Page 11

Oh, fuck. So I’m apparently as transparent as an open book to my new husband.

“I can’t help it.”

“I don’t want you to help it,” he growls. “I want you to revel in it.”

To emphasize his point, he drags that same teasing fang up my jawline before claiming my lips again in a warm, soft kiss. The press of his mouth on mine is slow and deliberate—hunger leashed, fire banked. Even his hands behave, running slow caresses up and down my arms.

It’s a tentative kiss, a polite kiss, and I wonder if he means to soothe me with it.

I should be happy with that. Really, I should appreciate the slow roll into wherever this night is heading.

Instead, I feel a pointed frustration at the bottom of my belly.

For some reason I don’t quite understand, I don’t want him on this leash. I want the flames between us to burn away all the lingering remnants of anger and grief, everything keeping me tied to my own realm.

Everything that’s already passed between us—the pure, unadulterated heat and want shining in his eyes when he spotted me in the crowd, the undeniable pull of magick when we exchanged our vows, the sinful taste of his kiss—is pulling me further in. With each passing moment that pull grows stronger, and even with all the reasons I should have to resist it, I’m beginning to wonder what would happen if I didn’t.

Is it pure recklessness? Maybe. Will I come to regret it? I have no idea. Some part of me, though, doesn’t care in the slightest. Some part of me wants to dare, to let go. Whether it’s instinct or magick or whatever strange twist of fate has tied us together, that part of me wants to give into the dark pulse of power building between us.

Just as I’m heating back up, though, he breaks the kiss again. Resting his forehead on mine, he lets out a long breath.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

He pauses, pulls away a few inches, and looks down into my face. “The next part of this evening needs to happen back in my realm.”

“Okay,” I say slowly. “And what does this… next part all entail?”

For just a moment, those ruby fires in his eyes are an inferno. It’s one he quickly dampers as he looks away from me, back toward the Veil.

“We’ll travel back through the portal.”

“Yup,” I say, trying not to sound impatient. “I guessed as much.”

“And then…”

“Eren,” I say flatly.

He tears his eye from the shifting light of the Veil and looks down at me. “Allie.”

“I’m not innocent enough not to know what happens after a wedding,” I tell him. “If you’re taking me back to your realm to consummate the marriage, you can just say so. It’s alright.”

It seems I’ve shocked my demon husband.

“It’s not—I mean—there’s more to it than—”

I reach out and take his hand. “Do I need to know anything about going through the portal?”

In any other situation, I’d laugh out loud at the look of absolute confusion on his face. And fine, maybe it’s not his fault. Fifteen minutes ago I was shaking in my metaphorical boots, terrified of everything about to happen and now I’m… what? Ready to jump this demon king’s bones?Ihardly understand it, I guess I can’t expect him to.

“You might get a little disoriented,” he says, still staring at me like he’s not altogether sure of my mental stability.

“Okay,” I tell him, making a move to step toward the Veil.

“Allie,” he says, something hesitant in his voice. “We don’t have to go just yet, if you’re not ready.”

I consider that. “I won’t be any more ready in an hour, or in two. And even though I don’t know a lot about what’s going to happen, I do know that it has to happen tonight, right?”

He nods.