Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
My lips pinched together in a severe scowl as I traced my fingers over the hardened scar tissue on my chest. It formed a pentagram of its own, the skin slightly raised and uneven in its healing. The blue vines that had once danced all over my body now curled tight around that wound. I swallowed hard, my eyes drifting upwards in the mirror to where Laran stood. He leaned against the stone wall, shirtless and stoic. The runes Morvaen had given him to save his life had faded from his skin over the last hours. The ones on my back still remained—bright and glowing—an iridescent orange that had not faded.
If I wore them for an eternity I would still get on my knees and thank her. Those marks on my skin were such a small price to pay for what she returned to me. I would never forget it.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
We didn’t say anything to each other. Both of us had been lost in our own minds when Hela had shown us to our room with the promise to return in the morning. We had to prepare, she’d said. For Lilith, is what she didn’t say. Even with all the power in the world, I’d had my ass handed to me once. It couldn’t let it happen again. I would not get a third chance.
Again, my eyes drifted back to my body. So bare by comparison to what it had been before. They had made me a work of art, but Lilith had laid my canvas bare.
I didn’t like it. The lack of brands made me feel more naked than the lack of clothes ever could. It wasn’t so long ago that just the idea of brands scared me. What they meant. The commitment involved. That certainly wasn’t the case anymore.
Drip.
Drip.
I shuddered.
Laran pushed off the wall. Something in his gaze changing, morphing in time, and not so very different than the darkness I felt settling around my own heart. There was a fire there tonight, one that I knew would consume me if I let it. I wondered if he saw the same thing in my eyes. If he saw the same shadows that danced.
Warm hands settled on my shoulders as he swept my hair to one side. His fingers traced over the very runes of power that saved his life and mine. I trembled.
He didn’t stop.
He traced every line and when there were no more, he continued tracing. His fingers greedy as he caressed my skin, pressing to every nick, feeling every cut. His nails bit into my hips with a sudden fierceness, and through it all his eyes blazed with a dark fire. I wasn’t the only one who had lost things tonight.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered hoarsely. I refused to close my eyes and shy away from the intimacy I saw.
“This was not your fault,” I said back, my voice just as rough.
“I never should have agreed to let Lola take you to Earth,” he said suddenly, surprising me. “I never should have let you leave my sight. I should have fought hard, done more—”
“There was nothing you could have done,” I said softly. “The Sins decided my fate before you all were born. They picked and chose what to tell you. They hid things from the Devil himself. There was nothing you or anyone could have done to prevent what happened tonight.”
Except perhaps me. Maybe.
My thoughts were only that, just thoughts, and yet they seemed so very loud in the confines of the bathroom. Laran’s gaze grew steadily darker.
“You’re doing it again,” he whispered. I could see my own eyebrows draw together in the mirror, just slightly. A pucker forming in confusion. “You’re projecting your thoughts.”
The breath hissed between my teeth.
That only meant one thing.
My silence had been broken.
Something hardened inside of me that reflected in his eyes. I didn’t ask what it was, because I knew. He was finally hearing all of the things none of them had been privy to. The dirty little secrets I held against my own will. The bargains I struck. The choices I made. The inevitable vice of crushing failure that weighed on me, and the bitter taste of loss that ate at my heart. He was hearing the things I wasn’t saying, and I made no move to hide them from him.
Splayed out like the pages of a book, I let him listen and I let myself feel.
My breath hitched as he leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to my naked shoulder.
“I hear you,” the voice of his thoughts whispered through my mind. “I hear you, and I want you to know something.” His lips skated across my skin as he ran them over my collarbone and up the crook of my neck. His breath fanned the hollow shell of my ear as he stared at me in the mirror. I put my hands on the counter in front of me as he said, “I love you, Ruby. I love every broken and damaged piece of you. I love the ugly parts. I love the beautiful ones. I love your strength, and above all, baby, I love your fire.” His teeth bit down on the lobe of my ear, drawing a low gasp from me. My fingers curled, wrapping around the edge of the counter.
“You’re going to set this world on fire, Ruby, and we’re going to burn for you.” The front of his body pressed firmly against my back as one of his hands came forward and parted the delicate flesh between my legs. My eyes stayed on his as he started circling my clit with two fingers. A low groan slid between his lips and my pupils dilated. “Tell me what you want.” His silent words wormed their way into my mind, far more intimate than anything before. I pushed my hips back into his erection as one of his fingers slid inside me.
Everything. I wanted everything. I didn’t want to be numb or unfeeling because I’d lost. I wanted to feel it all and remember what it was like to live. I wanted to hold onto that, to this, because when you’re dying in a lake of your own blood and fighting for every breath, this is what you fight for.
I wanted this, because next time I faced her it was all or nothing.
Either we were all walking away together, or no one was.
His fingers slipped out of me and slid forward to press on the bundle of nerves. My own wetness made it easy for his fingers to glide, pulling my body tighter and tighter. I grit my teeth, arching my back. I wanted him, and I wanted him now.
Laran didn’t waste time toying with me. There were no power games between us. There was no restraint. Only pure, unbridled passion as he thrust inside me and I moaned. My head tilted back into his shoulder and Laran stilled.
“Look at me,” he said. “I want to see your eyes.” He rocked back before slamming into me again. My head lolled forward as he gripped my hip with one hand and rubbed my clit with the other. Flesh met flesh as his hips slapped against me. Losing himself to this thing between us. This beautiful and savage thing called love.
My legs quickened, going straight as a rod. I watched the black of his eyes as sweat beaded on his temple. Right as I approached that mind-numbing bliss, his fingers slipped away and with it, my release. I bit back the growl of frustration as his hand slid along the length of my body, settling over my heart.
What was he doing?
As soon as I thought it, I felt it. “You asked for everything. I am giving all that I am. Whatever you need, I will be with you to the end because you are mine…” The embers of power in my chest caught fire as the sizzling heat beneath his palm poured into me. I breathed in the faint wash of his kama as the pulsating length beneath my legs slid in and out of me, driving me higher and higher.
A scream built in my throat, not of pain, not of power, but of an emotion far greater.
All-consuming, the blazing inferno ripped through me, and still I gave him my eyes, watching him as he watched me. “…and I am yours,” his mind whispered.
I shattered into a million pieces as he let out a groan and several shallow thrusts. His cock twitched inside me as my inner walls clamped around him, pulling more and more. Fire glowed beneath my skin as my veins lit up in a blaze of red and blue.
We continued like that, giving and taking from each other all night until it didn’t feel as if we were two people at all, but one.
It wasn’t until the next morning that I saw the scorch marks on the stone counter.
Two blackened handpri
nts, glittering like stardust.
*Julian*
Our bodies were puppets. Prisoners in our minds.
Lilith stole us to use as instruments against the very she-demon I loved.
She took us from her. She took her from me.
I saw her soul wavering in the space in-between. Well, half of her soul. The other half now resided within us. The beast.
Lilith had ripped her in half and still they both clung to life. Clung to each other.
The beast was enraged. She was vengeful and murderous and dark and twisted. It was a wonder to me how Ruby held up against the immense power of the beast when I could barely hold a fraction.
Time stood still in this suspended state of being alive but not living.
I had no idea how long had passed, only that I had to hold on—for her—because if we gave in, the beast would well and truly destroy us all.
Even me. I’d never thought about dying because I didn’t think it possible.
If we failed them, though, I had a feeling I might just find out.
I didn’t fear the veil. I feared losing her. If we lost, the beast was kind to end my misery.
I would help her tear this world apart myself, piece by piece.
And so, I held on.
We all did.
Chapter 20
“Summon the crossbow.”
I growled under my breath. My fingers curled into fists, biting into the skin. “I already told you I don’t know how,” I snapped. The white-haired Fae only tsked, her fingers weaving violet runes mid-air. Whatever she was casting I wanted no part in it.
“You did it once, Lucifer’s Daughter.” Sinumpa smiled and it was a treacherous thing. “Yesterday you had the audacity to pull it on me because you thought I meant you harm. Have you forgotten so soon what I did to you?” she taunted me. Toyed with me.
I wanted to shoot her in the devil-damned face just so she’d stop smiling like a jack-o-lantern on Halloween. The problem was that I truly did not know how I summoned the crossbow. One minute I had nothing and the next it was there, already strapped to me. Cocked and loaded.
With a flick of her fingers the rune spiraled high above me. It pulled together and then broke apart with a bang, a light sheen of purple descending around me .
“What is this?” I demanded. From the sidelines Bandit let out a rumble and it took both Moira and Laran to calm him down enough so that he didn’t launch straight into this fight with me. The Sins each sat on their thrones looking down at us with varying levels of calculated interest.
“A trap,” Sinumpa said. Her voice pure with malicious intent as her mercury eyes darkened. My blood quickened as I looked around wildly. Trying to find a way out.
The magical barrier touched the ground and began shrinking inward. A real and true panic started to hit me. I couldn’t be confined. Not again. Not ever again.
“Summon the crossbow, Ruby. It’s the only thing that can break it,” the Fae woman called. I took slow, measured breaths.
“You can do this, Ruby. I believe in you,” Laran’s voice whispered into my mind. I found solace in that. Not peace, but drive. A burning motivation to get myself out of this. One way or another.
Think, Ruby. Come on.
I grit my teeth focusing on the crossbow with all my might, but the impending shield was getting closer. Shrinking faster. I was out of time and the damned crossbow wasn’t coming. Which meant I needed to find another way out of this.
I rubbed my hands together, feeling a true calm wash over me.
It was moments like this the beast usually took over. She got me through the hard things with a detachment I’d never felt until now. A forced stillness that spread inside me, twisting and warping my mind. The eerie silence filled me.
I lifted my hand and pointed.
Burn. The word echoed in my mind.
Fire ignited, a mass of swirling red and blue. My father’s flame and Laran’s. It built at the tip of my finger, compressing in on itself, like a star preparing to explode. Sinumpa tilted her head curiously as the fire snapped free.
It hurdled towards her barrier at a breakneck speed, tearing a hole through it, sailing straight for its true target.
The breath hissed between her teeth as she realized my intent. Shouts rang out as something dark and ugly swirled inside me. This wasn’t the beast.
Oh, no. This was me.
Every ounce of rage I held came forward. She dropped to the ground, narrowly missing the swirling ball of flames. I snapped my fingers and it swung around, returning to me. The room fell silent as I walked forward, my boots thudding softly against the polished stone floors.
Sinumpa tilted her head, looking up from the ground. I held the swirling orb of chaos in one hand and nothing but a closed fist in my right as I leaned down beside her.
“I will never forget what you did to me. I don’t even know if I’m capable of forgiving it, though it would certainly be easier on me if I did,” I said softly. “You didn’t just help her take my life away. You brought me back to use as a tool in a war I shouldn’t have to finish.” Something like regret flashed in the depths of her silver eyes. I ignored it. “I will never be the same girl I was in Portland because of what you’ve done. I had to change in order to survive this, and I will. I wasn’t the one to start this war, but I will finish it. And when all is said and done, and your mother is nothing more than ash on the ground—I will still remember what you did, and you had better hope”—I paused closing my hand around the orb. The power extinguished in a flash of light—“no, you’d better pray that when I get them back, they can piece me together again. That they can quench this rage, because anything that I perceive as a threat to them is where I’ll be setting my sights next, little Fae,” I whispered so softly. You could have heard a pen drop half a mile away with how quiet the palace had gone. It was as if time itself stood still and took note of what I was and who I was becoming. “You took everything from me and if I have to build my own throne on the bones of my enemies, then so be it. Remember this next time you think of taunting me. “
I stood and walked away.
Laran and Moira stood with me, letting Bandit loose. His feet echoed on the cold stone floors as he launched himself up and into my arms. I caught him squarely against my chest and paused.
When I looked up to the Sins, these women that I’d known all my life, I think they saw it. That whatever their hopes had been, whatever they had been striving for—no matter how things had to happen—the way they chose to go about it was wrong.
“You asked me to train and I will,” I told them. “But not with her.” My fingers tightened in Bandit’s fur as he curled around me.
I thought I could do this. That I could train with her as they’d asked.
I would not be a puppet any longer.
In their betrayal I’d become someone else entirely.
Heaven help the next person that crosses me after what they’ve done, because nothing in Hell will. I was done playing their games, and as I walked out of the throne room, I think they realized it too.
This time we were going to play my way.
Chapter 21
Wind whispered over my face. A gentle caress as I leaned against the balcony. Several hours later and my temper had only marginally cooled. With a night’s rest and enough food, the magic was coming back at an alarming pace. Fire roared to life like it had in the old days, except this time I knew how to control it. All of my other gifts the beast had taught me how to control were there too, just waiting to be used.
My chest constricted. A pang of emptiness hit me.
I missed her. I missed our conversations. I missed the presence that sat by me in the fire, guiding me through my nightmares and urging me to take my destiny by the horns. I’d never truly wished her gone, but it was only in losing her that I realized how much I’d come to rely on her. We were two halves of the same whole. Or we used to be.
She had been my darkness and I had been her light.
&nb
sp; Something told me we both had fallen in this. That I wasn’t the only one suffering.
My hands tightened on the railing as my skin began to glow again. The sky overhead darkened, and lightning flashed. I swallowed hard, pushing down those emotions. I couldn’t afford to lose it here.
I heard the door in my room being opened. A faint whispered conversation. A rustling of feet. The curtains to the balcony drifted lazily to the side and I felt her. The burning fire of Wrath as she plopped down beside me and pushed her legs between the rails.
“Mighty fine weather you’ve conjured here,” she said, squinting at the brewing clouds. I let out a steady breath, trying to will them away. War’s power over the elements was strange still, and not something I had expected to need to learn so quickly after he branded me.
Maybe Hell itself was responsible for this as well.
“I didn’t ask for this,” I said quietly, waving my hand at the clouds. Hela smiled kindly, lifting her own hand. The clouds broke apart and sunlight seeped in. It bathed the sprawling city before us. Lighting up every alley, every home, every demon that dared walk in the streets when a somberness had stolen us all. Lilith hadn’t come yet, but it was only a matter of time and we all felt it.
“None of us did,” Hela said. Her fiery hair swayed in the breeze as her lightning eyes flashed, not with fury but something else. I didn’t want to feel it, but I did. I suppose I had Lola to thank for this. “Our paths were set from the moment Genesis brought us into creation.”
Brimstone Nightmares (Queen of the Damned Book 4) Page 18