Page 108 of Threaded
“And I don’t care about your past, or your future, or any of it. Because you are fuckingmine.”
Andrian crushed his lips to hers, even though her teeth were still bared at him.
He instantly matched her fury with his own, their kiss devolving into a battle of teeth and tongue and lips and gasped curses.
Whenever he challenged her, she met him. She pushed back against his cold darkness with her brilliant light, and it drove him wild.
He knew then he would never stop craving this. Cravingher.
He was just about to slide a hand down her body, slip a hand inside her wool and leather leggings to get to the hot wetness he knew waited for him, when the sound ofsomethingrustling in the woods ripped his attention away from her. Andrian froze, Mariah gasping beneath him as he pulled his mouth from hers, pressing into her even harder so she was all but hidden against that ancient stone wall.
No one should be out there, this deep in the game park.
That was, after all, the reason he’d led her here.
“What are you …”
“Shh, nio,” Andrian whispered, his voice low, barely more than a shift in the breeze. “There’s someone out there.”
She went still beneath him for a single, long heartbeat, before she pushed against him, twisting around in his arms to try to get a look at the trees. He hissed at her through his teeth, but she only shot him a blazing glare. He could almost read her words in her eyes.
I’ve spent far more of my life in the trees than you. If there’s something out there, I’ll spot it first.
He held her gaze for another heartbeat, before rolling his eyes and relenting. He loosened his grip on her, and she turned and pressed her chest into the wall, peering her head around the corner, scouring the thick copse of trees surrounding them for signs of movement. There was nothing for several moments, and Andrian began to wonder if he’d imagined that sound. But then …
There. A rustling in the trees, the sound of footfalls. A person running, trying to move quietly, but going so quickly that complete silence was impossible.
A woman burst from the underbrush, her features hidden behind a dark veil, her oddly styled silver gown gripped in her fists to keep it from tangling in her legs as she ran. She was obviously not from Onita, or anywhere Andrian had been in his lifetime.
Not that he’d been anywhere other than Onita, anyway. But her clothing was clearlyother, the fashions unlike anything he’d ever seen. That wasn’t what set him on edge, though.
What unnerved him the most was that Mariah had gone utterly rigid beside him, a sharp inhale the only sound or movement she made. He chanced a glance away from the strange woman to see that her face was utterly pale, the skin pallid beneath her tan cheeks. She looked shocked, or maybe terrified.
But that made no sense; nothing about this woman sprinting through the woods seemed a threat, other than the fact she was currently in a part of the game park that no one ever wandered.
A shout wrenched Andrian away from his thoughts, his veins flooding with adrenaline.
That woman, it appeared, was not alone.
Mariah—and the woman—noticed it at the same time he did. The woman glanced over her shoulder sharply, and Andrian could’ve sworn that he heard her let out a low chuckle before she regathered her skirts and bounded off like a deer, heading deeper into the woods and toward the Attlehon Mountains beyond. Andrian watched her go for a second before his attention snapped back to the woods, another shout echoing.
He and Mariah held their breaths and their bodies utterly still as four guards, armed to the teeth and wearing the red and gold livery of House Shawth, barged through the trees, hacking off branches and brush. It was obvious their quarry was the silver woman, and they didn’t even toss a glance in his and Mariah’s direction before pressing onward into the woods, heading away from where the woman had bounded off not a moment earlier. Neither of them moved a muscle until well after the sound of those guards faded into the distance. It wasn’t until the birds around them had resumed their chirping and the forest had settled back into its usual quiet activity that he finally relaxed the tension in his shoulders, the sunlight instantly pouring in around them as the shadows he’d unintentionally cast to shield them lifted. Mariah similarly stepped away from the wall, her hands shaking slightly, her skin still pale and seeped of color. She released a great exhale, dropping into a crouch before resting her head into the palms of her hands.
“Well,” she said, her voice shaky. “Looks like I’m not the only one in this city someone wants dead.”
Andrian didn’t know whether he should laugh or growl in anger.
Instead, he chose to remain silent, not trusting his voice. He extended a hand to her, which she took, and led the way back towards the training clearing and the palace beyond.
CHAPTER47
“If Ryenne actually believes I would ever be willing to apologize to that disgusting olddickwho happens to be in control of my hometown, then she truly doesn’t know me at all,” Mariah seethed as she stalked along the expanse of windows in her living room.
HerPorofirat,with its strange and poor end, had been two days ago, and the queen was still working to placate the lords. Particularly Donnet.
But Mariah had no interest in placating anyone, despite her many frustrating conversations with Ryenne. Even Ksee seemed to recognize it as a lost cause, instead lingering in the corner of those meetings while watching Mariah with a disdainful look.
Mariah, now dressed in soft leggings and a black sweater, the entirety of her court gathered in the cavernous space of her suite, paced restlessly back and forth, every set of eyes in the room tracking her movements. Most of them were lounging about on the couches and other furniture, Feran and Delaynie the only two who perched instead on the stools at the island in the kitchen. Mikael was also in the kitchen, busying himself with assembling enough food to feed the hoard of people currently intruding upon Mariah’s personal space.