Orchid on Fire: Book One of the Path Between Realms by L. R. Mirelle

Author:L. R. Mirelle [Mirelle, L. R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: LR Mirelle LLC
Published: 2025-12-31T00:00:00+00:00

28

THE BLADE AND THE BOND

JAKOBAV

The moment Ella looked at the painting, something inside him cracked.

She’d gone utterly still, which was unusual for someone so hell-bent on pulling trouble from thin air and dragging it straight to her feet. It was that rare kind of immobility he’d only seen in her a handful of times: once when she was half-dead in his bed, once when she’d accused him of betrayal, and once when the seer had spoken a truth she believed belonged to her alone.

But this was worse.

It wasn’t fear that froze her, nor fury, nor even shock. It was awe. Reverence. Something dangerously close to longing.

And he wanted to fucking shatter it.

She looked at that portrait like she was remembering a kiss. Not just anyone’s. His.

The Fae staring down from the canvas was polished and infuriatingly well dressed, every line of him was meticulous. His godsdamned clothes were tailored, pressed smooth as if no wrinkle could touch them. Smug bastard. He probably had some servant—or some trick of magic—to keep them flawless.

Jakobav wore nothing like that. He carried blood on his boots, dirt under his nails, and scars scored into skin that he’d never given time to heal soft. He didn’t own a single garment that fit like that. Not one piece of silk that gleamed like armor. Or any fucking silk at all.

That pendant, glinting at the man’s throat, was likely what had made her sigil respond.

He knew that kind of pendant.

Old magic clung to them. Fae magic. And nothing good ever came from it waking.

He saw the way her breath caught, the small flinch she couldn’t disguise, the way her fingers grazed her collarbone as if some hidden part of her had answered his call.

She sees power. Power. Elegance. Mystery.

What does she see when she looks at me?

A brute. A war prince. A creature built for battlefields and blood.

Gods, she kept looking at him.

Fuck that.

She needed something real. Someone who could match her, stand unflinching before the fire she carried, see her as more than a weapon or a symbol. Someone who could bear her fury and her beauty and the innate defiance of her will. The way she never backed down from a challenge, never flinched in the face of danger or allowed herself to be lesser, even here in a fortress surrounded by enemies.

Somehow she’d broken straight through the walls he’d built around himself. A barrier no one else had touched. One he’d trusted to hold against kingdoms. And she demolished it with nothing more than that infuriating, intoxicating smirk.

He shouldn’t even be thinking about her, especially not now, when the whole of Dravaryn would be gathering in the capital by nightfall tomorrow, ready for elevation or devastation, depending on if he survived the rite. Not when his every move should’ve been weighed against the gods and the realm and the cost of failure. He should’ve been focused on getting ready for his Claiming. And yet, gods help him, all he wanted was to claim her, more than he had ever wanted anything.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.