Chapter One
Amagarie
102 years After the Second Great War
Boreas—Kingdom of Winds and Mountains
Princess Saieke El Shyokara fought the mortified blush trying to climb her neck. Deliberately allowing her lips to crease into an unconcerned smile, she lifted her hand to the Grand Duke of the house of Bayuka, Lord Augustus. Cold lips brushed her fingers, and she fancied she could feel the chill through her gloves. He had spouted empty flattery about her wit and beauty while Saieke could feel him suppress his lust for her body.
“You cannot know the sorrow I feel on rejecting your wondrous charms,” Lord Augustus said as he smiled, regret keen in his light blue eyes. There was also the merest hint of amusement in his voice, as if he had been fully aware of her plans for seduction when she had cut in on his dance with the Countess of Azul.
“Yet you have done so with such ease.” Saieke chuckled ruefully. Lord Augustus had presented himself at court several months past. They had taken a few carriage rides and had even trained together on a few occasions. She had not mistaken the lust that had leaked from him. Her only error had been in believing she would succeed in seducing him tonight. Saieke had taken such care to attract him, donning a lavish golden ball gown embedded with more than a hundred precious gems. Her hair was plaited into a pearl entwined coronet, to put the arch of her neck, and her plunging décolletage on shocking display. When she had descended the wide marble stairs above the grand entrance of the ballroom, a hush had fallen over the throng, and desire had brushed her senses from those who hadn’t been able to control the lust from leaking through their chakra.
Lord Augustus had followed her with his eyes all evening, and yet he still resisted her charms. What was she doing wrong? Remembering the explicit instructions from her closest friend Raikae, Saieke stepped closer to Lord Augustus, pushing her chest flush to his.
This was her fifth attempt of enticing a lord to her bed, and from the cool caution settling on his face, her fifth failure.
Kings’ teeth. “I can feel your desire to bed me through your chakra, so intense is your need.” He was a powerful lord; his control of his life energy should have been absolute. Only the untrained or civilian class should have been leaking their energy so easily. It did soothe her to know his desire was great enough to pierce his famed discipline.
She stroked the tip of her finger over his lower lip. “It is my right to take a consort, and I will have you, Lord Augustus.”
Saieke’s stomach knotted at her dangerous ploy. There were deadly consequences to taking a lover if one was already blood bound. But the man’s grasp she was trying to escape, King Ajali Haddin of Nuria—the kingdom of eternal fire, would never accept an impure bride of royal lineage. The purity of the bloodlines had to be protected. It was her only way out of the betrothal.
Need and fear warred in Lord Augustus, the emotions evident in his eyes. With a soft groan of defeat, he pulled her to him and dipped his head. Saieke parted her lips on a sigh, hope flaring to life.
Kiss me, she implored silently.
Then he pressed his l
ips to her.
With an eager moan, he kissed her deeper, and she searched herself for a response. She was frustratingly blank. Saieke tipped her chin and twined her hands around his nape, tugging him closer, mashing their mouths together. She parted her lips to his entreaty and did not protest when he cupped her bottom and drew her even closer. Disappointment stabbed in her heart. Where was the passion Rai spoke of?
With a muttered curse, he wrenched away, thrusting fingers through his hair, a frown splitting his brows. “To want you is to court death for my family,” he snapped.
“No one will ever know,” she said, knowing in her heart his fear was a reality.
“You are the blood oath queen to the king of Nuria.”
Anger snapped through her. “Not by my will or desire.”
“If it is made known I became your lover after King Ajali has made his claim…” Lord Augustus grimaced. “I ache for you Princess Saieke, but the threat to my family is too much.”
“I have been promised to man I will never desire, a man who you should hate to be our kingdom’s ruler,” she said hoarsely.
His eyes roamed her features. “And do you want me?” he asked softly. “Or is this only about saving our kingdom?”
She moved even closer to his warmth. “Everything must be about saving our people.”
“Do you want me?” he grounded.
No. “I am not sure,” she admitted softly.
Lord Augustus stiffened and then stepped away. He made as if to speak, then with a stiff bow, he flashed away, using his chakra to speed his movements so that he was a blur. Nothing of his presence lingered, not even the scent of oak moss that had twined itself around him like a cloak.
With a sigh, she flashed to the high balcony overlooking the grand ballroom of Castle Windhaven. Hundreds of lords and ladies danced below, and the life and laughter of the people in the ball pulsed through her. Men and women lounged idly on cushioned chaises, eating fruits and drinking mulled wine.
She could feel the varied emotions leaking in the air: a sharp bite of lust, amusement, pity, and even sorrow, but the most prevalent was joy. It was not only her mother’s ability to sense people emotions Saieke had inherited, but also the power to control water and wind. She was tempted to draw the wines from their goblets and dump it over their heads, and then used her wind to freeze them in their false hope. If they only knew how soon their comfortable world could be burned to ashes. In three moons, King Ajali would travel to Boreas to lay siege to her unwilling heart and to their kingdom’s way of life.