Attes’s grin faded. “There will be no coronation tomorrow. Instead, Kolis will summon you—both of you.”
It felt like the office disappeared around us. My heart started pounding. I attempted to rise, but Nyktos’s arm remained firm around me.
“When?” Nyktos bit out.
“When he is ready.” Attes smiled, but there was no warmth to the curve of his lips. No dimple. “That was all he said.”
“So, it could be tomorrow or a week or month from now,” Nyktos surmised.
“Basically.” Attes sat forward, his shoulders tensing. “You know, I think he would’ve done this even if a god hadn’t Ascended here. After all, you are his favorite.”
His favorite? I had a feeling Attes meant the exact opposite by saying that.
“Yeah.” Nyktos leaned back. “I think it’s time for you to leave.”
“As do I.” The Primal of Accord and War rose. He looked at me. “It was a pleasure to meet you.” Primal eyes lifted to mine. “If you find you’d rather spend your time in a warmer bed and climate…”
I stared up at him, somewhat dumbfounded. “Thank you for the offer, but not interested.”
“Too bad.” A dimple appeared in his right cheek. “But if you ever change your mind, all you have to do is call for me. I will answer.”
“Leave.” The promise of violence hummed in that one word. “Before you have to be carried out of here.”
Attes bowed in our direction, then left. The doors closed behind him. Neither Nyktos nor I moved or spoke for several seconds, but the temperature in the room had dropped even further. The arm around my waist and the hand against my thigh hardened. Shadows had bled to the surface of his flesh, and the breath I exhaled formed a misty cloud once more. I thought I saw tiny bursts of silver light throughout the space.
Shivering as the frigid air seeped through the gown, I touched his arm. Like I had the night of the draken attack. “It’s…it’s cold,” I whispered, my lips beginning to tingle.
Nyktos’s hand slid out from between my thighs, but the arm around me tightened. “Argue with me.”
“What?” I whispered.
“Argue with me,” he repeated, his voice full of smoke and ice. “Distract me. Something to stop me from going after Attes and taking my anger out on him. That will not end well for the Shadowlands or Vathi, and that’s the last thing we need.”
I twisted toward him. His eyes were nearly pure silver orbs. His jaw was as hard as the shadowstone walls. Churning darkness had blossomed across his cheeks. Eather lit the veins beneath his eyes, and the hardness in the stare fixed on the doors beyond me told me that he wasn’t exaggerating in the least. So, I did the first thing that came to mind.
Clasping his now-icy cheeks in my palms, I did what he’d asked of me when he held me in the sweetly scented tunnels of the Luxe.
I kissed him.
His lips—cooler than before—were still that strangely enticing juxtaposition of soft and firm as his entire body jerked. He didn’t pull away, but he went completely rigid against me. He was as still as he’d been in the vine tunnel, and I did once more what I’d done then.
Catching his plump lower lip between my teeth, I bit him.
Not hard enough to draw his blood or hurt him, but, like before, he was no longer still.
I kissed him, but he devoured. His head tilted, and he parted my lips with a fierce stroke of his tongue. The sharp scrape of his fangs against my lips sent a tight shudder through me as his hand fisted the hair at the nape of my neck. He held me there, his kiss hard, demanding, and I loved his nearly immediate, raw response as I flicked my tongue over his. A rumble came from deep within his throat, his chest. He tasted as decadent as his blood, smoky and sweet, and I quickly lost myself in the kiss. In him.
My fingers slid back, sinking into the soft strands of his hair as I pressed against his chest, wanting to be closer. Needing it. Because he kissed me just like he had the first time. As if he wouldn’t let a single inch of my mouth go unexplored. As if he’d been waiting his entire life to do this. The thought no longer felt silly or whimsical. It felt like sinking under the surface of my lake. It felt like a wild sort of peace. It felt right.
And that scared me.
I broke the kiss but couldn’t retreat far. His hand was still on the back of my head, buried in my hair, and I was close enough to feel his cool breath coming fast and shallow against my tingling lips.
Only then did I realize that the temperature of the room had risen.
“I hope that worked,” I whispered, swallowing.
His chest rose with a deep breath against mine as his hand eased from my hair. “I’m level.”
“Good.” I started to put some distance between us, but his arm around my waist remained as tight as before. “I’m still in your lap.”
“I know.”
“It’s not exactly comfortable,” I lied. I’d never felt more comfortable, which made me unsteady. Vulnerable.
“Neither are you.”
My brows shot up. “That was—”
“My dick was hard the whole time you were sitting in my lap,” he said. “The kissing didn’t help.”
“—rude,” I finished, blinking.
The shadows under his skin had slowed and were fading. “And here I thought getting my dick hard was what you were aiming for before Attes arrived.”
My mouth dropped open. “Not anymore.”
Some of the intense brightness eased from his stare. “Liar,” he whispered in the scant inches between our mouths.
I was such a liar.
His eyes met mine. “I had to behave that way.”
I knew immediately that he was speaking about how he’d acted in front of Attes. There were far more important things to discuss, but I said, “Really?”
“Attes is driven by three needs—peace, war, and fucking.”
“In that particular order?”
A trace of a smile appeared. “In any order. If he so much as had an idea there was little attraction between us, he would’ve been more interested in you than he already was.”
“More interested? I don’t see why you’d think he was interested at all.”
“You threatened to make him eat his eyes.”
“Exactly. If that gained his interest, it would be a little bizarre.”
“You stabbed me in the chest.” Nyktos inclined his head. “And threatened to claw out my eyes. That didn’t deter my interest at the time. What does that say about me?”
“Good question,” I muttered, not missing the at-the-time part of that statement. “But you started the whole removing the eyes thing.”
“I didn’t want Attes thinking that either of us would welcome him acting upon his interests.”
My eyes narrowed on him. “I don’t think you have to worry about me welcoming that.”
“Really? Did you not suggest mere minutes before his arrival that you were willing to seek out others to satisfy your needs?”
I gaped at him. “That is not what I said!”
“Actually, I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what you said.”
“It was not—” I cut myself off. “Okay. Now, I’m annoyed. I hope you’re in control of your anger issues because if you don’t let me go, I’m likely to hit you.”
“I’m going to have to risk that,” he replied. “Because we need to talk about the shit Kolis just pulled, and there’s a good chance I won’t remain level.”
“What does that have to do with me staying in your lap?”
“Because if he loses his cool, he could hurt you.”
My head whipped toward the now-open doors. Nektas stood there, and he wasn’t alone. Ector was beside him. I didn’t even want to think about how long they’d been standing there.