Den of Blades and Briars: A dark fairy tale romance (The Broken Kingdoms Book 7)
Den of Blades and Briars: Chapter 37

Hello Skugga.

Forgive me for my failures in protecting you. If you are reading this, you have what I hope for you: a heart who will honor you without conditions, and one who will sacrifice everything to keep your heart safe.

Your song is clear, read it, follow it, claim your power. Be happy, Skugga. Gods, please be happy.

Until we meet again.

R

Take your love, hand in hand.

Touch your vow, band by band.

A path awaits in mountain sand.

You alone, may hold the fallen land.

Atear had burned down my cheek, reading his old nickname for me. Skugga. His little shadow. A tagalong who wanted to be anywhere her older brother went.

There was a marker at the bottom of the parchment; a hand drawn map. Ari insisted it was a place a few lengths outside the Court of Serpents, by the paths leading to the mountains.

What I knew was, together, Ari and I would need to replace a secret path in the peaks, then we’d need to pluck a mysterious power from its hiding place before Davorin.

What I also knew is Davorin would be waiting.

Opening completely to Ari had added another knot in the rope tethering me to him. The beautiful rope, the one I did not want to ever break.

He knew my weaknesses, my past, my fears. He held them close like cherished gems. The more he asked about the voice in the shadows, the more our truths tangled together. Tragic tales of the bloody, weary steps which had placed us in this moment, and together, a new life was shaping.

A new love.

I dared not utter the word out loud. But the truth was, I thought I’d been growing in love with the Northern Ambassador since we’d met. There was something deep and raw between us, almost indistinguishable from hate at times.

If I cared nothing for him, fear would not be spreading like a wretched, consuming disease in my heart for what might become of him should Davorin replace him. Such raw emotions did not build in a week. Such affections were built, layer by layer, log by log, until foundations took shape. At times they were hidden, rejected, ignored, perhaps even a little resented.

Hate had been a shield, and despite the risks, to be on the other side of the barrier was sweeter than I’d imagined. But it was a weakness until we found a way to end the darkness.

Love mattered when it came to the curses delivered by Riot’s seidr. Doubtless, my cruel consort would take the warmth in my heart and lace it with the most frigid pain. The way the frost winds batter the skin like a thousand wood slivers, slashing and pricking, Davorin would use my love to break not only me, but Ari.

“Your thoughts have taken you.” Ari’s arm snaked around my waist from behind. We’d spent a few tolls in bed before forcing ourselves to prepare to leave the Court of Serpents. His strong body molded against my back, and he pressed a kiss to my neck.

I’d stopped mid-task, a half-folded pelt in my hands.

“I think you should stay back from the high peaks,” I said, turning into him. “I will go, but you stay, try to replace us a way off the isles. When I return, we can go to the North, hide the feather away there. We could live with your folk.”

Ari threaded his fingers through my hair, bringing one palm to rest on my face. He gave me one of those crooked smirks I’d always pretended irritated me. “You are intoxicating when you try to let me be a damsel in distress while you play my hero.”

I frowned. “You’re not listening—”

“I’m listening,” he said. “I’m simply choosing to ignore it.”

He laughed when I tried to shove him back. Ari yanked me flat against his chest, then kissed me like he’d never tasted anything sweeter.

When he broke the kiss, he whispered close to my lips, “The way you want to protect me from whatever is happening here, I feel the same. Saga, there is no god, no demon, no curse that would cause me to leave you alone through this. I worry tirelessly and am even more insufferable when I fret. You don’t want to submit other folk to what I will become should I go sit on my protected ass while you risk your neck.”

“You are insufferable,” I said, then kissed the sharp edge of his jaw, slowly moving my way to his throat.

Ari gripped my hair, his breath on my skin when he dipped his head. He allowed me time to leave a few more kisses before he tore the pelt from my hands and scooped me under my thighs. He flopped me onto my back on the bed, then drew his body over the top of me.

By propping onto his elbows, he was careful not to crush me into the bed. I held firmly to his gaze. This was Ari. He touched softly. He’d never raised a hand to me. He’d kissed my scars, not caused them.

Ari studied my eyes for a few breaths, almost as though he could see the storm inside. The rough calluses on his fingertips caressed my face. His grip surrounded my chin and gently nudged my head to the side, granting him access to the slope of my throat.

Ari whispered tender words. He whispered how sleeping beside me chased away the Mare demons that had haunted him since boyhood.

I did not recall many things of beauty, but the ones that soothed a panicked race of my pulse, or drew my mind to a calm, all involved Ari Sekundär. I’d fought against him, against this insatiable pull to be beside him. I was tired of fighting. All of me wanted to sink into all of him and never leave.

My palms trapped his face, drawing him to look at me straight on.

“I don’t know what happens when we leave this room,” I whispered. “But what I do know is I want to live in this moment. I want to begin writing a new history, right now, with you. No fear of the past, no fear of the future. Only now.”

A dark heat sparked in his eyes. One corner of his jaw pulsed in tension. Ari kissed me, his tongue was warm against mine, and I imprinted the clean taste of him into my memory.

He hooked his fingers in each side of my trousers and slid them down my legs. He pulled back, standing at the foot of the bed. I held his gaze as I yanked my top over my head. Ari stared down at me with a ferocious tangle of need and want and reverence.

Scars littered my body, I’d never held the notion that my skin was particularly lovely, and his heated scrutiny caused me to squirm and look for a fur or quilt to use as a cover.

He placed a rough palm to the side of my face, and brought me to a sudden stillness. “You’re so damn beautiful.”

I took note of the subtle tremble of Ari’s fingers as he reached behind his neck and pulled his top off in one graceful motion. I raked my gaze over the planes of his chest, the white scar, the carved angles of his hips.

“So are you,” I said, voice hoarse.

Ari kicked off his boots, followed by his trousers, and came back to the bed, his body hovering over the top of me.

“You are the master here,” he said against my lips.

I kissed him as a reply, kissed him for all the turns I’d wasted trying to resist him; I kissed him for the turns I wanted to spend in the safety of his embrace. I ran my hands across the firm ridges of his arms, his broad warrior’s shoulders. Every divot, every scar from past battles, earned my attention. A soft caress as I memorized the body of my husband.

Ari brought his lips to one breast, swirling his tongue around the peak.

“Ari.” I clutched the back of his head, holding him firmly in place. “Don’t . . . don’t stop.”

He dipped two fingers into my center. I moaned and pressed my hips up, seeking relief from the ache pooling between my legs. Ari curled his fingers in my core, stroking his thumb in small circles on the sensitive nerves at the apex.

I whimpered, desperate for release. “Ari, oh gods, please . . .”

He grinned against my skin, and I knew what he was thinking—he had me begging.

His fingers quickened in pace and pressure until I could not conjure a clear thought. I dug my fingernails into his skin as I stiffened, reveling in the delirious wave of heat dancing through my blood. My head fell back, baring my throat, and I let out a rough, quivering gasp as Ari’s touch slowed enough to bring me back from the beautiful haze.

When I opened my eyes, Ari was gazing at me with a tenderness strong enough to knot emotion in the back of my throat.

He settled his hips between my thighs, gripped his length, and aligned it with my center. I swallowed, holding his stare as I let my knees fall open. Fear tried to cut through the cracks of my heart. Would I suffocate, would he lose his control, would he play me for a fool?

Yes, fear was cruel, but there was something indescribably safe and beautiful about the way Ari looked at me. As though a piece of my heart reached out for his, and fit the broken pieces together until it formed something new, something lasting.

I touched the bottom curve of Ari’s lip. He was the good side of love. Perhaps the past would always haunt a piece of me, but I knew, to my soul I knew, Ari would lighten the dark with his touch, loyalty, even with his busy words.

We both watched as he entered me slowly to the hilt. Ari threaded one hand with mine, the other he kept pressed on the bed, holding him up just enough he didn’t crush me into the mattress. He kissed the swell of my breast again, his tongue swirling around the peak as he thrust harder and deeper.

I gripped his hair, gasping. His eyes closed as a soft moan slid from his throat from the mounting pleasure.

“I have never felt this, Saga,” he gritted out between thrusts. “Believe that. You have awakened something in me too.”

I lifted my head, so our brows touched. Heat gathered between our bodies, sweat dripped off his cheek onto my chest. I breathed all of it in, the sweet hint of leather and rain in his hair, the oakwood soap on his skin.

We did not know what we’d replace outside.

We did not know how it would end.

We had this moment for us, and we would greedily take it.

I brought my legs around Ari’s back. His eyes opened and a flare of heat soaked into the golden swirls. His breaths shifted into jagged pants. Low in my belly pleasure tightened, drawing me back to the torturous edge I’d never cease craving after this moment.

Ari’s thrusts grew jerky until the tension snapped. I let out a sob as he held me steady, his face buried against my neck, curses firing off his tongue as he spilled into me, and gently rolled his hips, drawing out our release.

For a long pause we didn’t move, simply held each other, breathing heavily. I dragged my fingernails down the backs of his arms, smiling when he grinned against my throat as his skin pebbled with chills. Ari didn’t move his head, didn’t lift his gaze, simply tightened his arms around me, keeping us bound as one.

It was then I realized he might need the safety of my arms as much as I needed his.

Eventually, Ari brought one hand to my face and brushed some of my wild hair from my eyes. He propped onto his elbows and followed the lines of my face, my nose, my lips with the point of his finger, memorizing me.

“You cannot be rid of me now, I hope you know.” He grinned, kissing the place over my heart.

“I know. You seem to think you have some strange claim on me.”

“I do.” He rolled to his side, still studying me, still stroking my face. “A lover’s claim. It’s quite potent, I assure you. Never fear, there is a great deal more where this came from. I have always dreamed of spending the better part of a month in a bed with you.”

“With me?” I blew out my lips. “Ari, a week ago you hated me.”

“Not true.” His smile faltered as he picked at the stitching on one of the quilts. “I’ve always felt . . . strange around you, Saga. I couldn’t puzzle it out sometimes. I think that is why I took it so personally when you were on the side of Astrid. All the conflicting feelings were inside me, and I wanted to despise you. I told myself I did, but at night, alone, there were times where I thought very different thoughts.”

I flipped onto my stomach and lifted onto my elbows, so my lips were close to his. “I know the feeling, Ambassador.”

“Ah, so you thought of being naked with me as well.”

Heat flooded my cheeks, ridiculous, since he’d now touched every surface of my naked body several times.

Ari flopped onto his back, laughing. A deep, throaty, beautiful laugh I wanted to remember until my last breath. “The time we’ve wasted being at odds, wife.”

“Not a waste,” I said. “I needed the time to learn how to feel again, Ari. You . . . deserve someone with a heart that can feel.”

He glanced at me, then touched his fingers to my cheek. “And you deserve much more than I will ever be able to give, but I swear to you, I will spend each day trying.”

“I only want you.” The words slid out before I even thought to keep them in. A croak of emotion followed.

Ari snapped up and kissed me, deep and needy. I gripped his chin, brow furrowed, desperate not to cry. Out of all the emotions, tears were the most difficult for me to stop once they began.

“You have me,” he whispered when he pulled back. “In fact, I’d be content to stay here for that month. Do you think we could get away with it?”

A smile split over my face. “I think so. Of course we’d need to ignore the truth that darkness is polluting the hearts of fae folk across the isles. Oh, and we’d need to pretend our lives weren’t at risk, and a malicious battle lord wasn’t trying to steal a kingdom.”

Ari blew out his lips. “Minor details.”

He pulled me into his arms and cradled my head to his heart. Danger lived outside the door, but for a moment I would be calm, and still, and I’d hope.

With him, I’d made the choice to always hope.