Fated Blades (Kinsmen)

Gabriel signed the annulment and sealed it.

Ramona stared at the tablet as if it was dipped in sewage. Her brother stepped forward, picked it up, slid it into his doublet, and smashed his fist into Gabriel’s jaw. Gabriel’s eyes rolled back, and he went down like a log. Karion smiled.

“Got it out of your system?” Ramona asked.

“Mostly. I waited years for that.” Karion inclined his head slightly to his sister. “I’m only sorry I couldn’t do it sooner. I have our aerial ready.”

No. Matias stepped forward. His instincts told him that if he let her walk away, he would lose her. “Let me take you home.”

Ramona hesitated.

“He’s a Baena,” Karion said quietly, a warning vibrating in his voice.

Ramona gave him a long look. Matias held his breath.

“I know,” she said. “We have some things to discuss. I will see you at home.”

Karion sighed and looked at Matias. “She’s the head of the family, but she’s also my baby sister. You will bring her home before sunrise, or tomorrow I will start a war.”

He turned and walked away.

Ramona glanced at Matias. “I’m ready.”

They walked together across the balcony toward the stairs. To the left, above a distant mountain range, a star burst like a firework.

Solei’s voice echoed through the plaza. “The Vandal cruiser refused to surrender. Rather than confronting our fleet, they detonated their drive. There are no survivors.”

The spectators on the walls stood up and cheered.

Ramona closed her eyes, feeling the slight vibration of the aerial as it sliced through the wind.

After leaving Kamen Plaza, they had stopped at a small hotel booked by Matias’s people. She was able to shower and change clothes, and a medic had patched her arm. It was securely sealed now, the searing agony of the seco blade a distant memory.

While she had showered, Karion had sent an image of a big glowing wreck that used to be the Vandal cruiser. It would be up to the diplomats and politicians to sort out the aftermath. She and Matias had done their parts.

Ramona looked out the window. They were flying over the forest, the night sky endless and deep above them.

Matias hadn’t said a word since they’d boarded the aerial. A faint scent of balsam from their damp hair spread through the cabin.

“The temple,” he said.

She saw the glittering silver threads of the cupola below. Eventually this flight would end, and everything would be over. She would never sit next to him again. She would never hear him call her name or feel his strong arms around her.

“Matias?”

“Yes?”

“I’m no longer married.”

He spun the aerial into a hair-raising turn. “Neither am I.”

They landed on the terrace. She clicked her harness open, and then he was right there, leaning over her. She touched his cheek, the dark stubble sharp under her fingers, looked into his eyes, and kissed him. She poured all of herself into it—her want, her despair, her overwhelming need to love, even if only once, a man who was worthy of it.

She felt the exact moment he lost it. He crushed her to him, half lifting her out of her seat. His right hand caught her hair, and he kissed her like he would die if he didn’t.

She pulled at his clothes. They spun in the cabin, bumping into the seats and the walls, unable to let go of each other. Her back hit the cargo hold door. He pinned her to it, his left hand blindly groping the wall for the sensor. She ran her hands over his jaw, his hair, his arms, wanting more, and almost cried from the need and the desperation. He kissed her neck, nipping at her skin. Electric heat burst through her, all the way into her fingertips. Ramona moaned.

He hoisted her up onto his hips, his hard shaft digging into her flesh in just the right spot. She licked his throat, right over his carotid, the place where a small cut would end one’s life. He gripped her tighter, pressing into her. She licked him again, knowing she was the only one on the entire planet he’d allow to touch him there.

The door slid open, and Matias stumbled into the cargo hold and lowered her to the floor. His hands gripped her tunic. He pulled it up, over her head, trapping her wrists with it, and licked her left breast. The sudden heat over her tight nipple sent another jolt through her, and the connection between them exploded, a torrent of sensation that burned through every capillary in her body in an instant. She welcomed it, opening herself to it without reservation, and felt Matias do the same.

They synchronized, and the connection between them roared into life.

Pleasure flooded Ramona. She moaned and arched her back. He pinned her arms, sliding an iron-hard thigh between her legs, and kissed her again, sucking on the tight bud of her nipple, his thumb brushing the other. Her breath came out in ragged, hungry gasps.