She Dreamed Her Empire Would Burn, So She Set Out to Break Four Collars novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: First Crack

The kiss lasted until a boot scraped on the stone behind them.

Ashgar lifted his head, and his pale eyes went past her shoulder.

"Fox," he said.

Ru stood at the end of the corridor with his arms folded and his tail very still.

He did not look angry.

He looked like a man who had been standing there for some time.

"Wolf," said Ru.

Ashgar's thumb brushed her jaw once, almost like an apology.

"I said I'd touch you if I said," he murmured against her ear. "I've said. I'm not the first who's wanted to." He let her go. "Three years is a long time to stand in a doorway. I can wait my turn."

He walked past Ru without another word.

At the turn of the corridor he stopped, and without looking back, said, "Don't make her wait for you either, fox."

Then he was gone.

Nimeriel stood with her back against the cold wall and her lips burning.

"He's very direct," she said weakly.

"He's been looking for a fight for thirty-one years," said Ru. "You're the first thing he's wanted to lose to."

He crossed the corridor and stopped in front of her.

"Nimeriel."

Her name sounded different in his mouth since the roof.

"Come in," she said.

He followed her into her bedroom and shut the door with his heel.

The moon was in the window and the lamp was low.

For a moment neither of them moved.

"I don't know how to do this," he said. "Properly."

"Neither do I."

"You've never?"

"I'm the Emperor's daughter. I've been busy being nobody's wife." She pulled the pin from her hair and it fell down her back in a silver-gold sheet. "Take your armor off, Ruadan."

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