The War of Two Queens (Blood and Ash 4)

I woke without warning, my eyes widening as I gulped in air, my heart racing.

It took several moments for my thoughts to slow enough for me to recognize the moonlight-kissed canvas walls. A fine sheen of sweat dampened my skin, and I swore I could… I could still hear the fizzing water of the cavern.

I’ll be waiting here. Always.

I shuddered, closing my eyes and trying with everything in my power to go back to the cavern. To him. But it didn’t work. I couldn’t put myself back into the dream, but I still felt him. The warmth inside me was still there, slow to fade, as was the acute throbbing. My hands tingled—my entire body did. As if the touch had been real. As if the feel of him, hot and hard against me and inside me, had been real.

But it hadn’t been.

Slowly, I became aware of Kieran’s weight beside me and his soft, muffled snores. He was curled against my back, asleep in his wolven form. Thank the gods my dream hadn’t woken him. I turned my head, spying Casteel’s ring on the nightstand, bathed in the faint moonlight. I started to reach—

A scent made its way to me.

One that didn’t make sense.

Grabbing my loosely braided hair, I inhaled deeply. The scent was unmistakable.

Pine and lush spice.

And sweet, fragrant lilac.

Shock rolled through me. I jerked upright, startling Kieran. He lifted his head and looked over his back toward me.

His thoughts brushed mine, woodsy and rich. Poppy?

I couldn’t answer him. Not when my heart thundered. I looked down at the section of braid that smelled of lilac. How was this possible? There were no lilacs around here. And if there were, that wouldn’t explain how I could smell…Casteel. And I did. It couldn’t be my imagination.

Concern stretched out from the wolven, and I felt the bed shift suddenly. Kieran closed his hand around mine. The touch of his very mortal skin against mine rattled me out of my thoughts. I looked at him, seeing a whole lot of bare skin.

“Poppy? What is it?” His gaze searched mine. “Has something happened? Talk to me.”

I swallowed. “I…”

“Did you have a nightmare?”

“No,” I said, and Kieran relaxed. “It was a dream. About…about Casteel. It wasn’t a bad one, but it wasn’t like any I’ve ever had.”

“A sex dream?”

“What?” I dropped my braid.

“You had a sex dream.”

I stared at his shadowed features, stunned for a second. “What makes you even think that?”

“I don’t think you want me to answer that,” he said. “It will embarrass you.”

“How—?” Then it hit me. Wolven and their godsdamn sense of smell. I lifted my chin, refusing to be embarrassed. “Why do you think I’ve never had a sex dream before?”

Kieran lifted a shoulder. “I figure you don’t have a lot of sex dreams.”

I blinked. “Why?”

“So it was a sex dream?”

“Oh, my gods. Why are we even talking about sex dreams when you’re sitting beside me naked?”

“Does my nudity bother you, meyaah Liessa?”

It didn’t.

Well, not exactly.

At this point, I was getting used to the bare skin buffet that came with being around so many wolven—and, apparently, draken. But right now, when I could still feel Casteel inside me, Kieran’s nudity felt…different. Not bad or wrong. Just different in a way I couldn’t explain. But it made me think of what he’d witnessed when I awakened after my Ascension. He’d been in that room, stopping me from taking too much blood, holding me by the waist as I rode Casteel…

My breath and body snagged, and…dear gods, I really needed to stop thinking in general.

One side of Kieran’s mouth curved up in response to my non-answer. A teasing grin I saw in the delicate dance of moonlight making its way through the window.

My eyes narrowed. “You’re teasing me.”

He reached over, gently tugging on the sleeve of my shirt—well, his shirt that I’d helped myself to while the one I slept in was still drying after being laundered. “I would never.”

I crossed my arms. “I’m being serious. The dream was too real.”

“Dreams can feel like that sometimes.”

“This was different. Here.” I grabbed my braid, shoving it toward him. “Smell my hair and tell me what you think it smells like.”

“Not something I’ve been asked to do before, but there’s always a first, eh?” Kieran took my braid, dipping his head and inhaling. I sensed the immediate change in him. “I smell…” He rocked back a few inches, still holding onto my braid. “I smell Cas.”

Air punched out of my lungs. “And lilacs, right? I dreamt of the cavern in Spessa’s End, and he was there.”

“I smell that and…and something…” He frowned.

“Musty? I did, too, before waking up. Everything felt real up until the end when I started to get cold and then noticed things about him. He appeared thinner. He even had several weeks’ worth of facial hair on his cheeks. There was a moment when he…oh, gods.” I swallowed. “I think he thought it was a dream, too, but then he somehow realized that it wasn’t. He said my eyes looked different. That there was more silver in them. Can you see them now?”