Page 135 of Clash of Storms
But Malin only had eyes for her lover.
Sirius let the queen fall to the ground, looking slightly dazed by the turn of events.
He took a limping step to the side, the sword falling from his bloodied knuckles as he looked for her.
Malin flew across the bloodstained grass into his arms, her small weight sending him back a step. She dragged his head down to hers to kiss him, exhilaration making her heart race. Sirius swung her up into his arms, and swirled her in a circle.
It was over.
"You're safe. You killed the Queen!"
Sirius's firm arms hauled her against his bare chest and he squeezed her tightly. "We're both safe.Andriis safe."
She could sense the breathlessness in his voice.
As if he'd been staring impossible odds in the face for so long, he simply couldn't believe fate had dealt them an even hand.
There'd been no time to pause and catch breath since she broke into the court. Malin drew back, and her bare toes touched the ground as he let her down. Malin gripped his arms, assured by the physical sensation of him beneath her touch. His biceps flexed beneath her touch, and she bit her lip as the impossible urge to kiss him again near overwhelmed her.
"You're right. The queen's dead. Your father's dead. Andri's been rescued. Which means you no longer have any reason not to mate with me."
"Malin," he breathed, his callus-roughened hand caressing her cheek. "Are you asking me to mate with you?"
The stroke of her thumb over his arm drew his sultry blue gaze.
"Have I not waited long enough?" she dared him.
Sirius's smile held nothing but wickedness. "Not nearly as long as I have."
"Take me to your volcano," Malin whispered. "I want to be yours."
Sirius bent to lift her into his arms. "As you wish," he purred, with an indecent look in his eye.
"I don't think so," said a sharp voice to her right.
Malin's head whipped around sharply.
Princess Árdís stood there with her hands on her hips, and a smudge on her cheek. Her eyes glinted with pure evil, and when Árdís smiled like that, it boded ill. "Sirius, you weren't planning on stealing my handmaid away from me without a word, were you? You couldn't possibly be intending to mate with her—"
"I'll damned well mate with her if I want to," he snapped, and Malin grabbed him as his gaze turned icy.
"I wasn't finished," Árdís replied, and the smug way she said it made Malin's stomach fall. Árdís had plans, and if there was one thing she knew about the princess, it was how stubborn she was. "We've just won our freedom, and what better way to celebrate than with a mating ceremony? This fractured court has spent years being crushed under my mother's heel. Drekling have been treated as a lesser race all this time, and change shall not happen overnight. It will take years of patience and care to heal the wounds my mother inflicted. But if they see you take Malin as your mate, it might go a long way to healing the rift in the court.
"This is a love story for the ages," the princess replied. "Drekling children are going to be whispering about it forcenturies—of how a drekling handmaid stole a wickeddrekiprince's heart, and turned him against his evil father's plans. You wouldn't deny the court a celebration like this, would you?"
His eye narrowed. "Árdís—"
"One more day," Árdís begged. "I will plan everything. Malin's father will be there to give his daughter to you. She can wear one of my gowns, and I shall be her attendant. It will be perfect."
Sirius locked gazes with Haakon. "You wouldn't believe how incredibly glad I am that her highness marriedyou. You have my condolences."
Haakon slung his arm around his wife's shoulders and grinned. "She makes life interesting."
"And I'm adorable," Árdís said, cooing up at him.
"Malin? What do you want to do?"Sirius asked her, on a thought-thread.
"I should like to fly west and let you have your way with me,"she teased."But the princess makes a persuasive argument. It would do the court good to witness a dreki prince take a drekling as his mate."
