"Don't you like it?" Phil nudged him.

Erick nodded. What did he care where he pissed? It made no difference to him. Eleanor wasn't supposed to even make this, not without finding Violet first.

"She'll be here tonight," Eleanor muttered, low and hateful. "She said that?" Erick straightened up. "What else did she say?"

Eleanor turned her back on him and shoved strange tools into a canvas bag. Her whole body shook with each harsh movement. "That was it," she snapped. "That was the deal, right? To find your queen whose only job is to spread her legs." She tried to lift her bag but couldn't.

That word queen grated on his mind. "I'm not going to marry her."

"Oh, that makes it better," she mumbled sarcastically and huffed in frustration when her arms and back trembled against the weight.

He didn't have to explain himself to her. Spoiled brat. Was this jealousy? Earth, he shouldn't have led her on last night. But it hadn't been real. She'd asked him to pretend.

"I'll get it, miss." The thief lifted her bag with a fake grunt, probably to spare her pride.

Ellie ran out of the room and disappeared in the hall.

"She does something nice for you and you don't even thank her? Your only concern is when you can have her alone tonight." Phil grumbled.

"Not her."

But Phil glared at him in a way that argued otherwise.

"Besides, I didn't ask her to do this. She's not a laborer. I don't know why she does this sort of thing."

"Henry let her rig up their home. Plumbing everywhere. You should see it sometime. Elven vinework. Sculpted murals. Crystal-powered lights. Beautiful."

Erick had never accepted Henry's invitations. What was the point? He saw Henry nearly every day at the palace.

She hadn't smiled and her purple-lensed gaze flicked too frequently to the door. She sat on the edge of the bed, balls of her feet on the floor. He'd fear she didn't want him, if not for her thumbs worrying the hem of her patched costume. She was just nervous-that was all.

He shouldn't have tried to force off her mask last time. "I promise I won't," Erick said again.

Her perfume toyed with him, distracting him. He wanted to smooth her tense lips with his tongue and push away the lace that hid her pink buds. Nearly bare, her breasts begged to be freed. He would unlace that bodice in one quick tug but he needed to make this right first. "I'm sorry if Eleanor scared you. Did she?" The brat had probably threatened Violet to get her here.

"No." But the word came out hard. "Eleanor won't be here long."

Violet's chin tilted away from him and Erick wished he could beat Eleanor for whatever she'd done.

Violet's bare neck made his mouth salivate with want. Earth, he wanted to inhale her scent and taste the salt of her skin with a savoring kiss but Erick stepped back to stop himself. "Stay with me and I'll protect you."

A smile flickered across her face and the knot of worry in his gut loosened. She wanted him as her protector. That had to be a good sign. It was a start.

"Are you warm enough?" He'd made a fire but it hadn't burned long enough to fill the room with heat. He knelt before her and touched her hand. Cold.

Her bare thighs shivered against his arm and a tiny gasp parted her red lips, reminding him of the last orgasm he'd given her. Oh he wanted to see her head drop back with a moan as he plunged deep inside her. "Let me warm you." An image flashed through his mind of parting her thighs and licking her center and he wasn't sure if the desire was his alone.

Just a little longer.

Erick pulled down the covers and admired the long lines of her neck and the deep hollows of her collarbone. Her soft breasts shimmied as she moved past him. Perfect handfuls.

She stiffly lay down, arms at her side. She wouldn't look at him.

His cravings suddenly made him feel monstrous, as if he were taking advantage. It felt wrong, lying beside her, his cock pressing into her thigh. He shouldn't enjoy the tingling sensations of her skin against his when she wasn't ready for him. He propped himself up on an elbow to look at her.

That mask. It divided them, worse than the elves and their devious plots.

The soft caress of her mind evaded him. She wouldn't even accept his thoughts. Earth, he needed her. Not just her body. "Let me in."

She bit her lip and shook her head.

He was scum, unfit to fuck her. He shouldn't have insulted her with his petty offer. She deserved more. "Do you want me to touch you?" Binding, he could live with.

Her gaze finally met his. "Yes."

The weight inside lifted and his lungs filled with ease. His heart quickened and pounded, anticipating the rush of her mind in his. But when he moved to touch her face, she slid away, arm blocking his as if he'd meant to strike her.

He halted and his tool fell flaccid between them. "No, it's okay. I won't hurt you." He snatched her wrist and kissed between her knuckles. "I'll never hurt you. I promise. Elves bind their mates this way, like a marriage but eternal." And safer. No marital inheritances. No danger of assassination by a secret lover.

But that didn't ease the fear from her face. "What if you don't like what you see? I've done things, horrible things. I'm not just me anymore." Under her breath, she mumbled, "I know that doesn't make sense." She pushed his hand away. "I want this but not yet. I want you to still want me after."

"There's nothing you could have done that would change the way I feel about you."

Her mouth opened and she quickly covered it. Beneath her lenses, her eyes squeezed shut. Her chest shook without breath.

Erick pulled her close, fingers laced in her hair as she hid her face in his chest. Her mouth wet his skin with her sobs and he nearly broke. He clenched his jaw to hold it in. It burned his eyes and lungs. He felt lower than dirt for making her cry. "We don't have to rush," he rasped. The impending wars were his fault, not hers. She shouldn't suffer for them. "Just know I love you. I always will." He kissed her hair and stroked her back. Whatever she wanted, he'd give her in the time he had left.

She kissed his mouth, salt on her lips. "I love you too. Everything I did, I did for you."

He squeezed her and pressed hard into her kiss, unable to get close enough, to express how much he'd needed those words. When her mind slipped inside his, aching bliss nearly spilled from his eyes. No other woman had wreaked such havoc in his soul with her loss and return. "Stay with me tonight." He didn't care if she wore the mask, so long as he could wake to her.

Yes. She snuggled up against him seemingly meaning to sleep.

He hated his body at that moment for wanting more. His cock hardened and throbbed demanding her. And that perfume, it cut his breath into jagged shards. Her nearly nude flesh electrified his and it took so much to still his hands on her back.

"We aren't so different. Our needs are the same," she whispered and pushed his shoulder, rolling him onto his back. She yanked his pants down and sat up in one quicksilver motion.

His cock popped free. The tip wept with pre-cum.

Aggression that normally jarred him from a woman made him feel desired. Earth, she could do whatever she wanted to him, so long as she looked at him like that. Her gaze blazed his flesh with vibrant light, pausing at all the right places.

When her thoughts opened to him, filled with hunger for his body, he wanted to knock her down to mount quickly and plunge into her. But what she had in mind stilled him. Oh, he'd enjoy that so much more.

Her smooth legs caressed his hips as she straddled him, teasingly graceful. Sparks burst stronger here in the soft flesh of her inner thighs and in the delicate folds of her sex. Her honey gushed over his shaft and he bucked, electrified and twitching.

Mouth wide, head tossed back deep into the pillow, he couldn't get enough air to calm himself, to keep from taking her. She had no idea how close he was to flipping her over and fucking her like an animal.

Mmm. I do. Violet's tight buds prodded his chest as she bent over him. She dragged her plush lips up his neck to his jaw, while her fingers traced the narrow valleys of his abs.

So close to where he needed her touch. If he could just wait a little longer.

Her fingertips slid in his pre-cum and smeared the slick fluid up his center to his neck.

Earth, he'd explode.

When her tongue flicked at the moist trail, he lost all self control.

He seized her hips and plundered. Deep inside. Bare. Her electrifying honey on his bare cock. Smooth and tight.

She jerked up, knees gripping him. With a quick sway of her hips, she swirled his cock inside her, meeting his every crude thrust. She squeezed and twirled him up and down his length, as if he were a lollipop savored in her mouth.

"Oh, Erick." She arched back, face tense, nails dug into his thighs. Her petite breasts bounced and he filled his hands with her. They slapped his palms with each quick twist and grind of her hips.

Ecstasy wrenched his cock as her orgasm burst. Sparks everywhere. He couldn't let them go. He pumped deeper, chasing the thrilling spasms. He clutched her hips, fingers buried in her fleshy buttocks. "More."

But she halted, body suddenly tense when she should have melted. He opened his eyes, though he hadn't remembered closing them.

Violet's mouth opened in horror, dimmed gaze fixed on the window where the full Old Moon shined, alone in the night sky. Then he realized why she'd stopped. Through her, he felt the rising hum of an army. Hundreds marched in the distance. They grew closer, less than an hour away.

Erick's gut clenched. He'd thought he had more time. She slid off his cock and stood frozen beside the bed.

Erick rolled out. On his feet, he snatched his sword from its scabbard on the nightstand. "It's okay. They won't hurt you. They're only after me."

She shook her head and sucked in her lower lip. They're here for me. Her hand closed over his on the hilt of his blade.

She burned him, though a spell hadn't fallen from her lips. Darkness whirled around them.

He couldn't move. Couldn't speak. Energy coursed from every limb and into her touch, draining him.

Flashes of light spun above him and seemed to pull the room into a vortex until the floor spun away. He fell at her feet too weak to pull his blade with him.

Violet, his Violet, stood over him, his sword clutched in her tiny hands.

He couldn't scream. He couldn't feel his face. His limbs lay numb and useless. Everything inside hardened to a cold, icy lump.

Had she tricked him? Was it her army approaching? Was she the same as his mother? A demon?

He'd loved her.

Erick tried to open his mouth but he couldn't even keep his eyes open. Darkness fell on him.

Chapter Sixteen.

December 26, 9544 AR

Valetta, Biston

Captain Bale regarded her, head tilted, brows raised. He didn't believe her. His gaze drifted behind her to Erick who lay unconscious on the bed.

The smell of sex still filled the bedroom.

Eleanor's face and eyes heated. She wished it was purely from rage. She should have covered Erick's nude body. She stepped between Bale and Erick.

"If I was going to escape, I wouldn't have called you to me," Eleanor argued. Earth, her head ached and her body shook, empty. She shouldn't have started without first securing someone else to draw from. Biston's army would fall all because of this power-hungry guard holding her prisoner. "Please, let them in." The bastard had barricaded the door, even though it was Biston soldiers pounding against it, screaming at him.

Outside the palace, wounded and dying soldiers wailed. Swords clanked, bricks and mortar crumbled and soon Porter's army would find a way in. Yet her guards clung to her father's outdated orders.

Eleanor reached for the exposed skin of Bale's face but he deftly evaded her.

His gloved hand shoved hers away. Through a half-cocked grin, he chortled, "You won't trick me again, my lady."

She tried to scream inside his head, to force him to his knees but he blocked her. In frustration, she yelled, "We're outnumbered. Porter will break through and they'll kill him. What do you think my father will do to you if Erick dies?" She couldn't lose him. The thought crushed her ribs and squeezed her heart.

"His Majesty isn't my concern." Jealousy lowered Bale's voice and brow. The defiant ass hadn't worn his nose plug since her father left. Nostrils flared, he freely inhaled her pheromones and didn't hide the resulting tent.

She hated when they looked at her like that. Not just with desire but with possessive rage. Her wet sex likely intensified her pheromone's effect on them.

Eleanor tightened her grip on the hilt of Erick's sword, wishing she had the strength and skill to win. She'd never learned. Bale would easily overpower her and use her attack as an excuse. Her stomach churned and she pulled Erick's robe tighter around her body. She felt naked under their lustful stares. If her father were here, they'd at least pretend to ignore her and give up this suicidal stupidity.

The hum outside rose to a painful pitch. Her brain throbbed from the force. "Just give me three men," she said sweetly. She'd use the energy to smash the bastard and open the door. Earth, why had she started without first securing someone to draw from? "You don't need six to hold me prisoner, do you? What can six do that three can't?" He'd lent her two to solder pipes.

"No."

Arrogant son of a bitch. Reiley would win because of him. "I won't become a king's whore because of your power kick." She lifted Erick's sword, heart pounding.

Unafraid, Bale strode past her toward the bed. "Looks like you already have."

Her arms trembled against the weight and she swung. The blade sliced into Bale's legs. Weak, she fell with him, and the stained blade clattered to the floor. In a frenzied panic, she struggled to reach his face, the only bare skin on his body.

Curses flew from his lips as he kicked her back. His heel thudded and scraped her ribs, knocking air from her chest.

Pain seared her skin and terror wrung her gut. Before the others could grab her, she dug her fingers into the exposed wound on his leg. Heat, beloved heat, burst with his blood over her icy blue hand. In a quick rush, she sapped every drop of energy. It coursed up her arm and through her insides, heating her flesh and pounding her heart.