Hers to Claim (17 page)

Earlier that day, w
hen the earliest rays of daylight speared between the craggy peaks surrounding Nyth Uchel, he had joined Bernard and a work crew at Torre Bianca. Methodically, the workers had examined Torre Bianca’s exterior to the extent hastily constructed scaffolding allowed. Hel had left them to their work and searched the first two interior levels of the tower. The sun stood high overhead, well after mid-day, before he paused. Spills of light reflected off the vast interior of diaman crystal slabs and revealed only smooth, unblemished surfaces. Hel wondered if the men outside had fared better.

“What have you found, Bernard?”
Hel walked out of the tower, dusted his hands on his pants and squinted into the bright mid-day sun. The radiance did little to remove the frozen bite of the air. 

“
Nothing, my lord. The workers have scoured the base of the tower since dawn. We’ve found nothing.”

“Extend the scaffolding
higher and keep looking.” Choking back his frustration, he walked back inside. His eyes lifted to the soaring interior staircase of ornate worked iron and the mechanical lifts that stood on either side.
Searching this will take weeks.

“I cannot fasten the
gown. Will you please help me?”

Adonia’s voice
roused Hel from his reverie, and he straightened in the chair. Nia looked over her shoulder at him, offering her back. Standing, he moved into her and began to close the series of hooks on the long-sleeved, rose-colored gown. He had chosen the gown for its warmth and simplicity. In his eyes, cleanly tailored lines best suited Adonia’s elegance. As his fingers closed the last fastening, he rested his hand on her waist and simply stood enjoying the warm, toned flesh under his palm.

“All of the gowns are like this.
” Nia turned in his hold and stepped back with a questioning expression. “I cannot manage any of them on my own.”

“I’ll help you with them.” Hel enjoyed the
uncertainty crossing her face.

“
How? I can’t…”

“It won’t be a problem, Nia. You’ll be sleeping with me from now on
. My room adjoins yours.”

He supposed it wasn’t nice to laugh at her but the dumbstruck expression on her face was comical.

“With you?”

“Yes.”

“Every night?”

“Yes.”

Her arms wrapped her waist, and her gaze dropped to the floor. “We’ll have sex?”

Hel
nodded. “Yes.”

“Every night?”

“Yes.” He wondered how far down her neck the flush went. “And it will please me to serve as your maid, my lady.”

Her eye
s rose to his. The vulnerability filling them brought a pang to his heart. “It will please
you
to attend
me
?”

“Nia.” He shook his head and pulled her into his arms.
She went unresisting, her hands and arms gathered in front of her. “Everything about you pleases me.”

She strained her neck back and
stared at him dubiously. “You didn’t feel so ten minutes ago.”

He stifled a smile
and raised a hand to caress her cheek. “Hmm. You are everything I have prayed for.” The expression on her upraised face softened. “A healer, and once trained, a powerful
magistra
.”

Her yielding body stiffened. She straightened out of his arms
and turned away. Her shoulders sagged. “Of course.” 

He watched her withdraw
into herself and an unfamiliar sense of inadequacy shot through him.
I’ve disappointed her somehow. What am I missing?
He set his personal thoughts aside with a sense of frustration. More pressing matters demanded his attention. “I have much to teach you. It is time to start your lessons in the Great and Lesser Rites. We’ll spend our afternoons and evenings together, as much as your sickroom and my search for A’rken’s engraved words will allow.”

“Yes…
I understand a
magistra
is needed. I’ll do what I can.” Her gaze flicked up to his and she faced him, chin held high. “I need your assistance with the healing magicks.”

His eyebrow crept up. “What do you need from me?”

She cleared her throat, and her hands clasped and unclasped. “Energized diaman crystals—to begin. Later, perhaps your guidance in managing the energies.”

He nodded
, and amusement at her attempt to be assertive brought a slight smile to his lips. “Gladly. Do you want to start now?”

Her eyes flew open then she dropped her gaze to the floor. “Ah, yes. Yes, I’d like to start
…ah, now.

He chuckled deep in his chest.
Her shy, artless acquiescence disarmed him—every time. “Then come with me to the storerooms. We need crystals.”

She followed him through the door and waited as he closed it. “Down that hallway, turn left, second door on the right.
” He motioned with his arm. “After you, Healer.”

Her spine
straightened, and Nia did an excellent imitation of a soldier marching to a firing squad. Hel prowled behind and feasted on the swing of her slender form. An eagerness rose in him to feel that lithe body beneath him, those slender thighs wrapping his waist. It wasn’t the only thing that rose, and he found himself adjusting his trousers again.
Patience, DeHelios, patience. You’ll have her soon.

Hel smiled inwardly at the wonder in Nia’s eyes as she examined the
Chambre Cristalle.

“It
’s warm in here. I had thought it would be as frozen as the rest of the city,” Nia said.

“Torre Bianca has a unique heating system. I’ll show
it to you after we have done what we came to do.”

She jerked her head in acknowledgement and
slipped off her mynx coat. She laid it by three tall woven baskets containing diaman crystal that rested against the dais. Rather than exhaust her with a physical climb, Hel had chosen to take one of the mechanical lifts and had transferred the baskets from the lift to the chamber while Nia moved slowly about the expansive room, her eyes busy absorbing the
Chambre Cristalle
as if sheer intensity of gaze would force the chamber’s secrets from its walls. Nia stopped, seemingly arrested by the sight out one of the floor-to-ceiling windows. “Incredible. It’s as if I’m a goddess surveying her world.”

He moved to stand beside her.
“Yes, these views have always inspired me.” In the afternoon light, snow glistened off a vast panorama of jagged crags and peaks. Beneath, plumy falls of white water plunged hundreds of feet, the final terminus hidden from view. Enormous black forests of hundreds-of-years-old trees draped foothills as far as the eye could see. He frowned. The vista revealed a land locked in ice.

Hel wondered how the
Chambre Cristalle
appeared to Adonia as she saw it for the first time. Memories of his first glimpse of the room flooded back with sweet nostalgia. “I remember when I first climbed that spiral staircase to the upper-most level of Torre Bianca and walked into this chamber with my father. I was sixteen and just coming into full manhood. I stood where you stand now and marveled.” Hel gestured with his arm. “My father stood in that doorway. ‘This is the
Chambre Cristalle,
’ he said. ‘Your mother and I work the Great Rite here. When you are sufficiently schooled, you, your brother and the
magistrae
chosen for you will assist us.’”

Nia
turned from the window to face him. Her face softened. “You did not choose your wife?”

Hel exhaled
on a long breath and wondered if Nia would understand the restrictions and obligations placed upon the highborn. “No. Nor did I expect to.”

He barely heard her whispered,
“Did you care for her?”

As the Mother was his witness, he tried to keep
the dislike from his voice when he spoke his dead wife’s name. “Lady Athena fulfilled her duty, as did I.”

He hadn’t been in the
Chambre Cristalle
since the death of his wife. Seeking a distraction from the emotions Nia’s uncomfortable question raised, Hel examined the eight-sided room with its tall, arched windows that ran from floor to ceiling. An enormous dais of roughly quarried gray diaman crystal occupied the center of a great circle engraved into the floor. Deeply chiseled rays radiated from the circle to all eight windows. The altar’s top reflected the light off its highly polished surface. All other sides still bore the marks of the stonemason’s chisel. A domed skylight in the center of the circular pitched roof cast a spotlight of sun upon the altar. Through the dust motes dancing in its beams, Hel could see the eyebolts sunk into each corner of the altar. Leather lashings run through the bolts hung loose.

In this place of austere and imposing beauty, he and
Athena had worked the rite that empowered the atmospheric shield and held winter in abeyance. Here, driven to the edge of insanity by sexual arousal, he and his partner melded their spirits with their Great Mother. She’d use their bodies as a conduit for Her staggering power, a living channel to distribute Her vitality for the benefit of all.

Each time, wielding and channeling the tremendous forces unleashed during the Great Rite
had pushed his mental and physical discipline to the point of failure. Each time, he’d found the inner strength to stand triumphant. Through the fiery gauntlet of the Great Rite, She had tempered him into a wielder of Her highest magick—an adamantine son, a paladin-prince steadfast in his service to Her.

Adonia’s hand on his arm returned his wandering thoughts to her. “
You must have been intimate with her daily. I cannot conceive of how difficult that was for you,” Adonia said.

Hel groaned inwardly.
It had been difficult in ways he could never explain to Nia, but it had also been a journey of self-discovery. He closed his eyes against the rising memories. The physically brutal battles—the only way Athena could be aroused—had also aroused him. He’d acquired a taste for the carnal high that accompanied sexual dominance even if tempered by an antipathy for the extreme severity Athena had required. When he opened his eyes again, Nia’s worried gaze met his. A half-smile pulled at his mouth. He cupped her jaw and ran his thumb across her lower lip. “Sweet Nia, certain methods for sexual arousal are not gentle, not always born from love. Some women and some men require…different…stimulus to bring them erotic fulfillment. Sometime soon I will show you another chamber on the level below us.” Her eyes widened and he bit back a chuckle. “I will enjoy introducing you to its pleasures.”

She turned from him and stared
sightlessly out the window.

Hel watched her for a moment
. Her consternation amused him, and the dark feelings resurrected by her curiosity faded back into the past. He crossed to the baskets and began placing the crystals into the deeply engraved circle and rays surrounding the central dais. When he’d finished, he leaned back against the altar and let his eyes wander up and down Nia’s slender form—fuel for the carnal fire that had lain banked since A’rken’s cottage. “Nia.”

With a deep inhale, she turned. “Now?”

“Now.” He held out his arms. “Come to me.”

She took halting steps toward him.
Fine tremors shook her body. “Now that the time has come to perform a Lesser rite, formally, on a dais—in the
Chambre Cristalle—
I’m a little bit afraid.”

He smiled gently, his arms still
extended. “Yes, I know. I will deal with your fear. Come here.” He enfolded her into his arms with a soothing murmur and ran his hands in gentle strokes over the bony planes of her back. He didn’t mind her leanness, but it spoke to him of deprivation or disregard for her own wellbeing. He wished he could stuff her with finely prepared meals and opulent desserts and add some softness to her spare body. He waited long moments until her shudders stopped. “Have I told you how brave I think you are?”

She shook her head buried in his chest.
“Not brave—a scared, fluffy-tailed hopper.”

He made a low sound of comfort. “There
can be no bravery without fear. The soul’s triumphant fight over what’s most feared is the definition of courage.” He caught her chin under his knuckle and raised her gaze to his. “That makes you one of the bravest people I know.” 

She snorted. “Why
, because I’m afraid of everything?”

Gentle amusement filled him.
“Are you always so painfully truthful?”

“I’m not afraid of the physical act…well…maybe a little.
I think you aristos have out-of-the-ordinary tastes.” She rubbed at her behind and choked off a laugh then once more pressed her cheek to his chest. All he saw was a wealth of fine brown hair, and he had to strain to hear her. “I’m more afraid of the aftermath. I have a fatal habit of associating sex with love. I cannot seem to divorce the act from the emotion, and my thoughts already dwell too often on Nyth Uchel’s prince.”

Fierce
satisfaction filled him at her forthright words. Perhaps he hadn’t blundered as badly with her as he’d feared. Perhaps when all had been set right—
if
all could be set right—Adonia would choose to stay with him—not for Nyth Uchel or her people, or because of the dictates of a genetic match, but because of
him
. He hid the heady joy of that thought in a secret place in his heart.

He
couldn’t ignore the brave vulnerability she displayed to make such a statement. Though he doubted Nia would believe him, he’d tell her his honest feelings.

“
Adonia DeCorvus, you have drawn me from the first moment I glimpsed you. From the first day in High Lord DeTano’s office, I’ve considered how I might persuade you to remain in Nyth Uchel. Every moment I’ve spent with you since has reinforced that desire.”

He tipped her face to his. He needed to see her eyes, judge her reaction to his words. He sighed. Patent
skepticism was not the response he’d hoped for. He leaned in and kissed her gently on her parted lips—a kiss hinting at his passion and desire. “I would welcome your love.” 

She gazed at him for a long moment, expressions fleeting across her face. He wished he knew her thoughts. Finally, she took a breath and spoke.

“I will tell you my greatest nightmare; I’m not what you and A’rken seem to think I am. I will fail you in your time of greatest need.”

“
I understand your fears, Nia, and I share them. Not that
you
will fail…but that I will.”

“
No. You cannot doubt yourself.” She pushed away, and her gaze blazed with fire. “You are splendid and steadfast. You carry the weight of Nyth Uchel on your shoulders like the mountain upon which this city is built. Immutable. Your people look to you for their salvation and their trust is well-placed.” Her eyes fell and her tone softened. “Your only weakness is in those upon whom
you
depend.”

He
l doubted words would persuade her. Acts and time would show his Nia her value—make her understand what she was to him. This moment would be one of many he could use to demonstrate what they were—together.

“And I will prove to you there is no weakness.”
He pulled her up into a passionate assault of lips and tongue. His hands tangled in the fastenings on her dress. The taste of her mouth and her generous response affected him like a potent brew and he lost himself, intoxicated by her. Many minutes passed before he slipped the rose gown from her shoulders, picked her up in his arms and laid her on the dais.

“Stay on your back. Hands above your head.”

He stripped quickly. Her heavy lidded eyes never ceased their scrutiny. When he lay down beside her, he could feel the thudding of her heart against his chest. Her ribs rose and fell in quick pants, but to her credit, Nia remained pliant against him.

“Open your mind, Nia. Relax your body.
Close your eyes. Concentrate on the rhythm and cadence of my words, the touch of my fingers and warmth of my tongue.”

A
faint smile answered his directive.

He briefly considered tying her wrists and ankles.
I wonder how she’d react?
No. For this first time, he’d keep things conventional.
Perhaps tomorrow I will show her the playroom below.

Without thought, he fell into the familiar words of the lesser rite for heat and flame. The pads of his fingers passed across the satin of her skin in feather-light swirls. His concentration became
so intent the merest hitch in her breathing registered. He started at her forehead, then traced her face to behind her ears, under her jaw, down her neck to her collar bone.

“I am going to cover every inch of your body like this.”

A soft moan answered him.

By the time he got to her delicate navel, goose
bumps peppered her entire body and Nia’s nipples were hard buttons on the tips of her breasts. With a quick lick of his tongue, he latched onto her right nipple and flicked his tongue back and forth.

“Ah!” Nia arched into the air. Her hands grabbed at his hair and she curled into him.

“No…no. Flat on your back, Nia.”

She rolled her head in protest but complied
, never opening her eyes.

“Lie flat and accept the sensations. Submerge yourself in the arousal. Feed it
with your mind.”

Hel resumed the cadence of the chant. With light tracery
, he outlined her hipbones and then the small concave of her belly. His fingers tickled into the groove separating her thigh from her mound and then tangled in the hairs of her pubis.

“Spread your legs, Nia. When
ever I touch below your waist, you will spread your legs to their fullest extent and keep them that way.”

Hel watched as Nia obeyed and
veed her legs His cock gave an unruly jerk. He contemplated how, in the days to come, he would educate her on how wide she really could open them. For now, this would do. Hel picked up the chant again and resumed the tracery of his fingers on the outsides of her thighs, behind her knees, down her calves to her feet and then back up the insides of her legs. He disciplined his breathing to slow, regular inhales and exhales. The twitching of his painfully hard cock was not nearly so disciplined and cool spills of precum escaped the tip.

He worked his fingers up the insides of her thighs. Now the flesh at the apex of
her legs glistened with her arousal, the swollen pink lips a target for sensual play. As he slipped his fingers up and down the seam in the lightest of teases, Nia groaned and writhed her hips. More fluid leaked from her plush flesh and he caught it on his knuckle. A slight swipe of his tongue transferred the heady taste of Nia into his mouth.