Page 33 of Lera of Lunos
“I—” Autumn and I both say together.
“No!” Kora glares at us both, her tone chilling the room. “There will be no suicide. If either of you thinks you will face Griorgi and survive just now, you can start by trying to get past me. And then that rabid tiger in the throne room. I’ll have the servants ready to mop up whatever bloody bits are left behind.”
24
Lera
“Tye?” The throne room door shuts behind me on silent hinges, the midnight bell’s distant toll a surreal sound against the darkness. Lifting the lantern, I survey the cold space.
Across the marble floor, the tiger cracks open one green eye and watches me curiously.
“You have no idea what happened, do you?” I bite my lip, wondering if I might not envy the animal’s oblivion. On the off chance that the other males are somewhere close, I reach out with my mind, trying to feel for a hint of Coal’s essence. I come up with nothing. Again. Only an emptiness that coats my core in darkness.
For the first time, I fully understand Shade’s choice to remain in wolf form after his twin’s death. I’d give a great deal to dull my emotions just now.They are alive,I remind myself.You’d feel their deaths if they happened.
Yes, River, Shade, and Coal are alive. Whether they’re wishing it were otherwise just now is a different question entirely.
Wincing, I set down the pair of blankets and bowl of milk I brought along. Despite the hours that the palace healer spent working on me, my body still hurts every time I move, but the pain is welcome. Deserved. I might be unable to disagree with Kora’s reasoning that we need a plan before taking action, but that does nothing for the hole in my chest. I spread out one of the blankets. “We can’t let you out of here in tiger form, but I thought lying on a marble floor might be... I brought this.”
Just when I think the tiger will not condescend to move, the great cat lumbers to his feet and pads over. Lowering his face into the bowl, he sneezes, sending droplets of milk flying. Lifting a pink nose, the tiger glares at me disapprovingly.
I cross my arms. “I’m aware that you aren’t a vegetarian, but if you think I’m hauling a plateful of dead rodents in here for your dinner, you have another thing coming.”
Tye’s tiger shifts his whiskers, his expressive green eyes saying, “Who said they needed to be dead?”
Ignoring the indignant feline, I take the second blanket into a corner as far from the throne—from the memory of Griorgi—as possible and curl into a ball. Tye might be a tiger just now, but I’ll share a marble floor with him over a bed alone any day. Or night.
* * *
I waketo the scent of clean lavender sheets mixed with a pine-and-citrus smell that wraps around me as tightly as the down coverlet. Blinking against the morning sunlight, I find Tye in his fae form, sprawled on the bed beside me, green eyes trained on my face. His heavy arm is a solid weight on my waist.
“Where—how—what time is it?” My words muddle in my mouth. It hurts to move. It hurts to live.
Tye brushes a hand down my hair. “About ten in the morning. Long enough for Autumn to have filled me in on what happened.” His face is tight, the pain behind his eyes as palpable as my own. “I shifted back around dawn and thought relocating off a marble floor was worth the effort.”
Reaching out, Tye pulls me against him, burying my face in his muscular shoulder while his arms encircle me tightly. Thelub-dub, lub-dubof his heart echoes through my flesh, spurring on my own.
“It isn’t fair,” I whisper, lifting my head enough to find his green eyes. My hands tighten on Tye’s bare skin, nails digging into his flesh. “The two of us here, in this soft down bed, while the others are held in shackles.”
The corners of the male’s mouth tighten but he doesn’t pull away, his own hands digging hard into my muscles instead. “No. It isn’t.”
I stare down at him. The hard lines of his face, his penetrating gaze, the sheer power vibrating off his sculpted muscles—he’s a citadel of strength. The rage of a battle I never got to fight in the throne room surges through me, making my heart pound. A fire blazes to life in my chest, wanting to burn the world out of sheer spite. To do something, anything, to punch through the veil of despair. I draw a sharp breath. And, with the next bang of my heart, close my mouth over Tye’s.
My tongue punches into his mouth, assaulting his with savage fury.
Tye growls, the sound vibrating his chest. Mouth still on mine, he twists us to shove my shoulders into the mattress, which bounces slightly beneath the sudden attack. Tye’s teeth scrape my lip as he pulls away, towering over my body as he straddles my hips. His hard hands grab my shirt, ripping it in a single, deafening motion.
The tearing fabric bites my skin, my heart quickening in response. My muscles coil, buck, fight against the immovable weight pinning me to the bed. “It isn’t fair,” I half shout, half sob, the pounding of memories bruising my soul. Griorgi’s leering shadow. His hand over my mouth. Bathwater splashing everywhere. River twisting in pain on the throne-room floor. Coal’s blue eyes blazing into mine one more time before disappearing into the Gloom. “It isn’t—”
Tye catches my wrist, and I realize I’ve just struck him. Was going for another blow. Overpowering me, the male pins my assaulting arms over my head in a vicelike grip. With his thighs bracketing my hips, one hand pressing my wrists into the mattress, he grips my gaze.
I let loose a shuddering breath, my sex clenching as helplessly as the rest of me.
Tye’s nostrils flare, no doubt taking in the harsh arousal. As if my body, unable to fight, demands a substitution.
Baring himself with an efficient motion, his green eyes fierce over mine, Tye positions his shaft at my opening and thrusts hard. Again. Again. The throbbing head of his cock finds the vulnerable spot inside me and gives no mercy, each stroke igniting a mix of pleasure and pain. A carnal hurt so strong that it echoes through my body, fighting back the darkness, if only for a moment.
“Harder,” I say through clenched teeth, riding the furiously growing need inside until it explodes beyond control. My body teeters on the edge of release, flashes of memory interspersing with blasts of sensation. I jerk against the restraints, flailing for freedom that I don’t know what I’d do with.
