Chapter 14 Fourteen

Chapter 14 Fourteen
A deathly, bone-deep cold hit, making my teeth want to chatter. My hands began to tremble against the unfamiliar feeling and I clenched them into fists, confused and furious.

I strode quickly through the corridors toward my chambers, passing several guards who bowed, each one looking perfectly normal. 

None of them seemed to be experiencing any temperature change at all. They all stood in their usual positions, comfortable in the palace heat, while I felt like I was freezing to death.

It made no sense.

I stepped into my private chambers and immediately headed for the fire pool in the corner; a natural hot spring fed by the volcanic rivers running underneath the fortress.

The heat that usually made it uncomfortable to stand near was suddenly the most appealing thing in the world.

I stripped off my armour with shaking hands and stepped into the pool, burying myself completely in water hot enough to boil a human alive.

Finally.

The warmth sank into my bones, driving away that unusual cold. I stayed there for several minutes, trying to understand what was happening to me.

Sudden temperature changes weren't normal. Even for Nexium. We were creatures of fire and darkness, so heat was our natural state. We didn't get cold, nor did we feel temperature changes like this.

Unless...

There was only one place in the entire fortress where temperatures swung wildly between extremes. It was a torture method we'd perfected centuries ago, specifically for Heartwalker prisoners, since the average dungeon did nothing to break their spirits.

That was where I had sent that infuriating, manipulative, absolutely maddening girl.

Where I had sent Cupid.

The thought of her name sent a surge of heat through me that had nothing to do with the boiling pool. 

My body remembered her instantly—the feel of her beneath me, the sounds she'd made, the way she'd looked up at me with hatred and want struggling in those impossibly blue eyes of hers.

So innocent she had been at first, pleading and apologetic until little by little I pried the fire out of her and made her a match for me, trying her into a sly seductress worthy of my bed.

The rut stirred again, demanding that I satisfy it. I had been out of suppressants since yesterday, too distracted and furious to send for more. And now, thinking about her, I felt the familiar pull intensifying once more.

I wanted to fuck something. I needed to find her cell, drag her out, and finish what we'd started before I'd realised exactly how thoroughly she'd played me.

But that was ridiculous. I was furious with her, after all she had done; manipulating me, using her body to distract me from my duty, costing me a crucial advantage over the Heartwalkers.

I knew I should want her dead, and not trembling underneath me again.

Focus, I commanded myself.

The temperature swings. What did they mean?

Was it possible…

No. That was absurd.

And yet the more I thought about it, the more sense it made.

The moment she'd been thrown into the heat dungeon, I'd started feeling hot. When the temperature changed to freezing in her cell, I'd felt the cold.

Was I somehow... mirroring her? Feeling what she felt despite the distance between us?

Impossible, I told myself firmly.

And yet…

I looked out the window across from the fire pool. The Nexium skies were constantly dark and stormy, but I could sense the subtle shift that showed it was daybreak.

A very faint change in the darkness that marked the transition from night into morning.

She had been down there all night.

Was that long enough?

I climbed out of the pool and dressed quickly, my mind already moving through the different options. 

I couldn't leave her down there forever, not if these temperature fluctuations were actually affecting me. And I needed her alive and functional for the plan I was now frantically trying to recreate in the aftermath of yesterday's disaster.

But I also couldn't go to retrieve her myself. That would look weak, especially to the Dark Gods, and it would suggest that she mattered far more than she should.

I needed someone I could trust absolutely… Someone who would do exactly as I commanded without question or judgment.

Not Kael; that backstabbing, self-serving, traitorous coward would use any sign of weakness against me in a heartbeat.

No, I needed my most trusted confidante. The one person in this entire fortress who had never once failed me or questioned my authority.

"Cersei," I called out in command.

The door opened immediately. She must have been waiting in the corridor, as she always did when I was in my chambers, ready to serve at a moment's notice.

She stepped inside and dropped smoothly to one knee, her head bowed.

"My king," she said, her voice soft and eager. "How may I serve you?"

I looked down at her, taking in the familiar sight of her devotion.

She was fairer than most Nexium women, with that light blue skin that marked her as transformed rather than born.

Tall in height and svelte, doing everything with a grace that somehow remained despite the harsh existence of Nexium life, so unlike the other dragons.

And completely, utterly loyal.

I had made her myself, shaped her by my hands from a mewling Heartwalker child into the perfect servant. She was my greatest success, living proof that my theories about transformation were correct.

She was also the only being in this entire fortress whose devotion I never questioned.

"I need you to do something for me," I said, keeping my voice carefully calm.

She looked up, her soft peaceful eyes fixed on me with absolute attention, so different from the blazing blue that haunted my thoughts.

"Anything, my king," she said immediately. "Whatever you need. I am yours to command."

I smiled slowly.

"Good. First I need you to…"