“As Sun Queen, you will be sacred to our people, Rielle. A symbol longed for and prayed for since the dawn of our age.”

“Let’s not call me that unless it actually happens. I’m nervous enough as it is.”

“The Archon will bless you in front of the entire city. I cannot interfere with that. I cannot tarnish it.”

She stepped back from him. “Are you saying taking me into your bed would tarnish me somehow?”

He looked at her helplessly. “I don’t know how to both love you and be the person who sends you to war.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “Are you just now realizing that could happen? What did you think the trials were for, exactly?”

He turned away, eyes bright.

She followed him. “Audric, I want you to listen to this, for I will only say it once.”

He looked up at the change in her voice.

“If you ever sent me into battle,” she said, “I would go gladly, and I would burn our enemies to ashes. But I would not do it for you—or because of the prophecy. I would do it because this is my home too. And if you tried to keep me near you for love of me, you would fail.”

He stared at her, the air between them snapping taut and furious. She lifted her chin and dared him silently to defy her.

But he didn’t. Instead he strode toward her and caught her mouth hungrily with his.

She gasped into his kiss, stumbling back from the force of it. He steadied her, hands at her hips, and moved with her until she stood pressed between the wall and his body. She opened her mouth to him, wound her fingers through his hair.

His hands were everywhere—first cradling her face, then cupping her hips to pull her closer against his body. When he trailed his lips down her neck, and lower, kissing along the neckline of her gown, Rielle arched her body up into his.

The fire popped and hissed.

“Yes,” she whispered, tugging up his shirt to find bare skin. “Yes.”

His voice was a low rumble. “Yes what, darling? Tell me where to touch you.”

“Where you did before. Please, Audric.”

He moved back to her mouth as he gathered up her skirts, then slid his palm across her thighs. At the first touch of his hand on her belly, Rielle jerked against him with a gasp.

“Spread your legs for me, Rielle,” he murmured, his voice shaking at her ear. “I’ve got you.”

She complied, and when his hand found her, stroking softly between her legs, she cried out and clutched his shirt in her fists.

The wall at her back trembled.

He slid one finger inside her, his thumb still stroking her. “Every night since that day,” he whispered against her mouth, “I’ve dreamed of this. I wake with your name on my lips.”

No matter how Rielle moved, she could not get enough of him. She dug her fingernails into the small of his back, pulling him closer. “Faster, Audric. Harder, please.”

He obeyed. “Like this?”

“Yes, yes.” She felt herself stretch around his fingers; he had added another, thrusting faster. “Like that, oh, God—” She let out a sound she had never made, a low, throaty groan that shook her to her toes.

“That’s it.” Audric kissed her temple, her hair. His voice was full of wonder. “That’s it, Rielle.”

She clung to him, ground her hips against his hand until the tingling wave that had been building deep inside her crested, sweeping across her skin and down her spine. She jerked against him, gave a sharp cry, and shattered.

The room shook around them.

The lit candles across the room sparked, jagged flames leaping inches into the air. The hearth fire snapped; embers scattered across the carpet. The walls quivered for a few seconds, as if caught in a small quake, then fell silent.

“What was that?” Audric whispered.

“It was me.” Rielle closed her eyes, her cheeks flaming. “I’m sorry.”

“You?”

“We shouldn’t have done that. Let me go, please.”

He released her, and she moved away unsteadily, straightening her gown. She could think only of her father’s voice, so many years ago:

You might lose control one day, hurt him.

The last thing Audric needs is someone like you hovering about.

“You should go,” she said, folding her arms over her chest.

Audric was quiet for a moment. “I will, of course, if that’s what you want. But first, would you tell me what happened?”

“Four trials, and I was fine. I made it through; I felt stronger than ever before. And now? A few moments with you, and I make the room fall apart.”

“Nothing’s fallen apart. Rielle, it was only a little tremor.”

She whirled on him. “Only a little tremor? And what if we had kept on? What if I had lost control? What if the floor had cracked open beneath our feet? My father was right. He could see it before I did.”

“What did he see?”

“That I love you!” she burst out, tears splitting her voice. “That for all my years of work, every night alone, every prayer… It’s undone when I’m with you. You touch me and I burn, and I could take everything burning down with me!”

“Rielle, look at me.” Audric took hold of her hands so gently that she began to cry in earnest.

“I’ll hurt you,” she whispered.

His eyes were steady and warm on her face. “You won’t.”

“If anything happened to you because of me, I couldn’t bear it, Audric. I won’t do it. I’ll be alone forever if I must.”

“No, no, not you.” He tenderly turned her face up to his, feathered soft kisses across her cheeks. “You deserve only happiness. Not a cold bed and an empty room.”

She closed her eyes at his touch. “I’m too dangerous.”

“You’re just my kind of dangerous.”

“This isn’t a joke, Audric. This is your life—and mine.”

“And my life is pale without you in it.” His hands cupped her face. “I’m not afraid of you, Rielle. I trust you, and I want you.”

Rielle leaned into his chest, breathed him in—his sun-warmed skin, the cotton of his tunic.

“What if I asked you,” she said at last, “to kiss me again?”

“I would kiss you all night and never tire of it.”

She pulled back to look up at him. “And if I asked you to take me to bed?”