Amid Clouds and Bones

by Ella Fields

“Out of all the dangers awaiting you in my court, I’m the one you’ll need to be protected from.”

Nightmares of clouds and mist, cloying as I tripped over bones and his laughter gave chase from the inescapable sky.

Three years had passed. Three years of trying to forget my fate. Three years of haunted sleep to remind me that forgetting was useless.

No matter how much it darkened with each passing year, my soul hungered for tastes of affection.

His presence was a flare of heat at my back, and his voice low and scathing. “Remove your hands, or I’ll remove them from your body and make you eat them.”

But it softened the longer he looked down at me, and disappeared entirely when he murmured, “Enough to make me miss the creature I loathe the most.”

“I want you. I want you as much as I loathe you—so much, it feels like I can’t breathe.” His parted lips dragged across my cheek, his whisper scathing near my ear. “Give me back my fucking breath.”

For minutes that felt both never-ending and far too fleeting, we didn’t move. Neither of us seemed able to.

All I felt was a sadness so deep, it blistered my bones.

He’d almost had me. This king had nearly reshaped me into the remedy he needed.

“Tell me what really happened.” He halted before the door. Without looking at me, he dragged his hand through his hair, pushing it back over his head as he exhaled roughly. “We mated.”

“You’re right. You’re not my lover. You’re now my wife, yet that doesn’t seem quite enough either.” I nearly swayed when I rose, and he went on. “What do you call the only creature you want to watch and touch endlessly?”

“You must put your mouth on mine and kiss me until I tell you to stop.” My foolish heart skipped. Still, I taunted, “But what if you never do?” “Trust me.” He dropped his forehead to mine. “I never fucking will.”

Since the moment I’d met him, he’d poked holes into my mind, recolored my heart, and snatched my soul. He’d made sure the only thing I craved was the one thing I shouldn’t want.

“I want you, Mildred. Always and incessantly, I’ve fucking wanted you.”

It was the closest thing to a promise that I would get from a creature I’d never expected to tame.

To a sky emptying of stars—because of the mass of darkness sweeping across it.

He was right. Even without the bindings of this bond and marriage, I was irrefutably his. No matter how much I’d tried to deny it, I was undeniably in love with him.

“I might not care for much of anything outside of my desires, but that doesn’t mean I’m completely heartless.” Her hand settled on my hip, and my clinical tone roughened. “That doesn’t mean I cannot love you.” I clasped her chin, my head lowering. “That doesn’t mean I don’t need you to be as obsessively in love with me as I am with you.”