“Then we will try something else,” he said, echoing my words, though I wasn’t certain it was so simple. Even if we managed to succeed with our spell, would Ravena retaliate?

“What if we cannot stop her?” I asked.

It was likely that Ravena had the bones of my coven, and I knew she would use them for their magic, to heighten the strength of her army, an army that could literally be anything—another mist, another monster, another disease, or something we had yet to see.

“If you do not think we should do this…”

“I do not doubt the spell,” I said quickly.

His brows furrowed. “Then what is it?”

I stared at him, trying to think of words to use to explain how I was feeling, but I couldn’t.

“I don’t know,” I whispered.

Adrian’s hand tangled in my hair, and his head rested against mine. “It will be okay.”

Our lips met, and it was a simple touch, a soft caress. The second time was harder, the third deeper. A familiar and fluid heat gathered between my legs, and as much as I wanted to press them together, Adrian kept them apart, his body wedged between them as he kissed me. I pulled at his shirt as he buried his face between my breasts, kissing and nipping through my shirt. Then I stood suddenly, my fingers threading through his hair as he pressed his mouth into my heat, and I gasped at the feel of him sucking my swollen clit through the fabric of my clothes.

Adrian met my gaze from where he knelt on the floor, and I knew we were both unhinged. I could see it in his eyes—he looked the way I felt, but I had enough awareness to worry over this desperation. It was as if I would never have another moment like this in my life.

Adrian’s grip tightened and he pressed a kiss to my stomach, then my hip, then my inner thigh. I kept my hands on his head, preparing to descend into a brief and utter madness, when a knock sounded at the door.

I froze, and even Adrian, who was not usually disturbed by the presence of another, went still.

“My queen,” Violeta called from the other side of the door. “May I come in?”

Adrian and I stared at one another for a brief moment before he rose to his feet, pressed a kiss to my forehead, and turned his back to the door.

I cleared my throat and answered, “Yes, Violeta.”

When she entered the room and I saw her expression, I knew she was just as anxious.

She curtsied.

“I am sorry for interrupting,” she said.

“You aren’t,” I said.

Adrian cleared his throat, and I glared at him, but he wasn’t looking at us. He had moved to the window and stared out into the fading twilight.

“I…wanted to give you something,” she said.