by Sarah Piper
“Don’t listen to him,” I told Ronan. “He’s just jealous I didn’t run into his arms when he got here.”
“Jealous?” he repeated, his tone nearly indignant now. “You were barely conscious after having suffered dozens of broken bones and severe hypothermia. It was hardly the time for prancing across the meadow.”
Still laughing, I got to my feet, Ronan by my side.
“Good to see you, Vacarro,” Darius said, smacking Ronan on the back. All teasing aside, there was no true jealousy there. Only friendship. Only love.
Together, the four of us walked back to the Pool of Unknowing, the last rays of the sun slowly fading behind us, ushering in the cool evening.
“Why is it called the Pool of Unknowing?” I asked.
Liam glanced up at the sky, then back to me, lowering his voice. “It’s the feeding ground for the memory eaters.”
“That… sounds terrifying,” I said.
“For those not traveling on to their final resting place, yes. But for most souls, it’s a symbiotic relationship. The souls that travel through here must release the last of their earthly memories before completing their journey. memory eater demons feed on those lingering memories.”
“How do they feed?” I asked.
“They’re absolutely terrifying creatures when they’re hungry,” Liam said. “Violent, vicious, incredibly dangerous. But the actual process of feeding is quite painless—pleasant, even. One must only look into their eyes, and his memories will be absorbed. The demons are then sated, and the souls are free to complete their journey, wholly unburdened.”
“But I thought that’s what the Orchard of Echoes was for,” I said.
“Not exactly. The Orchard forces souls to confront their fears and regrets. Memory eaters take all lingering memories—the terrible ones as well as the beautiful.”
“Why would someone want to give up their best memories?”
“Because they aren’t real, Gray. They aren’t needed. They are merely stories—”
“Um, guys?” Ronan said. “This is super fascinating. Truly. But we should probably…” He gestured toward the pool, and I nodded, blowing out a breath. Ronan was right—we needed to figure out how this was going to work. The faster we did that, the sooner we could all get home.
There would be plenty of time to ask about the memory eaters later, preferably from the comfort of a soft leather couch in front of a roaring fire, one of Emilio’s warm, gooey brownies in my hand.
I opened my mouth to ask Liam what I should do, but then realized I already knew the answer. The same gentle tug that had guided me through the realm called to me now, and I knelt before the stones surrounding the pool and peered inside. At first, I saw only the smooth, black surface of the water, completely undisturbed.
But soon it began to change colors, from black to deep indigo, with swirls of purple and lighter blue and turquoise, all of it sparkling with starlight just like I’d seen in my vision.
“Look!” I breathed.
Just below the surface, an archway of glowing runes appeared, pulsing bright. It looked as if someone had lain the archway on its back—as if we could dive right in and end up on the other side, safe in my own realm.
Home.
When I reached in and touched the water, my magic sparked to life, enveloping my hand in a bright blue orb. I pulled it back, and the water began to spin into a gentle whirlpool.
“Gray,” Ronan said. “The water level’s lowering.”
“It’s the magic,” Liam said. “It’s opening the gateway to her realm.”
“Incredible,” Darius whispered.
My heart sped up, my eyes wide, a sense of purpose and excitement and clarity rising from my chest, making my skin buzz.
But the moment the sun dipped fully behind the horizon, the grass at my knees turned pale with frost, and pool froze, the stars winking out, the colors fading to solid white.
“No!” I leaned over the stones and pressed my hand to the surface again, but my magic flickered out, too.
The connection was broken.
A pang of sadness touched my heart, but it didn’t last. I didn’t need to see the gate to know it was there waiting for me. My magic had led us here for a reason. This was the way home. I knew it.
“The pool will thaw at sunrise,” Liam confirmed. “We’ll camp in the woods tonight, and head out at first light. Immediately at first light.”
There was an ominous tone to his words that hadn’t been there before.
“Liam?” I prodded.
“It’s not wise to linger into the late morning,” he said.
“Why? What’s late morning?”
He glanced up at the sky again, and my entire body erupted in goosebumps. “Feeding time.”
Twenty-Nine
Ronan
“If we’re camping, we need a fire.” I glanced at Gray, hoping she’d get the hint. “I’m gonna go, ah, look for some firewood.”
“I’ll come with.” She hopped up immediately, reaching out to take my hand.
That’s my girl.
The forest was thick and silent, and after just a few minutes of walking, we had complete privacy.
“Firewood, huh?” she asked, her eyes glittering.
“Was I that obvious?”
“Only a little obvious.”
I was still holding her hand, and now I tugged her close, wrapping my arms around her and crushing her against my chest. Even though we’d hugged in the valley, it still felt like it’d been a hundred years since I’d last felt the warmth of her body against mine.
“I was so worried about you,” I whispered into her hair. “When Liam told us you were Jonathan’s prisoner, and then you ended up here…”
A shudder rolled through my body when I thought about what might’ve happened to her in that prison. What could’ve happened to her here, if she hadn’t found the rune gate.
“Jonathan’s dead,” she said, pulling back to look into my eyes. Her own held a steadiness that hadn’t been there before. A certainty. “I stabbed him on the mountaintop, right before Darius found me.”
I blew out a breath, more relieved than I cared to admit. One lone hunter? We should’ve been able to isolate him and take him out on day one. Yet he’d eluded us, besting us at every turn. His capacity for torture and torment had shocked us all.
And we still didn’t know who else might be following in his footsteps. What other horrors awaited us on the other side of all this.
But we’d cross that bridge when we came to it.
I took her face between my palms, my gaze sweeping down to her mouth. I wanted to burn this image into my brain, sear it so deep I’d never forget it, no matter what Sebastian did to me. No matter what our future held.
I lowered my mouth to hers, capturing it in a slow, lingering kiss. I wanted to savor every soft curve of her lips, the warmth of her breath, the velvet-smooth stroke of her tongue as I slid it into her mouth.
A moan rumbled through my chest, and Gray sighed, deepening our kiss. I moved forward, backing her up against a tree, pressing my body to hers and pinning her there.
“I missed you,” she breathed, tangling her hands into my hair. “I hate being away from you, Ronan.”
My name was a soft sigh on her breath, the sound of it making me ache for her in more ways than one.
“I missed you, too.”
She looked up at me through lowered lashes, her eyes darkening with desire. With raw, unfiltered lust.
Quirking her lips into a sexy grin, she slid her hand down my chest, dipping her fingers into the front of my pants. I was instantly hard, desperate to feel her, skin on skin.
“Gray,” I moaned, kissing her again as her fingers closed around my cock. She tightened her grip, stroking me just right.
Her touch was perfect. She was perfect.
Fuck, I couldn’t wait another minute. I had to be inside her. To feel the soft, wet heat of her body. To make her shudder around me. To feel her warmth, her
energy, the spark of life that made her unmistakably Gray. Unmistakably mine.
Sebastian thought he could stop this. That he could wave his pen and his contracts and his threats in front of my face and dictate the boundaries of my own heart.
Hell, maybe he could. I’d made worse deals in my life. But this was the Shadowrealm, outside the bounds of all other laws—even his. There were no deals here, no bargains, no Prince of Hell lording over us.
Gray squeezed me tighter, a sigh of pleasure escaping her lips, and I couldn’t hold back another second. I grabbed both of her hands and pinned her wrists up over her head, crushed her against the tree, rocking into her hips, claiming her hot, wet mouth in a kiss that made both of us weak.
“You good?” I panted, and when she replied, “God, yes. More than good,” I pulled back just long enough to spin her around, facing her toward the tree. She put her hands against the bark and arched her back, and I hooked my fingers into the back of her cargo pants and tugged, sliding them down to reveal the soft, perfect mounds of her ass.
I nearly came at the sight of her bare flesh, her curves, the soft gasp she unleashed as the chilly air hit her skin.
She was fucking beautiful. Everything about her.
Gray deserved to be loved. She deserved to be worshipped and pleasured and touched, slowly and deliberately. She deserved to be laid on a bed of rose petals and made love to with a thousand kisses for a thousand nights.
I might never be able to give her that. But I could give her this, right here, right now, tucked away in the ponderosa forest in another realm where nothing else mattered but one raw, intense, wild moment.
I fumbled with my pants and freed my aching cock, sliding it between her thighs, teasing her entrance.
“Yes,” she said, arching her backside higher to give me access. “Right there.”
I didn’t need to be told twice. I plunged inside, sinking deep into her slick, perfect heat. For one brief moment, I stilled, curling a hand around her hip, bracing the other against the tree, resting my head on her shoulder. This, too, I wanted to memorize. The sweet, butterscotch smell of the ponderosa pine mingling with her scent. The silky touch of her hair tickling my nose. The sound of her ragged breath cutting through the silence of the forest. The cool air on my skin. The perfect fit of her body, slowly tightening around me.
In the ancient span of my lifetime, I’d only known Gray for a few heartbeats. Yet somehow, the woman had become my entire world.
I grabbed both of her hips, then pulled back, slowly sliding inside her once again. Gray moaned in pleasure, but it wasn’t enough. I needed more. Deeper. Harder.
I rolled my hips, increasing the intensity of my thrusts, slamming against her perfect ass. Gray braced herself against the tree and matched my fevered pace, pushing back into me, urging me to take more.
“Harder,” she demanded.
I ran a hand up her back and fisted her hair, pulling her head backward as I slammed into her from behind, taking her hard and deep and fuck I never wanted to be more than a heartbeat away from this woman, this witch, this beautiful soul who’d claimed my heart so long ago I couldn’t even remember a time when it hadn’t beat just for her.
“Ronan!” she gasped. “That’s… Yes! Ronan!”
I clamped a hand over her mouth, trying to quite her screams before the others came running. She teased my fingers with her tongue, then took them into her mouth, sucking me, stroking me, making me absolutely lose it.
“Fucking hell, woman. What are you doing to me?”
She bit down on my fingers as her body clenched tight around me, and I absolutely fucking lost it. I came hot and hard and fast, pumping into her as she trembled through her own orgasm, both of us sweating and wild and completely unbidden as if the entire realm had been created just for us. As if nothing else mattered but this brief moment of pure, uncut perfection.
When Gray finally turned around to face me again, she offered a smile that damn near melted my heart. Her cheeks were pink, her eyes dark and seductive, her skin glowing. Blonde curls stuck up in every direction, as if she’d just stepped out into a windstorm.
She looked like a damn wood sprite. Like something out of the pages of a fairy tale book about magical forests where monsters didn’t exist, and the night was full of beauty and wonder instead of terror and pain.
I wanted to pin her down inside that book, to keep her just like this forever. Keep her safe. Keep her mine.
But I couldn’t do that. So instead, I wrapped my arms around her and crushed her to my chest again, burying my face in her neck, inhaling her scent.
Fuck you, Sebastian. Fuck. You.
After spending lifetimes upon lifetimes as his demonic slave, I’d finally come to realize something about Sebastian’s nature. He wasn’t evil because he traded in souls and flesh. He was evil because he turned love into a weakness, a weapon he could use to twist and manipulate and bend others to his will. More than claiming my soul, more than lying to me for centuries about my origins, more than the abuse he doled out on every visit, that was the thing I most resented him for.
I’d fallen in love with Gray. And he’d taken her from me.
“I love you,” I whispered, knowing full well this was the only place I could ever say it out loud again. I pressed my thumb against her lips and looked into her eyes and poured everything I felt into them, into her, wanting her to take these words and burn them deep inside her, like scars she’d carry long after we reached our inevitable end.
She stared into my eyes, her own shiny with tears. “I love you, too, Ronan. Always.”
“Always.” My heart cracked wide open at the word. It tasted like a lie. Not because I didn’t mean it, but because always no longer belonged to us.
In truth, it never had.
Thirty
Gray
We’re deep in the forest, tracking a white-tailed deer who’s been eluding us for hours. Beneath the light of a full moon, my companion grins and holds a finger to his lips, and I peer out through the trees in the direction of his gaze.
The deer grazes in the clearing. A buck, with huge interlaced horns and a gleaming tawny coat.
He is beautiful in a way that makes my heart ache.
I step on a twig, snapping it, and the deer bolts.
“Hurry,” my guide whispers, disappearing ahead, and I run to catch up. I don’t want to disturb the buck, but I don’t want to lose my way in this dark wood.
As long as the man is with me, I know I’m safe. He is my guide, and I trust him implicitly.
But I’ve lost him.
“Hello?” I call out. “Where are you?”
Something rustles the brush ahead, and I race toward the sound. My guide is gone, and three women stand before me, all dressed in white, each holding a silver sword.
The first one is blonde like me, with long, muscular legs and expressive brown eyes.
The second has the same expressive eyes, but her hair is dark, wrapped in a braid around the top of her head.
The last is thin and pale, her dark head shorn. While the others are wearing dresses, she’s dressed in a hospital gown. There’s something so familiar about her, but I just can’t place it.
“Don’t follow him,” they say in unison. “He is not what you believe.”
I look down in my hands. I’m holding a sword too, but I don’t want it. I don’t need it. I toss it at their feet and run to catch up with my guide.
He’s waiting for me at the edge of the clearing, but as soon as I get close, he smiles at me and disappears into the trees again.
He’s teasing me.
I don’t mind.
I mean to follow him into the trees, but the women are before me again, blocking my way.
“Don’t follow,” they say, their swords piercing the earth at their feet. Again, a sword appears in my hand.
Again, I drop it.
“Let me be,” I hiss. I dart around them, continuing on the path toward the trees where my guide disappe
ared.
“This way,” his voice calls out, light and teasing. He’s enjoying this game.
“Where are you?” I call out, peeking behind a massive oak tree.
“This way!” he calls again from farther ahead. “Over here!”
I run to catch up, scrambling up a steep trail. When I reach the top of the rise, he’s there waiting for me, and I’m rewarded with a smile
“Where is the deer?” I ask.
His smile turns cold.
“I’m sorry,” he says. “It was you. It was always you.”
“What?” I reach out for him, but before I can take another step closer, a shadow in the shape of a man leaps out from the trees behind him. He’s carrying three swords, and with a single thrust, he lunges for me, driving the blades through my chest.
I drop to my knees, gasping.
It happens so fast, I don’t feel the pain. Just the shock, followed by the rush of air leaving my lungs, and the warmth of my blood as it runs down my legs and seeps into the earth.
Roses bloom in its path, growing large and fragrant, tangling in my fingers, my hair, swallowing me back into the earth.
Overhead, the full moon smiles.
I awoke with a startled gasp, my heart hammering in my chest, my hands pressed to what I was certain would be a gaping wound.
“Gray!” Ronan sat up next to me on our bed of leaves, taking my face into his hands. “What is it?”
“Just… a nightmare,” I breathed. But God, it had been so real. The forest, the swords, the shadow. The three women. The three swords.
Wait, no… There had been four swords at first. I’d had one, too.
Four swords… Four of swords…
Sophie’s tarot reading echoed through my memory.
There are four of you, she’d said. The swords represent four witches. Three standing their ground, waiting for the fourth to rise, to find them and give them purpose…
I closed my eyes, thinking back on that tarot reading. Sophie was so certain I was one of the four, that I needed to find the others. But who were they? How could I find them? What was I supposed to do?