Page 14 of Hearts on Fire
No, I didn’t want any of these men. I wished to be back in thesalamandras’room, alone on my hard, cold perch. But that clearly wasn’t an option, so I kept quiet.
Taking my silence for compliance, Elex headed back to his lounger, half-leading, half-carrying me along.
He reclined into the furs, dragging me down with him. I propped my hands on his chest to keep at least some distance between us. It wasn’t easy, and I ended up sitting on his lap.
“The window is right there.” He tipped his chin at the open window behind us.
“Why would I care about the window?” I mumbled, confused. With him being this close, his scent invaded my senses, making me feel lightheaded.
He casually draped an arm around my waist. “Just in case you want to toss me out of it again.”
A teasing smile broke on his face, and I had to glance away before I lost my mind and did something stupid, like kiss him.
I wished I could just toss him out of the window again. Last night, it proved to be a great way to deal with the turmoil he caused inside me.
I knew I should at least shove him away right now. But the freezing air from the window curled through the room like long, icy fingers, reaching under my robe and through the thin material of my clothes.
And Elex was so freaking warm.
Heat radiated from his body like from a furnace stocked with coal. Instead of shoving him away, I leaned closer into the warmth. I tried not to make it too obvious, pressing my side to his front but angling my head away from him. The position was rather awkward, but it kept me from outright lying on top of him.
“So…” I furtively tucked my numb, cold fingers under my side, pressing them against his warm stomach. “Now that I’m planted here on your lap, does it mean you’ve claimed me? I mean, will that keep the other men away from me?”
“I sure hope so.” He shrugged casually, though the focus in his eyes sharpened with warning as he moved his stare along the perches with the king’s men on them. “I’m new to all of this.”
“New? But weren’t you born and raised in this world? In this very castle?”
He lifted the wide strip of lace over my face and folded it back. Nothing stood between my eyes and his now.
“I was born and raised in this world, true. But it was during a very different time. This place is nothing like my father’s castle used to be. I hardly recognized the Bozyr Peak when I first got here.”
Somehow, I had assumed that since this world was his, Elex would fit right back into it. And it seemed like he did. Wasn’t he sitting here in the royal hall, wearing fine clothes, celebrating the murder of one of the king’s enemies?
But there had been some adjustments for Elex to make, too.
“How far from your time are we?” I asked. “Who is the king to you?”
He brought his lips to my ear, lowering his voice and making it look like he was whispering sweet nothings to me. “King Edkhar is my great-great-grandfather.”
“Wow…” I released a breath with a little whistling sound. “How far back into the past are we, then?”
“About a thousand years.”
“That’s a long time.” A thousand years would mean a big change in life back on Earth. It’d be like going from flying on airplanes to the end of the dark ages. “But you knew that might happen, right?”
He nodded. “I did. I had plenty of time to think it through while sitting as a statue in Ghata’s menagerie. I had the time to mourn the life I left behind when thebrackstook me and to accept that I may never see anyone I knew ever again. And I decided to return to Dakath, no matter the cost.”
That was the difference between Elex and me. I’d never had a chance to even absorb what was happening when he’d snatched me from my world, no time to think it through or to make any decision at all.
“Well…” I searched for something positive to say to him—a silver lining in all this mess. “At least you’re back in the castle. The king likes you. Maybe he’ll grow fond of you enough to pass the crown on to you one day. You’ll be the king, like you were born to be. Apparently, there are rumors that you’re King Edkhar’s illegitimate son. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch for him to officially adopt you.”
He looked at me with amusement as I babbled away.
“Is that what you think I want, Amber?”
“Why not?” I shrugged a shoulder.
“King Edkhar doesn’t like anyone. He uses some people and tolerates others. He knows I belong to the royal bloodline because I have access to the magic of the Dakath Mountains.” He slid a hand inside my hood and pulled out a tendril of hair from under the cloth on my head. “The same magic that let me do this.” His expression turned dreamy as he curled the lock around his finger.