Destroyed by Onyx (A Dance with Destiny Book 4)

by JK Ensley

  Finnean’s fervent touch consumed her, causing a coherent response to her Dragon to be almost impossible.

  I… I… will… I… prom-promise, she thought.

  Jenevier felt Nilakanta’s laughter resonate through her, before Finnean’s next touch removed even that.

  *****

  She gazed up at him admiringly, longingly, twirling his silky snow hair around her finger. Silently thanking all that was holy he had finally forsaken his ridiculous vow.

  Finnean stared down at her, a radiant smile spread across his beautiful face. He positively glowed.

  “That was beyond imagining, Gealach,” he said with a sigh. “I can now die happy.”

  She yanked on the lock of hair she’d been playing with. “You had better not die at all.”

  He laughed softly and ran the backs of his fingers down her colorless cheek. “Aye now, and just how is that even possible, lovely lass?”

  “I know not,” she said. “Not yet. I’ll begin working on that today.”

  He kissed the tip of her nose. “I do not wish to grow old and ugly and feeble.”

  She smiled. “Lord Finnean, no matter how old you grow, you could never be ugly.”

  “I have prayed every night since first I laid eyes upon you, for this day to come. I longed for the day you would finally accept me as your husband. For the glorious day you would accept my love.”

  Tears pooled in her eyes. She closed them, forcing the burning drops to slide back into her hair. He wiped them away.

  “Forgive me,” she whispered.

  He tenderly kissed each closed eyelid. “For what?”

  “For always being so selfish.” She sniffed. “It’s only because of the careless words I spoke to my father on our wedding night that forced your hand in claiming a celibate vow on my behalf. It should be marked as a sin against me for making a valiant heart such as yours unhappy.”

  “Not so, wee Gealach. Never have I been this happy. Nay, I knew not happiness until I knew you. I regret nothing and would fight a thousand demons if they tried to change even one day I have been blessed to spend with you. Things happened as they should, wee moon. Now was always marked as our time.” He chuckled. “And as phenomenal as the build-up was, the experience surpassed it by a million miles.”

  She sniffed again. “I don’t deserve you.”

  “Of course you don’t, Lass.” He yanked one of her curls. “Yet you have me, all the same.”

  She opened her eyes then, smiling mischievously. “There’s not a woman within the whole of this universe who deserves the gift of your splendid awesomeness, Milord.”

  “Aye, you tell it true, wee moon. You tell it true.”

  She giggled and pushed his shoulders, rolling over on top of him. He wrapped his arms around her waist, locking her there.

  “You can’t even begin to imagine the times I have fantasized about this very thing,” he said. “You looking down at me, a smile upon your angelic face, silver curls hanging all about me, the weight of your lovely body pressed atop mine, your bare breasts against my chest.”

  Jenevier kissed him then as she had never kissed him before, lightly biting his lower lip as she rocked her hips. He moaned.

  “Ooh, Gealach, how is it you’re real?” He tightened his grip around her waist and sat up, locking her upon his lap, holding her in place. “Tell me you love me. Let me hear those precious words as I gaze into your magical eyes.” His breathing was heavy, weighted with fresh desire. “As I move deep within you,” he rasped.

  “I love you,” she whispered against his mouth.

  “Again.”

  She ran her fingers into his hair, tilting his head back, looking deep into his mesmerizing blue eyes. “Finnean, I love you. You own me.”

  His movements increased. “Again, Gealach. Say it again.”

  The pressure building within her made it hard to speak.

  “Say it once more, Princess. Tell me you love me one more time.”

  Her breath hitched. “Finnean… I… love you.” She released the words along with her building passion. Her body shivered and tingled, glorious relief melting over her.

  He collapsed back onto the ground and she buried her face against his heaving chest.

  “Gealach…” The word was a sigh, a plea, a prayer.

  He flinched when her teeth lightly grazed his nipple. Then he closed his eyes and smiled.

  “Tell me of your fantasies, Lord Finnean.” She spoke between the nibbling kisses she spread across his chest. “Share with me your hidden desires. Let your loving wife know the truth of your heart.”

  He grabbed her hips, forcing an increase in her little circular movements. “Gealach… you will be the death of me.” He smiled. “I can’t wait.”

  “Let me make your dreams come true, Milord. Speak to me now… and this day will see its end only when your hidden fantasies have been wholly fulfilled.”

  “Aye, Lass. I swear to you now. You have already surpassed them.”

  “You won’t share even one?”

  She licked the tender spot where his neck and shoulder meet. A visible tremor ran down his body.

  Nuzzling her nose against his ear, she whispered, “Not even a teeny tiny one?”

  Jenevier slid her hand down to cup his firm buttocks. He growled as he rolled over, pinning her under him, his sharp hipbones boring deliciously into her thighs. She moaned.

  Sensing his piercing gaze, she opened her eyes.

  “There is one thing I will confess to you, Lass.”

  She smiled then. “You wish to make confession now?”

  “Aye.”

  “Are you certain you’re in such a position?” She locked her ankles behind his back, pressing him to her, restricting his movements.

  He chuckled. The gentle vibrations of his chest against hers was maddeningly arousing.

  “Very well, white warrior. I will hear your confession now,” she teased.

  “Aye, a confession of desire,” he said. “I nearly lose control every time you hang that sparkly thing about your hips.”

  She furrowed her brow in confusion.

  “Aye, Lass. You know the one. That thing you always wear to council.”

  “My crios?”

  “Aye, that be the thing. I don’t even have to cast eyes upon it. The sound it makes when you move… Aye, Lass, it’s all I can do to keep from pressing you up against the wall, claiming you right there.”

  She snickered. “But Father gave me that. He said the Princess of Val Hal must always wear it to council. Have you not seen it worn before?”

  “Nay, there hasn’t been a Princess on Val Hal the whole of my days. Alas, it would not matter. Only draped around your hips is it a thing of glory.”

  “Tell me, Lord Finnean. How do you even know what I look like at council? You have failed to attend even once since my arrival. Everyone has taken notice of your peculiar absences.”

  “Aye, have they now?” He smiled and she melted, again. “I know what you wear to council, Lass. I’m your husband. I watch you dress.” He winked down at her. “And the reason I cannot attend my council seat is the very same.”

  “The very same what? Reason?” She half chuckled. “Because you watch me dress?”

  “Aye, because I watch you don that enchanting crios and listen to the lovely sound it makes with the movement of your delicious hips. If I followed you into that great hall, my excitement would be obvious to all, even your father.”

  She giggled. “So, my crios turns you on, does it?”

  “Nay, wee moon. I’m turned on by you, always. Your crios just gives sound to your womanly sway.”

  “Then I will have to wear it one night, just for you.” She giggled. “If you fulfill that hidden desire, perhaps you can return to your rightful place at my father’s side.”

  Her mere suggestion had ceased his movements. His eyes were closed, imagining that very thing. When he looked back down at her, Jenevier saw a new fire burning within that breath-takin
g icy blue.

  “The thought alone maddens me,” he whispered. “I don’t know if I should live through the actual act.”

  “Oh, but you must.” She ran her nails gently up and down his sculpted back. “For it is now my greatest desire as well. Being pressed against the cold wall… your hot tongue upon my neck, sliding up to part my waiting lips… being ravaged by the mightiest warrior upon this realm… as my crios softly chimes with each delicious thrust.”

  *****

  Jenevier smiled as she remembered his bestial growls and deepening movements caused by her exquisitely tantalizing description. Never had she reached her pinnacle quite so quickly, and never had her release been so mind-numbingly epic as it was with her snow-crowned husband that day.

  Her eyes drifted down to the jewels hanging from her waist. She absently ran her fingers over the cold metal as she thought about the valiant man she would always love.

  Their marriage was nothing short of perfect. They didn’t have a single argument nor did one angry word pass between them. Truer friends and deeper lovers there had never been.

  “Why do you continue do this to yourself, little Naga? Why do you bind your fragile heart to mortals?”

  The gentle, warming voice sent shivers down her spine.

  He watched in awe as the dying flames danced marvelously within the ebony abyss that was her cold eyes.

  “You lied to me, Gabriel.” She spoke without meeting his admiring gaze. “I thought Angels couldn’t lie.”

  “Who told you such nonsense?” He reached a hand toward her shimmering hair, but thought better of it. “I can lie, Kagi Naga, as can you. Yet, I do not. How have I wronged you, little sister?”

  A single tear trickled down from her unblinking eyes. “You promised to speak me awake with the dawn.” Her voice was flat, lifeless.

  “Ahh, that. Yes, I made that vow. Yet you never answered if you wished to hold me to it. My sincerest apologies, Naga. I assumed you never wanted to look upon my face again… not in this life.”

  “You assumed correctly,” she said coolly. “So then… why are you here?”

  “He was curious.” Raphael’s deep voice was so close she could feel his breath gently warm her hair.

  Her gaze remained hard upon the pyre. “Curiosity can be a deadly thing.”

  “Yes, that it can,” Gabriel said. “Alas, it has become my weakness where you are concerned. It seems I have adopted the poor habits of my good brother, here.”

  Raphael chuckled softly. “Oh, what a glorious mess we are. Right, little Naga?”

  “What do you want?” Her voice was hard, icy.

  Gabriel cleared his throat. “The same thing I wanted the day I woke you in your bedchamber, your answer.”

  “You never asked me the question,” she said.

  Raphael tried to muffle a laugh.

  Gabriel sighed. “Kagi Naga, do you plan on fulfilling your role as the Angel of Death? Will your existence continue to be stained with the blood of others? Tell me now. Will you take up your mantle and kill those who deserve to be killed?”

  “That was my intent, yes,” she said. “I’m just waiting for the flames to die… along with my heart.”

  The two Archs looked to one another. When Raphael gently touched her shoulder, she stiffened.

  “Such was his fate from birth, Little Fire,” Raphael said. “The King yet lives. Finnean fulfilled his destiny.”

  Jenevier could no longer feel the beating of her numb heart. Her gaze didn’t leave the funeral pyre, yet her whole body began to shake.

  “Never speak such words within my hearing, Brother. If you so much as utter his name once more, you will have to kill me. I swear not to stop until you do.”

  Raphael slowly removed his hand and took a step back. He glanced nervously at his brother Arch

  “Little Naga,” Gabriel said. “The valiant man who saved you when you fell and claimed you as his only daughter, that man yet lives because of the honorable sacrifice of your beloved. Have you no gratefulness in your heart?”

  A feral growl rumbled in her throat. “Gratefulness?” She snorted. “I am awash with it, Brother. The fact Drostan yet lives shows the awesome magnitude of my gratefulness.”

  “And… how long will that gratefulness hold?” Gabriel asked.

  Her fixed gaze never faltered. “Until my beloved’s embers are as cold stone.”

  Brodder moved to stand beside her, taking her balled up fist in his hand. “Who is it you speak to, my daughter?” He gently unclasped her tiny fingers. “Who is it that brings even more grief to your eyes on this darkest of all days?”

  Looking down at her half open palm, Brodder saw the treasure she held to so fiercely—Finnean’s Warrior Shield amulet. Fresh tears slid down his cheeks and his broken heart seemed to crumble within him.

  “We are not alone, Father,” she said, closing her snowy fingers back around the precious medallion. “As much as I wish we were,” she mumbled. “The Archs who once killed me have come to torment me further.”

  The King of Val Hal turned to the darkness surrounding them. “I beg you. Leave my child in peace this day. Can you not see she is shattered? These morbid flames are all that’s left to remind her heart it’s still beating. And, they fade… all too fast.”

  “Fret not, Father. They are of no consequence, and their useless words cannot touch me.” She continued to stare, unblinking, into the flames. “My heart is as stone and my will as granite. I am beyond their reach.”

  Brodder squeezed her tiny hand as he brought it to his mouth, softly kissing the tattooed flesh. “Tell me. What is your intent concerning Drostan?”

  She turned to him then, looking the giant man square in the eye. “That is not a thing to burden your kind heart with, Father. You do not need such knowledge as that. You are too honorable a man to be scarred by those words.”

  “Will you demand his life?”

  She turned back to the flames. “I will.”

  “Then… your heart is set upon this thing?”

  “It is.”

  He sighed. “Will it be quick?”

  Her unexpected laugh was blood-freezing. “Longer than you can possibly imagine.”

  “Forget not, dear daughter. He was once a gallant warrior… before the demon war claimed his whole world.”

  “As he claimed mine,” she spat. “You ask me to show mercy to this man because of who he once was? Who any of us once were is no longer relevant. We make our own choices here and now, today. And we must each pay for them—reap what we have sown.” She released his hand. “I once heard it said… If you can live with the worst possible outcome from your actions, then act. If you cannot, then act not. I know the worst possible outcome from my actions, Father. I have lived through it before, many times. I only pray it claims my barely beating heart this go-around.” She drew in a deep breath. “The once valiant man who tried to murder my father and plunged his deceitful blade through my husband’s beautiful heart, that same man will suffer greatly by my hands. His screams will greet the dawn, yet… his flesh will not.”

  Brodder’s breath caught. “You will filet him?”

  Her black eyes sparkled. “Aye, and slowly at that,” she said.

  Her cold, vicious smile shook the King. It would haunt him always.

  He lowered his head. “I will depart and leave you to it then, wee moon.” He lovingly touched her curls and placed a farewell kiss on the side of her head. “Will I ever see you again?”

  Her jaw hardened. “Do you wish to?”

  He sighed. “…I no longer know,” he whispered.

  Brodder had already turned from her. He didn’t see the silent tears his last words pulled from her fathomless eyes.

  “Think about what you’re doing, little sister,” Raphael said. “It’s not too late. Drostan yet lives, chained within the castle’s dungeon.”

  “Gratitude, Raphael, for pointing that out,” she said sardonically. “The obvious had escaped me. Now go. Leave me. Oh, a
nd after this night… you will no longer call me little sister.”

  “Very well, Naga,” Raphael said. “Farewell, tiny Princess. Part with the knowledge that I will love you… always.”

  He retreated from her then, leaving only Gabriel to change her hardened heart.

  “Naga, revenge is never a straight line. It’s akin more to a maze—easy to get turned around in and forget where you came from, where you’re going, where the exit is. Remember your past, tiny Angel. Do not let such hard learned lessons fall to the wayside. You earned them, good and true. Put them to work for you now, Empress, for I promise you this. Enter this dark maze, and you will forget your destiny, little sister.”

  “Then I shall forge a new destiny, Gabriel. One that is befitting my darkness.”

  Tears burned the Archangel’s golden eyes. “As you wish, Little Fire.”

  And he, too, departed from her.

  When she was truly alone, Jenevier released her borrowed strength and fell to her knees.

  “Nilakanta!”

  I am here, little one.

  The great Dragon approached her from the darkness, coming to stand behind her. Dragon and Guardian stared, motionless, into the most horrible fire imaginable.

  I will be your strength, Naga. Release your pain, Guardian of Dragons.

  And with his assurance, she did.

  Jenevier screamed from the very depths of her shattered soul.

  Her pain-filled cry resonated even unto the dungeon, rattling Drostan’s chains, causing his regretful tears to drip upon the cold stone floor.

  Brodder stood atop the battlements, staring at his broken little moon clinging tightly to her giant Dragon.

  Her second blood-chilling wail sent the King to his massive knees. There, before his weeping generals, Brodder cried out for mercy from the heavens. He entreated the one God his only daughter had told him about, begged for precious mercy on her behalf.

  “Dammit to hell,” Brian hissed. “Why must she go through this kind of wretched pain again? She didn’t deserve this. Neither of them deserved this.” Tears streamed down his face. “Can someone explain how this could happen? And right under our very noses, for criminy’s sake. How could Drostan stand beside us for so many years and still keep his wicked intentions secret? How the hell could he do something so vile and heartless?”