‘That’s it,’ he whispers against my ear. ‘Let me see you come, Thorn. Let me watch you come with me inside you. Let me feel you clamp around me.’

The hunger in his eyes has reached a new level of burning, but that damn iron will of his is still stopping him from letting himself go. And it’s not as though I’m going to be able to hold on forever. Every movement he makes within me is bringing me closer and closer to the edge.

‘I want to feel you lose yourself with me,’ I beg, ‘like you’ve never lost yourself with anyone before, Kyor. I need that. Lose yourself in me like you did the first time we kissed. Do everything to me now that you imagined doing then. Take me like this is all we get.’

‘I’m not sure that’s wise.’ He growls out the words. ‘I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop.’

‘That’s the point. Give me your all, Kyor. Give me everything you’ve got,’ I demand, my head spinning, my careful filter removed from my mouth in the wash of urgency. ‘I’m so close,’ I gasp out. ‘Come with me.’

‘Gods, I don’t know how you do this to me,’ he says as he pushes himself deeper into me. Deeper than I even knew was possible.

‘I need you,’ I whisper back through panting breaths. ‘I need to feel you all the way in me. I need to feel your cum filling me. I want it all.’

‘Thorn …’ He groans my name like a prayer and a benediction.

I bite down on his bottom lip. ‘Come with me, my love.’

It’s the first time I have returned the term of endearment, but I feel the effect of the word on him instantly. Desperation cascades through his every cell as his eyes meet mine. The next thrust that comes is the deepest so far and I throw my head back and scream at the power of it. He plunges into me again, and my body takes it all.

‘Kyor!’

‘Rose,’ he answers as he pushes himself harder and faster into me.

My breath comes in shallow, urgent pulls as heat pools low and tight in my core. As the world narrows to the press of him plundering into my welcoming body, my muscles clamp down with an impossible pressure. ‘Kyor, I’m coming. I’m going to come. Please … please come with me.’

It all happens simultaneously. His grip tightens as he throws his head back. His body trembles and quakes beneath my fingers. He pulls me so close there is no space, no air between our bodies, nothing that can separate us. The charge that rushes from him fills every part of my body and for a split second, there is no him and no me. There’s just us. Just us and the pure energy of this moment.

‘Thorn!’ he cries out as a crack of thunder rattles the windows.

My own rush arrives, overwhelming and bright, tipping me then sending me tumbling over the precipice. My body shakes and shudders again and again before the sensation slowly starts to ebb.

I don’t know if the aftershocks are mine or his. If the buzzing that causes my hair to stand on end and my lungs to struggle to catch breath is magic or physical.

The only thing I know is that we can never go back from this moment. Something between us has irrevocably changed.

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Chapter 65

Ilie with my head on the dip of his shoulder; the shape is so perfect it feels like it’s been made just for me to lie there. The static charge of the room has finally died down, though I can’t imagine what my hair looks like. I’m betting frizzy.

A sense of sadness ripples through me as I think about how much Llin would have loved that little titbit of information, though she would have been bound to use it to mock me mercilessly.

Now that I’m sated, tiredness has struck again, aching all the way down to my bones. As I let out a yawn, Kyor shifts a little on the bed, moving himself and me a little more upright.

‘We need to talk about Jonas and Benny,’ he says.

I raise an eyebrow. ‘You want to talk about them now? After that? Interesting. I’m not saying I’m opposed, but …’

He growls and then shoots me a glare so venomous I’m almost reminded of those early days. But now I recognise this icy expression for what it is. Jealousy.

‘Not funny,’ he huffs.

‘A tiny bit funny?’ I try.

‘No.’

I drop back onto his chest and let out a giggle. Toying with him is fun. How is it that when I’m with him, nothing else seems to matter?

‘Fine,’ I say in all seriousness as I realise his body is growing tense. ‘What is it you want to talk about?’

‘They didn’t buy it. The residual magic thing. Neither of them. Lorathin questioned me on it and I tried to cover, but he’s not as dumb as he looks. Even with that pretty-boy beard of his.’

I didn’t know that a pretty-boy beard was a thing, and I add it to what’s probably going to be an endless list of things I wish I could share with Llin. Still, I bite down on my lip. There’s no denying he’s likely right.

‘I’ll talk to them.’

He doesn’t look convinced. ‘And tell them what? Are you going to mention precisely how you killed Oke?’

‘No,’ I reply instantly. I trust my friends, but I’m not a fool. The Wrohelm court taught me how fragile some friendships can be, and I don’t plan to repeat the mistakes of my youth.

‘Then what are you going to say?’

‘I don’t know right now, but I’ll think about it.’

Silence falls between us, but I can feel his thoughts whirring away. It’s as though that static bolt that ran from him to me has increased my sensitivity even to the parts of him he keeps hidden.

‘There are other ways,’ he says slowly. ‘People with powers in the High Hold. Powers to alter memories. Spells, too. I’m sure I could find one. Find a way to make it work. Assuming you don’t want a more … permanent solution.’

I swivel around to look at him, hoping to find humour in his eyes. But no, he’s absolutely serious.

‘No.’ I say the word as firmly as possible. ‘One hundred percent no. I’m not wiping my friends’ memories. And we’re definitely not killing them.’

‘Even if it keeps you alive?’

‘Even then.’ My gaze softens as I shift myself around so that I’m straddling him. I plant a kiss on his lips. ‘Besides, you don’t believe in killing Rettlings outside of the trials, remember?’

‘That was when the trials were the most important thing to me,’ he responds.

My heart swells with such an unexpected warmth that it causes a prick of heat behind my eyes. Is it sweet or psychotic, a man wanting to kill my best friends to protect me? I guess it’s both.

‘I trust them, so please, my love, trust me too.’

I linger on those words again. It’s only the second time I’ve said them, and they came with even more ease than before. Unfortunately, they don’t appear to have alleviated his fears the way I hoped.

‘I get that you needed to trust them before now,’ Kyor continues. ‘But the next trial is the Ofur. Allegiances don’t last past this point. It will be every man for himself. And let’s not forget your buddy Benny already made some serious lies by omission. I’m assuming from your reaction earlier that you didn’t know who he was?’

I didn’t, but I don’t respond. Did Benny lie? Perhaps. But it’s not as though I ever pressed too hard. I knew there was a hierarchy with Llin and the others, and I knew he was at the top of it. I’m sure it wouldn’t have been that hard to work out if I’d really wanted to do so.

‘Benny did what he thought was best, and it doesn’t change how much he helped me. Without the islanders’ training and protection at the start, I doubt I’d have even made it past the first trial. And as for Jonas, his father was and is a true friend of my family. He’s the only one who helped Kay and me when we were stripped.’

A pout tightens Kyor’s lips, and I wish I could read the meaning behind it. At first, I assume it’s because I’ve reminded him of what his lie did to us all those years ago. But then his frown lines deepen.

‘I don’t get it. I know you’re happy that Acacia’s in the High Hold with him, but I’ve known Lord Lorathin my entire life and I’ve never known him to do anything that doesn’t benefit himself.’