Page 44 of Mistake of Magic
When I can breathe again, I snake my hands under his shirt, my fingertips tracing his muscles and heading lower. Tye’s breath catches, the hardness beneath me a newly living, throbbing thing. I wriggle, turning in his lap to face him as my hands brush that bulge, seeking the laces holding his breeches in place. I lick my lips, knowing Tye’s eyes follow the tip of my tongue. “I want to taste you,” I whisper. “I want to know whether you taste better than chocolate.”
The flash of hurt in Tye’s eyes is so quick that I’m uncertain I truly saw it before he grins, waggling his brows. “Oh, I’m much,muchbetter than chocolate.”
I wrap the tail of his fly’s lace around my finger, but Tye’s hand closes over mine before I can let him loose.
“I’m so much better than chocolate that dinner will taste bland,” he drawls. “I can’t do that to you. It would just be cruel.”
I open my mouth to protest, but Tye gathers me to him again, his calloused hand rubbing circles on my back as he buries his face in my hair, breathing deeply and throbbing beneath me.
Tye.Tye.The male I’d considered the most easygoing of the quint may be the most challenging puzzle yet.
28
Lera
“Atoast,” Kora says, lifting her wine goblet into the air and grinning at our two quints and Autumn, all sitting around the dinner table. Well, mostly sitting, given that Shade, Coal, and I can barely keep ourselves upright. Even now, the wolf shifter’s yellow eyes are dull and filled with pain. Kora swallows, her voice faltering for a moment before regaining its hard-won cheerfulness. “To the only quint in Citadel history to pass a second trial before the first.”
“That isn’t technically correct,” Autumn says. “Fifty years ago—”
“Quiet, Sparkle.” Tye lifts his glass, the dark red wine in it releasing aromas of black currant and vanilla. “Details of history are no reason to let a drinking opportunity pass us by.”
I take a small sip. The wine’s full flavor and velvety texture spread over my tongue. Stars, but it’s good, especially beside the thick slices of roast lamb and aged cheese that weigh down the table and make my stomach dance.
As if smelling my thoughts, River pulls my chair closer to his with one arm and pushes my plate closer to me, adding a sauce to the garlic-baked lamb in the center. “Eat,” he says. “You need to eat more.”
I wince. “I’m not too sure of that.”
“Well,Ineed you to eat more.” River’s eyes roam my skin. “Would you like more carrots? They’re good for you. The cheese too, if—”
“You will make an excellent grandmother one day,” I tell the prince of Slait, taking a bite of aged cheese just to make him stop fussing. The moment the slice leaves my plate, a new one appears. Together with a helping of grapes. I roll my eyes at River, using the motion as an excuse to glance over at Coal, who has barely looked at me since the trial.
He suddenly finds his food endlessly fascinating.
Right. I clear my throat. “Has anyone seen Malikai?”
“Not since the council ordered his quint to the tower,” Kora says. “Apparently, they were none too pleased that four of the five quint warriors yielded before the combat started. They’re bastards, yes, but I little envy them just now.” She winces, either in empathy for Malikai or at her newfound imprudence at speaking so plainly of the council.
I pick up my knife and fork and slice into the lamb, which releases a bouquet of tingling spices. “What will happen to them?”
“They’ll live another day,” Coal says, finishing his wine in a single long gulp. His loose black shirt is open at the collar to reveal a muscled neck and still-pale skin. “Which would not have been the case if they’d stepped onto the sand with the surrender ward disabled,” he continues casually, violence edging his words.
“A most unusual situation,” says a musical voice that makes my throat burn.
Everyone at the table rises to their feet, bowing to Klarissa and Elidyr as they stride up to our table. Well, Elidyr strides; Klarissa flows with a dancer’s grace. The female is dressed in a satin gown the color of onyx, and she owns every inch of the shimmering fabric. A fine gold chain woven into her dark hair hangs down onto her forehead, the tear-shaped diamond at its center giving the impression of a third eye.
“Oh, I like that,” Tye says, his eyes sparking at Klarissa’s jewel. “You wouldn’t wish to part with it for a tidy—”
I hit him in the solar plexus.
“Oof.” Tye rubs his sternum, glaring at me in brazen innocence. “What?”
“If this goes missing, Tye,” Klarissa says, her eyes narrowing, “I’ll make Coal’s adventures at the whipping post yesterday seem like a pleasant pastime.”
The corners of Tye’s mouth twitch.
“Please, sit,” Klarissa says, gesturing amiably with both hands and waiting for us to obey. “As I was saying”—she clears her throat in an attempt to reclaim her earlier momentum—“the council regrets any inconvenience that the glitch in the wards may have caused. I assure you, the matter will be investigated fully.”
Heat rises to my face, my fists clenching in my silk-covered lap. Klarissa has already tried to have me killed once, and she was certainly the damn culprit behind the failed ward. The males might be content to let this pass, but exhausted and furious as I still am, I’m ready to state the truth aloud. Before I can, however, Tye’s arms encircle me, pulling me back against his muscled body—and halfway onto his chair. His scent, with which I was very intimately acquainted an hour ago, heats my skin, but my eyes narrow on Klarissa nonetheless. I open my mouth to—
