Not taking action goes against my primal nature, and it will take time to train the beast to stand down.
Aurelia enters the room, and the raucous conversation ebbs.
“Please, continue.” She waves a delicate hand as if to shoo them into submission.
It works, and Dareth picks up his tale.
My body tenses as she approaches because I recognize that look in her eyes. I have put it there several times, with much enthusiasm, when I’ve fucked her.
She remembers too.
“Veles.” Her gaze slides over me. “Would you like to share my chambers tonight?”
My cock doesn’t even twitch. “No.”
She blinks in surprise. “No?”
I soften my words with a smile. “Our liaison, as fun as it was, is in the past. Let’s leave the fond memories where they belong.”
Her gaze is shrewd. “You’ve given your heart to her, haven’t you?”
My smile feels brittle on my face because talking to her about my feelings is not something I wish to do. However, she is the autumn queen and our host.
“Yes.”
She bites back a smile. “And it bothers you not that your lover is with someone else. The Raven, in fact.”
My blood heats. “Wynter is free to love who she wishes.”
“And you’re not?”
I bare my teeth. “There is only one woman for me, Aurelia. Now and forever.”
“I believe you,” she says. “This time, I believe you.”
She walks away, leaving me with the need for several pints of ale.
Chapter Nineteen
The balcony was off a corridor between the revelry and the room I’d left Finn in. I could hear the laughter even though it was muted. The sound was comforting. This was a way to be alone without being truly alone. The flagstones were cold beneath my stockinged feet. I should have put my boots back on, but I’d been so eager to get away from Finn, to just not be in the same room as him, that I hadn’t stopped to do it. He was my hearth, my home, and he was closing the door on me.
The pain was like a thorn in my heart, and the chill from the stone was a welcome distraction, not that it was as cold as it could be out here with winter staring back at me. The night air was kept at bay by a stone pit containing a roaring fire. It was positioned in the center of the deep balcony and threw enough heat to make it almost pleasant to be out there.
Fires like that one were everywhere, dotted around the keep and the vast courtyard that surrounded the castle. They were visible from the balcony like a blanket of ember stars lighting up the ground below.
They were the lights of the people the queen had been able to save. But how long before she was forced to cut those numbers? The stores wouldn’t last indefinitely. Some would think her cruel for leaving so many behind. I had. But the truth was something else entirely. By saving as many people as she did, she’d been knowingly dooming herself. More mouths to feed meant the stores would deplete quicker.
She could have saved herself, the guards, and the essential staff. They could have survived for ten times as long then, but she’d chosen to save as many of the people as she could.
She was a good woman who’d had hope. And I needed to make sure we kept that hope alive.
The plan to summon the Hunt had to work.
I felt the Raven’s presence a moment before he stepped onto the balcony.
“Why aren’t you asleep, hmmm?” he asked. “You seemed tired.”
His berry scent tickled my nostrils and mingled with the cinder scent of the fire.
“I was tired, but now I’m not.”
He came to stand beside me, his arm brushing my shoulder. “Can I stay with you?”
I looked up at his profile: his straight nose, firm jaw, and long straight lashes that cast shadows on his cheeks. He was beautiful.
I slipped my hand into his and squeezed. “I’d like that.”
He turned his head to look down at me, and my breath caught because his dark eyes were filled with the kind of heat I’d only seen in the rare intimate moments we’d shared.
My throat pinched. “Raven?”
“Wynter. I want … I want you to claim me.”
Was this really happening? He wanted me? Finally wanted me? But claiming him felt wrong. That was her dynamic with him, and I wouldn’t allow it to be mine.
I shook my head, the pulse at the base of my throat thudding slow and hard. “No, Raven. I think you need to claim me.”
For a moment, I thought he’d pull away and shut down like he had in the forest but then his chest rumbled, and his mouth descended on mine, slanting over it with a passion I couldn’t have anticipated. Wanton heat surged through my veins and filled my limbs with lethargy and tension at the same time.
My fingers sank into his silken mane as he pushed me against the wall and deepened the kiss. Our tongues warred for dominance and then settled into a rhythm that stroked and teased and plunged.
My clothes were suddenly too tight, every inch of my body sensitized and needing to be free, but his hands were already at work, unlacing, unbuttoning, and pushing aside fabric to get to my skin, and then he was touching me, really touching me, and with that contact, our clothes melted away, forming a puddle on the ground for us to sink into.
His skin gleamed in the firelight, and it didn’t matter that we were exposed, that anyone could walk onto the balcony at any time and see us. It didn’t matter because his mouth was on my neck, trailing down in a dance of lips and tongue until he claimed my breasts.
Berstuk stirred in my mind, and a soft, breathless curse filled my head before he withdrew. Raven’s head was between my thighs, planting kisses that trailed closer and closer to my core.
I reached for him. “Raven, please.”
He looked up and locked gazes with me, his mouth parted, eyes wild, and then he dove down, claiming my intimate place with his lips. My mind fractured, body responding to sensation only, to the rasp of his tongue on my sensitized flesh, to the scent of berries heavy in the air, and the silken tresses clutched in my fist as it urged him on.
I took, and he gave. I moved against his mouth, and he worked his magic. He was claiming me with his tongue, and it broke my mind, but I needed more. I needed his cock inside me.
I tugged at his hair. “Raven, please. Oh, God, please.”
He reared up, and I was enraptured by his glistening mouth. That was me on his lips, the most intimate part of me. My chest tightened with the need to act and show him how much he meant to me. I pulled him down and pressed my mouth to his lips, parting them so I tasted myself on his tongue. His hips slipped between my thighs, and I angled myself upward, rubbing against his hardness, eager for him to take me.
He gripped my thighs, squeezing, kneading, and then slid his hands down until he was grasping my calves. He pushed my legs up, opening me wider, and positioned himself at my entrance. Our gazes locked, our breath mingled hot and eager, and then he was entering me.
A low moan filled the air. My moan, my gasps. He filled me, rocking against me, to ease me in, and then he began to move, thrusting with sure, even strokes faster and harder until my body was on fire with the need to come, until it was wound so tight I couldn’t breathe, and every iota of sensation was rushing to my core only to explode outward. Tremors flooded my body, rippling under my skin, and an involuntary cry broke from my lips as the climax took me.
He shuddered and drew a sharp breath between his teeth. His rhythm faltered for a moment as he joined me, and then he was kissing me hard and desperate as we rode the tail of the orgasm together.
* * *
The water was hot on my skin. Finn had been gone when I’d returned, and part of me was glad. I couldn’t deal with his derision right now. The Raven had claimed me. We’d claimed each other, and it felt right. We felt right. The power that I associated with Morrigan’s influence had been silent. It had been just the two of us, and it was perfect.
I stood in the shower, hands braced
on the tiles as water sluiced off my body. The autumn kingdom may run off steam and cogs, but it had all the creature comforts of home.
Veles’s scent hit me a moment before his hands slid around my naked body to cup my breasts and tweak my nipples, hard enough to send a pulse of desire through me but not hard enough to hurt.
He kissed my neck, and then his hand skimmed down my abdomen, and his fingers slid into my heat. I bit back a moan as he worked me. His arousal was a hot brand pressed to my back. He didn’t speak as he pulled away. Didn’t speak as he placed one hand on the nape of my neck and wrapped an arm around my waist. Didn’t make a sound as he positioned me, butt out, hands sliding down the wall. He didn’t utter a word as he pushed his cock into me. I made enough sound for both of us, crying out as he thrust. Finally, he joined me, grunting and groaning with each slap of flesh on flesh. It was enough to send me careening toward another orgasm. We came together, fast and hard, and for a moment we remained locked, our bodies pulsing with the climax, and then slowly, deliberately, he slid out of me and was gone.
Chapter Twenty
BERSTUCK
The nymph’s mouth is a succulent peach surrounding my cock. Each slurp and thirsty tug has my balls tightening. It’s Wynter’s mouth. Wynter’s tongue. I twine my fingers through her hair. Brittle with leaves and twigs. Urgh. The illusion is shattered.
“Get off.” I shove her away and grab my cock in one hand, keeping the rhythm while she watches me hungrily.
But it isn’t her face I want to see. It isn’t her body I need to feel, it’s Wynter’s. Riding another’s body to claim Wynter isn’t enough no matter how real it feels. No matter how explosive the orgasm.
Maybe I should strip away my godliness and go after her. Maybe I should leave the forest behind to be by her side.
It would be pointless. She doesn’t care about me. She doesn’t want me, not the way I want her.
Best to stay here and dream.
I feel the climax building but stop before I can come and glare at the nymph.
“Get out of here. And brush your hair. No twigs or leaves next time.”
She nods and runs off.
It’s time to check on the shimmer. I rise and cast my mind out to the trees until I find a feathered creature, and then I take wing and soar. Higher and higher until I’m rushing over the wastelands and past the ruins of Veles’s castle until the glow of the shimmer kisses my wings. It pulses and holds. But are the fractures deeper? Are there more?
It doesn’t matter.
All that matters is that it stays firm.
All that matters is that it doesn’t fall.
Yet.
Chapter Twenty-One
I found the winter king on the balcony at dawn. It looked like I wasn’t the only one who’d had trouble sleeping. It was the first night that I hadn’t been wrapped in either the Raven’s or Veles’s arms. Why had neither crawled into bed with me? It was out of character for them to leave me be, but maybe they were giving me space after our carnal encounters. Maybe I’d needed it.
Fenn looked over his shoulder as I stepped onto the balcony. The fire in the pit was embers and ash now, and the chill was bone-biting. Thank goodness for my furs.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Fenn said.
“The dawn? Yes. Yes, it is.”
“The promise of a new day and a new beginning,” he said softly.
I studied his regal profile, noting the tightness around his mouth. “You’re afraid.”
He snorted. “I’d be a fool not to be.”
“This will work.”
“How can you be so sure?”
Berstuk’s words came to mind. “Because I have faith.”
He tucked his chin into his furs with a smile. “Faith. It’s been a while since I employed faith, but maybe it’s time.” He slid a warm look my way. “I shall join you in having faith.”
“Fenn?” Grendel appeared behind us. “The crazy-looking female with the potion bag is looking for you.”
Fenn took a deep breath and exhaled mist into the dawn air. “It’s as good a day as any to die, I guess.”
* * *
There was no keeping Fenn’s men out of the room this time. The winter king was surrounded by the fey males who’d been his crew since he’d lost his memories. They crowded around, tension rising off their shoulders as they watched events unfold.
Bunty had laid a pallet on the floor for Fenn to lie on and asked us to give him space. The men were gathered to my left. Roxy, Finn, and Dareth stood together to my right, and Veles and Raven stood either side of me. The autumn queen stood to one side, silent and watchful.
Bunty retrieved a vial from her bag containing a green liquid. She passed it to Fenn.
“Once you drink this, your heart will stop in less than a minute.”
“And how will you restart it?” he asked.
She pulled a wicked-looking thorn from her back. “I’ll stab you in the neck with this. It’s the thorn of a Poppyharnet. The flower has regenerative properties, and the thorns are used as weapons to stop hearts. But they can also restart a broken one.”
Adrenaline? Was she talking about adrenaline? It sounded like it.
“You best bring him back,” Grendel warned.
Bunty ignored him. “Are you ready?”
Fenn nodded.
She looked over her shoulder at me. “I can only safely allow him to remain dead for a minute. Hopefully, the Hunt will come in that time.”
“Let’s do this.” Fenn popped the cork on the vial and drained it. He shuddered and stuck out his tongue. “That was disgusting.” And then his eyes rolled back in his head, and he passed out.
Bunty pressed her palm to his chest, and her fingers to the pulse at his neck. Long seconds passed as Fenn’s breathing became ragged, and then it stopped.
“He’s gone,” Bunty said, and then began to count.
The air in the room grew still, pregnant with expectation. Seconds ticked by, counted down by Bunty.
Come on. Where were they? Come on.
Bunty shook her head and picked up the thorn. Only ten seconds left. Nine. Eight. Seven.
Oh, gods. Please, this has to work. It has to.
Five. Four. Three.
The air shimmered.
Two.
The sound of a hunting horn filled the air.
One.
Green mist materialized in the room at the same moment as Bunty stabbed Fenn with the thorn, and a woman stepped out of the fog.
The sound of the horn cut off, and the fey woman whom Raven had shielded me from in the village of the dead, the woman who’d led the Hunt, stared right into my face.
Her silver hair billowed about her head, teased by an invisible breeze. Her features were sharp and inhuman in their perfection, and her eyes were silver shards that bore into me.
“And so, we meet again,” she said. “You survived Rayne. I’m impressed.” Her gaze flicked to Raven. “I suppose the little bird had something to do with that.”
“Hello, Eva,” the Raven said politely.
She graced him with an icy glare.
“Eva,” Veles said. “You may not remember me, but—”
“Oh, I remember you.” Her icy stare was fixed on Veles now. “Veles, god of death. Although those horns are new.” Behind her, the green mist surged and writhed as if eager to consume. “There are no dead here. How dare you summon me with a lie.” Despite the words, there was no heat in her tone. She sounded resigned. Weary.
Fenn gasped and sat up, clutching his chest, and Eva’s gaze snapped down to him.
She froze. “Alaron? Is that you?”
Fenn looked up at the leader of the Hunt. “So I’ve been told.”
Eva’s lip curled. “What is this? What game are you playing? You disappear. You leave the winter kingdom to a monster for over a century, and now you summon me when all is lost. When death has left its mark on every inch of my soul?”
“I’m sorry,” Fenn said. “
I don’t remember you. I don’t even remember myself.”
“What?” She glared at him as if willing him to combust. “You don’t remember?” Her tone was incredulous, and then her shoulders sagged. “Of course, you don’t. That would make sense. So much sense.”
“Please.” I stepped forward. “Hear us out. You know of the taint on this land.”
Her eyes blazed silver. “Oh, I know it. I know it well.”
“We have a way to stop it, but we need your help.”
The green smoke surged around her as if making a grab for her. She held up an arm, her hand in a fist, and the smoke drew back.
She crossed her arms under her breasts. “I’m listening.”
* * *
“Cailleach might not speak to you,” Eva said. “She cloistered herself away a few weeks ago, and Dormarth guards her doors like a rabid dog.”
“Dormarth?”
“Her, for want of a better description, dog. But not actually rabid. He’s a beast, and he’s been with the goddess of disease and plague since forever.”
Disease and plague, that was Cailleach’s calling. Then Oblivion was her nemesis, stealing her thunder, or maybe it was her duty to prevent disease and plague?
“Cailleach gave us refuge,” Eva said. “The Hunt has been residing in the afterworld for some time now. It’s the only place Oblivion has been unable to taint.”
“We have to try.” I shrugged. “We don’t have a choice. Doing nothing isn’t an option.”
Eva smiled. “I used to think like that, a long time ago. Running and hiding isn’t an option. We have to fight, I said. But sometimes running and hiding can save lives. It can give you time.”
“There is no more time.” I fixed my gaze on hers. “The shimmer, the wall holding Oblivion captive in Faerie, could fall at any time. You may have hidden and waited, but I believe this moment here is what you were waiting for. You were waiting for me. For this chance. So, please. Take us to Cailleach.”
Fate’s Destiny: Heart of Darkness Book 3 Page 10