Calindria squeezed inside and followed that tunnel as it led downwards. The air instantly cooled, the heat of the volcano falling away as she travelled deep into the bowels of the mountain. Ahead of her, the tunnel lightened. Strange. If anything, it should be growing darker.
She quickened her pace again, curiosity driving her.
And gasped as she stepped out into a cavern.
All around her, black crystals protruded from the walls of the dome-shaped cavern, and within their hearts, spots of blue and violet light glowed brightly. Like stars.
Like the veil.
Is this what Thanatos saw at the edge of that place, where souls departed for judgement?
It was beautiful.
She walked forwards, eyes darting around, taking everything in. As she moved, the stars held within the crystals seemed to shift position, as if they were dancing. She raised her hands and marvelled at the light that bathed her skin, turning it milky.
“Incredible,” she breathed and stopped when she reached the centre of the cavern, stood there and lost herself in how beautiful it was as she slowly turned, causing the stars to move with her.
A shiver rolled down her arms and thighs.
It was like looking into the heavens.
The light from the stars locked within the dark crystals reflected off their sharp faces, glinting off the pointed ends that jutted towards her.
Calindria walked to one and ran her hand over it, feeling the coolness of the crystal. If she had a blade, she would chip off a piece for herself. Would the stars that seemed smaller now she was closer to one of the shards come with the crystal if she were to take a part of one? She looked over her shoulder at the cavern. She didn’t want only a part. She wanted every crystal in this cavern, wanted to build a room like this for them where she could visit whenever she wanted, but at the same time, she didn’t want to destroy this place of immense beauty.
She settled for finding a spot where they appeared at their most beautiful and touched the ground. It was damp. She huffed and then smiled as she thought of a solution.
Calindria drew down a deep breath and focused on the dirt, on what she wanted to happen, and gasped as tiny vines erupted from the black grit. They spiralled around each other and thickened as they grew, curving over in places and rising up in others, twisting with other ribbons of vines to form the frame of a chair that had a back that was tilted at a low angle so she would be almost laying down when she sat in it.
A web of finer vines criss-crossed the spaces between the sides of the frame, forming a seat and back.
She smiled as she pulled her hand away from the dirt and admired what she had made. Maybe she could use her powers for good after all.
She pulled herself up onto the seat, twisted around as she brought her legs up and laid back. Groaned. Gods, it was comfortable. The vines had enough give to softly cushion her, soothing her tired limbs.
Calindria stared up at the ceiling of the cavern, at the black crystals that glittered with stars and sighed. A goddess could get used to this.
A frown knitted her eyebrows.
A goddess.
For the first time in her life, she felt like one. She had powers, strong ones, a little darker than she had expected, but she could get used to that. Her smile widened. When she saw Calistos, she was going to show him the things she could do. Not the death touch thing, but how she could create things with her somewhat black and dead brambles and vines. She couldn’t wait to see his face light up, or hear how he would tease her about her grim powers, and maybe even say she was much like their father when he had always told her she was too like their mother.
The light and warmth that filled her and the course of her thoughts gave her pause, made her still as she stared at the crystals.
It was the first time she had truly thought about her brother as alive. It was the first time her thoughts of what came after her escape from this realm hadn’t been dark and filled with death and vengeance.
And gods, it hurt for some reason.
Tears lined her lashes, welled up from her heart as she pictured her brother, tried to imagine how he would react when he saw her. She missed him. She missed him so much, had mourned him for centuries, carrying that pain within her every day of her life. Had he missed her too? Had he felt as if a part of himself had been severed?
Lost?
She wanted to see him again. Needed to see him again. She needed to see all of her family and see that what Thanatos had told her was true—they had never abandoned her. They had all mourned her, and now they all wanted her back with them.
Calindria pulled her knees to her chest and held them as she thought about her brothers and her parents, as the hurt grew sharper, cutting her like a blade until she was on the verge of sobbing. Her throat closed and she sucked down a breath, refusing to let the tears fall. She had to be strong. She had to survive this place, and that meant she couldn’t let her softer emotions get the better of her. She needed to be a powerful warrioress worthy of her parents’ names.
The tears still wanted to come though, burning the backs of her eyes as she fought the rising tide of melancholy, trying to break free of it. She wouldn’t cry now. She would cry once she was reunited with her family, and they would be happy tears.
As she stared at the opposite end of the cavern, a solution to her problem presented itself.
Anger was swift to surge through her, obliterating her sorrow and all the softer emotions she had been drowning in, as Thanatos emerged from the end of the tunnel. His glowing blue gaze scanned the cavern and narrowed as it settled on her.
“I told you to stay put,” he snarled and stormed towards her, rage rolling off him in fierce waves that stoked her own fury and had her rising onto her feet.
“And I told you not to order me around!” She tilted her chin up, embraced the darker side of her blood that was seething with anger, pushed her to put him in his place and make him pay for wounding her. For daring to pursue another female. Her blood boiled at that. “I do not need your help anymore, god of death. Leave me. I will find my own damned way home.”
Rather than shocking him, that declaration only angered him further, had him striding up to her. She turned her back on him. He grabbed her left arm in a bruising grip and pulled her to face him.
“You are not going anywhere without me,” he growled, blue eyes on fire as he glared down at her, his broad mouth compressing into a thin line.
“The same rule doesn’t seem to apply to you.” She scoffed at that, at the way his eyes gained a confused edge as if he didn’t know what she was talking about. He knew. She was sure of it. The hurt that had bloomed inside her out in the valley was swift to return, erasing all the warmth thoughts of seeing her family had caused, making her feel cold as ice inside even as she burned with rage. “I saw you go after that female. Did you get what you wanted from her?”
Thanatos leaned back slightly, still frowning at her. “You saw the female too?”
She rolled her eyes and yanked her arm free of his grip, refusing to flinch when it hurt her. “It was very hard to miss her… or the way you went flying after her with your tongue hanging out.”
He arched an eyebrow at that. “What?”
Calindria wanted to pace away from him, needing the space, but she planted her bare feet to the ground and refused to let him see how much he had hurt her. He would never see her softer side again. Never.
“I might have spent six centuries in a cage, but I am not innocent. I know when a male wants something… intimate.” She stared him down.
He squared up to her, closing the gap between them down to only a few inches, his head tilting downwards as he forced her to look up at him to keep her eyes locked with his.
“Do you now?” he purred.
She swallowed and cursed her nerves as they rose, as they swamped her and pushed her rage down. She clung to that anger, refusing to let it fade, using it as a shield to protect herself.
“I do.” She p
Her heart raced, her mouth going dry as his eyes dropped to her lips.
Gods, she wasn’t sure she could breathe. He stole all the air from her lungs with that hungry look, with the silent promise that shone in his blue eyes, one that said that if he kissed her, she would feel it all the way to her bones.
To her soul.
But he didn’t kiss her.
He stepped back.
“I am sorry,” he muttered and paced away from her, running his hand over his black hair. He twisted at the waist and glanced past his wings to her. His throat worked on a hard swallow, his voice low and holding a hint of something like nerves or fear. “Did I frighten you?”
She shook her head. He hadn’t frightened her at all.
“Did the ones who held you ever—” He didn’t need to finish that sentence for her to know what he was asking and why he felt sure he must have frightened her by looking at her as if he wanted to kiss her, by clutching her tightly in a way that said he didn’t want to let her go.
“I told you. They feared touching me. I had always thought it was because they would be punished by whoever was behind my captivity, but now I know it is my power that made them wary of me.” She smiled tightly, feeling only cold as she looked at Thanatos and thought about her power. She thought about what it would be like when she returned to her family. When she had been imagining their reunion, she had pictured them hugging her, holding her tightly. She had forgotten that couldn’t happen. If she touched them, she would hurt them. That same problem extended to everyone but Thanatos, and even then she wasn’t convinced she couldn’t hurt him with her power. “Am I doomed to be alone?”
Thanatos was quick to pivot towards her, to shake his head as all trace of anger fled his handsome face, replaced with warmth and a need that touched her. He wanted to comfort her.
“What made you say that?” He took a step towards her and then another, closing the cold distance between them again.
She felt small, oddly vulnerable as she looked into his eyes, as she let the question tumble from her lips. “Who would want to be with someone who might kill them?”
His soft look told her he had thought the same thing in the past, and he had closed himself off to the world instead, erecting barriers around his heart, determined to live alone rather than risk potential pain by living with others.
She wasn’t sure she could ever do that.
She had been alone so long already. The thought of passing the rest of her life in that way damn near killed her. Somehow, she would find a way to control her power, no matter how long it took. She would strive until she could live her life surrounded by those she cared about, without fear of harming them.
Calindria wanted to sink onto her chair, some wretched part of her aching to give up already. She denied it. She wouldn’t be like Thanatos. She couldn’t. She looked at him, realising how bleak she had to look as she struggled with herself, with the thought she might never know physical contact again.
And if she did, it wouldn’t bring her pleasure.
It would only cause fear, pain.
She would be constantly afraid of hurting the person she was touching.
“Calindria,” Thanatos murmured softly, his black eyebrows furrowing as he came to her, as he stared deep into her eyes. His fingers flexed again and war erupted in his eyes, a war she was desperate for him to lose this time.
Couldn’t he see how much she needed him?
Couldn’t he see how much this was killing her?
Even if he only did it out of pity, she needed him to touch her. She needed to know there was someone in this world she wouldn’t hurt—couldn’t hurt.
“Thanatos,” she breathed, tears blurring her vision as she looked up at him, as she ached for him to go through with it this time. He had wanted to kiss her more than once, she was sure of it, but each time he had resisted, had hardened himself and walked away. She wasn’t sure she could bear it if he did that this time.
“Earlier… when I went after that female.” He heaved a sigh that shifted every muscle on his bare chest, enticing her and making her want to reach out and risk touching him. She couldn’t. She was too afraid. She needed him to be the one to start this, to give up this foolish fight and surrender. His fingers twitched again, stretching and curling, and the furrow between the black slashes of his eyebrows deepened. “If I looked as if I wanted to do anything other than cleave her head from her body, then it is your fault.”
Her eyebrows knitted. “My fault? How is it my fault?”
“You—” He flexed his fingers and she wasn’t sure whether he wanted to strike her or caress her.
There was so much fire in his eyes, so much heat.
She gasped as he suddenly banded his strong arms around her and hauled her against him.
Moaned as he claimed her lips.
Chapter 16
Thanatos’s kiss seared her, set her on fire until she was sure she was going to burn to ashes in his arms. Calindria moaned and pressed her fingers into his bare chest, shivered at his possessiveness as he growled and pulled her closer still. Her heart thundered in time with his, galloping fiercely and robbing her of breath.
Gods.
Calindria had fantasised from time to time about kissing, even before she had been captured and had grown into an adult, her desires awakening as she had matured. She had never quite imagined it would be like this though.
This was addictive.
This kiss possessed her, claimed her, seared his name on her soul.
And she wanted more.
She smoothed her palms over his hard chest, heat blooming swiftly inside her as she felt his muscles, his skin, smooth velvet over solid stone. There was power in his body, strength that spoke to her on some deeply primal level, rousing feelings she had never experienced before. She needed him desperately, as if he was more vital than air, as if only their bodies entwining could relieve her of this punishing hunger he had awoken in her. She felt as if she might die if she didn’t get what she wanted, if he stopped before he had given all of himself to her.
This kiss wasn’t enough.
He must have felt it too because he bent and lifted her, planting his large hands right on her backside. Her eyes widened, a gasp escaping her as he palmed her bottom, as he deepened the kiss and growled into her mouth. She wanted to growl right back at him but didn’t have the courage, could only squeak as he twisted with her and carried her to the reclining chair she had made.
Thanatos set her down at the end of the seat of it, kneeled before her and broke the kiss. His eyes were blue fire as he raked them over her, seared her and made her hyper-aware of her body, of how little of it was covered. He flexed his fingers and then dropped his hands, his eyes growing hooded as he placed them on her legs. The wicked heat that licked at her veins blazed hotter as he parted her thighs, his hands caressing them, sending a shiver along her legs that pooled in her abdomen.
“Thanatos,” she breathed with a tremble in her voice, one born not of fear nor nerves, but of need.
He groaned, the sound thrilling her, and pressed his thumbs into her flesh, eased his hands upwards towards the juncture of her thighs. She shivered again, her breath stuttering as the feel of him touching her in a way no male had before him overwhelmed her. On a wanton moan, she gave in to the urges running rampant through her, let herself fall back onto the seat and stretched her arms above her head.
Thanatos growled, the low rumbling sound sending another electric thrill chasing through her as she heard the possession in it, the need, and saw it in his eyes too as he drank his fill of her.
Calindria licked her lips and bliss rolled through her as he groaned again, as his eyes fell there and scalded her with the heat of need that shone in them. He wanted to kiss her again. She wanted that too, couldn’t stop herself from trying to rub her thighs together to satisfy the ache building between them as she stared at him, goading him into trying to kiss her because he would have to cover her body with his to achieve it.
She wanted to feel the weight of him on top of her again.
Wanted to feel the heat of him inside her.
She writhed at just the thought, moaned and let her eyes fall shut as fierce heat flooded her, twisted together inside her into a tight knot, one she knew he could ease for her.
She opened her eyes and gazed down the length of her body to him. What was he waiting for? Was he trying to torture her? If he was, he was succeeding. She lowered her right hand and reached for him, her eyes hooded as the need he had ignited in her demanded he sate it.
Still, he hesitated.
If she didn’t do something, he was going to stop this before it really began, and she wasn’t sure she would survive that. Her body felt too tight, every inch of her aching for this male, on fire for him. If he stopped now, she might kill him, and gods, he would deserve it.
On a low curse aimed at him, she sat up and planted her hands to his chest, skimmed her palms up to his shoulders and then his corded neck, and dragged his lips to hers. She kissed him, mimicking the way he had done it, hoping he wouldn’t realise she was new to this.
Thanatos was quick to seize hold of her again, to steal control of the kiss and bend her to his will. He wasn’t gentle as he kissed her, as he clutched her backside and lifted her, kneading her bottom as he pressed between her thighs. He was fierce and commanding, gave no quarter as she tried to retake control of the kiss.
He growled whenever she tried, pushed her into submission by stroking his tongue along hers, by digging his fingers into her flesh and holding her more tightly. Wicked Thanatos.
She moaned and wrapped her arms around him, and heat scalded her cheeks when her body moved against his of its own will and she couldn’t stop herself from rubbing up and down his caged length. It was hard against her. Deliciously hard. Stoked the need that controlled her, had her going out of her mind with want as she rode it.
She needed him naked and inside her.
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