Page 49 of Hell Fae Warden

“We can,” Az corrected him, his arm tightening around my abdomen. “Challenge him, Camillia. Show him we can.”

I swallowed, uncertain of what he meant and aroused by it at the same time.Challenge him to do what?I wondered, my gaze roaming over Ajax’s chiseled features. His face had been unmarred, while his body…

My eyes slanted into a glare.Hold on…“I told you to heal yourself.” My gaze flew back up to his. “Why haven’t you healed yourself?”

“Because he feels he deserves the pain,” Az murmured, his lips brushing my pulse with his words. “And helikespain.” Az’s hips pressed into mine, forcing me to feel both his erection and the one before me. A tremor worked through my being as Ajax’s pierced tip touched my lower belly, that metal bar momentarily distracting me.

I want to lick him again,I thought.

But more than that, I wanted to feel him inside me.

I wanted to feel them both.

Fuck, this is bad.

I should be trying to kill them… not… not indulging in them.

However, a cloud of pine, mint, and overpowering masculinity consumed me in the next breath, my senses drugged by the two intoxicating males surrounding me.

It was familiar, yet new. Safe, yet underlined with dangerous currents. Sensual, yet violent.

“Help him heal, Cami,” Az whispered again. “Kiss him. Show him that he’s not nearly as horrible as he believes himself to be.”

“Fuck you, Az,” Ajax said, his voice low and menacing. “I don’t need this.”

“You do,” the male behind me countered. “You’ve been living in a world of grief for so fucking long, refusing to talk about what happened, and failing to accept that there was nothing you could do.”

Ajax’s grasp tightened against my hip, his body seeming to vibrate in response to Az’s words.

However, the man at my back wasn’t done.

“Everyone makes mistakes. Fate’s a fucking cunt. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a future.” Az’s lips skimmed my ear as he added, “Give him a glimpse of what our future could taste like, little warrior. Show him what we could be.”

That sounded like a terrible plan. But also a great one.

Ajax had shown me his bleeding heart, his secrets no longer trapped beneath his angry veil. And he’d sort of done so willingly, at least to an extent. Because he hadn’t fought me on the truth serum. He’d simply swallowed it.

He’d also volunteered himself for my retribution, stripping himself bare and trapping himself beneath a sea of deadly snakes.

Snakes he could have bespelled with just a few words,I reminded myself, thinking about how easily he’d freed himself when given permission.Yet he’d subjected himself to the pain for me.

Well, partly for Az’s Phoenix, too.

Or maybe primarily as a result of Az’s beast.

I wasn’t really sure. Except Ajax had seemed contrite. He’d also admitted that it hadn’t really been about his reputation, but about how he’d been starting to feel things for me.

“It was easier to be upset about a slight against my record than to admit my feelings were hurt by a woman I’d started to care about.”

I lifted my hand to his cheek, his words playing through my head. I felt something for him, too. Something I couldn’t define. Something I absolutely shouldn’t be feeling at all.

But we were connected in a way. Or maybe we were just living in the moment.

Still, I found myself wanting to help him heal. Perhaps not physically, but at least a little mentally.

And I could do that by showing him a little bit of forgiveness.

Because he wasn’t as horrible as he claimed himself to be. Yes, he’d interrogated me rather cruelly, but he’d thought I’d betrayed him. That I’d used him. That’d I’d fled without a trace.