Page 12

Nika

I ’d only planned to tease him a little and leave him to suffer, but I didn’t expect to feel so powerful. I didn’t realize I’d enjoy having him at my mercy like this. So instead of leaving, I did more and reveled in the unintentional reactions he gave way to.

His sharp eyes chased every move I made. It was obvious by the way his chest hitched and lost rhythm I wasn’t the only one enjoying this.

Silas was living for everything I did to him.

He could easily break this sort of magic. He could escape and take over. I didn’t think for a second I’d overpowered someone like him, but no matter how much I teased and refused to give him the pleasure he craved, he didn’t break the hold my magic had on him.

He stayed my prisoner.

I wanted to see how far I could take it before he couldn’t take anymore and broke out. Before the torture was too much and he had to get his hands on me. Soon, it was the little wager I made with myself to see how much the brute could stand.

The salty taste of his excitement spread across my tongue as I dipped down and took more of his length into my mouth.

I swirled my tongue around the crown and bobbed a little.

His hips punched upwards, but my hands restrained the movement, magic glowing around them.

Another feral sound he made dissolved into the magic wrapped around his mouth.

Frustration burned in the stare locked with mine.

Lips tilted, I swallowed more of his shaft until I felt it at the back of my throat.

His muscles clenched against the onslaught of pleasure.

The torture struck every muscle in his body as he fought to stay still.

He was barely keeping it together. It wouldn’t take much on my part to make this huge brute break.

I took my time, deep-throating his dick the way I knew he liked.

Silas groaned again, his pecs and biceps flexing.

I was going too slow for him. The stimulation was probably just on the edge of what he needed.

The strain of his body was visible everywhere I looked.

He was losing the battle. He pulled on the restraints, but he didn’t break them.

Just a little more, and I bet he would.

Taking it excruciatingly slow, I withdrew to the tip and slickened the crown with my tongue again, tasting more precum than before.

His chest swelled with the effort it took to fight himself.

He was stronger than me. He could push my hands off if he wanted to.

Sink his cock deeper. Fuck my mouth the way he was desperate to.

But he didn’t.

Rising to the challenge, I straddled him again. His eyes followed me, his chest rising and falling with effort. He couldn’t hide how erratic his breathing had become. Silas might be a trained killer, but under me, he was just another man.

The way he’d throbbed in my mouth, it wouldn’t take much to make him come, and I’d break him. The power had gone to my head. I couldn’t go back. Plans be damned. I wanted to see Silas give in and lose control. Nothing else mattered.

Rubbing myself over his cock, I made sure he knew just how wet I was for him.

How much being in control had turned me on.

His little groan and twisted expression suggested he got the message loud and clear.

And for a second, I lost myself to the incredible sensation of riding on top of him.

I forgot the ominous future waiting for us outside this room.

I escaped it all with this dangerous man and his pleasurable torment.

A sizzling crackle of magic snapped me out of my head. I was still sliding back and forth on top of him, my head dropped back, but after a second crackle and loud snap, Silas’s hands were on my waist, holding tight.

“Fucking sod it,” he cursed angrily as his cock slammed into me. I didn’t have time to gasp. His pace was brutal from the start. He drove into me hard enough to send my body into a violent bounce, angling so his hips did all the work, not mine.

“Oh, fuck!” I cried out, his dick burying deep inside and hitting all the right places.

His breathing was rough as he drove into me without waiting and without mercy.

My mercenary had lost it. I’d won. His thrusts were frantic and forceful.

I might be moving, but it was his powerful upward lunges that made it so.

I came down on him several times, on the edge of something violent and world-shattering.

My fingernails cut into his flesh as I tried to anchor myself to something solid. “Wait, Silas—”

But it was too late.

My orgasm crashed into me, nearly sending me flying back, but Silas had already wrapped his arms around me.

I was crushed against his chest as his cock pushed in so deep I worried it’d destroy my insides.

My arms clung to his head as I rode out the intense flood.

A little growl was smothered into my shoulder, and then his cock pulsed several times as he came.

I tried to crawl off, but Silas’s hold tightened, a wild gleam in his eye. “And where do you think you’re going, love?”

“Lev will be back soon,” I argued, trying to disentangle myself.

Silas had me off the bed in his arms, cock still buried inside. “Oh, the lad can wait. My insatiable rebel couldn’t possibly be satisfied with just that, yeah? What kind of bloke would I be if I left my bird unsatisfied?”

A sharp breath caught in my throat as he dropped me down on his already hard length several times. Sadly, the pleasure was enough of a distraction that he got what he wanted before I managed to get my thoughts together. And when I finally did, I was already too deep into it to let go.

“You better be quick, asshole,” I threatened, my arms wrapped around his neck.

He kissed me roughly before winking. “You can’t rush perfection, love, but I’ll do my best.”

After dropping a claiming kiss on my mouth, Silas fitted the usual mask over his face and pulled his hood to hide his silver hair. “No funny business, lad. Anything happens to her, and it’s me you’ll have to answer to, yeah?”

Lev scoffed and crossed his arms, several weapons visible along his belt. “As if I’d ever let anything happen to her. You must be joking.” The muscles in his arms flexed as green magic danced around his body in growing agitation. “I’ve been by her side for decades, you forget.”

Silas revealed the list he kept tucked inside his pocket—the one he’d written after dragging names out of my best friend. “This list wouldn’t exist if you’d been doing your bleeding job, lad. These numpties would’ve already been dead and buried.”

Lev’s jaw ticked.

I pressed a hand on my friend’s shoulder and leveled a glare on Silas.

“That’s not fair, and you know it.” Silas deflated a little at the scolding.

It didn’t take a genius to know he’d crossed a line.

“Lev was the reason I stayed alive a lot of those times. You can’t possibly know what he risked by staying by my side all these years.

What he gave up by choosing me over her that night.

Lev has sacrificed more for me than anyone else.

” I paused, the next words punctuated. “And that includes you.”

Silence fell over the three of us. The evening wind swept the grass around our feet, and the moon beamed down from a cloudless sky speckled with stars.

We were only a short walk from Dark Fae Society territory, and once we crossed over, we’d need to be swift and silent.

Our squabbles had to be left here on this grassy hill, or we’d risk everything that brought us here.

“My mistake, lad,” the mercenary finally mumbled.

Lev brushed back his hair and nodded, the moonlight hitting his eyes in a way that made them beam several ethereal shades of green. “It’s fine.”

“No.” Silas blew out a sigh from behind his mask. “She’s right. You’ve more than proven to be my bird’s greatest ally and friend. We’re lucky to have you on our side.”

Lev seemed impressed by the big oaf’s apology, but I’d seen this side enough to know it was coming.

Silas walked around like he was the biggest and meanest mercenary that ever lived. Like nothing and no one could ever touch him. And yes, he might be an arrogant asshole who was all jokes and perversion, but he knew how to admit when he was wrong.

It might take me reminding him every now and again, but at his core, Silas was a good man who’d spent his life living in the dark while pining for the light.

He wanted to be better than he was. Most of all, he respected Lev.

He knew better than anyone Lev would protect me, or he would’ve dragged me along with him to carry out his revenge.

I put on the mask Lev had commissioned a few days ago.

It was modeled after the ones the Dark Fae wore for missions.

Lifting my hood, I covered my purple hair like the mercenary in front of me.

“Besides… she is plenty capable of taking care of herself, thank you both very much.” Blue met silver, and without seeing it, I knew the mercenary was smirking in that obnoxious way of his.

“You get as long as it takes us to get the book, or we’ll leave you behind. ”

Turning, I watched Lev put on his own mask and cover his blue hair with the hood of his cloak. “Fine by me. I doubt he’d have any trouble escaping without us, and if he gets captured, it’d be his own damn fault.”

“A compliment from the lad? Is it my birthday?” Silas taunted, but the inflection in his voice suggested he was, in fact, flattered.

“Only you would hear that as a compliment,” Lev complained. After a little shake of his head, he gestured the direction we had to go. “Let’s stop wasting time. Our window is short, and the longer we linger, the more we risk arousing suspicion.”

We didn’t have a traveling stone to get in this time.

We were infiltrating old school, with the tunnels he’d used to get me out last time.

We’d have a long trek from where the tunnels spat us out and the area we’d find the book in.

Since Lev took part in their security detail, he was fairly confident he could figure out the placement pattern after identifying a few guards. It’d lay out our path once we did.

The Dark Fae didn’t know Lev was involved, but they also conveniently thought he was dead.

That he’d been taken when his mother was killed.

So the three of us took extra measures to keep our identities hidden.

We couldn’t risk them knowing it was us.

It wasn’t clear what Rilas did or didn’t know, or who he’d employed to feed him intel.

The more precautions we took, the better our chances to catch Rilas by surprise.

Lucky for us, most high-ranking Dark Fae wore some sort of cloak and mask that covered the upper half of their face on missions.

Nothing like Silas’s, but the outfits were aimed to conceal their identity, at least in part.

It wouldn’t seem odd for us to be wearing one.

They couldn’t halt their ongoing initiatives.

Assignments were vital to their survival.

As long as they didn’t stop us and ask questions, we’d go through the halls undetected.

Just two Dark Fae on their way to execute orders.

Silas took a knee in front of me and snatched my hand, his mask concealing everything but his silver eyes. “Be careful, love, or I’ll be forced to kill them all.” He lifted the mask just enough to drop a kiss on my hand, then he was gone in a sparkle of blue.

“Show off,” Lev mumbled cutely before making his way toward the place we’d once called home.