Page 10 of Divine Fate (Cursed Legacies #4)

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MAVEN

As soon as I'm kissing him, Everett melts against me, groaning hoarsely. His hand slips from my throat to the back of my neck before he's suddenly consuming me.

This isn’t my gentle elemental, trying to take things sweet and slow.

Instead, he’s rough. Angry. He’s kissing me like he wants to punish the time that kept us apart. For several long moments, I can’t focus on anything but the way he claims my lips—until I remember how much he likes a dose of pain.

I bite his lower lip.

Frost blooms all over the back of my neck, making me gasp.

Everett swears and pulls away from me, yanking his hands away like he thinks he hurt me. “Godsdamn it. Gods damn it, Maven—I can’t do this. I’m barely in control all the time, but when you’re touching me? There’s absolutely no fucking chance I won’t freeze you to death if I—if we?—”

He’s dangerously close to getting stuck in his own head about this, so I take charge.

Pushing against his beautifully scarred torso, I flip so that Everett is now on his back as I straddle him. I trace the scar stretching across his torso, admiring how his skin healed over his sculpted chest.

“You don’t have to touch it,” he grimaces.

I give him a pointed look. “Nothing will change how I feel about you, so don’t pretend it’s any harder for me to love you with your scars.”

The breath whooshes out of him before he rasps, “I love you, too. I’m so fucking in love with you. It’s killed me that I didn’t get to say it back to you, when—when you were?—”

I’m suddenly dragged back down for another fierce kiss. Everett’s fingers are cold as ice as they trail over my body and press in firmly near my hips. The added chill is another burst of sensation on the backdrop of our exchange.

When I scoot back just enough to tease his erection with my ass, he makes a choking sound and ends the kiss. His cheeks are flushed as he struggles to get words out.

“I’m—fuck. It’s been six months.”

“Way too fucking long,” I agree, scooting back further and lifting slightly until his thick, warm erection is nestled between my legs. I grind against it, shivering at the delicious sensation as it drags against that perfect spot next to my clit.

Gods, I need him so fucking bad. I can feel my wetness dragging along his cock, preparing it for me.

Everett swears raggedly, his fingers tightening almost painfully on my hips as he squeezes his eyes shut briefly. “I mean, it’s been six months. I’m—shit, you’re so fucking beautiful, I’m…”

Oh. He means he’s struggling not to finish quickly from sheer excitement.

Just like he did the first time we made out.

I love knowing my ice elemental is this helplessly attracted to me. At least I know it’s mutual as I grind against him again, relishing his soft groan.

Reaching up to tease my tits, I enjoy the way his attention drops to them and his breathing gets choppy. I rock forward again, and that heady drag of his cock against me sends more exhilarating tingles up my spine as my lips part.

“Gods,” he breathes.

“Goddess,” I correct, grinning.

Everett groans. “Yes. My goddess. Give me what I need. Hurt me.”

Wanting to see him lose control again, I rake my nails lightly down his chest, just enough to give that tease of pain he wants more of.

Everett swears viciously—and suddenly, I’m beneath him. His gorgeous, scarred body presses me into the mattress, his swollen cock sliding through my slick entrance to tease it over and over as he whispers in my ear, voice rough with restraint.

"My pleasure. My pain. Whatever shattered pieces are left of me, they’re all yours. I’m yours. ”

Gods, yes.

Grinding against his hard cock, I swear at how good it feels. “All mine. Fuck me, Everett. I need you. I need?—”

He lines himself up and thrusts into me so roughly that my voice cuts out. My head falls back, and before I can think better of it, the fucking amazing feeling of being stretched and filled like this makes me drag my fingernails down his back—and with another broken swear, Everett pulls out before slamming into me again.

“Yes,” I gasp, my legs wrapping around his hips. It’s been six months since I’ve been fucked, and apparently, my body needs a second to adjust.

Everett’s glacial eyes devour me like I’m a feast he’s been starved of as he waits for me. When I squirm against him restlessly, needing more, he thrusts again—hard.

Fuck, it just feels so amazing.

Everett groans again, but it’s sharp this time as it turns into a chant. “Gentle. Gentle. Be gentle.”

“Me? Gentle? Now? Impossible,” I laugh breathlessly, kissing his jaw.

He presses his forehead to mine, panting. “I was talking to myself.”

He’s trying to be gentle with me? Fuck that.

Lifting my head, I trap his lower lip between my teeth, biting it far harder than I did earlier while I clench around his cock, desperate for more.

That does it. My beautiful, scarred elemental rewards me with another punishing thrust, followed by another and another, his hips slamming against mine. The slap of skin against skin echoes through his cold room as pleasure careens through my system. My pulse pounds as I moan.

“Godsdamn it,” Everett groans, pumping harder into me. “Gods fucking damn it, you feel too fucking good. So warm and wet. Your perfect pussy is strangling me. Fuck.”

When I tighten myself around him again, he loses another inch of control. He fucks me with abandon, moaning and swearing so fucking deliciously. I’m vaguely aware of frost covering the sheets below us. It’s on my skin, too, an extra bite to add to the rest of the buildup coursing through my body.

But when my legs start to shake, I forget all about the frost and clutch my elemental even closer.

“More,” I whisper, enjoying every one of his uncontrolled, savage drives into me. “Fuck, I need more. Gods, Everett, please just?—”

He bites my neck really fucking hard.

I jolt as the extra dose of violent, possessive stimulation sends a shockwave straight to my lower stomach, and just like that, I’m coming hard and fast. Everett feels my pussy flexing around him and his rhythm stutters, turning wild. Desperate. The room dips several degrees as he fucks me hard, wringing every last ounce out of my lingering orgasm until finally, he shatters.

With a hoarse cry, he buries himself deep, and everything around us is suddenly bathed in ice. In a split second, frozen crystals have formed across his headboard, the sheets, all over the ceiling, across his shoulders, and down my thighs.

The shock of the cold makes me lose my breath, but I’m safe. The burning starts up in my chest again. I try to catch my breath, my head spinning as Everett collapses against me.

Breathless. Spent. Shaking.

I wonder if I’ll ever get enough of seeing him come undone. It’s fucking beautiful.

“Shit,” he slowly starts to realize, lifing his head when he sees the ice everywhere. “I lost control.”

I grin, softly stroking his back where I clawed it earlier to soothe the sting.

“I noticed. I loved it.”

He briefly focuses on the ice around us until it all melts, dissolving into harmless, cool water before he rolls off of me. But although my pulse is thrumming and the pleasant tingling hasn’t gone away, I feel the tiniest twinge of disappointment because…my chest doesn’t sting.

Meaning, Everett’s emblem isn’t there.

I have no clue how to use my holy magic or what’s keeping me from bonding with?—

Oh.

Of course.

Quintets are bound to hearts, and as far as I know, I don’t have a heart to bind my quintet to at the moment. Not even a shadow heart like they were bound to last time, since that disappeared when my revenant purpose was fulfilled.

I have no fucking idea how I’m even alive without a heart, but the how isn’t what matters. What matters is breaking my quintet’s curses again, because the absence of our bonds is really starting to grate on my nerves.

I need that connection to him. To all of them.

So I’ll get a fucking heart, somehow. Right after I get them back.

I glance over to see that Everett is gazing at me adoringly. The chillingly possessive undertone in his arctic eyes makes me smile. He pulls me against his side, moving and adjusting the blankets until he can tuck the dry sheets around me to ward off the chill in the room.

“Gods, I’ve missed your warmth,” he whispers against my shoulder.

“I’ve missed you,” I murmur back, still coming down from fucking amazing sex.

Everett’s arms tighten around me. When he takes a bracing breath, I know exactly what he’s about to ask.

“Maven. How is it possible that you’re back? Where the hell were you for the last six months?”

I haven’t considered the best way to break the news about my identity. Should I hold off telling him until I can explain to my entire quintet at once? What if he’s like Kenzie and isn’t sure how to react to me at first?

“You know it kills me when you don’t tell me things,” Everett reminds me quietly. “You once said you’d be better about it. Don’t make the mistake of thinking I’ve gotten more patient.”

Is he threatening me? I grin, twisting in his arms to examine his face.

“Maybe I want to see you lose your temper. Angry Everett must be a sight to behold.”

His gaze sparks with cold warning, and gods, he looks good when he’s annoyed. “So help me gods, I will cuff your beautiful ass to this bed with nevermelt until you quit stalling. I need to know where you were and how you came back, because I’m still struggling to believe you’re actually here. It feels like you just dropped out of the godsdamned sky?—”

A laugh escapes before I clear my throat, composing myself. “I did.”

Everett stares. “What?”

I have to get this over with. He’ll need time to adjust to being matched to a demigoddess, whether he likes it or not, since there’s no shot in hell I’ll ever let any of my matches go.

I decide not to mince words. “I fell from Paradise.”

He stops breathing, eyes widening as he puts together the fact that mortals can’t go to Paradise.

“My mother took me there after my revenant purpose was fulfilled,” I add.

For several long moments, silence hangs heavily in this room. Finally, Everett exhales slowly.

“If you went to Paradise, it means you became divine. As in, you were…”

“A goddess. Temporarily,” I add, making a face. “Don’t worry, I fixed it. I’m back to being a demigoddess.”

I think.

“Holy shit. It explains so much, and yet…” He trails off, is frozen in thought for a moment, and then groans. “Oh. Oh, gods. Please tell me your mother isn’t who I think she is.”

“Syntyche,” I confirm, then notice his cheeks have turned bright red. “What is it?”

“Nothing. Just seriously regretting some of my past prayers to your mother ,” he grumbles, burying his face in my shoulder again like he wants to hide.

He’s so fucking adorable. I can feel his heart pounding against my side, but at least he’s not having a full-blown panic attack like he did earlier. I’ll take that as a good sign.

Then Everett tenses, sitting up to frown at me. “Hang on. In the legends that elementals pass down, it’s said that when beings ascend to Paradise, it’s permanent. Divine beings belong in Paradise and can’t live in the mortal realm. So how did you…?”

I reach up to trace his scar absentmindedly. “I don’t know. My memories of the last six months haven’t returned yet. What matters is that I found a way, and I’m back. For you. For all of us. I’m piecing our quintet back together, no matter what it takes.”

His expression goes from soft to agonized at that thought. “At this point, I don’t know if you can piece us back together. I wanted to take care of them like you asked. I tried, but…gods, I failed. Our quintet barely exists because of me. I’m sorry?—”

“Everett.” I prop up on my elbow, determined to get this gorgeous man to stop fucking apologizing to me for no damn reason. “I'm the one who should be apologizing.It wasn’t fair of me to ask that of you. It’s not your fault I dropped dead like an idiot—and you couldn’t help what your own curse did, let alone theirs.”

The reminder that my quintet has been left at the mercy of their curses makes my stomach feel hollow.

“Where are they?” I whisper. “I only heard that Baelfire is somewhere in the north.”

Chill nips at my bare upper half as Everett’s voice turns bleak and rough.

“Honestly…I’m not sure if Baelfire technically exists inside that dragon anymore. It’s just feral. Brigid updates me now and then. I send resources and aid to the Decimuses to help protect the dragon from anyone who wants to hunt it for its scales.”

Anger flickers through me. They can’t hunt my mate, and I refuse to believe his dragon completely took over.

Everett goes on, rubbing his face. The longer we talk about this, the more I can practically feel stress and exhaustion wafting from him.

“Silas is here physically. Mentally, it’s rare. He has good and bad days, but it’s been mostly bad for months. As soon as we returned here after the battle, he imprisoned himself in iron and just kind of…gave up. Let the voices have him.”

Gods, I hate his curse. Determination to get them back is steeling itself even more firmly in me by the second.

I take a deep breath. “And Crypt?”

He’s quiet.

“Everett. Where’s Crypt?”

“For a long time, he was on a killing spree. I would dig up any information I could on the best targets for his abilities, send him off, and then he would come back for the next one. I kept finding missions for him, because if I didn’t…” Everett shakes his head. “That fucking incubus was pushing himself too hard on purpose to make his curse take a heavier toll. He wanted to burn out.”

What? Why would he?—

Oh, my fucking gods.

He was trying to join me in the Beyond.

I sit up, disengaging from Everett’s arms to breathe in and out more evenly. Angry doesn’t even begin to describe how I’m feeling. I knew they would be suffering from their curses, but now I’m so fucking mad that it took me this long to return from Paradise.

One of Everett’s cool hands brushes soothingly down my spine, curling around my waist to pull me closer again like he can’t help himself.

“All I had were traces of you, including them. Even hellishly miserable and broken, I wanted to keep my word to you. But it’s no excuse. I could have done things differently. I’m sorry?—”

“That’s the last time you apologize,” I insist as gently as possible. “None of this is your fault.”

It’s mine. I failed six months ago, and my quintet paid the price. If I had only planned better, fought harder, done so many things differently…

Just like when I was a teenager, silently berating myself over my shortcomings, Lillian’s voice drifts back to me.

You’re too hard on yourself, little raven. Failures are not failures, they’re lessons—and you’ve always been a fast learner. When you set your mind on something, nothing stands in your way. You were born with such strength and glorious potential, I only wish you knew.

Lillian.

More of her careful words from the past slowly come back to me, sending a new awareness through me. I straighten, glancing at Everett.

“Lillian. Is she…?”

“She’s alive, here at Everbound,” he says, tightening his arm around my waist and tugging.

Suddenly, I’m sideways in his lap so he can hold me close, bundling the blankets closer around me. The slightest hint of wariness pulls at my gut, reminding me that he’s had his skin all over mine for a while now, but it’s easy to ignore.

In fact, it’s nice to be held like this, my face now pressed into his neck as he places tender kisses on the top of my head. He insists that he’s changed, but he’s still being so fucking gentle with me.

“I need to see her,” I tell him.

“Tomorrow.”

He twists, taking me with him until I’m lying with him curled protectively around me. We’re both still naked. When he stretches out an arm to turn off the light beside the bed, his bedroom is plunged into peaceful, pleasantly chilly darkness—but I’m comfortable tucked against him like this, as if he’s been absorbing my warmth through the blanket so he can give it back.

It’s soothing, but I shouldn’t rest yet. “Where in the castle is Lillian? I need to talk to her?—”

“ Tomorrow, ” he repeats, a warning note in his words. “You’re exhausted. I need you to rest so I don’t go fucking insane along with the others.”

“I can’t sleep right now,” I protest quietly, trying to muffle a yawn.

“You can and you will so that you’ll be well-rested enough to see Lillian for breakfast tomorrow.”

Breakfast with Lillian? Gods, I can’t wait to see her.

She was the only person I trusted growing up in the Nether, and I’ve missed her ever since I left. I want to insist that we go now, but it’s been one long fucking day. I still haven’t had time to process everything properly, but exhaustion is weighing heavily on my eyelids.

“Maven,” Everett murmurs against the top of my head.

“Hmm?”

“I need you to do something for me.”

Those words send a pang of remembered pain through me.

“Anything,” I parrot through a yawn.

“Don’t ever fucking leave me again.”

I close my eyes. “I’m not going anywhere.”