Page 122 of A Sword of Ice
Iona took a deep breath. That’s exactly what it had been. She’d taken the knife to her curls to remind herself of her sister’s suffering.
To remind her why she fought in the first place.
“I don’t think Mana abandoned you, Iona.”
The words made her heart squeeze painfully, which he must have felt down their bond. His fingers gripped her chin and tilted her head up to look at him.
“You’ve been searching for the truth about your sister for years, Iona.” His breath fanned across her lips. It was warm and smelt strongly of wine. “Mana gave you hope so you could find out the truth, and that’s what you did today. You discovered the truth, or else you would have spent your entire life wondering what had happened to your sister.”
His words sunk in her chest, calming the ache inside her. She wanted to argue against them but… they made sense. Perhaps he was right. Maybe this quest had never been about finding her sister alive at all. Maybe it had been about something more. About truths.
About saving Fae who couldn’t save themselves, and in them, find the spirit of the sister she so desperately loved.
She hadn’t been able to protect Malika, but she could protect others. She could save them from camps. She could fight in the upcoming war, for a warwascoming.
And Iona meant to be on the side of good.
She meant to fight the Emperor of Illyk.
And kill whatever hateful humans who got in her way.
Her fingers gripped his jacket. “Thank you,” she whispered, feeling all the tension leave her shoulders. The ache was still there, and it was something she knew almost instinctively would never go away.
“I will never abandon you, Iona,” he whispered. “No matter if your thoughts try to convince you otherwise, no matter how hopeless you feel, I willalwaysbe here. I’m in the bond tethered to your soul, the quiet spaces between the loud beating of your heart. Whenever you need me, I’m just a kiss away.”
Iona wasn’t sure who reached for who first. One moment Julius was speaking and the next her body was wrapped around him, feet hooking behind his waist, heels digging into his back, while their mouths devoured one another in an attempt to get closer.
As if close could never be close enough.
Space didn’t exist between them. Her fingers trembled as they reached for his clothes, pulling the shirt from his pants and reaching for the strings that kept them tied together. When his pants loosened, she reached her fingers inside to grasp his aching cock.
He groaned when she jerked her wrist, tugging at the velvety skin of him.
“Fuck, Iona, wait, fuck—”
“I need you.”
An animalistic growl rumbled from deep within his chest. Then she felt him turning, and a moment later she was dropped to her feet in the snow. Before she could cry out at the fact she wasn’t touching him anymore, he gripped her by the hips and whipped her around so she was facing her makeshift chair—or throne, as Julius would have it—and bent her over it.
He palmed her ass, squeezing the globes in his big hands before his hand snaked around to her front to cup her through her pants.
She didn’t need to see him to picture his wild expression as the groan was ripped from her lips. She didn’t need foreplay. When it came to him, her body was always primed and ready.
His fingers tugged at the drawstrings of her pants until they loosened. Then his fingers were inside, sliding up her wet folds in a teasing motion.
“Julius…” she groaned, jerking her ass back in his direction. She needed him desperately. She wanted the pleasure he could bring. She wanted the eradication of her memories. She wanted to get so lost in his thrusts that she couldn’t remember her own fucking name.
As if reading her desires down the bond, she felt his own pants loosen from behind her and slide down until his skin was warming her skin.
“Hold tight, Iona,” he ordered.
A moment later, her fingers were grasping fruitlessly at the ice. It slipped in her grasp until she wrapped her hands around the edge of the chair and dug her nails in tightly. Cold wanted to encase her body, but Julius chased it away with the warmth of his body against hers.
One hand against her hip, he used the other to guide his cock against her ass and down until he found the wet slide of her folds.
“Fuck, your ass is perfection.” A slap proceeded his words and she yelped. Wetness oozed from her legs, her clit pulsing with a screaming need for attention.
“Julius, stop fucking around.” She pushed back into him and he chuckled.
