Queen Andromeda—I could hardly call her Andi with all the Tala council present—explained to Zyr how Zynda had been able to magically follow the thread to our location, expressing again how sorry she was that it had taken so long. Zyr produced the pendant, handing it over to his queen, and she laid it on the table, regarding it thoughtfully from time to time.
Messengers had already gone out to High Queen Ursula, to Jepp and Kral out on the Hákyrling, and also to Windroven where Queen Amelia and Ash had started negotiations with another newly awakened dragon.
They talked on about strategy and defensive plans, but the long night on top of the battle soon took its toll on me. A full belly and the soothing comfort of Zyr’s embrace lulled me into sleep.
I awoke sometime later—a long time later, because night had fallen—in a big bed with open sky above me, and Moranu’s bright moon shining in. Frowning at it in confusion, I wondered where I could be. Then Zyr’s arms wound around me, drawing me against his naked body, his mouth nuzzling kisses on my neck.
“You’re awake?” he murmured.
“Yes, I’m sorry I woke you.” I was in his apartments in Annfwn. I remembered that open ceiling for flying out of and wondered what he did when it rained.
He leaned up on one elbow, a candle beside the bed flaring to life. Brushing my hair back from my face—he must’ve taken it out of the braid when he put me to bed, stripping me naked, too—he studied my face. “You look better,” he announced.
I scowled at him. “I didn’t know I looked bad.”
“You looked tired and beat up,” he informed me. “The healer did wonderful work, but they should’ve let you sleep sooner rather than interrogating you.”
“Maybe everyone was waiting for you and Zynda to finish beating each other up,” I replied tartly.
He grinned, kissing me on the nose. “It’s really good to fight with her again. Thank you for your patience.”
I laid a hand on his cheek. “I’m so happy for you.”
“Of course, she’s even more insufferable now.” He lay back with a sigh, gathering me against him. “All impressed with herself for being able to outdo my gríobhth form. She can fly incredibly fast in that form. Plus there’s the breathing fire thing.”
“Does this mean you want to learn to be a dragon, too?” I teased.
“Maybe.” He rolled his head on the pillow to look at me. “Would you mind?”
“Why would I mind? You should do whatever makes you happy.”
“It’s not that—or not only that—but we’ll need all the firepower we can muster to fight that army of Deyrr.”
A sobering thought. “And the might of Dasnaria.”
“Yes.” He sounded more serious, too. “We got word back from the Hákyrling. The Dasnarian navy is amassing outside the barrier.”
“Ah.”
“But we have time enough to worry about that.” He turned on his side, pillowing his head on his bent arm and gave me a long, somber look. “I won’t try for dragon form, though, if it would bother you.”
“I don’t understand why you think it would,” I replied cautiously.
He shrugged, playing with a lock of my hair, and I saw he had my ribbon around his wrist. “I don’t know how to do this monogamy thing. Aren’t I supposed to ask you about important life decisions?”
I caught my breath. “Monogamy thing?”
“Yes. See? Here you are, in my bed.” He waggled his eyebrows meaningfully.
“So I see,” I answered, a laugh welling up in me. “I’m happy to be here.”
“Good. And I have it on excellent authority that, according to Dasnarian law, since the offer has been made and accepted, it can’t be controverted.”
“That’s true,” I breathed, surprised that I could with the hope in my chest crowding everything else out.
“Will you let me care for you for the rest of your life, Karyn?”
“Yes.” I framed his beautiful, beloved face with my hands. “Will you let me care for you the rest of your life, Zyr?”
He turned his face to kiss my fingers. “Yes. You can tell me what else we need to do.”
“To do?”
“To be married,” he replied with some impatience. “Whatever rituals you mossback Dasnarians do, I’m doing them.”
I couldn’t breathe again. “You don’t have to do that, Zyr.”
“Oh yes, I do. You’re mine. You said so. You promised to love me forever.”
My heart flooded with love. “I am yours, yes. But I know the Tala are different, that they’re not monogamous. I’ll love you forever no matter what.”
“Well…” He looked somewhat abashed. “I may have oversimplified. That depends a great deal on our First Form, and that fundamental nature.”
“Oh yes?” I wound my arms around his neck, rubbing my nipples against him. “I think the gríobhth is lustful, fierce, and possessive.”
His eyes glinted in the candlelight, hands sliding down to cup my bottom, and lift one of my legs over his hip. “Yes. And monogamous, did I mention?”
I gasped as his clever fingers stroked me, the heat rising between us. “I think you left that out.”
“Hmm.” He kissed me deeply. “I spent a lot of time in the gríobhth mind. And heart. Did I mention that I love you more than my own life?”
I laughed. “No, but I knew.”
“Figures. The gríobhth knew, too. It just took me a while to catch up.” He kissed me again, and then again, as if he couldn’t stop. “We’ll marry in the Tala way, too. That will convince you of how much I love you, gréine.”
“I don’t need convincing—but you can tell me as often as you like.”
He rolled me onto my back and slid into me, long and slow and sweet, then brushed a kiss over my mouth, his wild blue eyes watching me. “Of course, the Tala way mostly involves a lot of sex,” he murmured, raining kisses on my upturned face. “And a little blood.”
I laughed. “Of course it does.” I wound my fingers in his hair and dragged him down to cover me.
the saga of The Uncharted Realms continues in
The Dragons of Summer
part of the
Seasons of Sorcery fantasy anthology
available for preorder now:
https://www.jeffekennedy.com/seasons-of-sorcery/
Titles by Jeffe Kennedy
OTHER FANTASY ROMANCES
A COVENANT OF THORNS
Rogue’s Pawn
Rogue’s Possession
Rogue’s Paradise
THE TWELVE KINGDOMS
Negotiation
The Mark of the Tala
The Tears of the Rose
The Talon of the Hawk
Heart’s Blood
For Crown and Kingdom
THE UNCHARTED REALMS
The Pages of the Mind
The Edge of the Blade
The Snows of Windroven
The Shift of the Tide
The Arrows of the Heart
The Dragons of Summer
THE CHRONICLES OF DASNARIA
Prisoner of the Crown
Exile of the Seas
Warrior of the World
SORCEROUS MOONS
Lonen’s War
Oria’s Gambit
The Tides of Bára
The Forests of Dru
THE FORGOTTEN EMPIRES
The Orchid Throne
CONTEMPORARY ROMANCES
Shooting Star
MISSED CONNECTIONS
Last Dance
With a Prince
Since Last Christmas
CONTEMPORARY EROTIC ROMANCES
Exact Warm Unholy
The Devil’s Doorbell
FACETS OF PASSION
Sapphire
Platinum
Ruby
Five Golden Rings
FALLING UNDER
Going Under
Under His Touch
Under Contract
EROTIC PARANORMAL
; MASTER OF THE OPERA E-SERIAL
Master of the Opera, Act 1: Passionate Overture
Master of the Opera, Act 2: Ghost Aria
Master of the Opera, Act 3: Phantom Serenade
Master of the Opera, Act 4: Dark Interlude
Master of the Opera, Act 5: A Haunting Duet
Master of the Opera, Act 6: Crescendo
Master of the Opera
BLOOD CURRENCY
Blood Currency
BDSM FAIRYTALE ROMANCE
Petals and Thorns
OTHER WORKS
Birdwoman
Hopeful Monsters
Teeth, Long and Sharp
Thank you for reading!
About Jeffe Kennedy
Jeffe Kennedy is an award-winning author whose works include novels, non-fiction, poetry, and short fiction. She has been a Ucross Foundation Fellow, received the Wyoming Arts Council Fellowship for Poetry, and was awarded a Frank Nelson Doubleday Memorial Award. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) as a Director at Large.
Her award-winning fantasy romance trilogy The Twelve Kingdoms hit the shelves starting in May 2014. Book 1, The Mark of the Tala, received a starred Library Journal review and was nominated for the RT Book of the Year while the sequel, The Tears of the Rose received a Top Pick Gold and was nominated for the RT Reviewers’ Choice Best Fantasy Romance of 2014. The third book, The Talon of the Hawk, won the RT Reviewers’ Choice Best Fantasy Romance of 2015. Two more books followed in this world, beginning the spin-off series The Uncharted Realms. Book one in that series, The Pages of the Mind, has also been nominated for the RT Reviewer’s Choice Best Fantasy Romance of 2016 and won RWA’s 2017 RITA® Award. The second book, The Edge of the Blade, released December 27, 2016, and is a PRISM finalist, along with The Pages of the Mind. The next in the series, The Shift of the Tide, came out in August, 2017. A high fantasy trilogy, The Chronicles of Dasnaria, taking place in The Twelve Kingdoms world began releasing from Rebel Base books in 2018.
She also introduced a new fantasy romance series, Sorcerous Moons, which includes Lonen’s War, Oria’s Gambit, The Tides of Bàra, and The Forests of Dru. She’s begun releasing a new contemporary erotic romance series, Missed Connections, which started with Last Dance and continues in With a Prince and Since Last Christmas.
In 2019, St. Martins Press will release the first book, The Orchid Throne, in a new fantasy romance series, The Forgotten Empires.
Her other works include a number of fiction series: the fantasy romance novels of A Covenant of Thorns; the contemporary BDSM novellas of the Facets of Passion; an erotic contemporary serial novel, Master of the Opera; and the erotic romance trilogy, Falling Under, which includes Going Under, Under His Touch and Under Contract.
She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with two Maine coon cats, plentiful free-range lizards and a very handsome Doctor of Oriental Medicine.
Jeffe can be found online at her website: JeffeKennedy.com, every Sunday at the popular SFF Seven blog, on Facebook, on Goodreads and pretty much constantly on Twitter @jeffekennedy. She is represented by Sarah Younger of Nancy Yost Literary Agency.
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