CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
I love you.
I didn’t know how it was possible with his kardia gone, but in that moment, the how didn’t matter. Because…
Ash had just said he loved me.
A rush of emotion hit me, stealing my breath. Those three words were so simple—a combination of just eight letters—yet so powerful. I’d never thought to hear them spoken by the one I loved.
“I don’t know exactly when I started to fall in love with you,” he said, smoothing his thumb along my jaw. “Maybe it started the night in the Garden District as we stood under the vines or when you plunged your dagger into my chest.”
Trembling laughter escaped me. “I sincerely hope that wasn’t when you started to fall in love with me.”
Eather swirled in his irises. “It quite possibly was.”
“If so, then that is quite demented in a…in an endearing sort of way,” I told him, feeling the back of my throat and eyes starting to sting. “By the way, the stabbing-you thing was an accident.”
“Sure.” He drew out the word. I moved to swat his arm, but he caught my wrist. He lifted my hand—his skin warm—to his mouth, pressing a kiss to the marriage imprint. His eyes lifted to meet mine. The tendrils of eather there were so incredibly bright. “I love you.”
A tremor started in my lower body, quickly racing up to my shoulders. “I-I don’t know why I’m shaking.”
He made a gruff sound, dropping his forehead to mine. “Liessa…”
My heart was beating so fast. Why was I so shaken by his declaration? I remembered what I’d heard him shout before I lost consciousness. Part of me must have known from the moment I awakened and realized who I was that Ash loved me. I wouldn’t be alive if he didn’t. But I had been too afraid to allow myself to believe that his love saved me. That it wasn’t a desperate deal made or the Arae intervening. I just never…
“I’d thought…” I whispered hoarsely, squeezing my eyes shut. “I thought I would die without knowing what your love felt like.”
Ash went rigid against me. “I couldn’t allow that,” he swore. “I will never allow that.”
My breath caught as I shuddered. His heated oath lingered in the space between our mouths, I thought maybe I had always known he loved me, despite the impossibility of it. Because how many times had I questioned what, other than love, could fuel his actions?
Was it possible that Maia hadn’t removed his kardia? Before I could ask if that was even possible, his mouth touched mine. The kiss was a fiery, passionate testament, proof that his words weren’t hollow. I could feel the love in the gentle yet fierce way his mouth parted mine and tasted his desire in the dance of our tongues.
Ash broke the kiss, rocking back. I opened my eyes. He knelt between my legs, his thick, glistening length jutting from his pelvis.
I bit down on my lip, wincing at the brief sting caused by—gods, my fangs. I had actual fangs. I would need to work on being more mindful of them. But not now—definitely not now. Because his fists landed on either side of my hips, and he lowered his head. The first touch of his breath between my thighs stole mine.
“I will spend the rest of eternity making sure you never doubt what I feel for you,” he promised, sliding his palms over my thighs. He parted them as he’d done with my lips moments before—gently and fiercely. “Starting now.”
I held my breath, toes curling in anticipation. I didn’t have to wait long. My back bowed as I felt his tongue sliding along the very center of me.
The entire realm ceased to exist. It was just him, me, and his sinfully talented tongue. All I could do was give myself over to the heat spreading throughout my body as he lapped at my wetness, driving me higher and higher. I writhed and bucked against his mouth with each stroke, every time his tongue delved into me.
His hands clamped down on my hips, keeping me trapped against his mouth. His tongue slid lower, parting me. I groaned, lifting my hips. The pleasure was so intense that it was almost painful, and he wasn’t slowing down or stopping.
“Ash…please,” I whispered, one leg curling, pressing into his side.
“I haven’t tasted enough of you.” His tongue flicked the knot of nerves, drawing a sharp cry from me. “I don’t think I’ll ever get enough.”
Clutching the blanket beneath me, I started to shake as he rolled his tongue over that sensitive part of me once more. Then he closed his mouth over my clit. The pull and sudden scrape of his fangs sent me over the edge.
“Ash,” I moaned.
His answering growl burned my skin, heightening the arousal. My head kicked back as I screamed, coming in a blinding, startling rush that I would’ve sworn to the gods transported me to another realm, because I had no idea how much—if any—time passed before I heard a rapping at the door.
“Is everything okay in there?” came Nektas’s muffled voice.
Either Ash hadn’t heard him, or he was ignoring the draken, because his answer was to flick his tongue over my heated flesh again.
My hips jerked, and my toes curled.
“I’m starting to get worried,” Nektas said.
I shuddered as he ran a finger through my wetness. “Ash.”
He drew back just enough for me to see his glossy lips. “Everything is fine.”
There was barely a chance for me to take a breath before his head dipped once more. He closed his lips over me as he worked a finger inside, wringing another gasp from me.
“Are you sure?” Nektas asked. My head turned toward the door. “I thought I heard screaming.”
“You didn’t.”
I gripped the blanket as Ash slowly moved his finger in and out.
“I’m pretty sure I did,” the draken insisted.
Ash’s finger eased from me. I started to rise onto my elbows, but his hand came on my chest, just below my neck.
His eyes pulsed with eather. His other hand went to my shoulder. “I’m not done with you.”
My breath caught as my gaze locked on his savage stare. I looked down where his cock remained, thick and heavy.
“What did you say?” Nektas asked.
Ash’s head whipped toward the sound. “I said I may kill you if you don’t get the fuck away from that door.”
My eyes widened. As I took in how still his chest was as he drew his hand down the center of mine, I thought maybe he would do that.
“Rude,” Nektas drawled. “I assume your uncalled-for threat of violence means that both of you are awake, alive, and well aware enough of each other that you’re…getting reacquainted?”
Ash’s head dipped, and a low snarl rumbled from him.
“I’m—” I clamped my mouth shut, muffling a moan as Ash drew my nipple into his mouth. “I’m fine.”
There was a pause. “You don’t sound fine.”
“I swear I am.” I reached down, grasping the back of Ash’s head as he moved to my other breast. “But I really think you won’t be if you don’t leave.”
There was a gap of silence, and then I heard a chuckle. “I am relieved to hear you are fine,” he said. “Meyaah Liessa.”
My Queen.
I gave a start, the implication of that—of what had happened—finally sinking in. What I’d seen. The voices I’d heard. My body locked up, and my lips parted.
My heart began to pound as Ash lifted his head from my breast. Somehow, I’d Ascended without the embers of life killing me. And they weren’t just inside me now. They weren’t even a part of me.