The Dawn of the End (The Rising Book 3)

by Kristen Ashley

  “Teddy,” Faunus prompted.

  The life he built with the friends he earned.

  “Teddy,” Faunus whispered, again squeezing his neck.

  “I will get safe,” Tedrey promised.

  Faunus let out a long breath.

  And Tedrey felt a funny feeling in his throat at the emotion his warrior so easily showed in his relief.

  “How should we celebrate this exceptionally wise decision?” Faunus murmured.

  Tedrey grinned and caught himself from rolling his eyes.

  But that eve, he had had his cock sucked and his arse taken by someone who did not find him lacking.

  By someone who cared about him deeply.

  Someone whose affection Tedrey had earned.

  And he had been sucking cock he did not want in his mouth for some time.

  It was time to have a new taste.

  On this decision he was still grinning as he shifted on the cushions.

  Faunus slouched back brazenly.

  Once in position, Tedrey drew him deep, watching his warrior’s face.

  As Faunus felt the draw, his beautiful eyes in his handsome face grew hooded.

  Yes.

  Much better.

  Necessarily, after a lingering farewell and promises from Faunus that he would visit Tedrey wherever Lorenz took him to keep him safe until the Go’Doan were gone, Tedrey left the Lotus Den by himself.

  And he walked the long journey home by himself.

  But he knew that he was followed by Faunus’s man.

  And he hoped he was not followed by anyone else.

  But it would not matter.

  He did not have to worry about this any longer.

  It was over for him.

  And he sensed the burden of it lift, knowing that, too, was a precious gift received from his friends.

  Not to mention, he was keen to share this decision with Nyx. She also would be most relieved, and because of this, Tedrey was anxious to give that to her.

  He felt the presence of Faunus’s guard leave him when he smelled the honeysuckle at the side of Nyx and Lorenz’s home.

  Faunus was correct. It was not only Nyx who would be most pleased at his decision.

  Lorenz would as well.

  He did not know if The Rising was soon to be done. It had seemed so much grander, so sweeping, those in it so determined, for it to be so easily defeated.

  But Faunus was right. He’d done what he could, but his hand had been played.

  And now, Nyx and Lorenz could reconcile, and soon there would be a baby in the house.

  He would not be there, however (though he would come often to visit).

  Once it was safe, he would find his own abode.

  He quite liked the idea, once he found it, of decorating it in a colorful Firenz way.

  And with the Go’Doan exiled from Firenz, he would be able to teach the children and maybe even take over the schoolhouse and implement the changes that he thought would benefit his pupils.

  It was a curiously strong and pleasant sensation to have things in life to look forward to. Seeing the beauty of a child that Nyx and Lorenz would create. Finding his own dwelling and making it his. Learning more about his warrior and enjoying that endeavor. Spending time with his friends without weighty matters on their minds.

  These were his thoughts as he turned toward the back entrance.

  He stopped dead at seeing the trail of blood that flowed under the door and down the steps.

  Then he burst forward, opened the door, and what filled his vision made him take a quick step back.

  “Now, now, now,” Fenn called. “Do not beat a hasty retreat, my lover.”

  One of Nyx and Lorenz’s servants, her name was Isabo, a quiet girl with a toothy smile, lay inert on her side on the tiles, her lifeblood having flowed from the gore that was now her neck.

  And on her knees some feet away in the back hall, her face a hard mask of wrath, was Nyx.

  Fenn was on his feet behind her.

  Her eye was swelling and there was blood dribbling from her nose, over her lips and down her chin.

  Fenn held her hair in one fist.

  And in the other hand, a dagger to her throat.

  “You could, of course, flee,” Fenn shared. “Though if you do, I will slice her throat and your beloved captain will find his wife just like that one.”

  He jerked his head to Isabo.

  Saliva filled Tedrey’s mouth as he stared directly into Fenn’s eyes, waiting to hear his next option.

  Fenn did not make him wait long.

  “Or you could come with me,” he continued. “For even if your heart is the black of treason, I have an important use for you.”

  “Teddy, do not,” Nyx said angrily.

  They had found him out, he did not know how.

  But it didn’t matter now.

  Tedrey did not look at Nyx.

  He could not.

  His Nyx.

  The first person he had met in his life that he had ever loved.

  Because she was the first person he had met in his life who had ever loved him.

  “If you harm her, Lorenz will fire a swath of vengeance through Triton to find you,” Tedrey warned.

  And I, he thought. I will burn down all of Triton until I find a way to make you pay.

  “These Firenz warriors are not as frightening as everyone thinks,” Fenn retorted.

  “Tell that to the dead men who stormed the palace,” Tedrey returned.

  Fenn had no reply to that.

  “Let her go unharmed, and I will go with you,” Tedrey said.

  “Teddy! No!” Nyx shouted, but then cried out in pain as Fenn yanked at her hair.

  Tedrey took a step forward but halted when Fenn pressed the point of the dagger deeper to her skin and he saw the rivulet of blood trickle down.

  “They took our acolytes, because you told them to,” Fenn spat.

  This was not true.

  He’d done other things.

  But not that.

  Tedrey did not correct him.

  “I go with you and let us go, and swiftly,” Tedrey urged. “They know much, Fenn. You and the others need to flee.”

  He heard Nyx hiss as Fenn pulled her hair farther back, arching her neck.

  “They know much because of you,” Fenn bit.

  Well, that was true.

  “And I am yours if you leave her be,” Tedrey replied as calmly as he could.

  “And what would you do if I drew this dagger across her throat?” Fenn asked.

  “I would stop at nothing until I killed you.”

  Fenn laughed before he queried, “Do you think I came here alone?”

  “I would die, happily, if she is gone. This life would not matter to me, if she is not in it. But I would meet my death with grace, only once you are dead too.”

  Fenn bent and pressed his jaw to Nyx’s hair, a sacrilege of her person that made Tedrey bare his teeth.

  “Do you love her so, this wet cunt?” Fenn’s voice was snide.

  That was not that part of her he loved.

  However…

  “Yes,” Tedrey gritted through his teeth.

  “Teddy,” Nyx whispered.

  “Let her go, and I will come with you,” Tedrey pushed.

  “I will have you and still kill her,” Fenn returned, making all of Tedrey’s innards seize, his hands itch, his brain hurt.

  “You do not know the love she has from her husband,” Tedrey said low. “I know I have given you no reason to trust me, but you can trust that. You will not walk into pits, Fenn. What he will do to you when he finds you, you will pray to the gods for the simplicity of pitch filling your lungs.”

  He saw something shift in Fenn’s eyes at this, before the man said, “If he finds me.”

  Tedrey had to capitalize on that shift.

  “He is King Mars’s captain, he is also Mars’s friend. Because of this, it will not be a man who seeks you. It will be an army.”


  Fenn and Tedrey stared at each other for moments that felt like an eternity.

  Then Fenn straightened, took the dagger from Nyx’s neck, flipped it so he held the blade, and brought it down violently at Nyx’s temple.

  Tedrey swallowed a cry and fought the driving need to burst forward when she collapsed to her side.

  Fenn strode over her, pulling something out of his robes.

  He held Tedrey’s journal in front of him.

  “On our journey, I will have some informative reading, don’t you think?” Fenn inquired.

  Tedrey opened his mouth but did not have the opportunity to respond.

  He felt a burst of pain in the back of his head.

  And then he saw nothing but black.

  109

  The Tribunal

  Prince Cassius

  Bedchamber of the Prince Regent, Sky Citadel, Sky Bay

  AIREN

  His arse in the bed, sitting up, his princess astride his lap, Elena moved on his cock, her head tipped down, one hand claiming his jaw from below, her lips so close to his, he could feel each gust of breath, her eyes locked to his, her other hand tight at the back of his neck.

  But she did not kiss him.

  She gazed at him with amethyst eyes filled with passion and something else.

  Something Cassius knew.

  Something precious.

  Far more precious than the slick, sweet clutch of her sex around his.

  Far more precious than anything on this earth.

  Something precious that Cassius would allow having it, owning it, to settle in his gut, in his balls, even in his heart.

  But not in his mind, as understanding it was his would mean understanding it was his to lose.

  “You need to hurry, my darling,” he urged, even if he did not want to, for he liked very much the pace she was using. “We have things to do today.”

  “You rule the realm. You heal unicorns,” she teased. “These things can wait for you.”

  He did not want her to tease. He did not want this to be playful.

  He enjoyed the light in her eyes when she was thus, but now he needed the other back.

  That day, he needed that something.

  “From the moment I laid eyes on you, I could not quite fathom the beauty of you,” he murmured, and took note.

  His words made her move faster.

  He growled his approval, dipping his head and taking a hand from her hip to lift her breast and feed her nipple in his mouth.

  As he drew her in deeply, she arched into him and moved even faster.

  He released her nipple and tipped his head back again.

  “Elena, your eyes.”

  She stayed as she was, arched to him, head fallen back, riding him.

  “Elena, I’ll have your eyes as you take me,” he grunted.

  She tilted her head forward.

  And there it was, he had it back.

  “I fell in love with you the moment I laid eyes on you,” she whispered.

  The noise Cassius made at her words was animal as he flipped her, jerked up her legs at her knees, and thrust into her.

  Her hands roamed the skin of his back feverishly as she breathed, “Cass.”

  “You are my light,” he rumbled.

  Her fingers came to his face, and as she was wont to do, she claimed his beard.

  “You are the sun streaming through clouds,” he continued.

  “My warrior,” she whispered.

  He dropped his lips to hers. “If I had not met you, I would have lived in the night and I would have died in the night, never again feeling the light.”

  She wound her arms around his head and bowed up into him as her thighs squeezed his hips and her sex rippled around his cock in her climax.

  He listened to that. He felt it.

  And then he let go and took his own.

  When it had released him, Cassius rolled so that she was atop him, still planted on his cock.

  And as he watched the velvet darkness with its blinking stars fade from around them, and the light of day again come through, he gathered her hair in a hand and used it at the back of her head to press her face into his neck.

  “Cass,” she whispered.

  “I meant what I said.”

  “As did I.”

  “My world comes in three parts, you, Aelia and Dora.”

  She pushed her face deeper into his neck.

  “I cannot speak the words,” he admitted on a whisper.

  “You do not need to, my prince. I know.”

  His relief was so great, it felt beyond physical, right to spiritual.

  Indeed, he wondered if there were gods.

  Or if there was this.

  “Do you know?” she asked tentatively.

  Gently, he used her hair to pull her head back and find her gaze.

  “I think I knew the moment you laid eyes on me,” he murmured. “And it terrified me.”

  She stroked his beard and smiled with her eyes.

  He would not object to lying in that bed with her forever.

  Especially not in that moment.

  Sadly, that was not an option, not that day.

  “We have things to do, my princess,” he remined her.

  Her “Yes,” seemed forced from her throat, very unwillingly.

  “It will happen and then it will be done,” he soothed.

  “It is I who should be reassuring you,” she replied.

  “You do that often, I quite like having a turn.”

  He received a smile at that, and he let himself enjoy it before his hands on her became a grip so he could take them from the bed.

  But in return, she gripped him.

  Cassius stilled and gave her his attention.

  “There might be…a few changes…” she started haltingly. “In the throne room.”

  He could not believe it was about to happen, as he could never believe it was about to happen, and he wondered if there would be a time in his life when this was so commonplace, his disbelief would be extinguished.

  But he felt laughter bubbling inside him.

  “What did you do?”

  “Well…” When he gave her hips a squeeze with his fingers, she stopped dawdling. “I might be subtly changing some of Airen’s banners from black to midnight blue,” she admitted.

  This was not barracks torn down to enhance greenhouses, so he had no quarrel with this.

  “That is not a big change.”

  “And silver,” she added.

  That was when the chuckles started.

  “There might also be some purples,” she went on.

  “How very Nadirii of you,” he muttered.

  “It’s a darker purple,” she informed him.

  “Right,” he said, his voice shaking.

  “Though there might be some that is much like the heather and thistle flower that grows so in Airen,” she mumbled.

  It was that which made him shake with laughter.

  When he was finished, she was smiling at him.

  He gave her a squeeze for he knew her ploy.

  And this was why he said, “Job well done, my lamb.”

  Her eyes twinkled.

  Cassius allowed himself to enjoy that too.

  Before he pulled them from the bed.

  “I…well, bloody hell, I’m speechless,” Mac said, wandering into the vast space of the throne room, eyes big, body drifting and shifting as he moved into the room and took it all in.

  “Then we should ask Ellie to be certain to make changes in every room of the Citadel, if that’s your reaction,” Ian replied.

  “I vote for that,” Rus said.

  “And I,” Tone agreed.

  Cassius just stood at the back, arms crossed on his chest, feet planted on the midnight blue carpet over the black stone floor, and he moved his gaze about the space.

  Before, there were no carpets on the floor.

  And before, the rest had all been black.

  Now, between the wind
ows there were long pennants hanging, each a different color, all the colors of a night sky, ranging from the deepest blues and purples, to what Ellie had said. A purple the color of a thistle flower.

  But the backdrop of the dais behind his throne included two thin pennants that flanked a wider one which was directly behind the throne. The thin ones were ombre from sky blue at the top, to midnight blue at the bottom, with all the colors depicted around the room in between.

  The standard behind the throne simply looked like a night sky, silver stars twinkling in it.

  The throne itself was not the one in which his father sat.

  Less ornate, also less intimidating, it was nevertheless elaborate, the carved wood painted a shining silver, the velvet cushions in sky blue.

  The floors were covered in carpets of a variety of hues that mimicked the pennants.

  There were two curving settees upholstered in a thistle-colored damask that sat at slight angles to the front of the dais.

  Cassius moved deeper into the room when he saw, off to the side, looking as if it was not a permanent fixture, a tall box set on a platform draped with black bunting.

  He could see the top of a chair over the railings perched high inside the box.

  Apparently, his father, the accused, would look down from it.

  Or, as Cassius had no doubt Elena intended, he would be separate from all the others.

  And on display.

  Ah, but he had a clever future wife.

  As if in his mind, Nero, standing by the box, called out, “I’m liking this idea.”

  “This is good, for I would like you to stand guard at it.”

  Elena’s voice coming from behind him made him turn.

  And he instantly arrested.

  His princess was moving gracefully into the room wearing a gown the color of heather. The skirt fell to cover her feet and it looked made of delicate netting. The same drifted from her shoulders in short sleeves that were reminiscent of pixie wings. The bodice exposed a demure vee at the chest that was not so demure it did not expose a hint of cleavage and was covered in a delicate applique that also rounded the waist and streamed partially into the top of the skirt.

  Her hair was arranged in soft curls pinned to the back of her neck.

  But threaded through it at her forehead was her Nadirii band.

  At her side, and holding her hand, was Domitia.

  And trailing her was Cornelia.

  They, too, had donned gowns much different than the garments they normally wore. More Dellish, but not quite. Although diaphanous, they were not flimsy.