Page 17

Seventeen

H e found that the best place to avoid the cultists was the roof of the temple.

He spent the day watching the people on the streets below. They looked even smaller from so high up.The people of Ontag-ul never seemed to look skyward, which he guessed was because they didn’t have airborne predators to look out for.

The sun beat down through the chilly air, warming the roof tiles, but the heat did little to improve his mood.The argument he’d had with Raiya replayed in his mind, even though he wanted to think of anything else.

He had never spent so much time thinking about another person. It was disturbing behavior, but he couldn’t stop.

A shadow darkened the window behind him, and he was surprised to see Raiya there. Her expression dimmed when she looked at him.

“I’m ready to try a counter-enchantment,” she said.

He raised his eyebrows—he hadn’t thought she was still working on it. She’d been so angry. She still was.

She turned around and went back inside without waiting for an answer, and Azreth followed her.

She dropped her satchel on the floor in the center of the temple’s stuffy attic, and a small cloud of dust floated into the cold sunbeam that cut through the window. “You’ll have to provide magic for it,” she said. “We should get that out of the way, first.”

He felt both relief and disappointment at once. He’d been having a lot of strange emotions lately—feeling unhappy when he should have been glad, being relaxed when he should have been on edge, having strange combinations of feelings that should never have been combined.

“How shall I feed?” he asked.

She shrugged one shoulder, disinterested. “However you want to.”

He wanted to feel a thrill at being told to do whatever he wished with her, but he felt only a vague unease. Kneeling in front of her, he looked up at her face, noting her serious expression. He wanted her forgiveness, but he didn’t know how to get it. Perhaps now wasn’t the time to ask. Or, perhaps he was just a coward.

Cautiously, he curled his hand around the back of her soft thigh. Her leg fit neatly in his hand, and when he squeezed, there was a pleasant give to it. He slid his fingers gently to her inner thigh, between her legs. To his relief, he felt a pulse of arousal from her. Maybe he could still make this enjoyable for her, even if she was angry at him.

But he still hadn’t fed since they’d arrived at the temple, and he still didn’t have the energy to cast spells. He only had one hand. “It is more difficult without magic,” he admitted quietly. “Without my hands.”

Her hard expression softened. “It’s all right,” she said quickly. “It won’t be a problem. We’ve never had a problem before.”She began to remove her trousers and underclothes.

His heart clenched painfully.Kindness came to her instinctively in the same way cruelty came to him, even after he’d hurt her.

He was determined to do this well, because at the moment, he couldn’t seem to do anything else right.

“Will you help me?” he asked.

“Of course.”

He took one of her hands and guided it between her legs. “Touch yourself.”

She raised her eyebrows a little, and Azreth wondered if he’d committed yet another mortal faux pas. But then she did as he asked.

Her eyes remained locked with his as she pressed her fingers against herself. They bent and unbent slowly, summoning arousal like a mage gathering magic energy, and she waited until her desire had built to what seemed like an almost painful threshold before she slid them deeper, and then each stroke was drawing out small curls of pleasure. It was mesmerizing—beautiful.

“You are good at this,” Azreth said. She didn’t need him at all, really.

“At what?”

“Pleasuring yourself.”

She stopped abruptly. “Are you making fun of me?”

“No.”

“Isn’t everyone good at pleasuring themselves? I mean, don’t you ever…?”

“No.”

“You don’t? Or can’t?”

“I don’t like to.”

She stared at him, frowning. Azreth averted his eyes. He gently took her wrist and pulled her hand back to her core, and after a moment, her fingers resumed their slow rhythm.

“Do you like it… with me?” she asked.

Reluctantly, he looked up at her and studied her face. She looked hopeful and worried.

“Yes,” he said softly. “With you.”

He ran his hand up the back of her leg, pulling her closer, and touched his lips to her inner thigh. There was a sharp spike of heat in the air. He parted his lips and tasted her skin and her slick.

He’d wanted to pleasure her with his tongue nearly from the day he’d met her, but he hadn’t imagined it quite like this, with him on his knees before her, wanting her in ways he’d never wanted anyone.

The way she gasped when he drew his tongue over her sex, though—that was exactly as he’d imagined it. Startled, she bucked against him. He could still feel her stiff unease beneath her pleasure, but after a few more strokes, it was gone. Her hands, reaching blindly for him, landed on his horns.

Azreth jolted. Raiya curled her fingers tighter around his horns, holding him against her, unaware of the taboo nature of what she was doing. A shiver went through him. Being grabbed by the horns was cause for great offense in the hells, but this wasn’t the hells, was it?

He grabbed her thigh and lifted it over his shoulder, then buried his tongue in her. She struggled to stifle a moan. Excitement and need burst from her, washing over him.

There was nothing uneasy about the way she grabbed him. She didn’t ask permission or worry she would offend him—she simply moved him where she wanted him, demanding his service. And he was happy to give it. He was coming to the horrifying realization that for her, he would do almost anything.

* * *

The counter-enchantment did not work as intended.

Or did it?

For a moment, after Azreth charged the enchantment and was immediately racked with pain, he thought Raiya must have deceived him. Instead of ridding him of his binding, she’d branded him with an enchantment of eternal torture to punish him, and he couldn’t even be angry at her for it. It was what he deserved. A part of him was pleased that she’d finally been wise enough to turn on him.

As he fell to the ground, writhing in agony, she climbed onto his chest. He thought of Nariel on top of him, strangling him, but then he saw her face. She was panicked, scrubbing at the runes she’d just painted on him.

Her counter-enchantment hadn’t woven correctly, and as the spell tried to right itself, it was raking over his body and mind. His vision distorted as wild, uncontrolled magic sparked through him.

And then it stopped. He slumped on the floor, breathing hard. Black liquid that he at first mistook for blood drenched his chest. Raiya had dumped her entire bottle of ink over him to cover the runes on his skin, breaking the enchantment and stopping the pain.

Her eyes were wide with horror. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t think it would be so bad if it went wrong. I’ve never tried enchanting a person before, and I didn’t know…”She reached out to touch him, and when he pulled away, she looked hurt.

The flame in his heart snapped, like firewood releasing a flurry of sparks. He felt them rising into his throat, choking him. He couldn’t take it.

He sat up and took her by the chin, turning her face up toward his. He stared at her eyes, looking for answers. There were none. He saw only deep, dark depths in their black centers.

All his emotion came out in a burst. “Why—Why are you this way?”

She looked startled. “What?”

“Why worry over me like a mother nyra?” he snapped. “Why cry when I am hurt? Why do you never use my weaknesses to your advantage? Do you not know what I am? Don’t you know that I consume your kind for power? Don’t you have any sense of self-preservation? Just yesterday, I angered you. I threatened you. But still, you worry for me. Still, you attempt to serve me. There is no logic here. I cannot understand it. You are the most baffling creature I’ve ever met.”

“I didn’t—I don’t?—”

“You should let me be bound. You should rejoice in my pain. It is a victory for you.”

She frowned, affronted. “I’ve never wanted you to be in pain.”

“But why?”

“There will never be a better explanation, no matter how many times you ask for it. This is just how mortals are.”

“No. It is how you are. Only you.”

He wanted to shake her, and hold her, and shout at her and cry in her arms, because he was doomed.

He was in love with her.