Page 9 of Only Flames Remain

I shook my head as I glanced out the window, my fingers placed lightly against the cool glass. The citizens that had damage to their homes and shops would need to rebuild. We had been truly lucky there had been no casualties, especially considering the devastation the dragons had wrought.

It didn’t escape me that this show of power had occurred the day before the biggest festival in all the kingdom. It felt quite pointed and calculated on Gothryn’s behalf.

Kallias pulled me gently from the window, pressing me down against the pillowy white bed. His mouth met mine, and instant relief wash over me. He was here, and he was safe. His lips were warm against mine, fervent. His strong hands held me against him tightly enough that I could barely take a deep breath between our kisses. My fingers brushed through his shaggy blond hair, over the tips of his pointed ears to grasp the back of his head to press him harder against me.

I never felt safer than I did in Kallias’s arms. He leaned back, gazing into my eyes with a heavy sigh.

“These eyes.” He hummed, grasping my hand to bring it to his lips and press a chaste kiss against my skin.

I hummed back, my eyes falling closed as I enjoyed the warmth of his body pressed over mine.

“I will be sad to leave you,” he murmured against me.

My eyes snapped open. “What do you mean?”

He bent his elbow against the bed, propping his head up on his hand as he leaned over me. “To slay the dragons, of course.”

I sat up with a start, pushing him off me. “Kallias…you can’t be serious.”

He met my grave stare with one of his own. “I am, Aveline. What do you expect us to do?”

I shook my head, mouth dry. “Not that!”

Kallias scooted closer, pulling my hand back into his and rubbing his thumb against me in a soothing pattern.

“Aveline, we don’t have much of a choice. The Blackwater royals clearly have no intention of obeying the newly instated peace accords. It has been what, a week? Two? They already have to show us that they’re more powerful than we are.”

“And your solution is to kill them yourself?” I asked, my voice barely audible.

A grin spread across his beautiful mouth. “Not alone, of course. But the Blackwater princes must be stopped. If there was ever a time to retaliate…it is now. King Mavros grows weak. He offers his throne to his bastard son. We need to take advantage of what could possibly be their only weakness.”

“You can’t go,” I whispered, the hand not clasped in his burying between the buttons of his tunic to touch his soft flesh. His chest hair tickled my fingertips as my gaze dropped to our hands twined between us.

“Aveline, I must. If Myros is to survive, the dragons cannot. They have corrupted their own continent well enough. We can’t allow them to conquer ours. We stand no chance against them in a head-to-head battle. Their dark magic will always prevail,” he replied, grasping my chin to turn my gaze up toward his.

Those jade green eyes held mine as he pressed his forehead against me. “I will come home to you, I promise.”

But he couldn’t promise that, could he? He endeavored to slay a dragon. It was no easy feat to be certain. They were too powerful.

Hadn’t he told King Faris that immediate retaliation would be against our best interests? Asking him about it was out of the question—it would reveal that I had been eavesdropping.

I leaned away from him to search his gaze. “It’s too dangerous.”

Kallias nodded. “It is dangerous. But lest you forget, Veytari fae magic thrums through my veins. The light will withstand the dark, as it always does.”

He pressed his lips to mine once more and I dissolved into it, consumed by him. If we were to be parted from one another, it wouldn’t be on bad terms. It would be with the reminder of my lips and body still fresh on his lips.

He laid me back against the pillows—his teeth nipping at my bottom lip—drawing a soft giggle out of me. I loved Kallias completely. He was pure and gentle. Good, down to his very bones. He always wanted what was best for his people. It was what made me fall for him in the first place.

He was a devoted prince and would make an even more devoted king. I would be proud once he ascended the throne in Myros to take his place as their ruler. I worried for him if he planned to journey across the sea. But if there was anyone who could do it, it would be Kallias and his faithful commander, Galen Prynn.

His mouth pressed against mine more insistently, begging for me to open. He slid his tongue inside to caress my own as he wrung a soft moan out of me.

Right as I was about to peel off his tunic, a throat clearing behind us had us springing apart.

I blushed, thoroughly embarrassed. Had someone knocked and we hadn’t heard it?

Queen Dyata stood at the foot of the bed; her expression not amused in the slightest. She watched with a judgmental gaze as I adjusted the bodice of my dress, flattening my hair back against my scalp to make myself as presentable as possible. I wiped the taste of Kallias from my swollen lips with the back of my hand.