The War of Two Queens (Blood and Ash 4)

“Well, fuck…” I heard Kieran mutter a moment before the hot, wet slide of Casteel’s tongue against the side of my throat sent a tight, pulsing shudder through me.

My eyes flew open.

“Not sure if this is the right time for any of that.” Kieran threaded his arm around Casteel’s shoulders, pulling him back an inch.

A throaty growl came from Casteel, but it was nothing like the wild, primitive sounds he’d made before. This was from a different kind of hunger. One that my body responded to, answering with a wet rush of heat. But the relief…gods, the relief swirling through me, was just as powerful as the arousal.

I was able to free my other arm. Clasping his cheeks, I lifted Casteel’s head. Gold. Brilliant, burnished gold eyes locked onto mine.

“Cas,” I whispered.

Those beautiful eyes glimmered with dampness. Tears. “My Queen,” he said in a voice thick and raw.

A shudder took me as I gripped the sides of his face, finally seeing that the rich, golden-bronze hue had begun to return to his skin. I lifted my lips to his—

Casteel turned his head, pressing his cheek to mine. “I can’t feel your mouth on mine.” His words were a raw whisper in my ear. “If I do, I’m going to fuck you. I’m going to get so deep inside you that there will be no part of you I don’t reach. Right here. Right now. It doesn’t matter who is in this chamber. It’s already taking everything in me not to be inside you.”

Oh.

Oh, goodness.

Someone cleared their throat. It could’ve been his brother, and…well, I didn’t really want to think about that.

Pulse thudding at the rich, smoky flavor swamping me, I parted suddenly dry lips as he lifted his head. “Okay. So, how are you feeling? Other than that?”

Thick lashes swept down, halfway shielding his eyes. “I’m…here.” His throat worked on a swallow. “Together.”

I shook again. That wasn’t a lot of words, but I knew what he meant. So did Kieran. His relief was potent, rolling off him in refreshing, earthy waves.

Casteel eased his fingers from my hair, dragging the tips of them down my cheek. Somewhere on the floor, a chain clattered. He stilled, his attention shooting to them. “I need these off me. Now.”

My eyes found Kieran. “Get Reaver.”

Malik didn’t hesitate, leaving the chamber. Slowly, Casteel’s gaze left those chains, returning to mine.

“It’s okay,” I told him, brushing my fingers through his hair over and over. “We’ll get them off.”

Casteel said nothing, those diamond-bright eyes fixed on mine, his stare intense and all-consuming. The hollowness of his features was filling out, but I still saw stark shadows of need there.

Reaver skidded into the chamber, followed by Malik. A door clicked shut.

“The chains,” I said. “Can you break them around his wrists?”

“I can do that.” Reaver started forward.

“Thank the gods,” Kieran muttered. “But I would take it—”

Casteel’s head twisted in my grasp, his body vibrating as he growled deep and low at Reaver.

“Slowly,” Kieran finished.

The draken turned his gaze on Casteel, the skin of his features thinning. Ridges appeared along his cheek, his neck. “Really?”

“Hey. Hey.” I struggled to pull Casteel’s attention back to me. “That’s Reaver,” I told him, and his nostrils flared. “Remember? I told you about him. He’s a friend. He’s also a draken. You’re not going to win that battle.”

“I think he wants to give it a go,” Malik remarked.

The way Casteel tracked Reaver’s movements told me that Malik wasn’t far off the mark.

Reaver knelt by us. “I’m going to need you to lift one arm at a time,” he instructed. “And I’m going to need you to do that without trying to bite me because I bite back.”

Casteel was silent, but he lifted his hand from my cheek. He watched Reaver lower his head, eyeing how closely the draken got to me. His upper lip began to curl.

I turned his head to me, and the chill immediately went out of his golden eyes. There was nothing but heat when he looked at me. And hadn’t it always been like that? From the first moment in the Red Pearl to now? It had. There was so much I wanted to say. So many things. But all that came out was, “I’ve missed you.”

A flare of silvery-white washed over Casteel’s profile. He didn’t even flinch, but his jaw flexed when the shadowstone shackle hit the floor. “I never left you.”

“I know.” Tears crowded my throat.

“Other hand,” Reaver ordered.

Casteel shifted his weight onto his left arm, and his lower body settled more fully against mine. There was no mistaking the thick, rigid length of him. Flecks of brighter gold churned in his eyes. “Are you safe here?”

“We are safe here.” I kept combing back his hair as that stream of silvery fire lit the space between our bodies and the bed. “For now.”