Page 21 of Legacy of the Heirs
“You lied to me.”
Tajana’s head jerked up to meet Nyzaia’s eyes, though Nyzaia could not read her expression. “When?” Nyzaia was no fool; she was accustomed to dissecting words. Tajana did not deny it.
“You said you were visiting the guards’ quarters, yet you were not there.” Nyzaia tried to pull her foot away, but Tajana held itfirmly in place. “Then, Lord Israar and I watched you skulking back to the palace from the canyons.” Tajana narrowed her eyes.
“Lord Israar?” she asked, a sharp tone in her voice. “He is around here often.” Nyzaia glanced away, and Tajana dropped her foot. “What is going on with you?”
“What is going on withyou?” Nyzaia snapped. Steam now rose between the pair, dampening their faces and hair. Tajana’s face softened.
“I did not want to worry you, but there are stirrings amongst the Red Stones,” she confessed, reaching for the soap. She raised Nyzaia’s leg and began washing. “They need a leader, Nyzaia, and sadly, you can no longer fill that role.” Nyzaia pulled away in protest. “They need someone permanent, so I have been helping them to narrow down candidates for trial.”
“Trial?”
“Yes, it is how you were chosen, and Arjun Qadir before you.”
Nyzaia scoffed. “He did not exactly abide by the rules.”
“No, he never did, and look where it landed him.” Tajana took Nyzaia’s next leg and slid the soap along it. Nyzaia ignored the rising sensations stirred from her touch.
“So, you are mediating. Is that all?”
“That is all,” Tajana confirmed. “Now, you and Israar…” Tajana looked at Nyzaia with a suggestive look in her eyes.
“God no!” Nyzaia spluttered. The thought of his oily hands touching her made her feel nauseous.
“Then what is it if he does not wish to bed you?”
Nyzaia sighed as Tajana glided the soap up the remainder of her thigh. Hooking Nyzaia’s knee over her shoulder, Tajana discarded the soap and stroked water over her skin to wash away the suds.
“He does not think I should be with you,” she relented, gasping as Tajana’s nails pinched her skin as she pulled Nyzaia closer, pressing her against the cold wall of the bath. Tajana leaned in.
“And why is that?” Tajana whispered. Nyzaia stifled a groan, and Tajana smiled against her ear. “Why, Nyzaia?” she repeated,gripping Nyzaia’s thigh in one hand while the other trailed her abdomen below the surface until reaching the peak of her nipples. She pinched, and Nyzaia failed to keep quiet. “Why?”
“He knows you’re a part of the Red Stones,” she relented, tilting her head back as Tajana’s mouth moved from her ear to her breast, taking her nipple in her mouth. She squirmed and reached for Tajana’s hips. Tajana raised her head and brushed her thigh between Nyzaia’s legs, pushing against her and gripping her hands.
“And does he know what I would do to him if anyone tried to take you from me?” Tajana asked. Nyzaia swallowed hard as Tajana’s hand moved from her wrist to the apex of her thigh. She circled a finger between her legs, never quite meeting the spot Nyzaia so desperately craved. Tajana’s other hand moved, tugging at Nyzaia’s hair tied in the ribbon.
“Does he think that anyone else could make you feel the things I do?” asked Tajana. She whimpered and reached for Tajana’s breasts while Tajana tugged at Nyzaia’s ribbon, freeing her hair, which cascaded down her back. Roughly, Tajana grabbed Nyzaia’s hands, pulling them above her head and licking the column of her neck in the process. She looked intently into Nyzaia’s eyes as she tied the ribbon around her wrists. “Can anyone else make you feel this way, my love?” asked Tajana, her fingers returning to the spot between Nyzaia’s thighs.
“No,” Nyzaia whimpered. Tajana chuckled against Nyzaia’s neck and lifted her until she sat on the edge of the bath, spreading her legs wide.
“And will you tell him that?” Tajana asked. Nyzaia leaned back until she lay flat against the tiles, her wrists tied above her head. Tajana kissed the insides of her thighs while two fingers teased her entrance, waiting for an answer.
“Yes.” Nyzaia arched off the wet tiles as Tajana pushed her fingers inside her.
“Good,” Tajana said, and Nyzaia closed her eyes, relishing in the sensation of Tajana’s hands and tongue. How could she ever doubt Tajana and the love between them?
Chapter Twelve
Elisara
“You are his star.” Under the heat of the Ashun Desert sun, Elisara replayed one of the final things her mother said to her. All along, she knew she would die at her own hand and send the other rulers to their deaths. Had her father known? Or was he, too, betrayed and sent to his death alongside Elisara’s sisters? Fury bubbled in Elisara’s blood as she pictured her mother and the tormenting sound of her voice. Turning the words over, she stared at the back of Kazaar’s head. With the oddity of their relationship—the sun, the moon,celestial—she wondered if a double meaning had existed in her mother’s words that day.
Had she known of this ancient tie binding her and Kazaar? Elisara had believed the only mystery was discovering who plotted the deaths of the royal families in Novisia. Now, however, she found that mysteries seemed never-ending. Perhaps the mystery of mysteries was their infinite nature.
Elisara rode at the back of the group, having been the last to arrive in the palace courtyard before leaving Tabheri, in a bid to avoid alone time with Kazaar. Her fear had kept her from succumbing to his gentle caresses when she had awoken and from following the tie in their minds down dark corridors to find him during the night.
Despite being so far from Kazaar, she felt him. Neither Nyzaia nor her syndicate, Vlad, Helena, Vigor, or Talia, could create enough distance from him. She was foolish to hope distance would somehow erase his all-consuming presence in her mind, as though he was the ocean drowning her beneath his waves, never allowing her time to breathe.
