I’d figured it out. You don’t talk about the archangels in the Underworld, but there are always rumors. And I’d heard about the angel that was able to wield starlight like a weapon. That morning when the light flashed from his hands, I knew it was him.
Each gift is unique, like Atlas’s silver flames and Kai’s smoke that can conceal him like an invisibility cloak. “Starlight,” I answer.
“Rare,” he says. “And dangerous. But not always. Like with most angelic gifts, it has two sides.”
“All right.”
He looks at me carefully. “Starlight is what will test you,” he says. “It’s the only thing that can make sure you’re free of them. But it will be easier for you if you do not have to fight.” He glances at my wrists.
I see. That’s why he wants my trust. He opens his mouth to explain, but I cut him off. “I’ve been bound before, Solomon.” The atmosphere is tight between us, and I need him to do this, for him and for me. Otherwise we cannot move forward. “I told you to take what you needed.”
Determination forms in his face, and I’m not sure if he’s hoping that I’ll be under the spell of Tartarus, or desperately hoping that I’m not. His voice doesn’t give away either. “The bed.”
If Kai were here I would make a joke, but this isn’t funny. This will determine everything.
Solomon doesn’t have to touch me to bind me. The cuffs do it for him. One second I’m lying on the edge of the bed, and the next the pale light of sparkling stars is gripping the cuffs like chains holding me down.
This is just another kind of altar. One of many I’m sure to be offered on in my life. Most less willingly than this. “You should close your eyes.”
“No.”
Instead, I look at him. That blinding light gathers in his palm, but I lock my eyes on his. Even when he makes the light brighter, I don’t flinch. He presses the light into my chest, and I’m in a different world entirely. I can see my body lined with starlight. The power spirals along my bones and sings with my cells, searching for the darkness Solomon has convinced himself lives in me.
I take a breath and hold it when the starlight finds the barrier that Cassian created. It hesitates, and for one horrifying second I think that it might burst. But it doesn’t. It moves on, streaking through my mind and my soul, but not touching my thoughts or memories.
When there is nothing left for the starlight to search, it goes still, easing through me like a blanket it spread over my skin. This is a different kind of pleasure. And reflected in Solomon’s eyes, I see myself glow like a living star.
He closes his eyes first, crouching by the side of the bed in shock. “Tell me,” I say, dazed with swirling light that’s building inside. My voice doesn’t quite sound like mine. It sparkles.
“Before I was an archangel. Just a commander. A soldier. We rescued a man. Like you, he had escaped his captors in Tartarus. He knew so much about them. Exactly where we could strike and how. We won battles because of him. We were winning.
“But that’s what they wanted us to think,” he says sadly. “They had taken his mind so completely that he didn’t know his own name when the infernal spark inside him went out. Nothing more than a shell. One that was connected to them and knew our every movement and weakness.”
I would reach out and touch him if I were not still bound by his power. I’ve never seen him look so devastated.
“It was too late. They knew they were about to lose him, and they made their move.”
“How many?” I don’t have to specify that I mean the dead.
Solomon swallows. “Four thousand, nine-hundred and twelve. From that battle. Because I trusted him without question.”
I finally close my eyes. “I’m sorry.” Something clicks in my mind. “The demon who sent him. It was Telem.”
Solomon’s voice is a shuddered breath. “Yes.”
I grit my teeth together. That demon has to fucking die.
Standing, Solomon strips off his shirt, and I’m treated to a view of perfect golden skin and abs that roll on for miles. I’m still very restrained, and we’re both aware of it. Slowly, he lays down beside me, close, but not yet touching.
“I know that I don’t have the right to touch you like they do. Not after pushing you away like I have. But I would like to start slowly, if you’ll let me.”
“First you need to tell me that you trust me,” I say, wetting my lips to speak. He’s so close to me that I want to let caution go to the wind. But that would be monumentally stupid of me.
“I found nothing,” he says. “Only lingering traces of them. You’re you.”
“Do you trust me, Solomon?”
His gold-laced eyes drop to my lips and then climb to meet my gaze again. “Yes, I do.”
“Then I give you permission to touch me, thank fuck,” I say, and he laughs. It breaks the tension, which is what I was hoping.
Slowly, he strokes his fingers down my cheek. It’s a wondrous movement. I speak before his lips can meet mine. “In the training room. You looked so angry.”
“I was. I have been. Furious.”
I huff a laugh. “At me?”
“Yes.”
“You’re going to have to explain that one.”
He drifts starlight drenched fingers down my neck and the center of my chest. Now that he’s not looking for anything, his power is taking on that sharp, singing note of pleasure. “How could I not be angry at you? You were this perfect, gorgeous thing dropped in my lap, and I couldn’t have you. Everything about you felt like a taunt meant to spite me for my failures. Like the holy flame had decided to show me everything that I’d ever wanted only for it to mock me.”
Solomon’s palm flattens on my chest, and he pours light into me again. This time it’s pure and unadulterated pleasure. I arch against his hand. I do come then. Instantly. Like we’ve been waiting for this together, and the release of it is too much for my system. I can’t go anywhere, writhing in the restraints.
His hand slips lower over my clothes, and lower still, dragging the light with him until it’s resting directly over my pussy. Still separated by the fabric that might as well be nothing. “You realize I’m still chained to your bed?”
“Yes,” he says simply.
“Were you planning on letting me go?”
A pulse of power from his palm has me gasping. “When we’re finished, or when you ask.”
I open my mouth to ask, and stop. That instinct to kneel, and the way he has me stretched. “Interesting.”
The lazy smile on his face tells me everything that I need to know about that. But he takes it one step further. The next pulse of power also gives me an image. It floats to the surface of my mind like it was there the whole time. Me. Exactly like this. And no clothing. While Solomon’s cock is buried inside me. And then in my mouth. And back again.
I laugh, breathless. “That’s starting slow?”
“Just an idea.”
I say nothing. But I’m glad that his hand is resting on my dress, otherwise it would be incredibly clear to him exactly how appealing I find that image. “Do the others know?”
Solomon nods. “There’s nothing we are able to hide from each other.”
Another rushing wave of power that brings me to the edge, and he kisses me. It’s an easy, confident kiss. One that speaks of all the time we have to figure things out. Simple and earnest and exactly what it claims to be.
“When you touched me in that sparring match if felt like you reflected my starlight back at me. That was when I knew.”
“Knew what exactly?”
He laughs. “That I was in serious fucking trouble.”
One last blast of power, and he covers my cry with his lips. A climax that’s brutal and shaking and made so much more intense by the fact that I’m unable to move. He could just keep me here, chained to his bed and making me come at will. In fact, they all could. I push that image aside because it’s way too tempting.
But when the pleasure fades my limbs a
re free. “We’re finished?”
“I think the other two are very eager to see if I’m going to let you out of this room in one piece. And I think they’ll be more excited at the other outcome.”
My stomach drops. “How does it even work, with three of you?”
Slowly, carefully, Solomon leans forward to kiss me. “We’ll figure it out.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
_______
Both Atlas and Kai are waiting when we step back through the doors, and I laugh out loud because they look identically serious and comical. They’re both standing with arms crossed, wings out, with looks on their faces that they’re about to kill something. “Relax, I’m still alive.”
But neither of them are staring at me. They’re looking past me to Solomon. I step around the two of them, letting them have the moment that they need.
The table where Solomon usually works has the map spread out on the table. It’s not blank now. For him, that’s the ultimate test of his trust. It’s a flattened globe, little glowing lights where battles have taken place. And they’re not exaggerating. There have been hundreds of tiny battles like pin pricks. And the patterns look like circles. Move around one area attacking angels and do the same at another area.
There are only a few blank spots on the map. One of them is Ellismer. A relatively new country, broken off from the coast of Sweden. The tiny European kingdom was tumultuous at best before I murdered their king. I must have caused enough mayhem that Arad doesn’t even want to touch it. I wouldn’t want to either. When I left, everything was in shambles. They haven’t even announced publicly that the king is dead yet because they’re afraid of what might happen.
“Well?” Kai asks. It’s pretty clear that he’s not happy.
I turn to see Solomon wince. “You were right.”
Atlas laughs and rolls his eyes. “We could have fucking told you that. Wait. We did.”
“I know, and you have full permission to give me shit about it for a while.”
Kai laughs too. “We never needed your permission for that.”
I feel eyes on me, and meet Atlas’s gaze. “So you’re in?” The words are directed at Solomon even though he’s looking at me.
“Yeah,” Sol says. “I’m in.”
“I’ll be honest,” I say, “I kind of expected you guys to beat the hell out of him.”
Kai reaches out and grabs me by the hand spinning me into his body. “Can’t say I didn’t think about it.”
I lean into him, joy bubbling up in my chest. It feels like I’m absorbing joy from the air, and from them. “What happens now? Do you have to like...induct me into your secret circle?”
“No,” Atlas says, stealing me from Kai and lifting me up into his arms. “Nothing as crazy as that.”
“Then what?”
Kai calls from behind us as Atlas walks out of the room and into the hallway. “Dinner, and then sex.”
I make a face and call back over Atlas’s shoulder. “Seems a little anticlimactic.”
“Trust me,” Atlas says in my ear, “there will be plenty of climaxing.”
“Subtle.”
Kai catches up with us in long strides. “There is absolutely nothing subtle about the way I’m going to fuck you, Ari.”
The nickname makes me pause. That was always a thing that only Cassian called me. But I like it. It makes me feel special to have people that care about me enough to give me a nickname at all. And not one like Vessel.
And now I have three of them. Three of them that I’m going to have at the same time. I’ve never done that. Even Atlas and Kai pleasuring me at the same time was more than I’d ever had at once. Dirty scenarios fill my mind, enough to make my gut sizzle with anticipation and nerves. I’m honestly not that hungry, but I need a minute to catch my breath.
Solomon ends up being the first one through the doorway to the terrace. “If Declan comes in here and tells me that there’s another skirmish that we need to go referee, I may kill him.”
“If you know that it’s going to be an easy fight, do you really need to go?”
He takes a seat at one of the tables. “We’ll see.”
Something snags in my brain, but it’s so fast it’s there and gone. I try to get it back, but Kai distracts me with a kiss to the neck, and instead I enjoy the way they take turns teasing each other. It’s a whole different dynamic now that they’re all on the same page. Still the same angels that I’ve known, but eased.
Like Atlas mentioned—unity and harmony.
The three angels groan when the angel that’s been guarding my door enters the room. “Declan, please,” Atlas begs.
“Not a call,” the angel says, with an amused face. “Just some movement to make a note of.” He hands a piece of paper to Atlas, and gives the four of us another look that’s filled with laughter before leaving. I glance at it as it’s passed to Solomon. A string of numbers and coordinates that I file for later if I have a chance to look for them. Who knows, it could be useful.
We’re all sitting around now, the air heavy with promise. But nobody makes the first move. And if I’ve learned anything about the men sitting with me, it’s probably because they’re concerned about moving too fast for me. “Well,” I say. “I’m going to bed.” None of them move as I walk towards the door. I glance over my shoulder. “Are you coming?”
The scraping of chairs in unison has me laughing. “Give me five minutes,” I tell them. “Then you may come in.”
I need just a second to breathe, and to change. The armoire has some lingerie in it, and I plan to use it. The one I want is one that I’ve been eyeing. White lace and gauzy draping. When I first saw it, I didn’t think that I would wear it. I never have before. Someone like me doesn’t get to wear white. Not after what I’ve done, and what’s been done to me. But right now, it feels appropriate.
I slip the fabric over my head and add the matching panties, though I don’t imagine that those are going to stay on very long. None of it will.
But fuck it, I’ll feel sexy.
Looking in the mirror, I feel like an entirely different person than when I arrived on this island. I’m softer. In some ways less sure. No, that’s not right. I’m still as sure. I know who I am, but I’m more than I thought I was. More vulnerable and open. I didn’t realize what this could feel like. To be...happy.
I’m still staring at myself in shock at the realization when the knock comes at the door. “Come in.”
The door opens, and the three angels enter. Somewhere along the way all three of them lost their shirts. Which I have no problem with at all. And they’re staring at me. “I—” I turn away so they don’t see my blush. “How does this work?”
Hands bush over my shoulders, and Kai pulls me back against his chest. “Let us take it from here, Ari. We’ve got you.”
Atlas steps in front of me and kisses me hard. It flips the switch. I let him pull me to the bed and lay me out on it. And he doesn’t stop kissing me, tongue diving into my mouth before we both come up for air.
Fingers hook in the waistband of my panties, and they’re gone. I laugh, breaking up my kiss. “I said to myself when I put them on that they wouldn’t last long.”
“I have to verify their claim about how good you taste,” Solomon says, before consuming me like I’m the only thing he’s tasted in a hundred years. Oh, fuck. There’s no magic involved in this. Just pure, delicate skill. His tongue dances across my clit, and already my hips are seeking more of him and that pleasure. “You weren’t joking,” he says, the vibrations of his voice only teasing me further.
“Not in the slightest,” Kai says. “We have a plan to use her pussy for dessert.”
“You will do no such thing,” I say, but I’m so breathless that there’s no way they’ll take me seriously. Pleasure spikes through my core, and I fall into bliss. I might not survive the night, if this is the way that we’re starting.
I open my eyes to Kai kneeling beside me on the bed, now naked. My pulse speeds up. I
can touch him now. Reaching out, I stroke the length of him. He mutters a curse. “I promised you that I could go long and slow,” he says.
“But not the first time.”
Kai keeps his promise. He flips me over so I’m exactly where he wants me, settles between my legs and pushes in. And in, and in, and in. He’s so long that he fills me to the brink. Him sliding into me feels like fate. Like coming home and something completed. There’s a hand on my back, giving me a second to breathe, and then I can’t. He’s fucking me, and it’s everything that I ever wanted. Sparks ripple between us, glitter and actual light shimmering in the room. I need this. From all of them. To be taken and let them show me that I’m there’s.
Atlas kneels in front of me. His cock is hard and ready, and I’m already salivating for him. I don’t ask before sucking him down. But Kai doesn’t stop. He slams into me with a force that might break someone else. Every thrust hits deep, and I’m seeing colors behind my eyes. The driving force of his hips is fucking me onto Atlas’s cock. Further and further until my mouth is full of him.
I suck Atlas deep. They can argue all they want about how they want me for dessert, but they’ll have to do it too. The nightly after-dinner orgy. The cock in my mouth jerks, and I slow down, swirling my tongue over his head.
Fingers tease my clit, and I jump. Solomon is beside me, reaching underneath where he can make sure that I’m drowning in pleasure. First a gentle swirl, the pinching on the edge of pain that flares outward, and then nothing. “Let me borrow her for a moment,” Solomon says. “
Kai pulls me up and back so I’m leaning against him, still thrusting deep. His hand around my throat is a warning not to move. Solomon smiles, leaning down to suck my clit between his lips. “Such a swollen little thing.”
“Who’s fault is that?” I gasp.
With his fingers Solomon swats down, spanking my clit. It barely catches it, but it’s enough. He taps it, tiny little spanks building in intensity, and my world goes white. I crack open into orgasm, heaving a breath and yelling it out. His mouth covers my clit again, and I writhe on Kai’s cock. His lips are at my ear. “So fucking gorgeous when you come, you know that?”
Queen of Darkness (War of Heavenly Fire Book 1) Page 13