Thrones of Desire Read online

  “Welcome.” A woman’s voice, warm and deep, flowed around me. The fierce glare of light dimmed to a lamp she held high in her hand. She was tall, pale with shining white hair. She looked young…but there was something about her. Perhaps it was in her light blue eyes, or the tilt of her jaw, or the way she stood. I knew she was old, extremely old.

  She leaned back against a solid table, placed the lamp beside her and folded her arms. The deep red silk of her robe creased. “Well, isn’t this nice?”

  Varun pulled me to him, his hand snaking across my body to grip my hip. “Now would be good, Miar.”

  The heat of his strong arm, the way it crushed against my breast and belly, burned through my thoughts. An insane obsession, that’s what it was. How could I be thinking of the way he held me against the solid muscle of his body when I was in such danger?

  The sorcerer Kiritan’s pale eyes fixed on me and a white eyebrow lifted. “Should I be afraid of this apprentice? She hardly has enough fire in her blood to light a candle.”

  “Focus.” Varun’s firm lips burned against the shell of my ear. “Find it.”

  I closed my eyes, wanting to follow his order, but feeling only the warmth of his skin, his hard body, the dark promise in his voice. I sucked in a breath. What was wrong with me?

  “I lied, there is fire in her.” Humor lined Kiritan’s words. “Not magical. She lusts for you, Commander. Her untried body simply aches for what you’d do with her.”

  “Miar…” He growled my name.

  I willed my eyes open and stared at the woman who’d taken a step away from the table. Varun unsheathed his sword, the long blade glittering in the lamplight.

  “Iron can’t kill me, Commander.”

  Kiritan waved her fingers, a careless almost contemptuous gesture and Varun’s muscles stiffened. A heartbeat later, his sword flew from his strong hand, ripped away by an invisible blast of magic. He laughed. “Magic. Just ropes and mirrors.”

  He’d gone mad. He was goading the sorcerer. The paladin had always said magic was nothing more than trickery, that it would never, could never influence him. His confidence was insanity now. He had to be able to feel the surge of power in the air. It crackled over the dip of the canvas roof, the fire in the lamp hissing and spitting. Sparks danced across Kiritan’s long fingers and a dark smile lifted her mouth.

  “I’ve shielded this tent. You can’t escape and your soldiers cannot save you.” She paused. “Should I have fun with you? Prove that magic is all too real and bent totally to my will.” Her smile deepened. “My whim.”

  “Miar, find her name!” There was a hard edge to his voice. I didn’t want to call it panic.

  “A soul-catcher? Is that what your little apprentice is? So rare. So…” Kiritan stroked my cheek, her fingers light and cool. “Unpredictable.”

  Varun growled, but made no move to stop her. His lack of action twisted the growing knot of fear in my belly. I was his responsibility. For him to allow the enemy to touch me… Her magic bound him…and didn’t that prove her incredible power, if she could hold someone like him?

  “Well, little apprentice. Reveal my secret name. Drop me to my knees. Let me offer you my soul.”

  I stared at her, willing her name to burst across my thoughts. But it didn’t. The gleam in her eyes mocked me, mocked my failure. She was right. My talent was unpredictable. “I don’t want to kill you.”

  She laughed, the sound harsh, bitter. “I command a whole army of the reawakened.” She waved her hand again. “They’re mine, body and no soul.” Her smirk made my heart beat hard. “They’ll take your precious Duke and render him, devour him for his slight against my people.” Her chin lifted. “Come dawn, your fortress will be mine.”

  Varun’s soft laughter cut through my terror. She was going to throw us to the beasts that fought for her and he could laugh? “Nice words. Impossible, but well delivered.”

  Kiritan’s mouth thinned and the spark of power thickened around her. “I know what you are. Does she? Should we let her find out?”

  “You can’t control me.”

  A sneer cut her mouth and she lifted both arms, her fingers stretched, her spine arching. White fire arced over her head, jagged and hot. Contained lightning. Not even my master risked drawing on so much power.

  “I beg to differ, Paladin Varun.”

  She brought her hands together, the fire twisting, writhing, bending to her command until it became a shining ball of power. Strain showed in her face, her neck, her skin bleaching white under the brilliant light of the ball. And still she pushed…until the fire slithered into her veins, a living force, a fierce, white glow that spidered under her skin. Her blue eyes gleamed silver.

  “Follow your nature, Varun. Take this untried woman for your own.” She reached out with her finger and touched him. Her laughter was raw. “Now I can enjoy some entertainment before my army devours you and your people.”

  Varun jerked back, but took me with him and I stumbled trying to stay upright. “Varun…?” I fought to keep the fear from my voice. I knew his plan couldn’t work. I’d said it so many times, and he’d simply glared at me and told me to trust him.

  The ripple of his growl ran heat and panic over my skin. His fingers flexed against my hip before he trailed a slow line across my belly. His touch pricked unexpected warmth and I pulled in a quick breath, want pooling in my flesh. I cursed my insane want for this man. We were going to die and my single thought was the delicious fantasy of his bare skin against mine.

  “Miar…” He filled my name with need and it wrapped around me, mixing with the slow stroke of his fingers over the rough linen of my breeches. He tugged at the cord that held them, loosening them around my hips. “Finally.”

  His fingers dipped inside, teasing, his fingertips featherlight across my skin.

  “Showing her mercy, Varun?”

  I ignored Kiritan, ignored the bite of sarcasm in her voice. Closing my eyes, I thought only of Varun’s touch. The skim of him against my flesh, the circles he drew, his low rumble vibrating down my spine to add to the liquid heat. His finger pushed lower, finding the sweet nub that fired want through my veins. I bucked against him, my mouth opening, the push of air quick and hot over my lips. I’d ached for this, for him.

  “Take her.”

  Varun snarled at Kiritan’s command, but another finger pushed into my flesh and the quickened strokes, wanted but unfamiliar, stoked pain and pleasure. His other hand tugged at my breeches, baring me, and the chill air cooled my hot skin. My face burned. He’d exposed me to the sorcerer, but the thrust of his fingers, the play of his palm against my ass pushed back the mortification.

  I wanted him. I would have him.

  The prick of his days’ old bristles was rough against my jaw. “You’re mine to fuck, Miar. Should’ve taken you in your master’s rooms, let him see how much you’re mine. Not his.”

  The image caught me, of me bent over the potions table, Varun’s fingers hot in my flesh. “He’d protest.” I swallowed as his fingers brushed my ass, moving, and then the hot rub of his cock pushed between my cheeks. My heart hammered and the slick sound of his fingers in my sex flared the desire consuming my body. “My virginity is…is his prize.”

  I crushed my eyes shut. Fire burned on the edges of my mind, the fury in my flesh, the power of it surging through me. I shook. I wanted him, not my master—an ancient and twisted man—to be the one to have me. I ached to have him, the torment of his cock teasing me, flashing fire under my skin. I pushed back against him, finding a rhythm, working with the fingers buried in my flesh. Varun growled and the sound threaded through me, igniting the wildness.

  Light and heat blistered over me, tearing out a cry as the fire of my bliss wrapped around and over and through me. Varun’s fingers didn’t stop and the quick strokes found the final flickers of my release, making me gasp and twist against him.

  “That’s it.” His voice was a snarl and a heavy hand in the small of my back shoved me down. Bent
at the waist, Varun’s knuckles brushed my ass. “His prize is my prize now.”

  He surged forward and I cried out, the sudden flare of sharp pain, the strange fullness and the flutters low in my belly a rush through my flesh. He pulled back and the friction broke a pained groan from me. “Varun…”

  “Did you think he’d be gentle?” Kiritan’s question was strained and quick, her breathing uneven. She was watching us. Enjoying us. I could almost…feel her. Knew she leaned against the table, crushing the silk of her robe as she buried her fingers between her thighs. “It’s not in his blood. Varun is Connvel, aren’t you, Commander?”

  Connvel. Shadowbeast. My heart turned over. I stared back at him, fear sudden and thick in my throat. Golden eyes met mine. The shadow of an animal held him, the flicker of lamplight revealing the outer shape of the mythic predator. Panicked, I tried to pull away, but his hands gripped me, yanked my body to him, burying himself deep.

  “You…”

  His growl rippled over my skin. “Look away, Miar.”

  My head snapped back and I grabbed at the heavy chair before me, my knuckles white. Varun was Connvel. I fought to breathe. Created beyond memory by dark magic, I’d never know his inner name. Shadowbeast…Varun was the same as the reawakened the sorcerer owned. He had no soul.

  “Bent over for your master to see.” Varun’s roughened voice pricked my skin. “Fuck.” He stroked into me again, hard and deep, and I bit my lip to deny the moan wanting to escape. I stared at the rug, my breaths too fast, the fire in my blood increasing. His laughter was quick, dark. “I wanted you then. To see the old bastard’s face when I made you come.”

  My heart thudded, the thrust of him in my flesh weaving hot threads in my belly. I shouldn’t want him. He was a thing of dark magic, caught in the bidding of the woman whose moans skittered across my skin.

  I ground back against him, taking him deep and earning a snarl that danced light behind my eyes.

  “She likes the beast. Maybe I should have my men play with her after…”

  “I own those I fuck.” Varun cut through the sorcerer’s vicious words. The promise in his voice of endless nights with him, of him taking me, fucking me, twisted the raw heat in my flesh. I wanted him harder, faster—because I knew my time with him was an impossible fantasy—wanted him slamming into me, driving me screaming to my release. I needed to lose myself for one blistering moment.

  “My master would be watching us.” Fire flickered up through my belly, the cool night air teasing skin exposed by my loose shirt. “She’s watching us.”

  Varun snarled and pushed deep, his pace quickening. His fingers dug into my hips, the pain mixing with the desire that pounded into me. “Magic…” He wrapped disdain around the word. “You’re mine to enjoy. Not theirs.”

  Kiritan gasped and—again—I could almost feel her reactions. They slipped over my thoughts, twisting through the insanity Varun wrought in my flesh. The hotness of her skin, the slick way her silk robe rubbed against her legs, her hips, her sex as she…enjoyed our bodies.

  “Fuck her, Varun. Find your pleasure. Because after, they’ll have her.” Kiritan’s voice was thick, lined with the needs of her own body. “And I’ll have you for myself.”

  Anger twisted through me. She wasn’t getting her stained hands on him. He was mine. I didn’t understand any of it. But I wanted Varun—whatever he was—before my time ran out. Before that sorcerer bitch ended it with another wave of her hand.

  “I will never take her like this.”

  Varun’s vow whipped across my skin, driving out all worry, all fury, all thought. I sucked in a breath. My belly tightened, the promise of my release scorching, bound up in the fierce strokes of him into my flesh, in the flash of pain from my untried body and the hard drag of his hands as he made me meet every powerful thrust.

  Almost there. Almost. The tightness; how my limbs shook, only the chair and Varun holding me upright. I had to—

  Fire surged up through my flesh, snapping me taut, Varun’s animalistic howl ripping the air, driving my release higher, harder, surging out, catching…

  There. On the edge of the wild riot in my mind. The sorcerer. Caught in our desire, our release, her own flesh betraying her as it splashed hot light and joy over her mind. Varun’s hands dragged me up, his lips to my ear. I quivered, the final pulses of my release pushing through my body.

  “Find it. Find her name.” And his teeth took my earlobe.

  Pain flashed across my skin; I gasped. And it was there. Shining. Bright. Her name.

  “Darut.”

  It burst from me. The sorcerer let out an inhuman howl and slid like a sack to the floor. She seemed to be shrinking, the red silk of her robe falling around her in thickening pools. The smooth skin on her face shriveled. Thinned lips, withering as she spoke, let out a broken voice. “You know my name. My life is yours.”

  I sagged and only Varun’s strong arms held me up. His hot hands burned my skin and my heart turned over. “You used me.”

  “I wanted you.” His hand brushed low over my belly, a tease across my skin, reminding me he was still buried deep within me. His smile curved against my ear. “And you want me.”

  “This…” I waved a hand, not knowing how to begin to demand an explanation. Had he always planned to fuck me in front of the sorcerer? Aware that was how I’d find her name? “You knew.”

  “Fierce emotion,” he murmured and drew back. He pulled up my breeches, turned me and retied them. “She’s a full-blown sorcerer.” He glanced at the curled woman on the floor. “Or she was. You needed something more than a quick burst of worry, of laughter.” He ran his thumb across my parted lips and I tasted myself, sweet and musky. “I gave you that.”

  “By fucking me?”

  Varun looked down as he rebuttoned his own breeches and straightened his tunic. “And revealing what I was.” He held my gaze and the flicker of gold shone in the darkness. “Pain, fear, joy. A potent mix.” He moved away to pick up his sword and sheathed it. He paused by Kiritan, his face a cold mask, and dropped to his haunches. “You never controlled me. Could never. Magic is rope and mirrors, exactly because it will never work on a shadowbeast.” His smile was dark and I saw that flash of his other self. “They bred us too well.”

  A strange baying cut through the silence. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end and a shiver raced through me. The reawakened were reacting to the loss of the woman who’d made them. I closed my eyes against their pain of dying a second time.

  “Ease their passing.” I glared at Kiritan curled up on the dark rug, the silk of her robe a spill of red around her spindly body. She writhed and groaned against my order, her skin cracking like dry paper. “Do it, Darut.”

  Skin and muscle retreated from her face, sucked away from the bone, the effort to return the dead using up all her power. Pity twisted around my heart, but I remembered what she’d planned for me, for Varun, for the people terrified within the fortress and the dead she’d taken from their rest. What little I, or anyone else knew of my skill, was that to break word to me would leave a soul tortured. Kiritan had to obey me.

  The baying faded and I stared into the woman’s aged eyes. The sorcerer was broken…but I couldn’t kill her. I wasn’t Varun, bred, trained for death. “Go back to your islands. Forget sorcery. Live out what’s left of your life.” My gaze flickered over her curving spine and wrinkled skin. Kiritan wouldn’t live long.

  “Miar…”

  Varun’s growl of my name, the undercurrent of anger straightened my spine. I wasn’t him. “I’m not killing her. It’s enough.”

  His eyes narrowed and he stilled. I didn’t move, didn’t breathe. What I thought and felt for Varun twisted knots in my gut. He’d used me. Fucked me to break through the sorcerer’s defenses. I couldn’t deny I’d wanted him. Still wanted him. And that knowledge had the knot wringing tighter.

  Varun gave a short nod. “We’re leaving.” He put out his hand and I stared at it. “Miar?”


  I swallowed, my heart thudding. I could run, disappear into the night, a casualty of the siege. Or… “What’s left for me? My master won’t train me.” The echo of pain between my legs reminded me why. I’d given my virginity to Varun. My body was worthless to a mage now. “I’ve nothing to offer.”

  “I did what had to be done.” His mouth thinned and my chest hollowed. I was a…necessity. “How I did it.” He looked to the floor and a muscle jumped in his cheek. “My promise to you. The Duke will pay your mage for training.” A wry smile twisted his mouth. “You’ll become a great mage. The Duke won’t let a soul-catcher escape him.”

  They had my life mapped out, but a mage enjoyed his right to fuck his apprentice. There’d be no agreement. “My master will object.”

  A hint of gold gleamed in Varun’s eyes and it caught my breath. “He won’t object. He’ll accept the Duke’s offer. If he refuses, he forfeits and faces me.” He took a step closer and the heat, the need in my body flared. He traced the line of my jaw, his touch light but sure. “No more of his sly gropes. No more pressing himself up against you…accidentally.” A growl rippled from him and I swallowed. I focused on firm lips I’d yet to kiss. “He’ll understand no one touches you but me.”

  “Varun…”

  “Are you objecting? Is that it?” His mouth brushed mine, so warm and tasting simply of him. I sighed. I didn’t want to fall for him so easily. He’d used me. “The only man you can’t control.”

  “I…” My words dried and I covered my mouth with my hand. Suspicion whirled through my head. “You.” My hand dropped. “You found me out. Waited. For me.”

  He stroked my cheek. “I came for you.”

  I froze. Varun had appeared a few weeks before the start of the siege. I hadn’t paid much attention to the rumors surrounding him, why a soldier of his caliber would swear loyalty to a hinterland duke. Who found favor with the Duke wasn’t my concern. Until now. “You came for me?”

  “Soul-catchers must be guarded. Complemented.” His lips touched mine again and my own parted, the heat of his breath a temptation. “And who better than a beast without a soul to catch?” He stepped back and laced his fingers through mine. “Time to go, Miar.”