Page 119

“Okay, so we get out of here, find the sorceress, get her to take the collar off, steal the pendant from Hecate, hunt down your father and…”

“Boom. No more Hell. And no more us.” I chew on my lower lip for a minute. I have to say this, but it hurts, and a coldness spreads through my insides at the thought, icy tendrils radiating out until I’m cold all over. “You don’t have to stay,” I say. “If we get out of here, maybe you go straight to the mirror and back to Earth before I say the spell.”

“Or we could both go. Get to safety. Find another way. Destroy my father.”

“That’s so tempting.” I sigh. “But I can’t leave. Maybe I was indoctrinated too well. But I have to do this. It’s what my whole life has been leading up to.” I force a smile. “Hey, I’m special. I’ve always known that.”

“You areveryspecial. And I knew that you wouldn’t go. And I won’t leave you. I couldn’t.” He reaches out and takes my hand and warmth flows through me, melting the icy cold. “Maybe we can lure him to the mirror. And we can both go after you say the spell.”

“Of course we can.”

He smiles. “I won’t regret this thing between us.”

“This thing?” I say in mock horror. “There’s athingbetween us?”

“A big thing.”

Suddenly I need to get closer, as close as it’s possible to get. I push myself up and twist, so I straddle his hips, lowering myself to rest against him. “A very big thing,” I whisper, and the smile isback on his face. It’s freaking me out a little, because I think I’ve seen Khaosti smile more since we came to Hell than ever before. It’s sort of sad that he’s just finding “cheerful” Khaosti here at the end.

I cup his face between my hands and stare down at him; he’s so beautiful, my heart aches. I trace a finger down the scar on his cheek, trail it over his full lips and his tongue flicks out to lick my fingertips. Tingles dance through my body and beneath me, I can feel him harden.

This probably isn’t a good time—they could come for us at any moment, or Grimlet could wake up or…

But I don’t care because it’s the only time we have.

I lower my head and kiss him. His lips part beneath mine, and he slants his face and deepens the kiss, his tongue pushing inside. He kisses me like I’m the only thing that exists in the whole world and we have forever to savor this feeling.

His hands slide to my waist, and he presses me down onto him and I grind against his hard length, rubbing my sex against him so pleasure saturates my body, making me feel hot and swollen and so, so needy. I want him.

Deep inside me, I sense the bond that ties us together, like a crimson flame wrapping us both in a haze of desire, pulling us closer.

This feels more intense than the last time, because maybe I know that this really is the final time we’ll make love. I push the thought away because it will make me cry and I’ve cried enough.

So I stop thinking and allow the feelings to take control.

Chapter 49

Khaos

She smells of the salt breeze at the ocean’s edge. She smells of freedom.

And she tastes like everything I have ever craved in this life without even knowing I wanted anything at all. I kiss her long and deeply until we’re both gasping for air and she collapses onto my chest and rests her head in the crook of my neck, panting.

A sense of…happiness fills me. Crazy, but for the first time in as long as I can remember, since Khendril left, I actually don’t hate myself.

I love her. And she loves me.

I never thought I would have this. Fury is dead but he lives on in me.

She licks the skin of my throat and my cock jerks. I lift my hips, and she presses herself against me, rubbing wantonly. She wants me and she can have me.

It’s crazy at a time like this, but it’s all the time we have. And the urgency seeps from me. I lay back and let her have her way with me. Let her do as she pleases.

She slithers down my body, the movement sending spikes of desire shooting through me, so my rock-hard cock hardens even further until it’s a mix of pain and pleasure. I reach between us to unfasten my pants, but she slaps my hand away and proceeds to kiss and lick her way slowly down my body, unfastening each button as she comes to it, as though we have all the time in the world. As though we’re in Heaven, not Hell, and the world isn’t about to burn.

She bites down on my nipple with sharp teeth and my hips jerk, then she licks me with her hot tongue and heat pools in my belly. She moves lower, her tongue dipping into my navel.

Inside, I can feel the bond that ties us together wrapping tighter around my heart, until it beats in time with hers.