A Throne of Ruin (Deliciously Dark Fairytales #2)(32)

“First, those sixteen years feel like one long month of misery. Nothing changes from month to month, and the only thing that changes within the month is the size of the moon and the number of battles. I look back over that time, and it is all a blank. A blur. It’s like it never happened. It’s like that amount of time is just a wasted black hole in my life.”

“Except you stopped aging, right? So after the curse, you should resume life as a twenty-five-year-old.”

“I wasn’t nearly this tired and jaded when the curse began. And if you’d told me at the time that I could be any more tired and jaded, I wouldn’t have believed you.”

“So then breaking your dry spell was nothing special.”

A pang hit my heart. I hadn’t expected to feel sentimental about sex with him. I hadn’t thought being his first since the curse would mean anything. But now, hearing that it wasn’t exceptional in any way made me feel lesser. Na?ve and inexperienced. Because it had blown my mind. As weird as it had been, letting the beasts take charge, it ended up being sensational. I only wished it could’ve been Nyfain and me, maybe doing the nice and easy approach like he’d suggested. Going slow and sensual, allowing feeling to cradle us as we made love.

I ran my fingers through my hair and straightened. I needed to snap out of it. All of this buildup with him—the foreplay and the letters and the sex—had turned my head. But no good could come of this. I liked the guy, yes, I couldn’t deny it, but it wasn’t meant to be. There’d be no forever, no babies, no future. These feelings would need to die on the vine.

“Hey…”

I jumped and spun, fumbling with a sword that was way harder to get out of its sheath than a dagger. The thing got stuck halfway through. I needed a wider arm span or something.

Nyfain glanced down at my efforts, his brow furrowing. He’d snuck up on me. “You really are bad with that.”

“Oh, you noticed, did you?” I dropped my hands.

He stood close, his breath dusting my face. He ran his fingers down my jaw and gently cupped my chin.

“It was unconventional,” he said. “My dragon has never pushed me aside so completely without shifting. And some things were not at all pleasant…”

“The smelling, right?”

A little grin tweaked his lips. “It was the best sex I’ve ever had, and I wasn’t even in control. It more than broke my dry spell. It ruined me for other women.”

“Oh…” I let the word linger, suddenly embarrassed and not sure why. I tried to pull away.

He held me close. “I felt you through the bond just now. I don’t want you to think you were—are—anything other than extraordinary. You and your animal. My dragon wouldn’t be this adamant about any other.”

“But you still don’t want to knock boots even without claiming?”

“No.”

“What if it’s just a partial claim? Or a claim and a takeback—is that a thing? I’d be in for that.”

“No claiming. No fucking. We’ve satisfied our beasts, and that is enough. I’ll have the memory of your touch and the feel of your body, and that has to be enough.”

“Why?”

“Because I will have to let you go, and if I give much more of myself, I won’t be able to.”





Eight





“Seriously, stop with the tongue,” I ground out as the tip of the dragon’s tongue prodded my knee. The dulled tips of his teeth bit into my side, highly unpleasant when I wasn’t afraid for my life.

Fuchsia streaked the sky. Muted yellows and oranges highlighted the horizon. Dawn was just around the corner, and I was now officially moving into my new home for the foreseeable future. The only way I’d get to leave was if the curse was broken (and war was afoot, since the demon king would be able to kill Nyfain as soon as we were freed) or if I made a deal with the demon king to grant myself a ticket out of here. My fate was not looking so great.

He’s just messing with you, my animal said, chuckling. It wouldn’t be our knee he licked if he were serious.

“Gross. Why can’t I just ride on his back like normal people?”

What normal people?

“Well, me for a start.”

At the edge of the wood, he didn’t cross the threshold toward the castle. He veered left instead, putting on a burst of speed and rushing through the trees. We crested a large knoll, and then he climbed a rockface about seven feet high. The land leveled out on top, the trees not growing on such rocky terrain. There he changed, dropping me from the sky. I fell with my eyes closed and hands tucked in, trusting he’d catch me.

Strong arms enveloped me, and Nyfain’s familiar smell gave me a little thrill. He held me for a moment, walking toward a little bench at the edge of the rise. Finally, he put me down and took a seat on the bench, just high enough to give us a clear view of the horizon.

I lowered beside him, inhaling the fresh, chilled air.

We sat for a moment in silence as shoots of canary yellow cut through the blues and violets in the sky.

“I often come here after a night of battling,” he said, his voice subdued to match the hush of the dawn. “When I’m not hurt too badly.”

“Speaking of.” I stood and walked around to his back. The four slashes from the attack that nearly killed him had all but faded, leaving nothing but jagged pink lines through his flesh. They looked similar to my arm and legs. “These won’t scar if you keep using the healing ointment I gave you. I can make some more, too, if you’ve run out.”