she spat, raking her fingers through her hair again in fruitless frustration.
Ashlu didn’t usually lose her calm, but a thwarted orgasm and the threat of having her fortress crumble to ruins around her ears tended to fray her famous control.
“It wasn’t supposed to be this hard. You said that if I enslaved his blood, I could draw his powers into my own body and lessen the strength in his.”
Another rumble rolled through the floor beneath them, almost making her lose her balance.
She pointed to her feet.
“Does that feel like his strength has lessened? We’re leagues away from the fire mountain and still it sputters and churns like his childish temper. I am supposed to be doubly safe with what appears to be the most powerful Earth Elemental that ever existed on my side, and yet I am the most at risk with that…demon under my roof!”
“The blood bond is not enough to subdue him, my queen,” the Consul intoned with detestable equanimity.
“When it is time, you must take his body as well. When he is your Blood Slave entirely, you will be able to control his powers as if it were your own.”
Ashlu’s lips twisted with derision.
“He is still a child.”
“He had his first man-sized erection at nine years old. It is now two years hence. And he has the emotions of a grown male, enough that he is ever jealous of your bed-sport with others.”
Ashlu huffed disbelievingly.
“As if I would restrain my appetite to just one male. As if that male would ever be him.”
“He does not know that, my queen. And if I may—it would perhaps be to our benefit if you let him cultivate his romantic fantasies where you’re concerned. After all, he is a Pure One. With a character like his, he would never submit to your Claiming if he did not believe you… preferred him above all others.”
Ashlu gave the Consul credit for not offending her ears with the word “love.”
Such emotion was for weaklings. As the destined Queen of All Kinds, she was determined not to have any weaknesses.
She whirled on her heel and headed to the door of her chamber.
The Consul stepped back as she passed, but not without reminding her, “Make him believe you care for him, my queen. He must give in to you willingly for the Blood Bond to hold. Especially if you want to continue absorbing his powers. Remember that the bear is subdued with honey, not vinegar.”
Ashlu hastened down the winding corridors of the fortress in long, purposeful strides, formulating a plan while she walked.
Though she didn’t acknowledge the Consul’s words, she heard him. And as she was an imminently logical, cunning female, she knew he had a point.
Eleven years ago, she brokered a reluctant truce between Dark Ones and the remaining Elementals on the fire mountain. In return for her promise not to hunt them like her mother before her, and to seal the deal, they left her in charge of the most powerful Elemental amongst them—the male child with obsidian eyes.
Prince Hulaal, they called him. Precious Stone.
Ashlu’s plan was to raise the tiny “prince” to be solely and unequivocally devoted to her. After all, he wouldn’t know any better, having no family, no friends, no one to teach him differently.
She’d be his mother when he’s small. His lover, when he grew into manhood. And always, she’d rule as his queen. Moreover, with the Blood Bond she’d forged between them since he was still an infant, his body and blood craved her and only her, though he did not understand it.
It simply always was.
With this physical imperative to be close to her, it was quite easy to convince him that what they shared was a form of love. First, the love between a guardian and her ward, and then the love between a female and a male. She’d be his entire universe. As such, his powers would be hers and hers alone, to wield as she pleased. Just like the male himself.
But the tiny man had a temper, this was clear. From the cradle, he made it known to all.
Earthquakes, landslides, volcano eruptions… Once, he’d been close to crushing the entire Dark Ones’ stronghold into rubble. All because she hadn’t given him enough attention.
The little fiend.
She scaled the steps of the north tower two at a time, and when she arrived at the tallest spire, she dismissed the guards there with a toss of her head.
Before the closed door, she waited.
Listening.
But there were no sounds coming from