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  “Take this stupid thing off my head and let me see you,” I demanded, pulling strength from deep in my reserves.

  He did as I asked, brushing his hand over my hair as he revealed himself to me. Damn him for being so breathtakingly beautiful. His long golden hair framed his face, flowing over his shoulders like the flames he often burst into. And that smirk…if my hands were free I’d smack it off his face.

  That was bullshit. I loved the way he looked at me. Just like he did when he pulled away from a kiss. Gold eyes sparkling, and like he had no idea how he got to this place, our own little slice of paradise.

  I knew it because I felt the same way.

  “Imprisonment did nothing to dampen your spirit, I see.” He leaned in closer like he was going to brush his lips against mine. My stomach rumbled again, craving his taste. But he didn’t give me what I wanted. And I was back to wanting to smack him.

  “Is that why you had me captured?” It would’ve possibly worked in my favor.

  “Your spirit is what I love about you. And I didn’t have you captured.”

  “Could’ve fooled me,” I mumbled. Love. Asher wasted no time hitting below the belt. I swallowed hard. “How’s the wife search going?”

  Slapping him would’ve been kinder. His face almost disappeared in the darkness of the room. “It’s duty.”

  “To whom?”

  “To you.” He nodded at my shocked expression. “I could be selfish and do what I want. But we’d lose absolutely everything we’ve worked so hard for.”

  “We’ve already lost!” My chains on my wrist clanged against the damp cement when I slammed my palm on the ground. “You’d rather live forever in misery than take a chance on happiness.”

  There had to be someone else this tattoo bound me to. With an attitude like that, there was no way Asher could be my mate.

  “If I take you as my Queen, our cities will be invaded. Dismantled. We’d be slaves. You know how well you take orders from others. If this was only about you and me, it would be a risk I was willing to take. We could leave everything behind and start fresh where no one cared who we were. That’s not an option. I made a pledge when I was given this title. To fight for people who couldn’t. To abandon them would be wrong.”

  He believed this garbage. That was the worst part. “When I was Queen, the walls of your city weren’t riddled with holes because your city didn’t need walls. You didn’t have to hide from invaders. There were none. They never made it to shore. With a strong Bay, there’s a strong city. No one was poor, desperate, or scared like they are now on the outskirts of the city. Give me some fucking credit, Your Majesty. Many of your people would like to see me by your side. If they remember what peace and prosperity was like, and want it to be more than a fable they tell their children about why they beg for scraps.” Many of their children didn’t remember me as Queen. Only my shame. The realization made my mouth go dry.

  Asher was silent for a long time.

  “They’re revolting against you, Asher,” I said softly. “And The League. It’s worse than you feared. Teal and Penelope found an entire bar full of rebels. The people of Chronopolis want something better. They don’t want business as usual. It’s not working for them.”

  He unlocked the shackles around my wrists, but I didn’t run. I missed him, as stupidly idealistic as he was, and as much as he denied he needed me. I still knew, as he sat beside me and stared up and the light that sliced through the grates in the ceiling, that he wanted me.

  It was a start.

  “You think I’m a fool,” he finally said. “That I don’t see my city crumbling around me. That I don’t notice when my orders go ignored. You made many of the same mistakes when you were Queen, and you didn’t see them coming.”

  I gasped. “My own people didn’t turn on me.”

  “They didn’t stand up and fight when you needed them to.” He took my hand in his. I missed the way it felt to forget where I ended and he began. “We both have a lot of baggage. A lot of things that people won’t soon forget. That’s why we need to bring in a stronger element.”

  “That’s it. If you marry someone else, we can never do this again.” I straddled his lap with shaky legs. My stomach rumbled.

  Asher put his hand on my belly, like he could make the emptiness go away. Problem was, he succeeded. “You’re hungry.”

  “Don’t change the subject.”

  He reached past me and picked up a pot. I didn’t open my mouth right away when he brought the spoon to my mouth, but I was too starving to be stubborn. It was oatmeal, and it was delicious. It had apples and spice and a little bit of brown sugar. After I swallowed the first bite, he brought another spoonful to my lips and I accepted it much more eagerly this time. I let him feed me, alternating with sips of cool water from the jug he lifted to my mouth, until he scraped the last bites from the bottom of the bowl. It had been a long time since anyone had taken care of me, and it made me sad, knowing how good Asher could be at this, if he let himself. If he was willing to let someone love him back.

  “The League has suggested a Queen,” he said when he pushed the bowl away.

  “Who is she?” I had to keep my anger in check. His words echoed with an emotional void that would make any sort of reaction seem out of line.

  “Someone who can strengthen the city. She’ll be revealed at a gala three weeks from now.”

  I had no idea what day it was, or how close we were to the Blood Moon. “That’s all you care about? Strength?”

  Finally, his lips landed on mine. I shouldn’t have let him in, but I was still hungry. The kiss started shy and sweet but grew more urgent, his tongue invaded my mouth like he realized this could be the last time we ever did this.

  “I’ll never love her.”

  “You better learn to, because you can’t have me too. I don’t share. I don’t care how many people it would help. My city needs a strong role model who stands up for what she deserves.”

  “You deserve better than me.”

  “I do.” I grabbed the lapels of his jacket. “But for some insane reason, I like you. A lot.”

  “I haven’t died since the last time I was in your bed.” He smirked, our noses bumped against each other. “I miss it.”

  “My bed is cold and empty without you.” I almost told him about the dream, but when he inevitably told me I was crazy, he’d die in this chamber because he’d be unable to get up from underneath the giant rock in his lap.

  My wrist was sore from the shackles, but I expected the tattoo to do something when he was near. Tingle. Burn. Throb like the rest of my insides. Instead, nothing happened. If Asher had noticed it, he didn’t say anything. That wasn’t like him. My heart sunk, but I refused to let it break my spirit. It wouldn’t do any of us any good.

  “I wish it could be different. That it could work between us,” he murmured.

  “Me too.” This time, I initiated the kiss. His body reacted top to bottom, from the moan he let out when I made contact, to his fingers digging into the back of my bare arms, to the heat radiating from his lap. He could spew all the bullshit he wanted. The King wanted me and I’d do everything I could to use it to my advantage. “You need to give me a chance to prove you wrong without assuming you’re right.”

  He eased me off his lap, but didn’t let go of me. “I came to release you myself because I wanted to be honest with you. You deserve to hear the truth from me. I don’t want this anymore than you do. If it were just you and me… understand that you always have my heart, and whether it seems so or not, I’m acting in your best interest.”

  “You’re full of shit, Asher MacKay.” I needed to lean on him to stand. My oatmeal was nothing more than a lump in my belly and had yet to give me any of my strength back. “But you believe what you say. It will be your downfall.”

  “An honest death is the most a King can hope for.”

  “But as a Phoenix, will you survive it?” I was done having this argument with him. The clock was ticking and
clearly I needed to find a different way to convince him he was mine. I put my hand on the door. “Where are Teal and Penelope?”

  “They were captured too, as you know. The guards released them, but they refuse to leave the castle without you.”

  “At least someone has my back.” I raised an eyebrow, giving Asher one last chance to redeem himself before I left. It should’ve been him who refused to go on without me. It had to be on my terms, or I wouldn’t survive.

  He put his hand over mine on the knob, and it didn’t take long for his fingers to find my tattoo. It itched like crazy now. The first thing I’d do when I got out of this place was find some lotion. My heart thudded in my chest as he traced the outline of the flames.

  “What’s this?” he asked.

  I should’ve come clean, in the slim chance he would’ve conceded all this Queen for Hire bullshit and followed his heart. But I couldn’t risk becoming a permanent part of this castle. “It’s a memorial.” I pulled my arm away from his. “A reminder of all the things I’ve lost.”

  Asher exhaled smoke, the first sign that I’d brought him to a very different brink than I usually did. The veins beneath his skin lit up orange, the fire cracking through. He was crumbling. Possibly in defeat. He was too far gone to explain what was happening. If it weren’t so tragic, it would’ve been beautiful. This time, I didn’t have to do anything with his ashes. The King was where he wanted to be.

  I still had some time to figure out how to convince him otherwise when he came back to life.

  Chapter Ten

  “We weren’t captured that long,” I said as I peered up at the sky. The moon was a perfect crescent, like someone had drawn it. It had just risen, and it loomed large over the city. Asher and the guards had trusted us to find our own way back to The Bay.

  “A second without freedom is too long,” Teal growled. The three of us held hands as we walked through the nighttime throng, we’d been sending out vibrations like crazy and the men of the city had no choice but to respond. We could’ve used an escort out of Chronopolis. “You have hearts in your eyes ever since you came out of your cell—don’t forget that’s what it was—with His Majesty.”

  “It was three days.” Penelope chimed in, tugging me away from a potential suitor that came too close. “You don’t have that kind of time to waste.”

  She grabbed me by the tattoo, and it pulsed like a ticking clock.

  “Still about three weeks until the Blood Moon.” I wished these men would go away. Teal stopped to talk to one of them. He grinned at her, mentally stripping away her filthy, torn outfit. I shivered, sharing his wavelength for just a second. It was far too long. My only comfort was that he’d sink to the bottom of the ocean before the sun rose. “Plenty of time to put our plan into action,” I added.

  Penelope burst out laughing. “What plan?”

  It was an excellent question. “Asher has very little interest in his new Queen.”

  “Bullshit,” Teal said. Her latest victim followed close on her heels. He’d be sorry, unless he had a death wish. Unfortunately, we met way too many men with one, since it was a trait we sought out. “Do you really think he’d be that apathetic? He’s going to wake up next to this woman every morning for the rest of his life.”

  “Ugh. Don’t remind me.” It didn’t occur to me when we were so close that he could’ve been lying. That he could’ve done it in one breath and kissed me like that in the next. “When you put it like that, the theory is seriously flawed.”

  “He’s stringing you along. You know better than to be anyone’s second option.” Teal turned back to her admirer and smiled.

  “He’s making the announcement at a gala.” I’d never been so happy to see The Bay in my life, even if it was through the iron gates of the Chronopolis. “I still have time to change his mind.”

  “Like hell you do.” Clearly no one fed Penelope, she was notorious for her hangry temper. “This isn’t like winning a lottery. It’s a major transfer of power. There would be vetting, negotiations, contracts…”

  She was still talking, but I wasn’t listening anymore. She got her point across—she thought I was an idiot. Even I knew she was making a pretty strong argument.

  “…and if you weren’t so hung up on Asher, you could’ve won The Bay back by now. He’d be asking you for help.”

  I stopped dead in my tracks. The Bay never seemed more out of reach. “What did you just say?”

  Teal slipped her arm around her scary new admirer’s waist and stood between Penelope and I like a siren shield. “I’m going to take Joey to the beach for…a date, and hopefully the two of you have settled this by the time I get home.”

  When you lived with each other for millennia, shit happened. We learned long ago to never go two-on-one in an argument. All it did was cause more problems later on.

  “I don’t want to talk about this here,” I muttered under my breath. We were still in enemy territory, and we didn’t know who these people following us were. “It can wait until we get back to the boat.”

  Time didn’t ease the tension. We left our admirers inside the city gate and the only vibration we gave out as we walked through The Bay was one that said don’t fuck with us.

  “What the hell did you mean back there?” I asked as soon as we were safe on our boat. It should’ve been so good to be home. “I did everything I could to keep my crown. You and Teal seem much happier since we’ve been released from our duties.”

  Penelope shook her head. She had her arms slung low over her stomach and she paced on our tiny deck. “That’s beside the point. There have been a million opportunities to align with other powerful people. They might not be the King, but now that he’s straight-up told you he’s not interested in helping you, I wonder how many times he’s said it before.”

  The boat rocked as a powerful wave pushed to shore. I stumbled, but stayed steady. “I never asked him for his help.”

  She scoffed. “Good thing.”

  “This brand is freaking me out. I don’t want to be human. I had an awful lot of time to think while I was chained to the wall in a dark room. There’s no one else my mate can be. He knows it, and I know it. I need you to put aside what you think about Asher and The League and help me.” I met her gaze for the first time since we boarded the boat. “Can you do that?”

  “Of course I can. You’ll always be our Queen, no matter what. But I reserve the right to tough love if you fuck things up too badly.” She gave me a wobbly smile.

  “I wouldn’t expect anything less.” I gave her a hug. At first she didn’t unclasp her arms from her stomach, but then she gave into it. I needed this more than I needed Asher’s breath against my cheek. Without my sirens, I was nothing. Penelope’s outburst reminded me of that.

  “And let Asher know—he messes with you, he messes with all of us.”

  Chapter Eleven

  My Willful Avila,

  I knew you were in the castle before the guards advised me there had been a capture. The blood in my veins hummed with your song. It’s my favorite, by the way. Sometimes I catch myself singing it, wishing it would make you appear. And if you did, you’d be quick to remind me that it was supposed to be the other way around.

  This time, it happened. Instead of arriving in my bed, you were in my dungeon, in chains.

  Never change, my love. Don’t even stop bristling that I wrote that, because I know you are.

  I realized after you left I didn’t ask you what led you to the castle. Why I haven’t heard from you since I sent my last letter. Maybe you never got it, or you’re ignoring them. I wouldn’t blame you.

  Have faith. It’s hard, when nothing is going our way. But without faith, all is impossible. I believe that you do, or else you would’ve never arrived at the castle unannounced.

  I can still taste you on my lips.

  I’m doing everything I can to make things better. For you, for me, for The Bay, and for Chronopolis.

  Always,

  Asher

>   The problem was, I had no plan. I never needed one before. I relied on my natural abilities to draw people, mostly of the male persuasion, to me and get them to do what I wanted. Until Penelope pointed out my oversights last night, I thought I had a stellar track record using this method. But now it made sense why I’d lost everything.

  Plan or no plan, life went on. I couldn’t lose what I had trying to gain something I probably couldn’t get. And I definitely couldn’t skip my yoga practice. My limbs were heavy, and my flexibility had been shit since I got back to The Bay. It had nothing to do with my incarceration and everything to do with my liberator.

  Teal appeared on the boat deck in little more than a bathing suit. Spandex booty shorts clung to her hips, and triangles and strings concealed her boobs. “I’m coming to class tonight. We all need to get back on the same page before this weekend or our shows will be a disaster.”

  I’d seen her body a million times, but even I stared. She was beautiful. We all were. Sometimes I worried it was only skin deep. Her drummer’s body was perfect. Almost. Scabby gashes marred her arms and torso.

  They hurt me just looking at them. “What the hell happened last night?”

  Teal rolled her eyes, but her smirk overpowered any damage to her body. “That guy who followed me back to The Bay was some low-rent League member. He didn’t come out and say it, but I think we slipped past him to get into the castle. Like it was our fault he sucks at his job. Anyway, he was due for a spanking and he wanted it from me. But he thought he’d put me in my place first. Joke’s on you, buddy. I watched him sink to the ocean floor until the bubbles stopped coming to the surface.”

  She wiped her hands clean, like they still had his soul on them. Impossible. The men we sought out didn’t have those.

  “I’m coming too,” Penelope announced. Her outfit was a little more yoga chic: loose tie-dyed pants and a tank top. “We’re expecting retaliation from The League. We made them look like idiots, especially when Asher walked you to the door, all kissy-faced and whatnot.”