Alori led Taelan through the corridor, calling a wisp of mageflame onto her palm while he flashed hesitant glances back and forth, as if a servant might manifest in the hall and signal the entire palace to their tryst.
"Don't worry," she whispered, falling back to him, her robe brushing against his coat. She smiled at him past the flame held aloft between their faces. "Even if my father found us, he wouldn't care."
"I don't know about that. I think he might."
Alori shook her head. "You weren't privy to the conversation I had with him earlier. Trust me, he wouldn't stop us."
"Stop us from what?" Taelan's tone was strangled, but a shy, playful hunger burned in his eyes.
She didn't answer. What might happen next was up in the air, and she didn't want to make jokes about it. But if the last time they were alone in her room was any indication, neither of them was content with taking things quite so slowly anymore.
They spilled out of the Amethyst wing, skidding on the waxed floor of the grand foyer. She grabbed Taelan's hand before they both fell, dragging him toward the stairs. "You know," he said, as they scrambled up the steps, "your white robe reminds me of the dress you were wearing the night I first saw you."
Alori stopped on the second to last stair, letting him catch up to her. "When I was made of starlight?"
"Yes." He was so close, she could taste the cinnamon on his breath. "You're not teasing me, are you?"
"No. I think it's sweet." She pulled his arm around her waist, her gaze heavy on his mouth.
"In that case." He kissed her slowly, indulgently, like she was the one who tasted of candied spice.
She didn't want to stop, but they were standing in the brightest lit area of the palace. "Come on, before I make a bad decision."
She tugged on his fingers, racing toward her apartments.
♪♫♪
The halls were silent. Taelan stood at Alori's back as she opened the door to her antechamber, an aura of nervous energy lingering about him. He hadn't stopped keeping a lookout, repetitively raking his hands through his hair.
When he stood speechless in the open doorway, she pulled him into her room by his coat sleeve.
The place was a mess. When she'd left her bed in shambles, she hadn't expected to be bringing anyone back for the night. She grimaced at the unkempt scene, then remembered that Taelan's room hadn't been tidy either.
Another sign they were made for each other?
"Did you have a pillow fight in here?" He hung back in the shadowy antechamber, his hands in his pockets.
"I couldn't sleep." Alori bent down to pick up a couple of the shams, tossing them onto the rocking chair, then padded across the rug to the fireplace.
The flames blazed to life with a flick of her wrist. The room was warm and didn't need a roaring fire, but she liked the effect.
Taelan sucked in a breath. "Impressive."
It wasn't really. Sealing the breach in Ville-Tokki had taken a thousand times more skill and precision, but she hadn't used a visibility spell then, so he hadn't seen the magnitude of her work. The only tangible magic she'd used around Taelan was mageflame, which explained his surprise. A five year old could create a single flame.
"Hang around me awhile, and I might impress you even more."
She laughed at herself, at the hackneyed sentiment that was so unlike her. If Taelan brought out her corny side, well, there were worse things.
"I don't doubt it. I expect I'll be impressed by you at least once everyday."
She couldn't tell if he was serious or teasing. He unbuttoned his coat and hung it from a hook on the hall tree beside the door, but seemed unsure as to what he should do afterward.
"You can leave your shoes there, too." She hoped her casual inflection hid her anxiety, at least to the point he wouldn't notice her trembling shoulders.
Her mind jumped back to the previous night, when Taelan had taken off his boots by the hearth.
What would have happened if Yuka hadn't taken ill, if she and Taelan had spent the night together and she'd never had that awful fever-dream?
It didn't matter. They were here now, in her own bedchamber, all their secrets laid bare.
"Are you sure it's okay?" He sounded nonchalant, but Alori could feel the undercurrent rippling between them, the implication that followed a man removing his coat and boots in a woman's bedchamber late at night.
"Yes." She motioned to the empty space beside the closed door. "No one will trip over them there." Not that she intended on letting anyone else in.
A frisson of heat bloomed in her chest.
While Taelan unlaced his boots, she went to the window in front of her reading nook and drew back the curtain. Moonlight spilled into the room, casting her padded ottoman, conversation chairs, and chaise longue in a silvery blue spotlight that reached halfway to her bed.
"I grew up out there." He pointed northeast, toward the dimly lit mountain range on the horizon. His footsteps had been so soft, she hadn't heard him approach and join her at the window. "About fifteen miles past the farthest peak, in the foothills of the Youkoja Mountains. I recognized the cliff face earlier today while I was out walking. Your father lent me a pair of magnifiers and I was able to confirm it. You have a wonderful view of Youkoja from here."
"I didn't know it was called Youkoja. I've only ever heard those mountains referred to as the You mountains."
As the soon to be queen of the Ville-Realms, she was embarrassed to admit the fact. But Taelan brushed off her faux pas, gazing out into the distance.
"Many don't know the individual mountains' names. I do because I have an affinity for geography and history. I enjoy anything to do with the outdoors, actually." He smiled, a fond memory brightening his eyes. "I used to wish I could bring my piano outside. That's the real reason I picked up other instruments, so that I'd have music with me wherever I traveled."
"See?" Alori patted his arm, smiling in kind. "It's like I said, a less persistent person might have been too lazy to learn another instrument."
"I suppose." He caught her hand and held it to his chest. "Thank you for giving me another chance. I know how hard it must have been to make that decision. I wish I could go back and change things, but at the time I felt trapped. I was a young, stupid fool."
She stepped closer to him, admiring how the moonlight illuminated his creamy white skin. She couldn't disagree with him completely, but she didn't need to.
"Maybe you could have found a way around the apothecarist's threats, but it isn't worth worrying about now. What happened to you didn't change who you are, and I..." Finally, she was able to tell him, no strings attached. "I love who you are, Taelan."
She marveled at the wonderment reflected on his face, and the weight that seemed to lift off him at her words.
"We're both hurting," she whispered, "I know that. But if we endure it together, like you said earlier, maybe it will help us heal." She found the courage to trace his lips with her fingertip. He probably thought it was odd, but she'd been longing to do it and he didn't protest. "Taelan?" She took another slow step toward him. "Will you stay tonight and hold me until we forget everything that happened today?"
He made a low noise in his throat, applying pressure to the pad of her finger. His hands slid up her waist, the sensation dulled by her thick robe. She drew back and pulled the fabric loose from her shoulders. His eyes dropped to the thin nightgown she wore underneath, little more than a glorified chemise.
"My lady, if you dress this way every night once we're married, I'll be the sleepiest bard prince in history."
Alori was stunned and flattered by his audacity. Did he truly want her that much?
He untied the robe, grabbing the bulk of it before it fell to the floor, and tossed it across the room onto her bed. She stood her ground, willing herself to ignore the somersaults turning her stomach.
"What if I dress this way every night prior to our wedding?"
Her body flooded with heat, embarrassed by her own suggestiveness. Putting aside her curse-induced fling with Yuka, she felt terribly inexperienced and awkward. Technically, she was still a maiden. Mendmaster Doari had confirmed it.
"Alori..." Her name sounded rare and sacred when Taelan spoke it, his reverent voice smoothing over her panic. "Are you sure you want me to stay? We don't have to rush. I'll wait for you as long as you need."
"I'm sure. I can't erase my memories and neither can you, but we can make new ones." It was lucky she'd decided to take a midnight stroll tonight. She hated to think what Taelan would have done if she hadn't found him before the morning. "I'm selfish, too, you know. I want to be the last woman you've made love to."
He cupped her cheeks in his hands. The roughened tips of his fingers were a constant, gentle reminder of exactly who he was and all they could be together.
"You will be the only woman I've made love to."
Tears welled in her eyes, but she wouldn't cry again.
Torches of flame flickered in the fireplace, their golden glow mingling with the pale moonlight to create an ethereal palette of colors Alori was certain she'd remember until her last breath. Taelan wrapped his arms around her, lifting her off the ground like a bride. She thought he would bring her to the bed, but instead he lowered her onto the chaise just a few steps away.
He smiled down at her, his eyes flashing like silver coins. "Is this comfortable for you, my lady?"
Such a gentleman, her fiancé.
"Yes," she murmured past the thudding of her heart. "The light is always good here."
"You don't think it's too bright?"
"No." She pushed her long hair over her shoulders, well aware that it had been covering certain parts of her body that would now be visible through her sheer nightgown. "I want to see you."
"I'm here." He stroked her cheek, his fingers sliding down her neck. "I'm not going anywhere." He leaned down and kissed her, gently at first.
It would have been a mistake if they'd gone further than this yesterday, Alori realized. This slower pace, this tenderness and honesty was what she needed, what they both needed to gain trust in one another.
Eventually, Taelan deepened the kiss. She ran her fingers up the back of his neck and through his hair as he touched her through her nightgown, his palm sweeping along her shoulder and down her arm. She thought she might have to guide his hand, but he found her belly, his fingertips sliding upward to the soft swell of her breasts. She sighed as he covered one and then the other with his palm, his kisses moving from her lips down to her throat.
He raised his head from the lacy neckline of her nightgown. "Tell me if I do something you don't like, and I'll stop." He folded the loose fabric aside and took one of her breasts into his mouth.
Her short fingernails grazed his scalp, a needy sound escaping her lips. "Wait." She pushed his shoulders until he sat up. It wasn't that she wanted him to stop, but it didn't seem fair that she was the only one providing a view. "Take off your shirt."
He pulled his tunic over his head in a swift motion that tousled his shaggy hair. Alori's breaths quickened. Her prince wasn't a hardened fighter– or a blade-wielding highwayman, as he'd put it yesterday– but he was in good shape, his lean muscles twisting as he lowered himself back down to her.
She ran her hands along his lower abdomen, where dark downy hair disappeared into his trousers. He caught her fingers, shaking his head. "Not yet, my lady."
He moved between her legs, teasing her thighs apart, then scooted backward to the end of the chaise.
Alori was thoroughly confounded. "What are you doing?"
"If you trust me, I'd like to try kissing you..." He slid her nightgown up to her waist, the heels of his palms grazing her skin, his eyes trained on her face, "here."
Crouching with his knees on the floor, he curled his fingers around her hips. She gasped when he pressed his mouth against the thatch of curls between her legs, his tongue finding the spot that caused her hips to lift toward him.
He squeezed the soft underside of her thighs and groaned against her flesh, the vibration of his deep voice melting her from the inside out.
"T-this isn't," she panted breathlessly, hardly able to form a coherent thought. "What is this called?"
Her fingers were like claws hooked into the dusky blue cushions.
"Do you like it? I was worried I might make a mistake."
She felt his satisfied grin before he began tasting her again, slowly drawing out her pleasure, his tongue keeping a hypnotizing rhythm that pulled all the sensation in her body to a vibrant pinpoint.
He hadn't given a name to this brand of pleasure, but she no longer cared.
The crescendo of euphoria overcame her quicker than she'd thought possible, given her limited experience. She cried out, arching her back and mewling softly. Taelan gripped her bottom, holding her raised against his face, her legs shaky and elastic after the tide receded. Once she'd cooled down, he lowered her back to the chaise and sat up, his lips dark pink and glistening.
"Is it safe to say my lady enjoyed that?"
"Very much," she rasped, her eyes hooded and fuzzy. She might have been self-conscious– his face had been buried in her most private of places, and she'd squirmed in his hands like she was possessed by a demon– but all she felt was satisfaction.
"Have you ever done that before?"
Good goddess, she hoped he hadn't done it to Roja.
A broad grin spread across his face. "Only in my daydreams."
Alori was thrilled. Knowing Taelan hadn't kissed anyone that way– that she had been his first– made her want to do it all over again. But she wanted to try other things, too.
Taelan leaned toward her. Her gaze fell to his carved waist, and a flash of sudden panic zinged through her.
"Taelan, I already..." She couldn't say it. In fact, she didn't even know the word for it. But she had reached the summit of her pleasure, and Taelan still had his trousers on. "Can we still make love?"
He chuckled, running his forearm across his mouth. "Yes. Women can climax multiple times. So I'm told." He blushed, resting a hand on her thigh. "That was to prepare you, so the rest will be more comfortable, hopefully. But if you'd rather we stop..."
"No," she blurted, forcing herself to slow down. "I liked it, of course, but I want to... I'd like to continue."
She reached forward, running a hand along Taelan's stomach. He was still kneeling on the floor, and her knees fit along either side of his waist. He scooped her up and pulled her flush with his hips. She slid his trousers over his buttocks, surprised by how well she enjoyed the sensation of his flexing muscles under her hands.
He took care of the laces himself, his trousers joining his tunic in an unceremonious heap on the floor. Alori's nightgown was a bit longer in removal, but he treated the ordeal like a high honor.
"Lie back," he whispered, guiding her down onto the cushions. He brushed strands of golden hair away from her neck and pressed kisses just below her ear as he climbed on top of her, his breath raising goosebumps and pleasant shivers along her skin.
He wasn't as big as Yuka, but she hadn't expected nor wanted him to be.
Unable to curb her curiosity, she wrapped her fingers around him, intrigued by the layer of velvety softness encasing his hardened flesh, and the tight, bulging veins rushing beneath the surface. His breathing quickened at her touch. He trailed a hand down her belly, his fingers disappearing into the shadows between them. He sought the sensitive spot that made her whimper, plying her with gentle strokes that gradually shifted, teasing the threshold of her entrance.
"Akora's blessing."
She wasn't sure which of them had murmured the euphemism. He might have said it, but she'd been thinking it.
Their feet tangled at the end of the chaise, Taelan's breath warm on her ear. Quiet sounds of pleasure drifted between their lips as they explored each other. Taelan was careful and patient, but Alori was growing increasingly desperate. She rocked her hips toward him, asking him to take her.
If she hadn't known what was to come, his graceful piano fingers might have been enough. But she could feel him straining toward her, swollen and rigid with a need as great as her own.
"Taelan, please..."
The sweetly agonizing preliminaries were overwhelming, and Taelan apparently agreed. He spread her legs apart with his knee and settled over her, propped up on his elbows. He grabbed himself, which Alori hadn't expected to find so arousing.
"It might still hurt," he whispered raggedly. "Can you use magic to dull the pain?"
"Probably, but I don't want to. I want it to be real, for both of us."
As it hadn't been before for either of them.
"Okay." He leaned down, stroking her cheek with the back of his hand. She might have wept at the tender expression on his face, and the quaver in his voice as he pressed forward, whispering, "I love you, Alori." But she was too happy to cry.
The initial sensation was strange, a dull and indistinct pressure between her hips. Unlike the experience in her fever dream with Yuka, this time there was resistance. Considerable resistance. She worried her body wouldn't cooperate, but Taelan didn't look surprised or worried. His smile was reassuring, his hand slipping behind her neck to cradle her head.
He kissed her throat, her earlobe, and finally, her mouth.
Alori trembled underneath him, her hips tilted to draw them together even as it ached. The pain couldn't touch her inexplicable desire to be wrapped around him so tightly that nothing and no one could come between them.
It took time, patience, and the distraction of a hundred cinnamon kisses for their bodies to become joined, but she wouldn't have changed it. This was what it was like, she realized with satisfaction. She hadn't lost her virginity to Yuka, she'd given it willfully to Taelan.
"Are you alright?" He brushed hair off her forehead, kissing her temple.
"I'm perfect," she murmured, running her hands down his back. "How about you? I want you to enjoy this, too."
"Believe me, I am." He tipped his head down, hiding another satisfied grin. His glossy dark hair fell into her face, skating over her lips. Her fingers dug into the curved muscles of his bottom, urging him to prove it.
He moved on top of her with cautious excitement, reveling in the increasing ease of their efforts. Each time he released her, she sought him again, her muscles deliciously stretched and aching. She'd said she wouldn't use magic, but at some point it had ceased to be a conscious decision. Her power sang to life of its own accord, drifting loose and sparking between them, until both their bodies glowed from within, filled with all the ancient celestial energy the goddesses had bestowed upon her.
Taelan gasped, his eyes alight with Alori's magic, and something else– his love for her, perhaps, or his admiration for her otherworldly gifts. Alori could hardly hold herself together as the clashing currents of magic and pleasure built within her. She closed her eyes, her head tilting backward against the gentle slope of the chaise.
The vibrant colors and runic shapes of ERA magic danced behind her eyelids.
Taelan's hands slid around her face. "Hey," he whispered, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. "Take me with you?"
"Yes." She grasped his shoulders, opening her eyes and fixing her gaze on him. His skin glimmered where her fingers left impressions.
Amazing.
She slipped away from him, pushing on his chest until he obeyed and sat on the end of the chaise. His confused expression quickly turned fascinated, scanning her body appreciatively during their brief moment of separation. She kneeled over his thighs and used her hand to hold him steady while she eased herself down, retaking him in a slow, blissful exhale.
Taelan moaned her name like an oath.
The effect she had on him was heady and overwhelming. Alori had never felt more beautiful or powerful or desired. Taelan fit within her perfectly, like Akora had built him for this purpose with her own hands, more aware of Alori's needs than she could have been.
Making love to her bard prince was divine, like sunshine after rain, like the warmest bubble bath, like the truest love.
Do you know me? Taelan's eyes had once seemed to ask her.
"I know you. I see you," she murmured unintelligibly, knowing that on some level he would understand.
"My starlight." He stroked her back and rose to meet her as she cried out, shattering in a breathtaking surge of ecstasy and magic that eclipsed every moment of pain and uncertainty she'd felt over the past two days.
She shivered as he guided her hips back, his music soaring through her mind. Then he pulled her close, shuddering through his own release. He held onto her as their bodies cooled and their breaths evened.
"I didn't know it could be like that." He ran light fingertips down her arm, disturbing errant locks of long hair that tried to cling to her flushed skin. "You've spoiled me for life, my lady."
She traced a lazy pattern on his chest, peeking up at him through her lashes. "I'm sorry." She wasn't sorry at all. "It was an accident." That part was mostly true.
She was still sitting on his lap, both of them stark naked. Her cheeks prickled with a different kind of heat, the sharp edges of reality slowly returning.
He squeezed her waist, his gaze soft on her face. "You don't have to be shy around me. I like what I see, I promise."
Alori mustered all of her queenly confidence to climb off Taelan, convincing herself it didn't matter that he was in full view of her bits and pieces. He had seen them once and would see them again, every day. She might as well get used to it.
She walked into the darkness the moonlight didn't reach, where a certain box sat open on her bed, a certain significant piece of jewelry lying within it.
"Taelan, there's something I need you to do for me."
He swung a foot over the side of the chaise, bringing both legs together to face her. "You wore me out, but I'll try."
She chuckled and reached into the box. "Not that," she said, pulling out the collar.
The platinum's metallic sheen sliced through the shadows. Taelan rose and covered the distance between them in a few short steps. His body was dewy with sweat, his hair messy and tossed to one side. Alori thought he had never looked more attractive.
He took the offered heirloom from her hands and held it between them.
"It's tradition that you put it on me." She gathered her hair in one hand and slipped it over her shoulder, exposing the slender line of her neck. He moved around her, his wobbly breath raising gooseflesh on her shoulders.
What did this moment mean to him– to a man who had idolized her since he was a child, and fantasized about her since he knew what fantasies were; a man who had been deceived and taken advantage of in the worst way; a man she had fallen hopelessly in love with in just a few short days. Or had it been months? Years?
Their timeline was foggy, but their feelings stood out in vivid relief.
With a lover's touch, Taelan wrapped the collar around Alori's neck. It slid down her throat and settled against her clavicle. She reached up and touched the dull pointed end.
"Press your fingers along the grooves where there would be a clasp." She reached her hands back to guide him.
The metal warmed against their fingertips. Traces of magic fused the two ends together, completing the hundreds year old ritual. She hadn't told Taelan what would happen, and by the look on his face, her father hadn't either. She turned to him, smiling.
"I love you, Taelan. From now until forever, I'm yours."
He shook his head, slipping his arms around her waist. "No, my lady. I appreciate the offer but you have it backwards. I'm yours... I've always been yours."
Who was she to argue?
The Crown Princess of the Ville-Realms wasn't used to her offers being rejected, but her bard prince was right. Taelan had entrusted her with his heart long ago, and now Alori would return the honor. It didn't matter whose love had come first. Now they were one, a team and a unit, charged with protecting the Ville-Realms, committed to each other and the safety of Eala, for as long as they lived.
Despite the happy tears in her eyes, which had become inevitable to suppress, Alori felt as though she could conquer anything with Taelan beside her. Hells, he had already brought her back from the brink of death. They had even destroyed a greater demon together, with the help of a few good friends.
Finally, finally, the future looked hopeful.