Page 111 of Vicious Is My Throne

“I wanted to find a stone. I wanted a box with my own mark on it.” He rubbed his chest, his eyes flicking to that beam of light.

“I wanted proof. To know beyond a shadow of a doubt I was part of this. That you and I were tied together by something solid and irrefutable and real. Then I could lay my doubts to rest for good.”

“Our love isn’t real enough for you?” I asked gently. “I don’t need anything in this world but you, Raz. Our love is enough for me.”

“I’m a slave, Anaria.” He sounded so bitter. “A nobody. There is nothing I can offer you beyond this body, nothing I can promise you beyond words. I have no home, no money, not even a name to give you. Even with the collar gone, even though I’m free, nothing has changed.” He swallowed again. “I know this sounds foolish.”

“It doesn’t. Wanting proof of something isn’t foolish at all.” I gripped his chin with my other hand. “But know this. I am yours and you are enough, Raziel. You are enough for me and there is nothing in this world or the next that will prove that truth more than this.”

I cupped that beautiful face in my hands and kissed him, my tongue sweeping across his, tangling, devouring.

Like I was starving for him.

Like I could never, would never, get enough of this consuming want that always existed between us, where every taste made me hungrier, every touch made me burn.

Our magic flooded the room, bathing the silt-gray walls in a galaxy of starry power, whirling and terrible and beautiful. My darklings snaked across the floor, driving back the shadows and the slithering voices, erasing the darkness completely.

The entire blighted, chaotic world narrowed down to Raziel. His taste. His scent. His warmth, sinking into me like an August sun. His calloused palm, cupping the back of my head with such tender gentleness tears pricked my eyes. His mouth dominant and demanding and fierce.

There was no question in his kiss.

No doubt.

I broke away, holding him still before me, searching his brown eyes.

“I don’t need that box or any symbol to tell me you are the strongest, most honorable male I’ve ever known. And I would choose you again, Raz, every single time.”

With a loud click, the temperature of the room dropped as the interlocked stones of the floor resorted themselves. The entire floor moved, then locked back together, forming a recognizable pattern.

A circle with a line running straight through it.

The magic that had previously felt threatening now felt like a warm caress.

The shaft of light turned to an ethereal glow, and this time I let Raz go, let him claim the box and flip open the lid, and when I reached into my pocket, my stone was warm against my palm.

Whether Harehollow Manor was a trap or some sort of illusion no longer mattered, because Raz had gotten what he’d come here for.

And so had I.

My darklings guided us back through the labyrinth of hallways and passages then out the front doors where we were greeted by a rising crescent moon. Raz swept his hand around my back and yanked me against him with a fierce grin.

“Since you lost the horse, I suppose I’ll just have to carry you home, princess, not that I’m complaining.” Our lips brushed and we were tangled together again, surrounded by the hulking Howler corpses, the malevolent misty air snaking around our ankles.

But neither of us cared.

Not with our souls tangled together, Raz’s doubts finally put to rest.

We arrived back at Ravenshade, skirting the decaying bodies on our way upstairs, and found Bex still huddled over the duke’s desk. The mage looked up from the stack of papers. “Success?”

“I suppose you could say that.” In this light, Raz’s gash looked bad, but he waved me off and set the box down with a grin. “We found another one.”

Bexley inspected the box, then the keystone, carefully comparing them. “What I wouldn’t give for a real library right now,” he muttered. “I’ve never wasted much of my time researching keystones since they were so rare, but now you have…three of them?”

“So far.” I couldn’t stop grinning. “And Tristan and Tavion aren’t even back yet.”

All in all, today had been a banner day. We’d kicked some Descendant arse, freed two houses of slaves, and found four keystones. And the day wasn’t, technically, even over yet.

“There’s a library downstairs. Better, even, than the one at the Keep,” I told Bexley. “If you can stand the smell, that is.”

---