Threaded, p.31
Threaded, page 31
She also couldn’t stop the heat from rising to her own skin, sinking low and heavy into her core.
Silently, Mariah rose from her seat at the table. Everyone was too engrossed in their other conversations and arguments to notice her.
Everyone … except Sebastian. His eyes darted briefly to hers, his hallmark concern evident in his handsome, hazel gaze.
“Everything okay, Mariah?” Sebastian’s voice was quiet, non-assuming, cautiously guarded.
She nodded to him once, quickly. “I’m fine. I’ll just … I’ll be right back.”
He stared at her for a long moment before dipping his head, a question in his eyes he didn’t ask, and returned his attention to the book open in front of him.
On quiet feet, Mariah walked towards the darker corners of the library, vanishing into the same shadows where Andrian stood a moment before.
It only took a few minutes of walking through the stacks, the darkness increasing the farther she moved from the bright sunlight streaming from the glass roof of the domed library atrium, before she felt Andrian’s presence at her back, permeating through the thick and heady air of the tunnels that wound into the depths of the Attlehon mountains themselves.
Mariah whirled on her feet, her eyes searching the darkness for his shape. When she saw nothing, the shadows around her far too thick to be natural, she remembered why she’d followed him into those stacks in the first place.
“Andrian,” she whispered into the writhing darkness. “Cut it out. I can’t see.”
A quiet, deadly chuckle came from the shadows. “That’s the point, nio.”
A tendril of something brushed down her cheeks, freezing her in place. It was both cold and warm, alive and dead, soft and hard.
She shivered and swallowed audibly, struggling to regain her composure.
“About that,” she began. “I’ve been meaning to ask you a question.”
“A question?” That dark voice was closer now, a breath against her shoulder.
“Yes.” Mariah inhaled once, pushing down the magic writhing in her own veins. She wanted the darkness in this moment; not only for her answers, to understand what she so desperately wanted to learn, but also because it felt good. To let go of her control. To no longer be the one in command of the room.
It reminded her of the freedom she’d chased not long ago in the seedy taverns of Andburgh. A freedom she’d come to terms with never knowing herself, but she still wanted to experience whenever she could.
Another exhale, this time at her other shoulder. A humph of a chuckle. “Well, by all means … ask away, princess.”
Mariah swallowed again, pushing the words past her teeth before she lost her nerve.
“You are one of the reykr, aren’t you? One of the shadow-wielders from Luexrith?” Her words floated into the air as she paused for a moment before continuing. “There isn’t much that passes between the borders of the different kingdoms of the continent. But I found a book recently that spoke of those from the Northern Wastes who could speak to darkness, could wrap it around themselves and bend it to their will. It said it's not a gift from Qhohena, and was considered by many to be a curse, something evil and foul and wrong.”
A moment of silence before she suddenly noticed the darkness lifting around her, just enough to make out Andrian’s shape in front of her, his tanzanite eyes blazing and a curious expression on his face.
“Very good, nio. I was wondering when you would make the connection. Took you long enough.” Now it was his turn to pause, his head tilting slightly before he grinned, slow and cruel. “Do you think I’m cursed? That I am—how did you put it?—evil and foul and wrong?”
Mariah ignored the slight and the loaded question, only reveling in the momentary victory at gaining another piece to the puzzle that was Andrian Laurent. She shifted on her feet, cocking her own head back at him, parroting his movement.
“I think an argument could certainly be made about whether you’re cursed or not. But … no, I don’t think you are. I think not all stories we read about in books are the truth.” His expression was curious again, a strange mixture of guarded and vulnerable as she paused. “There’s just one other thing I don’t understand.”
His eyebrow lifted.
She continued. “This magic—your magic—it’s Leuxrithian. And you—you’re Onitan. Not just Onitan, but the son of a Royal Lord. So … care to fill the gaps for me?”
The shadows darkened around them again, his shape winking from her view. There was a growl somewhere in the air nearby, not quite against her skin, but close enough so she could feel the vibration through the dark.
“My father is Onitan. But my mother … my mother was Leuxrithian. Let’s just say I take after her.”
My mother was Leuxrithian.
Was.
She wanted to ask, to know the tragic story she could feel snagging in his mind, but she held her tongue.
“There’s something else you wanted to ask, isn’t there, nio? That wasn’t the last of your questions.” His voice was still a growl. The tension that pulled at him earlier now weighed heavy in the air, presumably heightened by her questions and the mention of his mother.
She thought she might hate that he could read her so easily, but truthfully, she was relieved she didn’t have to search for unnecessary words after the bit of himself he’d unintentionally revealed.
My mother was Leuxrithian.
“You bend shadows to your will,” she began, focusing on what she was most curious about. “And my magic … it more or less bends light.” Mariah paused, searching the darkness blindly for him. “But yours seems to be so much more corporeal than mine has ever been. And I’m just curious. About how it works.”
Her vision was suddenly filled with him as he pushed into her space, the tanzanite of his eyes flooding her vision. “You want to know what my magic is capable of?”
She could only meet his gaze and nod. Yes, she thought. I want to know.
He searched her face for a few heartbeats. “You want to know … because you want to see if your magic may one day be capable of the same.”
Mariah narrowed her gaze at him. “Let’s just say that I have no interest in the parlor tricks I’m currently being taught.”
Andrian’s lip quirked up at that. “Alright, nio. I can show you how my magic works.” He fell silent, watching her, his stare heating with the passing seconds. Mariah’s breath hitched in her throat as he held her gaze, a languid heat flitting across her skin and settling low in her belly.
A part of her already knew what his words would be before he spoke them.
“How about a demonstration?” He leaned in closer to her, his mouth grazing the soft shell of her ear. “My shadows, after all, have been far too eager to taste you. I suppose it’s as good a time as any to indulge them.”
Mariah’s throat went dry, her breath hitching in her chest. Somehow, she forced out her next words.
“Here? In case you hadn’t noticed, this is a library, Andrian.”
Another low chuckle against her ear before he withdrew from her, blanketing her again with living shadows now teasing and licking at her skin, sending goosebumps washing over her in waves.
“Do you remember when I caught you reading here in this very library?”
She couldn’t pinpoint where exactly his voice came from, but she nodded, knowing that even in the darkness veiling her eyes, he could see her.
“The second I saw you standing there, cheeks pink and flushed, I became furious. Do you know why, nio?”
Mariah shook her head, not trusting her voice to speak.
“I was furious because I wanted to be the one to make you flush like that in this library. Where anyone could catch us, but only the books around us would hear.”
Suddenly, she was slammed into the shelf behind her, Andrian’s warmth seeped into her skin as his hand wrapped around the base of her neck, her sweater riding up her torso. At the same time, she felt one of those shadow tendrils, as real as another arm or hand, touching the now-exposed skin of her abdomen. It slipped under the burgundy material, brushing lazily up her stomach, sweeping languid circles around the swell of her breasts and across the peaks of her nipples. She pushed her head back against the shelf and the hand that held her neck, a moan threatening to escape when a second large hand suddenly clamped itself over her mouth.
“As you said, princess, this is a library. You must be quiet.”
As quickly as he’d consumed her space, he released her, disappearing back into his shadows. Mariah gasped against the shelves, her body filled with roiling heat, the sudden absence of him dropping every ounce of temptation deep into her belly.
Goddess, he would be her ruin.
She was still heaving breaths into the dark, heavy air around her when his voice sounded again.
“Kneel, nio.”
Her eyes snapped up, peering hard into the darkness.
She was a queen. No one ordered her to fucking kneel.
“Excuse me?”
His breath reappeared again at her right ear, his voice rumbling through her.
“For once in your Goddess-cursed life, princess, fucking listen to me. It’s just us. You said you wanted to know what my magic can do, and all I’m asking in exchange is for you to kneel.”
The world around them froze, time standing still as she contemplated his words. On one hand, she was still coming into her power, learning to crave it more than anything before in her life.
On the other hand … the more carnal side of her mind raced with the possibilities of what might happen if she gave in and let him take the lead, much like he had that night of the Uroboros attack.
In the end, it was the second half of her that won.
Slowly, tauntingly, she sank to her knees, the material of her soft leggings meeting the chill stone floor beneath her. A sound of approval rumbled from somewhere in the darkness around her, her magic zapping along her skin in answer. She pushed it down before it could illuminate her skin.
At least right now, she still wanted to do this in the dark.
“Good girl.” A firm tendril of darkness gripped her chin, tilting it up. She couldn’t see Andrian, but she could certainly feel him—his presence, his breath, the space he took up in that hallway between the bookshelves. “You will be rewarded for that. Is that what you want, nio?”
“Yes.” Her answer panted out of her before she could stop herself.
Not that she would’ve stopped herself.
Especially not when a ribbon of darkness began to carve a path down her body, joined by several other wisps that brushed against her skin, slipping beneath the hem of her sweater in smooth movements.
She’d been worried they would remind her of snakes, of the hellish creature that had turned her whole world upside down.
She couldn’t have been more wrong. They were rope-like, of course, but they felt … familiar. Natural. Sensual.
Like him.
When one of those tendrils teased at the waistband of her leggings, inching to and fro, her thoughts stalled in her mind. Then the magnetism pulled from her front, and knew Andrian was standing there, staring down at her as his magic teased and taunted her.
“My magic has always felt like both an extension of myself … and its own being.” Andrian’s voice rumbled around her as those ropes of darkness continued to work their way lower down her body. “It certainly has a mind of its own, but …”
Mariah’s gasp was audible as dark magic suddenly stroked her center, dipping through her, the sensation indescribable.
Andrian’s voice had turned to smoke. “I can always feel everything it does.”
Without warning, a hand threaded through her hair, the shadow between her legs continued to curl through her, striking the spot that had her chest heaving.
“I may not be touching you with my hands, nio, but I can fucking feel you all the same,” he growled, closer to her ear than she’d been expecting. “What a dirty little queen, so wet for my shadows here in this dusty old library.” He tsked, the brush of his exhale against her temple as she panted through clenched teeth, her climax racing towards her. “Whatever will we do about that?”
His magic pushed into her, around her, consumed her faster, and she felt herself being taken away on that wave, letting it edge her higher and higher and higher …
Until it all suddenly withdrew, vanishing into nothing. Mariah’s eyes flew open to find the darkness surrounding them gone, her chest still heaving, a near painful feeling at her denied pleasure settled deep into the sensitive nerves between her legs. She was still on her knees, and she glanced up to meet Andrian’s stare, his gaze a mixture of both heat and cruelty.
Letting out a growl of her own, she allowed her magic to finally filter into the air as she shifted where she knelt, pressing her knees closer together, desperate for any sort of friction. “What the actual fuck, Andrian?”
The asshole had the audacity to smirk at her.
“You wanted a demonstration, nio. I did as you asked. Just a taste, remember?”
She made a mental note then to never believe a word he said to her again.
“Fine,” she said as she pushed herself up, stomping her feet as she forced herself to stand before him. She met his gaze again for a brief second before turning on her heel, thoroughly annoyed and frustrated and angry and wanting to be anywhere but there.
Until his deep voice stopped her again in her tracks.
“We need to talk about the Porofirat.”
And there it was. The reason for his … mood.
“What about the Porofirat?” Mariah’s voice was flat and emotionless as she slowly stood, pushing down anything else that might give away the bottle of nerves she was quickly becoming. She’d been filled in by Ryenne earlier that day about the presentation ball rapidly approaching, about its importance both to the kingdom and her future reign.
He leaned back casually against the shelf behind him, as if he hadn’t just edged her with his shadow magic in an ancient, revered library.
“My father will be there.”
Mariah narrowed her gaze at him. “Well, I’d assumed that, considering he’s currently residing in the palace and all. It would be exceptionally poor manners for one of the six Royals to be absent from the formal presentation of the queen apparent.”
“Please refrain from the superiority complex with me, my queen.” The way he always sneered her title boiled her blood. “I need to make sure we’re on the same page about … this.” He gestured between them with a finger.
Mariah scoffed. “And what, exactly, is this, Andrian? Stress relief? A good fuck? I don’t even know what to call whatever just happened here … maybe a distraction?” Her voice was back to a growl. “We can be on the same page about whatever you want, but I remember everything you’ve ever said to me. And just as I said that first night after the Uroboros attack, I’m calling your bluff, too.” She paused. “And, if I recall, you said it, not me: that I would be your undoing.”
His tanzanite eyes flashed with cold fire. Pushing himself off the shelf, Andrian stalked towards her, crowding into her space enough to force her to take three steps back until her shoulder-blades were once again pressed against those ancient wooden shelves, his body flush against hers. This time, though, his proximity didn’t send heat lancing through her veins.
No, this time … he terrified her.
“Do you think you know me just because you’ve had my dick inside you and know a story from my childhood?” His voice was dark and lethal and quiet. “Sorry if this is a disappointment, but neither of those things make you special. You know nothing about me, princess. I’m not a good man, nor have I ever pretended to be. I told you that you never should’ve Selected me, and I meant it; I will bring you nothing but pain.” His voice nearly broke then, but he quickly regained his composure, and Mariah would’ve thought she’d imagined it if she hadn’t seen the broken flicker in his gaze.
He continued his tirade.
“You … you … trapped me into taking that oath, and I can’t take it back. But I can again vow that I will never make the bond with you. Yes, I told you I would be your distraction, but you seem to have forgotten the second part: a distraction is all you will ever be to me.”
With that, the last of his words still echoing in the tunneling hallway, he stepped back from her, releasing her from his hold.
Just as hot tears began to prick behind her eyes, tightness clamping around her throat.
What the fuck? I do not cry.
Especially over hot, dark-haired assholes.
“Fine.” To her surprise, her voice came out strong, unwavering. “If that’s really how you feel, I assume you won’t have any issues with me seeking distractions from other members of my Armature.” She paused, letting the bravado of her words flow through her, using them to fill out the cruel smile she let play across her face. “I know any of them would be more than happy to oblige their queen.”
He’d hurt her, and she wanted to hurt him back.
Andrian only bared his teeth at her in a snarl. “You want to let the entire royal army fuck you? Be my guest; I couldn’t care less. Just keep yourself far from me, especially at the ball, and you can do whatever—or whoever—the fuck you please.”
His words hung in the air above them like a dagger poised at Mariah, aimed right at her chest. Without another sound, Andrian turned on his heel and stalked down the corridor, away from her and the stacks of books surrounding her, the silence deafening.
Mariah pushed off the bookshelves, trying desperately to compose herself as she listened to the sound of his retreating footsteps.
The second they faded from earshot, she sank to her knees, letting the roiling hurt in her gut wash over her.
CHAPTER 40
Mariah groaned into her pillow as the midday fall sunlight streamed through her window, burning her eyes despite its relative weakness.
She’d slept like shit the night before and refused to get out of bed until she absolutely had to.
With another soft moan, she rolled from her stomach onto her back, her arm flopping on the silk sheets beside her. Last night was the first night since the Uroboros attack that she’d slept in her own bed.
