Page 50 of The Stygian Crown

“I’ve heard they burn a plant that acts as an aphrodisiac during these performances. Leaves people with fond memories of the evening, if you know what I mean. If you’ve got your eye on a particular lord, you should capitalize on it tonight.”

Kara’s mouth watered, and she swallowed her excess spit.Fuck. She had not come prepared for sex smoke.

The tempo of the music increased, and their dance became more frenetic. The dancers writhed. Their jewels shook. The drums pounded in her ears. A frenzied energy hung over the room like a wave about to break. Her mark itched, and the back of her neck was hot. The sapphire dancer’s rippled abdomen gleamed with sweat, and Kara couldn’t look away.

Logan’s gaze on her felt like a live brand. She could smell his arousal drifting through the smoke. She twisted her head away from the dancers, and her eyes fell on him immediately, pulled there like an anchor. His eyes caught hers and trailed lazily down her body. His exploration missed nothing. It was slow, methodical. Utterly licentious. Kara’s core pulsed.

The smoke in the air grew thicker. The drummers reached their peak. Kara stood up too fast, her silverware clattering on the table. She needed to get out—escape before she was nothing but a writhing, wanton mass on the floor. Kara fled the room, and Logan followed her like a dark promise.

Chapter Eleven

Kara exited the palace and sucked in deep breaths of fresh air, trying to clear her mind. But the air was muggy, her sweat sticky on her skin, and the erotic suggestions her mind supplied refused to fade. She could almost hear the drumbeat still thudding through her blood. She needed room to breathe, to think.

Kara fled towards the stables and searched for Drum. She found her in a stall next to the other Stygian horses. The stable attendants were absent; they likely snuck away to join in the festivities. She quickly saddled her mare and headed for the forest.

Kara rode deeper into the royal forest than she’d ever been before. Tonight it was not so menacing. Moonlight shattered the shadows, and her mind was too consumed by lust and thoughts of Logan’s heated gaze to imagine what might lurk in the darkness. The intimate rocking of the saddle between her thighs taunted her. Her mark burned so hot her silver cuff stung her skin. She tore it off and shoved it into a saddlebag.

Kara rode deeper into the forest’s depths, and its magic curled around her.

He’s yours,dark seduction whispered in her ear.Why do you run from him? He is your consort. He is strong, worthy. I have looked within his mind’s scarred depths, and it is only for you.

Kara shook her head, trying to block out the hot hum that buzzed across her skin. She came to a clearing beneath the limbs of a large tree and reined in Drum. Dense fog clung to this patch of forest. Fireflies skimmed along the moss gathered at the tree’s roots. Moonlight filtered through the branches overhead, casting a shadow lattice on the ground that trembled in the wind.

This is a secret place, that strained, distant voice whispered.

Kara dismounted and looped the reins over the saddle horn so Drum could graze. She pulled the water flask on the saddle from its clasp and took a sip, hoping it held alcohol, but stale, warm water met her tongue. She paced, drank, paced some more, and when her bladder was full she itched all the more for it.

Kara circled the tree and stilled. The opposite side of the trunk hosted an altar stone stained with old blood. An antlered deer’s skull hung behind it, nailed to the tree.

The wind blew and bones clattered. She jerked her head up. Animal skeletons littered the tree branches. They’d been carefully reconstructed, tied together at the joints, and hung here. A snake slithered in the wind. Birds bobbed up and down. A wolf was poised to bite, its incisors sharp and curved. Kara shuddered, and they mimicked her, dancing in the still air.

The soft snort of a horse alerted her to his arrival. She knew he was there, his presence as sure as the racing heartbeat in her chest. Hot breath billowed from Char’s nostrils, clouding the air.

Logan dismounted and crossed to her, taking in the altar and the skeleton tree with a curious look.

“You’d rather fuck beneath the skeleton tree than in my bed?”

“Who said we were fucking?”

“You will, before this night is through.”

Kara shivered at the promise in his words. “You know this place?”

“We both do.”

Memory of her vision during her Stygian initiation flooded back, when she’d felt Logan press her to the altar stone and heard the tinkling of bones. She was always going to end up here. They were inevitable.

Kara gulped, her throat dry despite the water she’d guzzled. “You saw it too?”

Logan nodded. “Though I didn’t believe it until now.”

“Why did you follow me?”

“This forest is deadlier than the Blackshear. Namirah’s magic lingers here, and someone could be following you. Don’t worry. I won’t do anything you don’t ask me for.”

Kara did not like the sound of that. She was weak where he was concerned.

He ran a hand over the altar stone, moving closer. “You didn’t run very far. Maybe you wanted me to catch you.”

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