Ambrosia (Frost and Nectar Book 2)

The horse’s hooves pounded hard against the rocks, kicking up dirt. We’d been riding for hours.

After we’d landed beneath the castle, my wings had disappeared again. Now, I leaned back into Torin. He held me tightly as we rode east, his arm an iron bar around my waist.

After all that time, those weeks in the cell, replaying his death in my mind until I’d nearly gone mad, it was hard to believe he was really here with me. Tangible behind me, solid as the earth beneath us.

A month of darkness, and now I felt as if the sun were lighting me up from within.

Even after several hours, my heart hadn’t slowed its unrelenting hammering. The wind slid over us, carrying with it the scent of molten rock and ashes.

I sighed. “If I go home to Shalini’s apartment, what do you think the chances are that I’ll find Aeron there, too?”

“Quite high, I should think. Assuming Orla is ruling in my absence.”

I bit my lip. “What do you mean?”

“Only the monarch of Faerie can grant someone permission to leave or return.” His deep voice rumbled from his chest. “And I haven’t been there to grant permission.”

“So, if I wanted to pop by for a visit, I’d need to ask you first?”

“Ava, my love.” His voice sounded husky, ragged. “You won’t be able to visit Faerie. The curse doesn’t work here, but it will in my kingdom. You can’t be around me in Faerie.”

I felt as if shards of glass pierced my chest. What I understood the most right now was that I wasn’t ready for this to end. “Sure.”

“But if you return home, Ava, and you realize that you want someone to drive a sword through Andrew’s throat, please send word to me, will you? I do believe I can murder him without consequences.”

“Thanks. Pretty sure I can do my own killing now.” My voice sounded small, and a heaviness weighed on my chest. “Did you hear what Mab said? She said some bitter Seelie crone is the reason you’re all cursed. Modron—the one who looks back. She said if you kill her, the curse would be lifted.”

“Do you believe her?”

I took a deep breath. “Mab is a terrible person. But I really don’t think she lies.”

By the time we reached the ruined temple by the riverside, morning rays pierced the leaves, igniting them with the first blush of dawn. Flecks of honeyed light danced over the ruined stones of the temple, columns of stone and a crumbled roof open to the sky.

Torin tugged the horse’s reins, slowing her to a halt outside the temple. He dismounted first, then gripped me around the waist to lift me off.

I stared down at my bloodstained, dirty body and took a quick plunge into the river, washing off the grime, the blood, and gods knew what else. I drank a few palmfuls of its clear water. I’d never take water for granted again. But I didn’t have much time to waste here, so I stepped out again.

Hope lit me up as we crossed into the temple. At the far end of the truncated columns, an altar stood. Just as Cala had said, a mirror hung above an empty forge, beaming with morning rays of light. My chest unclenched as I stared at it. At last, I’d be freeing Torin from this place.

I turned back to him, his perfect features gilded by morning light. Only now did I have the space to think about what this would mean, and a lump rose in my throat. This would be the last time we’d see each other. Or at least the last time we’d touch, until sometime in the future when we no longer felt the incandescent heat of love.

“Go on,” I rasped. “Just say the name of the place you want to travel to.”

Torin turned to the mirror, hands planted on either side of it. My heart cracked, and I sucked in a deep breath.

“You should go first.” He turned back to me.

I shook my head. “Go.” Because there was one more thing I wanted to do, and I wasn’t sure that he would approve.

He brought his hand up to my cheek. “This is the last time I can touch you, Ava. I know we need to leave here, but I just need a little more time.”

My heart started to race, and I tried to sense the vibrations of oncoming horses or soldiers through the soil. I didn’t feel anything.

“Of course, I’ve thought you were beautiful since the first time I met you,” he said, “but it changed into something else when I saw you in the tournament, letting Eliza get hits in on you just to save her honor. You hardly knew her, and the Seelie hadn’t given you the warmest welcome…that was the moment I knew I was lost for you. And I should have stopped it then. I should have ended it all, called off the marriage.”

My throat was tight. “There’s no point in punishing yourself for decisions you made in the past, Torin. All we can do is move forward. We’re both alive, and that seems like a miracle right now.”

“I can’t leave you without kissing you one last time.” A jagged edge of sorrow cut through his voice.

He leaned down, lips hovering over mine. He slid one hand into my hair, threading it between his fingers. He pressed his lips against mine, and my back flattened against the cold stone wall.

One last time…

The words hummed through my heart like a bittersweet song. A final kiss, a final embrace.

His tongue darted in as the kiss deepened, and desire swept through my body. His primal power, warm and vibrating, skimmed over my skin, and I had to drink it up because this would be the last time. The loss of him pierced my chest, and I wanted to devour him whole.

River water dampened my body, and every inch of me felt alive, kissed by the rich forest air. I was acutely aware of every place the wet dress clung to my skin.

With one hand in my hair, his other moved to my waist. The way he kissed me with an exquisite heat, like he wanted to memorize my lips, told me he was as heartbroken about our parting as I was.

Slowly, he pulled away, his blue eyes smoldering with the possessiveness of a king. “I wish I could take you with me.”

I reached for his tattered shirt, unbuttoning it. Was this really the last time my fingertips would trace over his chiseled abs and the whorls of tattoos on his skin? “Torin, so do I. You have no idea.”

Even as sorrow twisted through me, my desire for him coiled off my bare skin like steam.

Gently, he pulled down one side of my dress, exposing my breast. He reached up, caressing me and making my nipple go rock-hard against his palm.

He lowered his mouth to my throat, licking the river water off me.

I tried to memorize his scent as I breathed it in, the mossy, magical scent of an enchanted forest. This was the last moment his primal, earthy magic would twine around me. I needed to memorize the feel of him, the smell of him. Because when he left, I’d be living in a world of shadows.

I arched my back, my breast pressing into his palm. Every one of my sensitive nerve endings burned with a startling truth: that I was his, and he was mine. Curse or not, we belonged together, joined by a bone-deep connection. And the idea that this was our last moment together was impossible to bear.

One hot, lazy kiss after another scorched my throat where his lips met my skin. He moved at an indolent pace, holding back, but I could feel the desperation behind every searing kiss. The way his fingers went tight on my body, the rigidity of his muscles. The Seelie king was warring for control over himself.

I arched my neck, resting my head against the temple wall. He was the most beautiful man I’d ever seen, and liquid desire pulsed in my core. I threaded my fingers into his dark hair, committing the feel of it to my memory.

How could I let him go after all this?

I wasn’t sure that I’d ever felt truly alive until this moment. Every inch of my skin ached for his touch, and I savored the brush of his lips against me, trying to etch each moment on my heart for all time. “You know we belong together, right?”

“Yes.” The word sounded torn out of him against his will.

His hand moved from my breast to my waist, his movements frustratingly languid. Especially frustrating since we could be discovered at any moment, and if Torin were captured again, it would break me.

“Torin, I don’t want this to end,” I breathed. “But I don’t want them to lay a finger on you again.”

“I can’t rush with you. If this is the only time we can be together…” He gripped me tightly, his words trailing off. As if we had all the time in the world, he raised his face and slanted his lips against mine, giving me a sensual kiss.

My body lit up.

I craved his hands on me, and a hollow ache built at the apex of my thighs. I reached for the top of his pants and slid my fingertips beneath his waistband. He inhaled sharply.

“Dress. Off.” A jagged note of desperation tinged his husky voice, and he started to pull it off me.

Under the dress, I was completely naked and slick with desire for him. A little spark in the hollows of my mind was aware that we might have to leap through that mirror at any moment, and I’d be making the trip back home in the nude. But the majority of my mind didn’t care at all, and every stroke from Torin incinerated my rational thoughts.

Torin’s eyes swept down my body, and he went rigid as if he were seeing me naked for the first time. His eyes, usually so cold, blazed with heat. His jaw flexed, and I sensed he was losing the battle with his tightly leashed control. “Ava.” His husky voice had a pleading sound. “I wanted to take my time with you, to remember, but…” He trailed off again, inhaling deeply.

He clamped a hand on my hips, rooting me against the dew-kissed stone wall, exactly where he wanted me. With his free hand, he stroked me between my thighs, his touch excruciatingly light. His restraint was faltering because when he touched me where I was wet, he let out a low growl. Heat radiated off him, and he held me in place firmly with one hand.

Every inch of my bare skin felt exquisitely sensitive, aching for him. As two of his fingers slid into me, molten pleasure lit me up.

The Seelie king was enjoying my body, dangerously turned on as I was. He was stoking my lust into a wild, primal state.

I opened my thighs wider for him. I breathed deeply, my bare breasts heaving and flushed.

He stroked me with light circles, teasing me until my core was coiled tightly, desperate for release. “Torin,” I whispered, “I need more of you.”

“I knew someday I’d have you moaning my name, changeling.” Despite the danger, despite his obvious arousal, it seemed nothing would hurry him. He teased me, delighting in the pleading words tripping off my tongue, until at last, he stroked me over the edge, and a shudder rippled through me. My climax had me moving against his hand, gasping his name. My fingers were tangled in his dark hair, and I slowly unclenched them.

Breathing hard, I unbuttoned his pants, freeing his hard cock. Goddess of ash, I’d sensed it before, but now I knew for certain that fae men were built differently in every way.

More frantic now, he reached under my ass, spreading my thighs wide as he brought my legs up over his hips. My back pressed against the wall, and he paused at my entrance. My hips rocked against his tip, then slowly, carefully, he pushed into me. One inch at a time, he moved inside me, eyes locked on mine. A slow thrust in and out, with a tenderness that bordered on reverence. My fingernails traced over his back, up into his hair, and I pulled his face closer to mine.

“Ava.” My name on his tongue was a hoarse groan that lit my blood on fire. “I would tear my own kingdom apart for you if it meant we could be together.” He pressed his mouth against mine in a devouring kiss.

He would tear his kingdom apart for me…

These words wrecked me. Destroyed me. Because I never expected to hear them from him, and my love for him flooded me.

He moved slowly in me, a deep stroke that sent pleasure rocketing through me. I raked my hands down his back, urging him to move faster, deeper. His tongue swept mine, and his hips moved against me, body moving and rolling exactly where I needed him. He drove into me again and again, and firelight scorched my thoughts. At last, the pleasure of release ripped through me, and I clenched around him, arching my back, fingernails digging into him. As he climaxed, he whispered my name with a desperation that broke my heart. Watching the ecstatic look on his face, his eyes closed, I shuddered against him with aftershocks of pleasure.

His muscles relaxed, and he leaned against me, catching his breath. Another long kiss, drawing out the pleasure. When he pulled away, he stared into my eyes.

“Ava, you have made me thoroughly undone in every possible way. I am returning to my kingdom a ruined man. But with you, I don’t think I have a choice. You’re a command I can’t refuse.”

“And yet, we’re never going to see each other again.”

He heaved a sigh. “That’s to keep you alive.”

I swallowed hard. “The curse doesn’t work here. How do you know it will work in the human realm?”

“Because there would be only one way to test it, changeling. I died for you once, and I would do it again…I’d rip through the realms to get to you again. But I will not put you at risk.”

Our bodies glowed with morning dew, and we slumped against each other, muscles limp. He reached up for the side of my face and kissed me again, softly. A worshipful kiss.

We had to leave now before it was too late, before they found us, but neither of us seemed to want to be the first to let go.