearing her leathers with her knife on her hip, none of us bathing for days on end, she’d become only a woman to me. My woman.
For long stretches of time, I’d forgotten entirely that she was a princess, daughter of the High King and soon to be queen in her own right. Then we’d left Annfwn and returned to the world—her world of castles, elaborate gowns, and holding court—and it had all come crashing back.
She said I’d withdrawn, and perhaps I had. Some of it, yes, had been to prepare myself for when we’d part again. The rest—
Something howled in me, scraping over my nerves, hollowing my heart. Though it still sounded like my own pleas, begging for a mercy that never came—enough that I nearly staggered from the onslaught of memories—I could separate it this time. Not me. Not my thoughts and pained memories. The dragon.
14
“Do you hear that?” I asked Ami.
She cocked her head, listening intently. “I hear the surf beyond the walls, and the howl of the Mornai winds. But nothing from the volcano. Did you feel it move?”
“No. It’s a sound on another level. I thought you might sense it, like you did the shadow guardians on the pass to Annfwn.”
She shook her head, the tail she’d tied her hair into bouncing. “I lost pretty much all of that once Stella was born. The only pieces I have left seem to be tied to her. What does it sound like?”
“Like when I hear what the horses are feeling.” I studied the branching tunnels. This far down they weren’t as even, not neatly carved out for human use. These were made by the flows of lava and venting of steam. Sweat beaded at my temples and ran down my back. At the edges of my senses, the dragon roared, flaming through nightmares. “You go on back up,” I told her.
“Sure!” she said brightly. “If you’re coming, too.”
I growled in frustration and she only beamed at me, all innocent amiability. “Fine, but pull your knife. Torch in the other hand. Stay behind me.”
“Yes, sir.” Snippy, but she complied.
I drew my sword, sorely wishing I could have a blade in each hand. Following the siren call of the dragon’s pain, I led us through a series of tunnels, descending through air that grew more sere, stinking of gases from beneath the earth, and of decay on a psychic level. It stung my nostrils, burned in my brain, and heated my lungs, making me want to breathe out the fire again.
Or that was the dragon, muttering in my mind.
More than once I started to say we should turn back, if only for Ami’s sake. Her face was flushed, sheened with sweat, but every time I looked back to check on her, she returned my gaze with fierce determination. She wouldn’t go back without me. And I couldn’t make myself stop.
The dragon drew me onwards, a compulsion below thought. I could no more resist than I could if this were one of the nightmares. I had no idea what I hoped to find, what I expected to do about the dragon, but I had to go on.