Page 118 of Crave Me

“What the fuck is happening?” I heard someone demand, his voice close and yet not. Because I wasn’t focused on him or the others who had approached.

My attention was on my moon.

I know it hurts,I whispered to it.I’ll soothe your inner burns. But I need you. I need you to bolster me, to shower me in your magic, and let me thrive. Let. Me. Reign.

Because I was a goddess. And that was what we did—we reigned.

“Is that…?”

“Yeah…”

“Fuck.”

“Yeah…”

I nearly hushed the male voices around me, not wanting their intrusion. But the moon did it for me by showering me with its glorious presence as it returned to the Iceland sky. It would be setting the orbit off by a week or so, giving me an unexpected full moon.

“Holy fuck…”

“It’s… it’s…”

“It’sburning,” I said, focusing on the three men who had joined us on the street.Kaspian. Nox. Nolan.“It’s angry. It’sbleeding. It’s fire.” I phased away from Fallon’s body, landing easily on my feet several yards away. “You take the lives of innocents,” I said to them, furious by their behavior. “We needed her.”

She was the antidote to all this madness, the only one capable of understanding and stopping her own power.

But not anymore.

Now this realm had me.

And my fiery blood moon.

This time it was real, not just a message from Khaos or a show of approval. This was a blood moon built of rage and flames and volcanic eruptions because its mistress had forced it forward by a week’s distance along its twenty-eight-day path.

I would heal its wounds when I finished this fight.

But I needed to find Vesperus first.

“Klas has poisoned my mate. I don’t know if he’s still at the palace or not. But I am going to hunt him and kill him. Andyouare going to find a way tofix her.” I pointed at the witch on the ground. She’d survived being buried because of some sort of regeneration spell that had made her come back to life even after suffocating to death. Hopefully, that magic still applied and could work to heal gunshots, too.

Assuming I didn’t break the rejuvenation spell when I pieced her spirit back together earlier.

I didn’t wait for the others to agree with me. They were mine to command, and they would heel.

While I went in search of our king.

CHAPTERTWENTY-EIGHT

NYX

Vesperus wasn’tin his room.

Or his office.

Or anywhere in his palace.

By the time I exited, it was to find Kaspian waiting for me, his expression wary. “You haven’t found him.” It was a statement, not a question, so I didn’t bother replying to him.

Instead, I looked up at my angry moon, the fractures on the surface revealing fiery lines of erupted lava. For millions of years, those volcanoes had remained dormant. But my actions tonight had awoken the beast within, forcing the moon to pulse with the fury I felt in my heart.