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The breeze circled us, carrying a thousand whispers and making the grass sway and bend like graceful dancers.

A vein fluttered in Varick’s neck, but my fangs stayed dormant. Hunger didn’t stir, but my body ached, my breasts and pussy throbbing. I lifted my hips, seeking Varick’s dick. Begging soundlessly as I dragged my sodden lips up and down his round, smooth tip.

With a groan, he squeezed my breast in one sword-callused hand. He leaned his golden head down and licked my nipple, stroking his tongue over the straining peak. He moved to my other breast and did the same, squeezing the tender globe so my nipple poked higher. He sucked and tongued his way around my nipple until I whimpered and thrust my hips shamelessly.

The whispers climbed higher, my command swirling in the warm wind. Touch me, touch me, touch me. I writhed in the grass, crushing it beneath me so the clearing filled with the scent of rich soil and the forest after a spring rain.

“Cloves,” Varick said in my mind. He released my nipple and pulled back, something like agony in his eyes. “You smell of cloves,” he said hoarsely, “and I can’t hold back.” He buried his face in my neck and thrust his cock inside me.

Heat. Fullness. Rapture. I was so slick, there was no discomfort. Just our hot, perfect joining. His cock filled me so completely, I had nowhere left to go. No space of my own, even in this space I supposedly controlled.

And that was the point, I realized. The ancient knowledge hummed brighter, offering reassurance that this was right and true and needed. There was no greater power than this, the making and unmaking. But to gain it—to control it completely—I had to lose myself. Caught between the unyielding earth and the hard muscle of the warrior above me, I had to surrender.

Varick kept his face turned into my neck as he began to thrust. His lips moved, although his voice remained silent both inside and outside of my head. He made no sound, the words he mouthed like unspoken prayers against my skin. He gave me slow, rolling strokes, his shaft dragging over my pulsing clit.

Surrender. I had to let everything go.

I arched, my hands finding their way to his rounded shoulders. He gave me another steady, measured thrust, and I dug my fingers into his skin as I stared up at the sky, one breathless moan after another spilling from my lips. I arched and moved with him, lifting so my breasts mashed against his rock-hard chest. My clit buzzed, all my desires concentrated in the tiny, throbbing bud.

His breath against my neck turned to harsh pants, and his thrusts grew harder. Faster. More heat flooded me. My nipples raked his chest. Every deep thrust drove my hips into the ground, soaking the air with the scents of spring and my desire. Pleasure coursed through me, welling up from the ground and spreading through my limbs. His shoulders under my hands grew slick with sweat. I smoothed a hand up his neck and squeezed his nape, holding him against me as ecstasy swept closer.

“Come for me,” he said in my mind.

Yes, the knowledge echoed. I had to give everything away.

Our movements grew wilder. We rocked together, gasping and grinding, our cries and sweat mingling. Varick’s cock rubbed my clit ruthlessly, shoving me to the very edge. Power rushed me. Now, it reached for me.

I caught it.

And then I came.

My scream echoed around the clearing, joining the chorus of whispers as my head went back and Varick’s hot seed flooded me. I changed the sky because I could, making a new one. Fat clouds rushed across the blue, their shadows rippling over us. And then the sun burst out and flooded the clearing with light.

No, not the clearing. The Middling.

My Middling. It wasn’t a true escape, because I couldn’t enter it without leaving my body behind. But it was a haven. And there was power here. I wanted more of it.

As Varick’s heart thundered against mine, I spoke into his ear. “We have to go back. But I’m going to find us a way out for good.”

He stiffened. Nodded.

I took us back to Vai Seren.

When I drew my next breath, Midian stood over the bed, his eyes like midnight and his face slack with the same disturbing mix of hunger and greed. His gaze traveled from my flushed, sweaty face down to Varick’s hips wedged between my splayed thighs.

Pleasure fled, but I refused to feel shame. I kept my hand on Varick’s nape and focused on his heart beating in sync with mine.

Midian straightened. Laurent melted over him, and my husband smiled at me with eyes that were completely black. “How refreshing that you’re so skilled at doing what I brought you here to do.”

In my arms, Varick tensed.

“What you were born to do,” Laurent added softly. “Rest now. We’ll repeat this exercise later.”

Chapter Twelve

GIVEN

The rush of power didn’t last long, but maybe that was for the best. I didn’t want the demons to know I could slip in and out of the Middling at will. I didn’t fully understand my new power, but I was grateful for it.