Page 26

“Do it,” I muttered. He stiffened, teeth audibly grinding together. “Hurry up and do it.”

There was silence from him as that vibration in his chest turned up another notch. I exhaled in a gust. He needed me alive for Novareth, so this was posturing. “You won’t, so let me go.”

“I would not,” he grumbled tightly, but he didn’t loosen his grip. My hair swayed around my cheeks. There was movement behind me as tendrils widened my thighs, and he tugged my skirt aside. It all happened so fast, I couldn’t speak.

He slid into my channel. The textured surface of his shaft thrusting in, rubbing against my inner walls.

There was no resistance with adrenaline pumping through my veins.

I gasped, my hands grasping at the edge of the stone rail, which dug into my stomach. He pumped his hips with harsh, punishing slams, the slap of his cold, inhuman skinthwappingagainst my thighs. His next thrust shoved me forward and wrung a moan from my throat.

So much pleasure sizzled in me. At least before he killed me, I’d had the chance to experience good fucking.

With each rut, I pushed back against him until his grip moved to my hips, poising them higher. His cock slammed inat an angle, touching a sensitive point deep inside. An orgasm ripped through my nerve endings, turning my hearing fuzzy. He didn’t ease his pace, and another release throbbed through my channel.

My scream echoed off the valley below. The sound of my pleasure only inflamed him, and he groaned, the sound deep, guttural, and maddening.

I wasn’t sure how many orgasms later, but my brain processed movement far off in the distance. Corvus continued gliding into me with gentle pumps; he stopped every time I felt his base throb as it did right before release, slowing the glide as if savoring the moment.

Unlike the other days, the sky was beginning to change, and I knew I didn’t have much time left.

“What’s over there?” I panted, weakly pointing at the collection of lights in the distance.

The illumination glistened on the horizon through the milky haze of the atmosphere. It seemed to have thickened.

“I will take you.” He smoothed his palm down my skirt. “Once I am done with you.” He picked up his pace, chasing me toward another orgasm.

With a pump of his wings,gusts caused my hair to whip wildly around my head. He descended with a smooth glide, and his flying turned into a brisk walk. I bounced around in his embrace. It was a clear indication of how careful he’d been every time he’d touched me that he wasn’t gouging into my skin.

He put me on my feet, and my knees gave out, but he caught me before I could drop to the ground.

“Careful,” he ordered. Tendrils had wound around my arms, keeping me upright while I tried to regain sensation in my feet.

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” I huffed and rolled my ankle to chase the tingles away.

Laughter permeated the clearing we’d landed in, and then two Novian kids burst through a stout shrub. They immediately slowed, eyes wide with horror.

“Lord of Shadows,” the taller one in the back said. A damp spot grew in the front of the shorter boy’s pants.

I peered at Corvus. I didn’t doubt he knew they were present, but he wasn’t looking at them; he was angled to the left, eyelids narrowed, and shadows lingering around him. He was such an ethereal creature.

So frightening, so violent . . . so alone.

If everything that laid eyes on me ran or attacked me out of fear, it’d make me grumpy too.

“Run, before he sees you,” I whispered dramatically toward the kids. Gasping, they peeked at each other from the corner of their eyes and took off sprinting.

I turned toward him, scanning the sharp planes of his face. He didn’t seem bothered by it, nor did he seem to have even processed it, but seeing him so alone, so rejected—it kind of hurt. I pursed my lips and stepped in front of him.

“I’ve seen enough, let’s go back,” I said.

“No.” With the abrupt denial, he strode ahead. Mid-step, he vanished into thin air. My stomach dropped to my feet, and I lunged like I could somehow catch him.

“Corvus?” I shouted, throwing myself forward. My momentum didn’t allow me to steady myself before my face smacked into a large featherything. “Argh!”

I clasped my cheek, and he was suddenly visible. It’d been his fucking wing.

He hurtled forward and cupped my jaw. I squinted up at him from one eye.