Page 222 of Golden Queen
"Amon, my boy," The master said, moving to step around the table.
"No," Io said and the word held power that crackled through the air, stopping the old man in his tracks.
"Let's go, Sera." he said again. His eyes were swirling pits of black. The shadows had gathered, and they were barely staying below the surface of his skin.
I rose, turning to the master, but I couldn’t speak. I was afraid whatever I said would be construed as sorrow and Io would fracture. I was already so near to the point of fracturing myself.
Io took my hand, and he was icy cold. The shock of it stilled my steps for a moment, but only a moment as I went with my shadow-wreathed lord wherever he was taking me.
He stopped at the door and turned back to Aben. "Go back to Orin. I would not have you caught between Behr and me—for what comes next."
"Io, no," I said sharply.
"Sera," he warned.
I was about to open my mouth again when Aben pushed off the wall. "You know good and gods damned well I wouldn't stand against you for anyone. I will stay."
"You will go." Io said angrily, involuntarily tensing his hand on mine until I winced.
"I fucking won't,” Aben said. “Even the king would never expect a man of Darkwatch to stand against his lord."
"There will not be any standing against anyone," I said, looking at them both in turn.
Io's thick, oppressive power filled the air, and I felt Aben's fire for the first time. It was a smoky, liquid pulse through the chamber. It pushed up against Io’s magic as their anger drew together in a storm cloud. The room wavered in front of me like the air above a flame.
"Stop it, both of you," I said. Surely they wouldn't truly hurt each other.
I put my hands on Io's chest and shoved him. He was immovable.
In the end, Aben put his hands up. "We'll talk about this later, cousin. When you and Sera have had time to discuss it."
Io stared, his face a dark effigy of my dragon rider. His brows were drawn low over narrowed black eyes, sharpened into blade-thin slits. He relaxed slightly and nodded. I still felt the rage simmering off him. It thickened the air and made that dull ache in the pit of my stomach much larger.
He turned to go, pulling me behind him as faint tendrils of shadow streaked back from the edges of his body.
We left the Citadel on Veles, whose normally bright green eyes seemed muted and dull, as though Io's dark attitude was infecting him as well. Temperamental ripples of displeasure ran down his body as we landed at the back of the Mountain Palace.
Io pulled me along across the ridge's wide expanse of snow and rock. He had not spoken a single word since we left Master Cassius' chambers. Neither had I, since I knew the moment I did, we would fight spectacularly.
I was not ready to say what I knew I would say.
He was not ready to hear it as his body thrummed with dark, twisted energy.
I was barely able to think about it as my heart fractured painfully inside my chest.
Thirty-Eight
When we reached the Palace, he released me and stalked to the bed chamber. He opened the door and held it aside, saying, "Come, Sera," in that cold voice.
I followed him—if only because I didn't know what else to do. My chest felt close to cracking again as it had before—after the betrothal contract—when I had been in so much pain I could hardly bear it.
I sat on the edge of the bed while he stripped off his coat, throwing it to the side as he watched me.
He was a near stranger with those dark features and that intense, angry shape of his narrowed eyes.
He began to pull at the hem of his tunic, lifting it over his head. A thrill of heat rushed through me at the sharply defined torso revealed. Despite it all, my body began to ache for him. Something about the darkness, the danger, had always called to me.
My fingers itched to trace the lines of that broad chest I knew so well. I wanted to rake my nails across his flesh and spread my palms over the thick muscles of his arms. I was desperate for the feeling of him to erase all this despair inside me.
