Page 158 of A War of Three Kings

Right. We are not alone.

There is a whole warband of fae and my family with us. But I can’t seem to drag myself away from Aldrin, half poised to kiss him. We teeter on that edge, staring at each other with an unknown force pulling our bodies together, urging us to become one.

“How many months has it been?” Diarmuid continues, unaware of the battle within me. “Gods, it feels like a lifetime.”

Aldrin finds strength first, turning me on the spot. He groans so softly only I can hear as he presses my back against his chest. “Look,” he says, and I writhe against him, his breath on my neck sending shivers down my spine. “Look.” He growls the word this time, tilting my chin. “How long have you dreamed of returning here?”

I finally open my eyes to the scenery around us and almost weep at what greets me.

An ancient, unkempt garden. Winding paths with missing cobblestones, brimming with weeds. Bare, thorny rose bushes that tumble out of the garden beds and fall across the path. A weeping willow tree whose colors are all wrong, the branches cascading curtains of fiery red.A castle of golden towers encircled by a great wall in the near distance, looming over spans of bare orchards and greenhouses.

He has brought me home, to Appleshield.

The crisp winter air is the sweetest thing I have ever tasted, heavy with moisture from the mists and scented with the pines that surround the castle.

The others talk in rapid succession around us, but I hardly register them. Aldrin’s arms snake around me, his fingers drawing small circles across my belly that dip gradually lower. I rest my head back on his chest. This closeness to him is everything.

I can feel the signature of his life force humming through me, and mine responding. They curl around each other in a loving embrace, until there is no me or him, no separate entities, only us. Something deep and primal within me calls for more.

A deeper bonding of flesh and soul.

I try to drag myself back to the present. The vibrations emitted by the portal disappear at the edge of my awareness, and that is significant, for some reason. I glance back toward it, but become lost in the depths of Aldrin’s amber eyes instead as he peers down at me.

His thumb runs over my cheek, drags down my lower lip and draws the line of my jaw. I turn in his embrace, pressing my body hard against his and threading my hands through his hair as I soak in every detail of his face.

I can’t pull my eyes away.

My whole body feels like it is on fire, in the best possible way. It tingles as an all-consuming warmth flushes through me in hard bursts, making me gasp. Every inch of my skin is incredibly sensitive, and Aldrin’s light touches shoot more heat across its surface.

Powerful bouts of love radiate through me for the man before me, who risked life and limb time and again to save me. Who traveled to another realm because I called for him. Fought a war because I was threatened. Conquered a kingdom to make me happy. There is an invisible tether reaching out of me, entwining with the threads of Aldrin’s soul, growing, pulsing, but it needs more.

It demands to be fed.

His hands curl under my ass and lift me from the ground, and I wrap my legs around his waist, straddling him. I want those hands all over me. I need them on my bare skin. When his lips crash down on mine, it finally feels like I can breathe again. Like he is my only source of air.

The entire world condenses down to the slide of those lips on mine and the taste of his tongue slipping into my mouth. Every hard line of his body is pressed into my soft curves, and it is as though we were made for each other. As though this union is the only natural state for us.

Voices continue to chatter around us, but only a few penetrate the fog of my mind.

“Aldrin, should we be returning to the fight?” Silvan barks.

Drake laughs. “What fight? I’m pretty sure we won.”

“Aldrin? Aldrin! For gods’ sake, man, what is wrong with you?” Cyprien snaps.

Then he is pulling away from me, his whole body shaking with the effort of it. I can’t exist without him wrapped around me, tasting me,inside me. Surely, I will wither up and die. There is a single stride of space between our bodies, but it feels like an abyss that stretches out to the end of the world.

Aldrin’s eyes simmer with a hot intensity, never leaving me while his people continue to make demands of him. That invisible tether drags our bodies back together, and we wrap around each other again, lips clashing with ferocity.

The buzz in my brain is sated for a mere moment before it ramps up and begs for his bare flesh on mine. I tug on his tunic, wanting it off, but it is trapped beneath all the armor buckled to him.

I need more.

“Whatiswrong with them?” Diarmuid’s call drifts to me, but I can’t pull myself away from Aldrin. I practically climb himinstead, with no control at all over my urges. “Gods. There are certain things you don’t want to see your little sister doing.”

“Then stop looking!” Caitlin snaps. “Cyprien. Have they been drugged?”

“By the Soul Ripper! Are they—is this…?” Drake’s incredulous voice cuts over the others. I really should be embarrassed, but I can’t focus on anything other than Aldrin.

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