Earth's End (Air Awakens Series Book 3) by Elise Kova Page A

curled around it, and Vhalla met his lips.
    His mouth had the faint traces of herbs, what Vhalla suspected to be remnants of medicine or sustaining potions that had been forced down his throat. The hair on his face tickled her strangely. But nothing could have made that kiss anything less than perfection.
    “I love you,” he uttered like a prayer.
    “And I you,” she affirmed.
    “Don’t give up on me.” Aldrik pressed his eyes closed tightly. “I am not worthy of all you have done for me ... but, you, this is the first thing to make me feel human in almost a decade, to make me want to strive for something more. You are the first person to make me truly happy, to make me want and hope again.”
    “I have never given up on you,” Vhalla pointed out gently.
    “You are the only one.”
    “Larel didn’t either,” she mused.
    “No, Larel never did ...” Aldrik tugged on her gently and Vhalla understood his demand. She curled at his side, her head tucked between his chin and his shoulder to barely fit on the small bed. “I can’t believe you rode through the North. Gods, woman, have you no fear?”
    “I was terrified,” Vhalla confessed softly. “I was just more terrified of living without you.”
    Aldrik laughed, a deep throaty sound. He ran his fingertips over her arm and shoulder. “A terror I know well.”
    Vhalla pressed her eyes closed. Her mortality stared down at her from the other side of an abyss. But his arm around her firmly kept her in place, kept her from tumbling down that dark chasm.
    She relinquished doubt and embraced hope. Her hand snaked around his waist, and Vhalla listened to his heartbeat while feeling the slow rise and fall of his chest, perfectly in time with hers. They would fight together now.
    “Stay with me today.” Aldrik pressed his lips against her hair. “I don’t know if your father ...”
    “After the clerics have done their dance, I’ll command that you be brought to me. My father won’t dare reveal our family rift to the world by objecting, not after I’ve made a public command. He won’t undermine me before the subjects he intends I rule,” Aldrik stated with confidence.
    “For how long?” she asked.
    “All day today, tomorrow.” There were the makings of a deeper current powering his words. There was a plan formulating in his puppet-master mind. “I want the men, women, majors, and nobles alike to continue to see you are under my protection. I want them to see me value your brilliant thoughts. And,” Aldrik paused, as if bracing himself, “I want them to see my compassion for you. Most of all, my father will see that he will not take you from me with mere threats.”
    “This is an awful idea.” Vhalla shook her head, pressing closer.
    “It is brilliant,” he insisted. “Will you?”
    Vhalla’s hand drifted up over the blankets to his exposed collarbone, running her fingers across the firm line in his skin. “I will,” she breathed in reply.
    His arm tightened around her, and he hooked a finger under her chin. Aldrik tugged her mouth toward his once more, and Vhalla gripped his shoulder tightly. The world blissfully faded away as his lips parted.
    Vhalla could have laughed, she could have cried, as each kiss reaffirmed their madness. A bundle of nerves began to tangle in her stomach. Each kiss undid a knot, each breath added two. Today, they would draw a line in the sand. On one side, they would stand, on the other, the Emperor and her death.
    As true as it had ever been, dawn came too soon. Vhalla peeled herself away after they had both reassured themselves of their plans. His arms were hesitant to relinquish her, and Vhalla was reluctant to plunge herself into the suddenly cold world again.
    After slipping out of his room, she drifted through camp, not paying attention to where her feet carried her. Doubt traded places with hope, and her thoughts ranged from horror, to cautionary urges, to elation. Somehow, she navigated back to Fritz’s