He kisses my temple. “This is only temporary. We will get out of here and have plenty of mornings together.” His arms suddenly stiffen around me. “We do this together, promise me.”
“Even if I said no, you’d come anyway.”
He grabs my waist and tickles me, and I laugh, wiggling to escape his grip, but his hand stills as his eyes shift over my head to the window.
“I need to leave before one of your servants comes.”
My chest tightens when he sits up. I quickly wrap my arms around his waist, pressing my cheek against his back.He pulls me around into his lap and squeezes me to him. “Don’t do that. Don’t hug me like you won’t get to again. Please, just… don’t give up hope. I will talk with my friends and figure out a plan.”
It makes me feel better, thinking they may have ideas we didn’t.
“Okay. While you plan with your friends, I will keep training with Reagan and Ellis and learn what I can about the ritual. Niethal said I’m progressing faster than expected. Maybe that means he’ll teach it to me soon.”
Isiah grimaces but nods. “We need all the information we can get. Do what you can—safely, though.”
I kiss him. “I’m not giving up hope.”
He holds me to his chest, and we stay there for a moment. But he’s right, he needs to go. I’m also afraid Delphina—or worse, Serafin—might walk in.
“Will you come again tonight?”
“You couldn’t keep me away.”
I climb off his lap back onto the bed, and he begins dressing, stepping into his pants, jumping to pull them up.
“How do you plan on getting out of here? You aren’t climbing out the balcony, are you?”
The sun hasn’t risen entirely, but there’s enough light that anyone in the courtyard may see him.
He reaches for his tunic, shrugging into it before answering. “Mikal left the rope.” My stomach drops at the thought. “Oh, don’t look at me like that. I can cloak myself in shadows. It will be fine. Maybe… probably.” I shove his hip with my foot, and he grabs my ankle, tracing tiny circles with his fingers on my skin. Sparks fire under his touch, and after a dazed moment his eyes meet mine. “Go back to sleep. I’ll see you today and be thinking of all the ways I will have you tonight.” A new wetness pools between my legs and Isiah’s nostrils flare. “Insatiable.” He releases my ankle and leans down to kiss me, but what was meant to be a brief kiss deepens, and when we part, we’re both flushed. He lingers inches from my face, eyes darting between me and the bed as if contemplating climbing back in, but then his gaze shifts to the window again. “I’ll taste that wetness between your thighs tonight.”
Walking to the balcony, he jumps, grabs a rope I can’t see, and is gone so fast I scramble out of bed to make sure he didn’t fall. I lean out the door just as the rope is pulled over a railing two stories up from mine.
Shaking my head, I smile and climb back into bed.
CHAPTER 20
ISIAH
C
limbing back up the castle wall was easy. Leaving her was not. I could smell her wetness, and it took all my restraint to go. If we had ten more minutes—the things we could have done. But I’ll have her again tonight and the night after if the stars above are good. I refuse to believe we’d be as bound as we are if we weren’t meant to be together. Even now, she’s in my mind, a reassuring warmth that soothes my shadows.
I hide the rope behind a loose stone in the fireplace for later. It was lucky the room two floors above hers was unoccupied and hopefully will stay that way. My brothers pulled through for me again. The Fates only know where Mikal found the rope, but I’m grateful he did.
Pressing an ear against the door, I listen for anyone who may be out in the hallway but hear nothing. The hinges creak as I slide into the empty corridor. Thankfully my room is just down the hall, so I don’t have far to go.
Grinning like a fool, I round the corner without listening and nearly trip over my feet as Niethal and Reagan walk toward me.
Shit.
Turning around would be suspicious, so I move as normally as possible, though my mind screams there’s no way he won’t scent her, not after my being with her all night.
I am only twenty feet from my door when Niethal chirps from across the hall, “Up early this morning, prince?”
We are at a reasonable distance. Maybe I can make it to my room before he gets much closer.
“I couldn’t sleep, so I took a walk to tire myself out, which seems to have worked. I should be able to catch a few hours before the day fully starts. Have a good morning.” I grab the doorknob and twist, pushing it open, and take one step inside my room.