A Dawn of Onyx (The Sacred Stones, #1)(95)

He snarled in satisfaction at my words, and thrust his hips into my ass.

I loved how powerful I felt in his arms.

“Please, do not stop.” His voice was hardly more than a whisper. He pushed my legs apart and took his time tracing across my inner thighs, stilling when he felt the wetness that had pooled there. “Oh, fuck. So wet for me. What were you thinking of that day, my pretty bird?”

“You,” I breathed. “Fucking me.”

That seemed to be enough to push him over the edge. He turned me to face him and kissed me roughly, his tongue exploring my mouth slow and hard. As if he didn’t kiss me deeper, he would drown. Like I was oxygen. He finally traced his fingers lightly over the single spot I had been aching for, and stars clouded my vision. His light strokes were making me shudder and clench.

He exhaled through our kiss, and it came out like a choke. But his fingers were unrelenting—teasing and massaging, playing me like an instrument and making me sing. I was so close, and he hadn’t even—

Finally, he let one finger slip inside of me, and I cried out just a little as his thumb continued to circle. We both sighed at the sensation, and I kissed him harder, my hands roaming his chest as he thrust his finger in and out of me.

Slow, controlled strokes, so tight, so full—

“Can you take more?” he asked, and I released a low hum of need.

Yes, yes, please, yes. More.

When he slipped a second finger inside of me, I writhed on his hand and shuddered out a moan as he filled me further—plunged his fingers into me, wrung each breath and sigh from my lips.

“Arwen,” he growled. It was nearly my undoing. Keening and bucking, I gave myself over to him, impatiently waiting to be gifted the release I craved.

The boom of cannons shook us violently from our intimacy. I looked up at Kane, and he hopped from the bed over to the window lightning fast.

“Get dressed,” he choked out. “Now.”

Flustered and with still-shaking knees, I climbed off the bed. I had a feeling he wasn’t talking about putting on the blue Peridot number, so I scrambled for my leathers and slipped my nightdress off, the silk puddling at my feet. Laces flew between my fingers as another cannon rocked the fortress.

He crossed the room and threw his shirt on, his expression sharper and blacker than I’d ever seen it.

I knew before I even asked. “What’s happening?”

“The castle is under attack.”

Then came the screams.





TWENTY-EIGHT


Explosions rocked the room like a ship on a tormented sea. Shouts of fear echoed from the hallway as flecks of dust and debris rained down from the ceiling.

“Come on,” Kane said. “Stay close to me.”

I followed him out into the dim hallway, air shallow in my lungs. Onyx guards were waiting outside my door for their king, and they pulled us through the wreckage.

I could hardly breathe, let alone move. I needed to get to my family.

“We have to—”

“I know,” he shouted over the panicked cries surrounding us. “They’re around this corner.”

Flickering lights swung with the blasts, casting grotesque shadows on the hall. I could only catch glimpses of servants and nobles alike scrambling from room to room. The calming smell of coconut and ocean salt was at odds with the fear coursing through my veins.

This never should have happened here.

A belated horror hit me, tearing my hand from Kane’s and up to my mouth. The guards behind us stopped abruptly, slamming into one another.

“Are you hurt?” Kane took my face in his hands, searching for the source of my gasp.

“I did this,” I said, unable to move.

“What are you talking about?”

“I told Halden that your banquet was with King Eryx. That you were hoping to make an alliance.”

I had essentially condemned all these people to death. The enormity of my mistake—

Kane shook his head.

“Listen to me. You are not at fault. The fault is of the men behind the cannons. We need to keep moving.”

I knew he was right. We had to find my family. But the guilt was all-consuming. As I looked at the terrified faces, it sunk deeper into my bones. The ashy scent of smoke wafted toward us. Out through the windows, the spiky trees were lit with flames. A piercing scream beside me nearly popped my eardrum.

“We have to help these people,” I said, as we ran through the shaking corridor.

“We will.”

“How does Amber have such manpower? To light the whole castle on fire? It’s not possible.”

“They don’t. Garnet does.”

“Can we stop the cannons?”

Kane looked like murder. “It’s not the cannons I’m worried about. It’s the salamanders.”

I broke our stride and redirected to the nearest window, looking for the first time at what was lighting the forest ablaze. Massive, fanged lizards crawled across the beach. With their long necks they looked like snakes, but hefty legs moved them forward like lizards, each with claws that could rip a person to shreds like wet paper. Manned by Garnet and Amber soldiers alike, they made their way toward the castle. With each exhale, a rope of fire sprayed the ground in front of them, charring everything in its path.

Unfaltering Peridot soldiers were stationed around the perimeter, but their spears were no match for the slithering, flame-throwing creatures. More hot, dancing fireballs flew past the Peridot men and toward the castle exterior.