Kingdom of Embers and Ruin, page 41
She fractured at the touch of his mouth on her, all words emptying from her mind as she became all sensation. Herrick tasted her with a desperation she had never seen before like he was a starving man who stumbled upon a buffet.
Pressure built up in her core with every swipe of his tongue as his hands pressed down on her thighs, opening her up more for him. Just when Maude thought she would be lost in the overwhelming sensation of him, Herrick slid one of his fingers into her opening, growling at the damp heat that welcomed him. Maude bucked and moaned at the new intrusion. Slowly, he pumped his finger inside of her, sucking her clit and forcing another moan from her lips.
Maude pulled against her restraints, feeling her release hovering over her, when Herrick lifted his mouth from her for a moment.
“Not a lot of argument coming from you right now, minn eldr,” Herrick teased, still pumping his finger into her.
Breathing became more difficult for her with every movement. She panted, every nerve ending in her body working in overdrive. Herrick skated his nose over the inside of her thighs, licking the skin there and causing her to shudder with every swipe of his tongue when it was only teasing where she wanted him most.
“Herrick,” she panted, her hips twitching up to him. “Don't stop.”
Maude looked down at Herrick, his dark hair spilling over her thighs like a black halo as he worshiped her. The sight of that alone could have made her climax, but she was stubborn in all things, even sex.
“So pushy,” Herrick said, smiling against her skin.
When he pulled his finger out of her this time, he added a second on the next pump, and then a third. Maude groaned, the pleasure of his fingers stretching her to the brink of discomfort, pushing her further toward her undoing.
“And so wet for me.” He ran his tongue up her center, eliciting a moan from her lips again as he brought her to the edge once more.
Words were beyond her now; she could only feel. The throbbing in her center built until it took on a life of its own, torturing her with every one of Herrick’s movements.
His rate increased, his fingers setting a pace that only his tongue could keep up with. Soon, Maude could not control her breathing any longer. Her breaths became shallow, her hips grinding into Herrick’s mouth. Just when Maude thought the sensation was too much, Herrick formed an ice cube with his free hand and ran it down her stomach. The heat of her body was melting the ice quickly, adding an entirely new feeling to the mix.
At the last second, Herrick pressed his hand down on her lower stomach, pinning her to the ground and his mercy.
It was too much. Too much to feel. Maude’s body began to tighten, the pressure in her core building beyond her ability to bear it. It was too much. She needed to let go. She needed—
“Come for me, minn eldr,” Herrick growled. “I need to taste you, to feel you.”
His words were her undoing. Release barreled through her as Maude cried out Herrick’s name, the flashing colors behind her closed eyes shattering along with her. Herrick became ravenous, devouring every undulation of her hips and soaking up every reaction his touch elicited.
Her flames shot out from either side of them, only to be extinguished by Herrick’s water. Steam boiled around them as their galder collided, hiding them from the open sky above them and any gods that might be looking down on them before settling on their skin and mixing with their sweat.
Herrick slowed and withdrew his fingers from her, laying more kisses up her stomach and chest. When he reached the hollow of her throat, however, the previously languid muscles belonging to Maude seized up. She cried out in pain now instead of pleasure, her body rejecting the exercise it had just gone through.
“Maude?” Herrick asked, panic seeping into his voice as she yielded to her body’s protests.
“Burnout,” she gasped, eyes flying open to look at Herrick. “Fuck.”
The vines holding her hands in place disappeared, allowing Herrick to pick her up and cradle her. Spasms rocked through her, the burnout from earlier rearing its ugly head.
“Fuck, I’m sorry,” Herrick said, running his hands over her hair and her skin.
“Not your fault,” she said through her teeth, spasms rocking through her.
Before she could say anymore, oblivion swept over her, and the rest of the world was lost to her as she lay in Herrick’s arms.
22
Bryn was curled up in her bed with one of her mother’s journals that she had taken from Sigurd’s house, reading through its entries, when she heard a knock at the door.
“Come in,” she called, placing the journal underneath her pillow.
Revna entered her room, and Bryn’s heart skipped for a moment before she could compose herself. She was about to speak when she noticed the look of panic on Revna’s face.
“What’s happened?” Bryn asked as she stood from her place in her bed.
Revna scanned Bryn, noticing the short, thin shift she wore instead of her usual robe.
“One of the General’s Flame Assassins has made it back to the barracks,” Revna said quickly.
Ice-cold shock reverberated through Bryn, and she swore.
“Yes, those were my sentiments,” Revna said, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. “What do we do?”
Bryn’s mind raced. If the General caught wind of this assassin returning before the King did, their entire plan would collapse.
“Bryn,” Revna said, urgency in her tone.
“Hold on.” Bryn put two fingers to her temples and massaged the oncoming headache forming. Her mind raced with possibilities.
“Ulf won't let the assassin see the light of the new day if he finds out about their return,” Bryn began. Revna nodded. “So we need to get them into our confidence first.”
“How?”
Bryn spied her uniform scattered across the floor of her room and quickly stripped her shift from her body to dress as the Lieutenant General, a haphazard plan forming in her mind.
“Bring them to the furthest dungeon from the King and the General’s lodgings,” Bryn ordered. “Enlist two of your most trusted shieldmaidens to help.”
Revna nodded. “What are you going to do?”
Bryn stopped moving, her back to Revna. “What I have to do to ensure you get our message to Maude and keep our people safe.”
Bryn did not turn around to see Revna’s reaction.
“Thirty minutes,” was all Revna said before Bryn heard the door open and shut.
Alone in her room, Bryn donned the cruel mask of the Lieutenant General.
The Palace of Wind and Embers dungeons were dank and depressing. Most of the inhabitants here were forgotten over time, left to rot in the dirty cells that were housed in the deepest depths of the palace. Bryn’s riding boots dully clicked on the damp stone as she made her way to the cell that Revna had brought the Flame Assassin to.
The further down the hall she got, the deeper the shadows became. Torches on the walls had been extinguished to give the appearance of desertion in this part of the dungeon.
A nice touch by Revna and her shieldmaidens.
Bryn rounded the corner and found the cell she was looking for. Standing outside of it was Revna, a black mask that looked like a raven covering her face, its wings extending across and behind her dark eyes. Bryn did not make eye contact, their act having begun as soon as Revna brought the assassin here. She nodded to Revna, who then unlocked the cell door for her.
Flanking either side of the assassin were the two shieldmaidens, also masked. Tied to a rotting wooden chair was the Flame Assassin that answered to her uncle, head hanging to their side like they were unconscious, with a burlap sack over their head. Bryn nodded again to one of the shieldmaidens, who grabbed a bucket of water from the corner of the cell and tossed it onto the assassin.
The Flame Assassin shot awake, shouting in confusion at their dark surroundings.
“Quiet,” Bryn said, voice low and cold.
The man froze. One of the shieldmaidens tore the bag from the assassin’s head, exposing their face to Bryn. He had sandy blonde facial hair and a bald head. The entire surface of his scalp was tattooed in runes that Bryn had never seen before. His ears were small and appeared slightly tapered in the darkness, but otherwise, he seemed completely ordinary.
Eyes wide, he looked around the cell as he adjusted to the dark.
“Not the welcome I’m sure you were expecting,” Bryn said, the voice of the Lieutenant General now speaking.
The assassin's eyes focused on her now, his terror beginning to subside.
“Why am I here?” he demanded.
Bryn scoffed. “You are here because I need to debrief you, soldier.”
“Okay, but then why am I here?” The soldier looked around the cell again.
“Are your surroundings not up to your standard? Pity.” Bryn looked at the shieldmaiden with the bull’s mask.
In response, she pulled the man’s head back and doused the assassin in water again. When she was done, she released his head. Sputtering and choking, he flung his head forward again.
“What do you want to know?” he shouted. “Where is the General?”
“There is no need to raise your voice, Sven,” Bryn said, pacing in front of him now.
At the use of his name, Sven stopped thrashing, and true dread entered his eyes.
Her uncle kept the names of his Flame Assassins well-guarded, but Bryn had used her thirty minutes to her fullest advantage. Luck had been on her side when she crept into her uncle's office and found it empty. She searched through his files quickly and found the assassin's files, committing each name and description to memory.
When Sven had been unmasked, she knew exactly who he was.
“Tell me about your mission to Veter,” she ordered.
When he did not speak, she removed her knife from her thigh and ran it over his exposed chest, as the shieldmaidens had removed all but his undershorts. Right before she lifted the knife, she sliced across his pectoral. The cut bled onto his chest, and his breathing quickened.
“We were sent to bring back the Heir,” he said through his teeth.
“Yes, yes, I know that,” Bryn said, impatient. “I want to know what happened there.”
“Our leader went to find the Heir and never returned. One of the Kolbeck princes fought the rest of us through a maze in their garden to get to her,” Sven said, eyes on Bryn’s knife the entire time.
Bryn ran the tip of her blade over his collarbones as she continued to circle him.
“What else?”
“I pretended to be dead when their reinforcements arrived and then disappeared the same way I entered the city.”
“How did you get in?” Bryn stopped in front of the assassin.
His lips remained tightly shut. Bryn chuckled and straddled him, sitting on his lap with the point of her knife under his chin, tilting his face up to meet her cold gaze.
She knew what he was seeing: the Lieutenant General’s dead hazel eyes staring back at him, her smile full of malice.
“How did you get past the most heavily guarded border in our land, soldier?”
Sven swallowed, his almost black eyes taking in her threat hanging between them. He tugged against the bonds keeping him tied to the chair but found no give in them.
“I don’t know,” he said, voice shaking,
Bryn tsk’d at his response and moved her knife so the tip caressed the side of his face. “You wouldn’t lie to one of your commanding officers, would you?”
“I swear,” Sven said quickly. “When we got to the suggested meeting place, the gates were open, and the guards were already slain.”
Shock rolled through Bryn, but she did not question further, unwilling to give away the fact that she wasn’t a part of the planning process to get them into Veter. Bryn kept her mask in place as she removed the knife from his face.
“Will you free me now?” Sven asked, feeling Bryn relax slightly on top of him.
She cocked her head and swallowed her disgust, plastering a soothing smile on her face.
“Of course.”
Before Sven could relax, Bryn ran her knife across the assassin's throat. His lifeblood spilled onto her lap in a rush, but Bryn felt nothing as she dove deep into herself, trying to mentally protect herself from what she had just done.
Gods, spare me, Bryn thought to herself as she stood and walked out of the cell, Sven’s blood staining the ground beneath her with every step.
A few hours later, the door to Bryn’s room slammed open and crashed against the wall, but she didn’t really acknowledge it as she tipped back the rest of the clear contents of her glass into her mouth.
“What the fuck, Bryn?”
Revna entered Bryn’s room and slammed the door shut, leaning her shield against the door.
“Please, come in,” Bryn slurred from her seat at the window as she waved a lazy hand.
“Bryn,” Revna said again, walking over to where she stood, staring out over the city. “What just happened down there?”
Bryn closed her eyes for a moment, but the room spun too violently. Stumbling into Revna’s arms, Bryn felt her world tip onto its side, the contents of her stomach following her.
She landed on her hands and knees, hurling everything she had eaten that night onto the carpet in her room. Revna, crouching next to her, brushed her copper hair back into her slender hands and murmured reassurances as Bryn emptied everything in her body.
When she finally stopped, Revna ushered her into the bathroom, stripping Bryn’s bloody uniform from her body and moving her into the copper tub. Slowly, Revna filled the tub with the standing buckets of water that had been left by the servants and coaxed Bryn into heating it.
She refused, choosing to shiver in the freezing water instead. Bryn brought her knees to her chest and lay her temple on her knee, eyes closed, unable to look at her lover.
“Haven’t you punished yourself enough?” Revna asked as she washed Bryn’s long locks.
Bryn’s aggressive shivering helped her clear her mind.
“N-no,” she responded, teeth chattering. There was no heat in her blood tonight, not after what she’d done.
For a long while, there was nothing but Revna’s humming. A soft melody that tickled the back of Bryn’s memory. The sound lulled her into a semi-conscious state, the long fingers belonging to her lover scrubbing her scalp and soothing her in a way no one else could.
“Brynna,” Revna said softly. “Please tell me what happened tonight with the assassin.”
Bryn opened her eyes and looked at the ceiling while Revna poured water over her head.
“I didn’t want to do it,” Bryn whispered, broken. “But I saw no other option. He would have been killed anyway.”
She hadn’t seen another path for Sven. If their plan was to be successful, this man couldn’t survive. Had this soldier gone to the King or the General, they would’ve slaughtered him to keep him quiet. In the limited time they had, Bryn could not find a way to get him out of the palace to save his life. Even if she had, these assassins were loyal to a fault, and he would have never stayed away for long.
He had to die. And his death chipped away another big part of Bryn’s soul.
“I wish you had told me,” Revna said quietly.
“You would have stopped me,” Bryn responded, trying to stand by her decision and failing.
“Maybe you needed to be stopped.”
“I needed to keep you and Maude safe,” Bryn said, voice small.
“You don’t have to destroy yourself to keep us safe, my love.”
Bryn had no response to that. When Revna had finished rinsing her hair, Bryn stood from the ice-cold water and wrapped her robe around herself, keeping her back to Revna. The flame that burned within her normally warmed her up quickly enough, but the disgust she had for herself kept her flames at bay.
She needed to feel the cold that spread through her.
Bryn walked toward the previously full decanter on the bar in her room and poured another two finger widths of liquor into a clean glass. Before Revna could stop her, she downed the entire glass, feeling the heat of the liquid burn all the way into the pit of her empty stomach before it spread to her limbs and numbed every muscle in its burning wake. Revna removed the glass from her hand and placed it on the tabletop.
“You’ve had enough,” Revna said with a gentleness that Bryn did not deserve.
Revna guided her to the bed, sitting her down on the edge as she towel-dried Bryn’s hair. Bryn spied the perthro rune on her wrist again.
“Are you a seer?” Bryn asked, her head becoming fuzzy again.
Revna stiffened for a moment but continued with her task. “I could have been.”
“And now?”
“No, not anymore. The gods bless me with visions from time to time, but I don’t have the training to interpret them,” Revna sighed and sat next to Bryn. “I joined the army instead of finishing my training as a seer.”
Bryn, unable to keep herself upright any longer, lay back on her bed.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“For what?” Revna asked, positioning Bryn under the covers of her bed.
“For what my family has done to you.” Bryn turned over, looking at Revna solemnly. “For what my love has done to you.”
Bryn closed her eyes before she could see Revna’s reaction, falling into a deep sleep. Before she slipped into total oblivion, Bryn felt Revna settle behind her and pull Bryn into her soft body. Bryn could have sworn she heard her speak to her again but could not remember what it was later.
“I love you too.”
Bryn woke hours later, the moon still high in the sky, with Revna wrapped around her naked body. The memories from last night were hazy, but she remembered Revna getting her cleaned up before getting her into bed. Bryn turned over in Revna’s arms to face her lover.
Asleep, Revna’s face was relaxed and innocent. Bryn thought she had never seen anyone so beautiful before. Running a soft touch over Revna’s features, Bryn took in this solitary moment of quiet to observe the woman she loved. Fear always kept her from telling Revna the truth about what she felt— that she valued their relationship beyond the sex and how Revna brought peace to her mind when nothing and no one else could.
