A Promise of Fire (Kingmaker Chronicles, #1)

by Amanda Bouchet

His eyes flare a heated silver, something shockingly possessive roaring to life in his hooded gaze. Heat sizzles through me, coiling deep in my belly. My lips part on a silent gasp, and his eyes drop to my mouth. Stark hunger hardens his striking features, and an unexpected thrill skims down my spine. The low sound that rumbles out of him is raw, primal, and utterly male. He looks ready to slam his mouth down on mine.

Carver’s hand is still twitching near his sword. He’s like me with my knives, and I feel a surprising surge of kinship. What’s wrong with me? I must be coming down with something, like empathy. Gah!

I blinded the giant on instinct, paralyzed it with a well-placed jab, and then sawed its head off with a throwing knife. I was eleven, and there was nothing quick about it. At least all the gore kept me warm. And Mother got what she wanted. She tested me, and she covered me in blood.

Pacing in front of the wedged rock, I watch the entrance to the cave. Then, strangely hesitant, I tug on Beta Sinta’s knot again. When it doesn’t give, an odd feeling stirs inside me. I’m not relieved. Definitely not relieved.

“As if I’d let some idiot impale me.” Flynn makes a strangled sound. “What?” I ask. “You’re right, Cat.” Coming up next to me, Kato seems terribly serious all of a sudden. “Don’t let just anyone impale you. Only someone special.” My mouth falls open. It’s possible to turn kalaberry red, and if the heat in my face is any indication, I do.

Beta Sinta comes toward me until I have to tilt my chin up to look at him or step back, which I refuse to do. His gray eyes are stormy, and a tremor runs through me. It isn’t fear, and it makes me want to squirm. “I conquered a kingdom and found a treasure.” His voice turns gravelly, low. “I won’t let you go. Not now. Not ever.”

He turns again, his dark eyebrows raised. “Does my rare and surly Kingmaker really need me to answer that?” he teases. His? My pulse speeds up.

“At first, without drawing attention to myself, I was trying to get a feel for the different Magoi at the circus, but I found myself always watching you instead. First outside Sinta City when the circus crossed back over from Tarva. Then I went to a few performances in Kaplos. When the circus moved south, I decided to follow. I knew there was something different about you, something special, but I couldn’t figure out what.”

“How did you figure it out?” I finally ask. His pause is longer this time. “Strangely enough, it was a dream. I dreamt I was swimming in a vast and stormy ocean in the dead of night. When I couldn’t swim any longer, I sank to the bottom, and you were there. You lit up the dark like a lightning bolt, took my hands, and pulled me to the surface. You told me we could change everything—that you knew the truth.”

The Kingmaker—the woman who hears the lie and knows the truth.

“Let go,” I demand. “No.” My eyebrows snap together. “Why not?” “Because your gut reaction is always to punch, and I don’t like being tickled.” Tickled? Tickled! Indignation swamps me. I’ll show him a tickle

If my godfather wants Beta Sinta and me together, he must have a very good reason for it. Or at least I hope so.

There are only a few coppers in my pocket, along with the obol I wouldn’t even consider giving up. That coin is for Charon, and it’ll stay in my pocket until the day I need to pay the ferryman to row me across the Styx and into the land of the dead.

He finds a soap seller next and takes forever sniffing the different scents. I roll my eyes. “You’re worse than a woman. Just take the yellow one. It’s always the best.” He picks it up and inhales. “Lemon. Smells like you.”

“The next one lands somewhere that hurts,” Beta Sinta says in a low, furious voice. I wrinkle my nose. “Brutal.” Thundercloud eyes flash to mine. “No one touches you.” I chew on my lower lip, confused. “You’re touching me.” His eyes dip to my mouth. “I’m the exception.”

“Oh, no!” I cry. “We mustn’t kill by accident. Only on purpose.” “My sentiment exactly,” Beta Sinta grumbles, taking my hand and pulling me down the street.

I squint up at him. “Serves you right. You could just untie me. Or let me go.” He smirks. “And miss all this fun?” I burst out laughing. A second later, he grins back. His smile is broad and makes my heart thump an irregular beat.

Smiling, I smooth stray locks away from his face and then pat his head. “Good Beta.” There’s a low rumble in his throat. “Woof!” I bark back. He grins. Then his eyes drop to my bare chest. His smile freezes, his nostrils flaring as his hands curl into fists.

Carrying most of our purchases, Carver backs away with his usual bravado. I blow him a saucy kiss over Beta Sinta’s shoulder, startled when a violent sound rattles in Beta Sinta’s chest. Carver laughs his way out of the room. Quickly.

Beta Sinta’s footsteps stop next to the bed. Warm fingers brush mine. “Who wouldn’t want her?” Something in his tone makes my stomach tumble. That horrible mushy feeling hits me again.

I get this awful feeling the second I leave his arms—I want to be back in them. My eyes wide, I back away, a tangle of fear and emotion knotting in my chest. I’m used to being scared, but this time is different. This time, I’m afraid of myself.

His hair falls forward, caging us. His eyes turn that stormy gray. They remind me of the ocean on a wild, windy dawn just before the sun kisses the horizon. I bet if he looked at me a certain way… Dear gods, is he looking at me that way right now?

I lift my head and bite him where his shoulder meets his neck. He tastes like salt, sun, and citrus. He tastes like he smells. My tongue apparently has a mind of its own because it snakes over his skin, tasting more. He stops breathing. He doesn’t fight me. He doesn’t even move. What in the name of Zeus am I doing?

“Drop it, Beta Sinta.” His eyes are black in the moonlight. I can’t tell what he’s thinking. “I have a name,” he finally says. I stay silent. His name doesn’t change anything, and Beta Sinta is what he is.

Close to dawn, I wake up way too hot with a warlord plastered to my back. One heavy arm is draped across my waist, his big hand splayed possessively over my stomach, tucking me against him. My heart slams in my chest, and a frightening, warm sensation infuses that empty part of me. Something in the warmth flutters, cautious, like a nascent bird’s wings. Like a fledgling, though, I don’t know whether I’ll crash or fly.

Gray eyes lock on mine. “You won’t try to escape?” I shake my head, unable to look away. “No. I swear it.” “Ever. You won’t try to escape me ever. Not as long as I live.” My eyes widen, and I gulp down a scathing retort. “That’s a lot to ask,” I say roughly.

A look of pure triumph crosses Beta Sinta’s face. “I’ll protect you, Cat. I swear it.”

His deft fingers work fast, untying the knots. He stuffs the rope into his saddlebag, drags me onto his lap, and then plants his mouth on mine. The kiss sizzles through me, quick and rough and shocking me to my toes. My lips tingle from hardness and warmth. Heat explodes through the rest of me, racing under my skin like a storm on the wind.

Beta Sinta reaches me, and the moment we end up back to back, I don’t worry about what’s coming from my blind side anymore.

“Goddaughter? Or lover?” I swallow. For a southern Sintan Hoi Polloi warlord who doesn’t know magic from a goat, he sure knows how to hit a Cyclops in the eye every now and then. “Why do you care?” Something primal flares in his gaze. “Either way, you’re mine now.”

“Griffin!” I twist and jump in front of him. Pain lances my back as the arrow slams me into Beta Sinta’s chest. I clamp down on a cry and push off as hard as I can before I burst into flames. He stubbornly holds on, his face blank with shock. I cuff him in the ear, startling him into letting me go seconds before the inferno engulfs me.

“Don’t ever do something like that again!” Anger makes me see red again. “Why not? If I want to save someone, I will! What good is the Kingmaker without a king!” He stumbles back, clearly as shocked as I am. I hadn’t meant to, but I think I just pledged him my loyalty. “I’m not Alpha,” he says roughly. “You should be!”

His voice is fierce in my ear. “You’re mine now, Cat. Don’t you dare die on me.”

Selena always seems to know everything, at least before anyone else does. “That would not please Hades.” She smiles a secret, satisfied smile that makes me wonder what it’s like to be loved by a god, even one who already has a wife.

Information on my end has been scarce lately, so tell me, who is the man that carried you into my circus, roaring for me to save you?” Her grin turns impish. “‘Fix her! Now! Or I swear to the gods that the Furies will rain death and destruction upon you, and there will be lightning bolts to pay!

a bit like your Beta Sinta.” My heart has a miniature seizure. “He’s not my Beta Sinta.”

“He came here to save you. He looked like he cared.” I shrug, glancing down. “I’m a weapon he doesn’t want to lose.” “I think there’s more.” My eyes snap back up. “Don’t infer something that isn’t there. We’re both monsters.” Her dark-blue gaze flicks over me, unnerving. “Monsters still mate.” I choke on my own spit and then cough.

“So a strapping warlord, who is actually Beta Sinta, takes one look at you and decides he has to have you?” Desma asks. “Strapping?” Aetos grumbles. “Not as strapping as you, darling.” Desma smiles sweetly, and Aetos looks mollified, lowering his head to kiss her soundly on the lips. My jaw goes slack. I’ve been waiting years for this. I go away for a month, and it happens without me? Life is not fair!

Vasili and his wife give me a new knife, clearly under the impression I need more blades. “In case you lose one in the warlord’s gut,” Vasili says with no expression whatsoever. Who me? Do I look violent and prone to slaughter?

“That’s how he got into the castle and cut down the Sintan royals? Their magic couldn’t touch him, and he was just plain better than any of them with a sword?” Carver nods,

“It’ll be a cold day in the Underworld before I trust you.” Or a moderately cool one. Well, a day with a stiff breeze anyway. Gah!

It was Beta Fisa I killed.” Gamma, actually, but that hardly matters now. “Don’t ever call me that. Ever!

Leaning down, he lightly drops his forehead against mine. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“You do a good job of defending yourself.” I nod. “I’ve been taught well. I’m the favored child.” “Of Poseidon?” Not answering, I turn and swirl my fingertips in the basin of water by my bedside, watching the pattern I make form and fade. Yes, well, of him, too.

Otis may have failed, but Alpha Fisa won’t give up. Andromeda knows I’m in Sinta now. She’s still coming for me, and next time, she’ll send something worse.

“How does it work?” “He didn’t say.” I look at her, incredulous. “You didn’t ask?” “I was busy doing other things.” I snort. “That’s helpful.” Her blue eyes sparkle. “It was for me.”

“Now that you mention it, it would be fabulous to get away from you and… What’s your horse’s name? All this time, and I never thought to ask.” “Horse.” I roll my eyes. “That’s original.” “Brown Horse,” he amends. It’s hard not to laugh. “Much better, but I can’t afford a horse.”

“Why do I need placid?” He hits me with his hard stare. “Because then at least one of you will stay calm.” “Calm is boring,” I retort. His white teeth flash, and his gray eyes crinkle at the corners. “Absolutely,” he agrees, looking at me with undisguised heat in his eyes.

Rubbing my backside, I demand, “Do all men have a thing for spanking?” Carver wiggles his eyebrows. “Most women, too.” I huff, although I have heard… “Ever been spanked before?” he asks. “Don’t be cheeky.” For some reason, a conjured-up image of Beta Sinta trying to smack my naked bottom while I halfheartedly scramble away flits through my much too active imagination. Warmth billows up inside me, singeing my face.

I cant my head, saying coolly, “I haven’t been spanked much because I do the spanking.” Beta Sinta laughs, startling the birds in the branches above. “Carver,” he says. “She just handed you your balls.” Carver grins. “That’s all right, as long as I get to keep them.”