He beamed and bowed. “I’ll go inform Essla, and we’ll allow the guests to begin to ascend. Will you two be all right on your own until I return? I can send out a guard, but I’m working with a skeleton crew tonight, and I rather keep them in other, key positions.”
Rhy rolled his eyes, but only Salena saw it, giving him a narrow glare. “Yes, we’ll be fine. Thank you.” She hugged him again and he departed, leaving them alone.
~ 10 ~
“Alone at last,” Rhyian said, just a hint of his wicked smile showing as he retrieved the carafe of mjed and filled their glasses. He handed her one and held his up in a toast. “To you, Salena, the most extraordinary woman I know.”
She felt her face heat, the keen pleasure of his praise almost more than she could bear. Rhyian’s opinion had always mattered to her. It had mattered too much, which was one part of why his casual dismissal of her and what they’d shared had been so devastating. Knowing now that he had been in love with her… She accepted the toast and drank, the mjed burning on its way down.
Rhy smiled at her, then cast his gaze to the clearing sky. The magic tugged at her, holding steady for now, though it would get more difficult to hold the artificial bubble around them as time passed. “I don’t see this famous crystalline moon,” he said, frowning at the bright quadrant of the sky where the moon’s silver rays streamed, silhouetting the boiling black clouds.
“I’m keeping that cloud bank in place until the relighting,” she explained, “then I’ll pull it back for a grand reveal at midnight.”
“What is this relighting?” he asked, and she paused in surprise. Of course the Tala observances differed from theirs. And even in Nahanau, they didn’t celebrate the light from darkness as people did in the colder, darker regions.
“You’ll see,” she replied with a coy smile. “It’s a better surprise to experience it for the first time.”
“True of many things,” he said in a low, warm voice, edging closer to her. She didn’t have much room to evade him in that corner between the tower wall and the parapet—nor did she have the willpower to do so. Temptation, thy name is Rhyian. He slid his fingers down a lock of her hair as if savoring the texture, then wound it loosely around his finger. “Have I told you that you’re more beautiful now than ever?”
“No,” she breathed. He meant it, too. One thing about Rhyian—he didn’t flatter idly. If anything, he was too honest about his feelings, both the delightful and the cruel. This was dangerous, and yet she couldn’t make herself put a stop to it. She’d missed him. Despite everything, she’d missed him. And this.
He took the glass from her and set it beside his on the parapet. Turning back to her, he slipped both hands into her hair, combing it back from her face, his gaze rapt. “You are,” he said, almost in wonder. “You were always so vivid, so lovely as a girl, but now…” His gaze wandered over her face. “You’re extraordinary. Wise. Magical. Incredibly gorgeous.”
Salena couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t seem to summon any sense. Rhyian’s hands in her hair brought back visceral memories of how he’d made her moan and plead for more, exploring together those first sweet pleasures of the flesh. His mouth shaped the seductive words, tempting her to taste them. She’d been with men since him—a few men, none of them so darkly alluring—and not one had kissed her like Rhyian. Something that had infuriated her. Now, she only craved one more taste. Gently, he tugged her hair, tipping her head back slightly, his expression enthralling as he looked at her.
“I can’t stop looking at you,” he murmured.
He was going to kiss her, and she couldn’t put two thoughts together to decide what that would mean. Just tonight. One night when we forget… She wanted that. “Would you like to see the moon?” she whispered.
“What I would love is to see you in the moonlight,” he purred, stirring that tenderness deep inside her. “Salena, my moon.”
Shivering and steaming at once, she sent a tendril of magic to pull the clouds away, unveiling the crystalline moon. The darkness around them fled, chased by light nearly as bright as day. The enormous moon, crystal clear and luminously silver, hovered just over their heads, seeming close enough to touch. Even Rhyian had no words, staring with a reverence at odds with his usual flippant self. “It’s beautiful,” he breathed, then turned his gaze to hers. “Thank you.”
“Just for us,” she told him. “Just for tonight.”
“Is there no future?” he asked.
She nearly said he’d been the one to decide that, but she didn’t want to lose this moment. “I can only offer you now.”
“I’ll take now.” His eyes, catching the moonlight, glowed from within. Moranu’s dark and silvered fingers loving on her chosen, stirred his gleaming hair, highlighting his gorgeous face. “A kiss?”
“Rhyian…” Her chest felt too tight, her heart too hopeful, too afraid.
“Please,” he murmured, gaze going to her mouth. “One kiss.”
“Yes.” The word escaped her, a plea from the unthinking part of her that yearned for him still, after all this time, against all reason.
“Yes,” he echoed with a crooked smile, once again that sweet-hearted lover of her youth, the one who’d shown her everything of himself with artless honesty.
She’d expected him to swoop in, to seize the kiss, but he moved slowly, one hand in her hair still, cupping her head, the other sliding down her back to embrace and support her. He brushed his lips over hers, a light taste, like butterfly wings, and she almost whimpered in protest at that being all there was to it.
But it was only a beginning. His lips lingered on hers, never breaking contact, gradually deepening and intensifying the kiss, his tongue brushing the tender inside of her upper lip, extracting a bone-deep sigh from her. She clung to his shoulders, but all the rest of her melted, yielding in bliss to the feeling of being against her beloved again. He gathered her up, supporting her with his easy shapeshifter strength, bowing her back over his arm and holding her head as he plundered her mouth. He drank from her like a starving man, and she shuddered in primal need, wanting to give him everything, needing to take everything.
The moon shone with silvery intensity, haloing his dark head, and she dug her fingers through his hair, his body humming against hers like a storm building and about to break. She moaned as his hand left her head to trail down her throat, tracing the curve of her breast and then dipping inside her bodice to brush her nipple. She cried out at the shock of intense pleasure, and he swallowed it, echoing with a low groan of his own. “Salena, my love,” he murmured into her mouth. A sharp and chilly breeze caught his hair, tossing it wildly.
“Oh!” She pushed him away, rapidly restoring the magic to wall out the wind and heat the air around her. Pulling the cloud cover over the moon again, she reinforced the circle of overcast, ensuring clear skies overhead. Fortunately, her work had only frayed a little around the edges. Rhyian still held her in his arms but had his head tipped back to watch the sky, the line of his jaw fine as cut glass, the long column of his throat so enticing she wanted to kiss him there.
As if sensing her desire, he lowered his face, smiling at her. “I thought you didn’t need to concentrate,” he said with silky satisfaction. His gaze trailed lower, and she realized her breasts were still exposed.
With a groan of frustrated exasperation, she wriggled free of him and adjusted her gown.
“Do you need help?” Rhy asked, widening his eyes in innocence when she glared at him.
“I thought we said one kiss,” she hissed at him.
“Not to be pedantic,” he replied smoothly, “but it was one, very long kiss. And you didn’t seem to mind a moment ago.”
No, because she’d lost her head, as she always had with him. She gazed back at him helplessly. “Rhyian, I…”
The guard hut door burst open, and a cascade of festively dressed people poured through, light and laughter flowing with them. Everywhere on the battlements, torches blazed, showing rivers of people taking th
eir places. The three queens, Andromeda at the lead, glided in their direction. Maybe Lena imagined Andi’s keen attention on them, but she tugged her hand free of Rhyian’s anyway.
“Later,” she said. “It’s showtime.”
“All of tonight,” he insisted, oddly serious.
“Until dawn,” she promised, feeling reckless. She’d likely regret this, but for now she couldn’t seem to think about the future.
“Until dawn, at least,” he agreed, snagging her hand to kiss it before stepping aside.
“Lena,” Queen Andromeda said, opening her arms. “It’s been so long.”
“Too long,” she agreed, embracing her with fervent delight. She’d let her estrangement with Rhyian keep her away from too many people she loved.
Andi released her, gazing on her fondly, then glanced at Rhyian behind her, giving him a warm smile. “It’s so good to see all of you together tonight. Are you ready?”
“Yes,” Lena agreed. “I’ll follow your cues.”
~ 11 ~
Rhy’s mother stepped to the edge of the parapet, magic tossing her hair, though the warm bubble of air Salena had created for them silenced the natural winds. He drew Salena back against him, wrapping an arm around her waist. “Shouldn’t you be up there?” he asked in her ear, letting his lips brush the delicious curves. Having Salena quivering in his arms again, so sweetly lush and shimmering with unleashed power, had been almost more than he could bear, and now he couldn’t stop touching her.
“I’m fine here,” she replied, sounding breathless. “This is Queen Andromeda’s show. I’m just the backstage help.”
He chuckled at that. “I think you—”
“Shh. Watch. Last chance to release any of the old.”
Rhy didn’t want to think about the past anymore. This was now, and this was good. Dawn would come all too soon.
“If you have anything left to burn, do it now.” His mother’s velvet voice, thrumming with the presence of the goddess and magically amplified, spread over the battlements like a mist. Salena pulled out of his arms, dug something from her pocket, and took it to a moonflower-patterned basin set on the parapet nearby. Pausing a moment, her profile illuminated by the crackling flames, she looked to be praying, though his old Salena had never had much patience for “superstition,” as she called it. She tossed the paper in the fire, then turned around resolutely, returning to him and—to his intense pleasure and satisfaction—once more leaned against him. When he slipped his arms around her waist, she sighed, sounding content.
All around on the brilliantly lit battlements, people were doing the same, hurrying to burn their last-minute regrets.
“I am Moranu,” his mother’s voice rang out, the bell-like tones dense as the goddess channeled Her words. The presence of the numinous prickled at his skin, the many-faced goddess of shadows casting her cloak over them all. “And I give you the night.”
At once, every flame went out. Even in the township below, every light was extinguished in the same moment by his mother’s sorcery. As if their very selves had been stilled at the same instant, everyone went silent. No strains of music. Not even the sough of the wind broke the silence inside Salena’s circle of magic. Above them, the sky grew black and brilliant with stars as full darkness descended.
A bell began tolling the hour of midnight.
Heavy and sonorous, it rang in slow measures. Rhy found himself counting along, surprising himself that he cared. Suspended in the blackest night, though, it seemed entirely possible to the frightened animal part of himself that the light might never come again.
Ten.
Eleven.
Twelve.
The last note rang out and held, rolling and building, a wave crashing over them.
“And in even the darkest night,” Moranu’s voice rang out, blending with the last eternal toll of the bell, “I also give you light. Behold My crystalline moon.”
Salena barely twitched in his arms, but he sensed the bright streak of her magic. The clouds covering the moon rolled back, and once again the moon shone forth, pearlescent and achingly magical. The people gasped as one, then broke into wild cheers of delight, more cheers echoing distantly from the township below. As he watched, a torch on the tallest tower of Ordnung sprang into life, the flame leaping from one torch to the next, spiraling down in a cascade of light, spilling to illuminate the entire castle, then running down the roads leading away, to reach the township and outlying farms, and farther down the valley to the horizon.
“That was incredible.” He hadn’t meant to say it aloud, but the words escaped him. Somehow all his jaded cynicism had fallen away, and he felt renewed. With Salena in his arms, it was as if he was that youth again, unafraid of loving her, wanting nothing but to revel in the light after darkness.
“Yes,” she said, equally hushed. And when she turned in his arms, her eyes glistened with tears.
“Are you crying?” he asked, feeling so raw, so open that he almost understood.
“Not from sorrow.” She put her arms around him and leaned in to kiss him. “This was good.”
“This is good,” he corrected, and she smiled.
“Do you have a wish to offer the new year?” she asked.
“Already done.”
“Me too.” She looked so mysterious, so sensual and full of joy, that he wondered what her wish had been.
“What next?” he asked.
“Food,” she replied with a dazzling smile. “I’m starving. And this is a good opportunity to fill our plates, while everyone else is moongazing.”
She had a point, as the crowds lingered on the battlements, faces turned upward, pointing, their voices rising with laughter and awe. Some sang songs, arms looped together as they swayed. Others offered toasts to uproarious response. “And we already had our private showing,” he said, kissing her again.
“Our own private crystalline moon,” she agreed, returning for another kiss, her lips beyond sweet against his.
He realized in that moment that even the longest night would never be long enough.
~ 12 ~
Lena took Rhyian’s hand and tugged him along behind her, wending through the crowd fairly easily, since everyone else was focused on the moon and toasting each other, embracing and kissing. They made it inside and ran down the winding staircase like kids, laughing breathlessly. She felt like a girl again, lighter than she had in years. The halls of the castle were nearly deserted, as they almost never were, with even the servants outside. A few lone guards nodded to them, and occasional laughing couples and groups lingered in alcoves, enjoying their own private observances.
The long tables laden with food were theirs for the moment, and Lena loaded her plate with all her favorites, Rhyian following along and imitating most of her choices. When they reached the fountain pouring white-gold sparkling wine over an ice sculpture replica of Castle Ordnung, Rhyian winced. “I forgot the mjed upstairs,” he groaned.
“I’m sure it won’t go to waste,” she told him, feeling giddy from his company and the expenditure of so much magic. “Moranu knows, Jak made sure there’s plenty of the stuff.”
“That’s the truth. Say, where did the others get off to?”
“I don’t know. I never did find Gendra. Do you want to go look for them?”
“Honestly?” He handed her a glass flute of the sparkling wine and filled one for himself, clinking it against hers. “Right now I just want to be with you.”
She tipped up her mouth, and he accepted the invitation, kissing her with lingering tenderness. “That sounds good to me,” she whispered when their lips parted.
“Ha!” Zeph crowed. “I knew it. The crystalline moon wrought a miracle.”
Rhyian groaned and tipped his forehead against hers. “I hate her. I hate them all.”
She grinned at him, then turned to face Zeph. “What did you think?”
Zeph slipped deftly between Lena’s full flute and fuller plate, kissing her on each cheek. “It was brilliant
. Extraordinary show. Everyone is agog. Even Jak thought so.”
“Why do you say ‘even Jak?’” Jak wanted to know, coming up behind Zeph with Stella, Gendra on Astar’s arm behind them.
“Because nothing impresses you,” Stella told him with a serious smile.
“That’s not true. I think you are scary impressive.”
Stella shook her head. “You forget I can feel it when you lie like that.”
“It isn’t a lie,” he protested.
Lena gave Gendra a questioning look, and her friend shrugged slightly with a rueful grimace, then patted Astar’s arm. He smiled at her sunnily, apparently saved from Zeph’s clutches for the moment.
As if reading the thought, Zeph leaned in to whisper in Lena’s ear. “I haven’t given up. There’s still half the long night left, and sometimes the better strategy is to appear to retreat.”
Salena just shook her head, laughing at her incorrigible friend. Stella and Gendra joined them, while Rhyian stepped a short distance away to talk with Jak and Astar. “Soo….” Gendra said, eyes sparkling. “You and Rhy?”
“We talked it out,” Lena told them. “We agreed to enjoy tonight.”
“And after that?” Stella asked, her keen gray eyes looking through Lena, possibly glimpsing the future. “How will you deal with each other in the days to come?”
“Very carefully,” Lena quipped and sipped her sparkling wine, the bubbles like bursts of joy. Rhyian glanced at her, giving her a secret, ever-so-slightly wicked smile. “I’ll go back to Aerron tomorrow, so there’s no need to make any hard and fast decisions now. We can just see how things go.”
“No, you won’t go back to Aerron tomorrow,” Stella said, all three women stilling at the sound of foresight in her voice. “Not anytime soon.”
“What are you saying?” Zeph asked, and Gendra wrapped her arms around herself, shivering.
“Our lives are about to change,” Stella told them. “And challenges lie ahead. Nothing will ever be the same.”
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