A light in the flame

The carriage I’d arrived in waited for us outside the coliseum, surrounded by guards and soldiers in gray. Saion stood at the open doors, bowing upon our approach. “Your Highnesses,” he drawled.

Ash sighed. “You’re really going to start with that?”

“It’s not for your benefit,” Saion remarked, winking at me.

“Of course,” Ash murmured, a faint grin appearing as he climbed into the carriage, then turned, extending a hand toward me. “Consort.”

The wild fluttering feeling was back as I took his hand, welcoming the zap of energy coursing from his palm to mine. He helped me into the carriage as several of the draken took flight from the pillars, lifting to the sky above us. I moved to the bench opposite Ash when Rhain appeared in the carriage’s open door, holding two large shadowstone boxes. He placed them on the floor of the interior.

“Crowns,” Ash explained, reaching up to remove his.

A little relieved that I could remove the heavy—albeit beautiful—crown, I carefully worked it free from my hair as Rhain opened the first box. My neck immediately thanked me.

Ash knelt between the benches, placing his crown in the ivory velvet interior. As Rhain closed one box and opened the other, Ash took my crown, his fingers brushing mine and sending a shiver of awareness through me.

“They will remain with you two,” Rhain explained, sending me a quick glance as he slid the heavy boxes against the foot of the bench I sat on. “And then they will be moved to a small chamber off the throne room, where they are stored and can be retrieved whenever you like.”

“Thank you,” I said, and he nodded with one more skittering glance. I hoped he wasn’t thinking of what he’d told me before the coronation.

It was something I couldn’t allow myself to think about as my gaze found its way to where Ash lounged in the seat across from me.

“We will be on our way in a few moments,” Rhain a

“Some of my soldiers will ride ahead,” Ash explained, his elbow resting on the ledge of the carriage wall. “To make sure the road is clear for us.”

“Is that necessary?”

“Not really,” he admitted with a shadowed grin. “But they’re taking the safety of their Consort seriously.”

I arched a brow. “But not their Primal?”

“I think they’re more worried about you than me.”

“Sounds a bit…sexist.”

“Possibly.” His grin deepened, revealing a hint of fang in the glow of the sconce. “But not all the guards nor the soldiers are aware of your ability to handle yourself. However, even if they were, they would still want to make sure the path you travel on is a safe one. That is their duty.”

“One they chose?”

His fingers slid across his chin as he eyed me. “All those who serve as guards or soldiers do so out of choice, fully prepared to take on all the responsibilities of such a position. Is it not that way in Lasania?”

“Some say there is a choice for whether one joins the armies. But is it really a choice for those who weren’t able to learn skills while growing up or ca

“Neither do I,” Ash agreed, and he was silent as the carriage remained still. He offered his hand to me once more. “Sit with me?”

I halted for a moment, mostly out of surprise, and then I rose, taking his hand. He didn’t lead me to the seat beside him; instead, he adjusted himself so he sat with his back against the carriage wall and placed me on the bench between one bent leg and the other that he had propped on the floor. The shimmering gown spilled over the side of the bench and his right leg.

“I can taste your surprise,” he murmured as he brushed the strands of hair from the nape of my neck.

I gave a little jerk at the touch of his cool fingers against my neck. “When you asked that I sit with you, I didn’t think you meant that I was to basically sit in your lap.”

“Do you mind?”

“No.” I drew my thumb against the inside of my palm, following the swirl there.

“Good,” he replied. “How is your neck?”

“A little achy.”

“That’s what I thought. The weight can take a bit to get used to.” His fingers pressed into the tight muscles on either side of my spine, moving in slow circles. My lips parted on a heady sigh. “How does that feel?”

“It feels…” My eyes drifted shut. “Like magic.”

His chuckle was rough as his thumbs pressed in, soothing and working out the knots gathered there. My back arched, my breasts straining against the bodice as he worked his way down. It really was like magic, how quickly he eased the tension that had gathered there.

And how quickly he built up a wholly different tension that gathered itself far from his touch. One relaxing. One exhilarating. I couldn’t pick which was better, not even with a sword held to my throat.

Ash’s palms slid over the diamonds to curl around my shoulders. “How does your neck feel now?”

“Perfect,” I breathed, only then becoming aware that I’d reclined against his chest, and that the carriage had begun to move at a snail’s pace. “Thank you, Ash.”

He tensed against me.

My eyes opened as my stomach tumbled. “Do you…do you mind that I call you that?”

“No. Not at all,” he stated roughly, trailing his hands up and down my arms. “I missed it when you didn’t.”

Now it was my heart that spun as I turned my head to the side. “Really?”

“Really.” His breath danced over my cheek as his hands found their way to my waist. “I feel a need to admit something to you.”

“What?”

“I know we could be discussing many things right now. Plans for Irelone. What provoked this change in what you wish from me—from us,” he said, and my breath skipped as my eyes opened. “Your thoughts on the coronation.”

I bit my lip as his hands coasted down my hips, relieved that he had moved on. “But?”

“But only one thing has occupied my thoughts from the moment I saw you in this dress and heard you call me Ash.” His words were a silken caress in the carriage. “And it’s not seeing you out of this dress, although that is a close second.”

I trembled.

“Nor was it seeing you bare with nothing but the crown atop your head.”

My pulse picked up as his left hand slid across my stomach. “Was that a close third?”

“A close fourth.” His hand moved even lower on my abdomen, sending a wave of rippling pleasure. “Third was imagining you naked upon the throne.”

“I’m begi

“More like an obsession,” he countered, lips brushing the curve of my ear and sending a delicate series of shivers through me. “One I’m likely not worthy of exploring.”

I stiffened. “You’re worthy.”

He made a rough sound against my neck, moving his left hand in slow circles that steadily made their way below my navel. “Am I? Doesn’t really matter at the moment because I’m too greedy, too selfish to care,” he said, and he was none of those things as he slid his other hand down my outer thigh.

I started to tell him he wasn’t greedy or selfish, but before I could get my tongue around the words, his hand drifted lower and over my thigh.

“What is this?” Ash asked, tilting his head to the side as he hiked up the skirt of the gown, not at all mindful of the many tiny diamonds as he bared my leg all the way to the top of my thigh. “Your dagger.” He made a deep, rumbling sound as his hand closed over the hilt. The touch of his cool fingers against my flesh caused me to jerk. “Fuck.”

I felt the scrape of his fangs against my throat. I gasped, places all over my body tensing deliciously.

“I think seeing you with nothing but that dagger strapped to your thigh has taken second place. Not first, though,” he told me. I jolted as his fingers coasted over my i