Then, she shattered my entire world.
“He…poisoned me.”
Sharp, slicing fury. The heated steel of a freshly forged weapon. That was all I knew.
“Hewhat?” I seethed.
Ophelia took a breath that tugged on my own lungs. “He used his magic like a drug, through my Curse scar, so I was under his influence—addicted to his presence—agreeable and malleable. Then, he made me…”
I froze, leaning up. Horror dripped icily through my veins. “Did he touch you in any way?Did he hurt you?”
“Not physically,” she confirmed. “He made me hurt Malakai.”
Tears formed along her lashes. Not the wracking sobs I’d heard from her before. These were slow and steady, leaking from her eyes one languid drop at a time, like it was something she’d cried over—been sick over—so often now that she didn’t have the energy left to spend.
“Echnid wants more seraphs.” Her wings shifted beneath her, light continuing to slowly undulate in a soft ebb, like her magic was trying to soothe her. “He tried to make me use my myth power to wake one within Malakai, but it didn’t work. And he just made me try and try, burning him over and over again until we were both unconscious. And I barely realized what I was doing because I was in such a haze from his poison, a part of me thought it was the right choice.”
It was unsettling how calmly she stated it all, but anger roared inside of me.
“Angels,apeagna,” I breathed, kissing her forehead and sitting up to cradle her to me. “I’m so sorry. I am going to slice that fucking god’s head from his body.”
Ophelia gripped my hand, kissing it. “We’ll do it together.”
Fucking Angels, I liked the sound of that.
Together. Again. Infinitely.
“By the damn Spirits,” I promised, “we will.”
And at that vow, a fire simmered within us both. One that devoured the pain we’d felt while we were apart. Forged a newpromise together. She slammed her lips to mine, and I was ready to ravage that agony, to let it fuel our revenge.
Ophelia’s legs wrapped around my waist, her hand diving into my hair, and her ribbons of light tangled back around me. The touch of her magic against my skin was some sort of bliss, the heat and intimacy a pure rapture I could happily die in.
I laid her on the bed and kissed down her neck, untying her top and peeling it down her body. She writhed against me as I gripped one breast, rolling my thumb across her peaked nipple. I scraped my teeth across the other and she arched up.
“Tolek,” she breathed, and one ribbon of light dragged around my waist.
“Say it again,” I said as I nimbly unhooked the clasps at her lower back and pulled off her top entirely. “My name. Say it again.”
“Tolek,” she repeated, hips lifting for me to shimmy her leathers down as I kissed her stomach.
“Please, never tell me not to follow you again,” I begged, searing the words into the skin beneath her navel. “When you say my name like that in our bed—like it is the last word you’re going to breathe as you go to the Spirit Realm—don’t tell me to leave you in danger. Because we fucking need each other,” I finished as my mouth landed between her legs.
She cried out, light flaring as I flicked my tongue against her, tasting her like she was the first meal I’d had in weeks. It felt like it, with how numb I’d been.
“I fucking missed this,” I said, lavishing her.
“Angels,” she swore, her spine arching, heels digging into my back, right over the tattoo she hadn’t seen yet.
I devoured her, two fingers pumping into her, but with my other hand, I stroked the edge of her wing, and Ophelia fell apart, coming on my tongue with the most satisfying moan I’dever heard and a burst of shimmering Angellight that rattled the chandelier above.
When she was done, I rose from my knees and went to the window, pulling the curtains open. Ophelia tilted her head back, breasts rising and falling in a beautiful sight. Her brow creased, and light curled in lazy tendrils from her.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
I crossed back to her, undressing as I did. Gripping her waist, I flipped her to her stomach, then pulled her onto her hands and knees. I pressed slow kisses from her tailbone to the base of her neck, and she rewarded me with small moans, grinding back against my aching cock.
Brushing aside her hair, I whispered in her ear. “What lies in that direction,apeagna? Beyond the deserts?”
