Page 24

From the depths of the dark surface of the full-length mirror, a stranger stared back at me.

Black lace traced the curves of a woman I barely recognized, and the gown that clung to my skin belonged to someone else.

Someone who wasn’t me.

Obsidian beads shimmered in intricate patterns and accentuated the swell of my breasts and the shocking plunge of the neckline.

I was too exposed. Too sensual.

I didn’t want Lucian to see me this way.

But every dark crystal was a reminder of what awaited me.

Tomorrow.

My reflection wavered, a ghostly mirage.

I lift a trembling hand to trace my fingertips over the edge of the deep-v of the neckline.

A silent woman knelt at my feet. With silver pins pinched between her lips, her gaze flickered over her handiwork. She had made every adjustment without my opinion or input—but the fit was undeniably perfect. Her black eyes were filled with satisfaction as she surveyed me critically.

Not so long ago, I would have cringed and cowered rather than be looked at for any length of time.

But the grimoire’s whispers rose in my mind like a viper and my chin lifted as I stood still and rooted.

Waiting to strike.

The lace gripped me like a lover's hands.

Every part of this dress had been crafted for someone else—

Not someone else.

My mother.

I had seen the gown in Julia’s closet before she—

My jaw tightened.

Before he had taken her life. Her power.

“Your power,” the grimoire hissed.

Yes.

My power.

I stood straighter and turned my shoulders. The dress caught the light, and the beads shone like liquid onyx flowing down my frame. Their dark shimmer reflected the world that had trapped me—a world that was consuming me piece by piece.

I had never imagined my wedding day.

I had never drawn sketches of the gown I wanted to wear, or imagined what the cake would taste like.

Why would I?

That was for other girls. Girls from powerful families with useful magic and proper connections.

Not for me.

And now I stood on a padded stool as a woman who hadn’t spoken a single word to me beyond instructions to move or stop moving hemmed an oppressively exquisite gown I hadn’t chosen, for a wedding day I didn’t want.

Poetic.

Tragic.

Fucking horrifying.

“But your promise—” The grimoire’s whisper was a comforting weight in my mind.

It had found out what the Council wanted from me.

But far from warning me against it, the Bloodstone Grimoire seemed to want the same thing…

“You’ll be a widow before you know it,” it hissed. A languid purr of support.

But then what?

“Whatever you want,” it replied.

My skin prickled, and I straightened my shoulders.

The woman finished her work, stood, and looked me up and down.

“Are we finished?” I asked.

The woman nodded.

Why didn’t anyone speak to me?

I stepped off the platform and the dress rustled softly around me. The weight of the coming wedding pressed harder on my shoulders.

I knew what I had to do, but finding the strength to go through with it—I didn’t know where I would find it.

“You have to find it.”

She helped me to undress, and I kept my eyes averted as the dark lace slipped down my body. When I stepped out of the gown, I didn’t wrap my arms around myself to shield my nakedness from her.

I knew she wasn’t looking at me.

What did I care about what she thought?

“Good girl,” the grimoire praised as I snatched my robe from the back of the vanity chair and pulled it over my shoulders.

A dress-form had been set up in front of the window, and gifts that had come from Lucian were arranged on the window seat. The pile of boxes had stolen away my precious space. I just wanted it all to be over.

Being alone in all of this was the worst part.

I could sense my stepbrothers through the blood bond, but it wasn’t as strong as it had been before I’d been taken.

Something was wrong.

“Or maybe they’re plotting against you—”

No. That couldn’t be the reason. If they betrayed me, they would die— they wouldn’t risk it.

“You don’t know that.”

The poison sweetness of the grimoire’s voice was gone, and in its place was the bitter venom beneath.

I couldn’t trust anyone.

“You’re learning.”

My jaw tightened as the seamstress turned away from the dress form. “Will there be anything else?” I asked.

The woman shook her head and picked up her bag.

As she left the room, I hoped she could sense how much I hated her—how much I hated everything that was happening to me. It wasn’t her fault, of course, but she was a willing participant in my misery.

She deserved nothing more than my spite.

I crossed to the window and shoved the boxes to the floor.

Indulgent silks and velvets spilled free, jewellery I didn’t want and couldn’t bear to look at clattered on the hardwood floor and the scent of sweet sandalwood and heady jasmine filled my nose.

I kicked them aside and opened the window.

The air beyond was damp and metallic.

Even the rain tasted like iron.

A knock at the door snapped through me like a shot, and I turned, breathless, and pulled my robe tighter around myself. I half-expected to see Lucian in the doorway, and I cursed myself for choosing a robe that was so sheer and delicate.

I didn’t want him to find me alluring in any way. I was already too vulnerable.

I opened my mouth to say something, but no sound came out.

My eyes closed as a vibration rippled through me—it wasn’t Lucian at the door.

It was them.

With the slightest gesture of my hand, the knob turned and the door opened.

Titus, Valen, and Bastian loomed in the hallway.

Three dark figures that set my heart pounding.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” I said, but the words were a gasp of relief.

They entered the room like shadows, soundless and sure and Bastian pushed the door shut behind them. “And yet here we are,” he said.

His voice was a dark melody, and I wanted to dissolve in it.

“You need to leave,” I said. The lie caught in my throat.

“Avril—” Valen’s eyes were already pleading.

I turned my back to them. “You shouldn’t have come.”

Titus’s laugh chilled the air. “How could we stay away?” He reached for me and pulled me against him. The silk robe was a whisper between us.

I leaned into him. “You don’t understand.”

“You’re not going through with it. We won’t let this happen.” There was an urgency in Valen’s voice that sliced through me.

I pulled away from Titus and stepped backward, shaking my head. “I have a plan. You have to trust me.”

The three of them exchanged looks.

“What the fuck is she talking about?” Bastian asked.

“Tell us what you’re going to do,” Valen said, his voice low and rough.

Our gazes locked. He was so damned earnest—so intense—that I had to look away before I told him everything.

Titus reached for me again, his long fingers gentle on my wrists. But for how long?

“Tell us.”

The grimoire’s whispers flooded my mind, the viper coiling around my thoughts, squeezing out doubt and trust. I couldn’t tell them. If they knew, they would stop me. And if I failed—

“There’s nothing to tell,” I said. “You just… you have to trust me.”

Valen’s touch was light as he laid his hand on my shoulder. “We do trust you,” he said. “But Lucian—”

“We don’t fucking trust him,” Bastian finished.

They surrounded me, and the room seemed to shrink under the weight of their concern.

“Whatever you think you’re going to do, it’s not going to work,” Titus growled. “He won’t just own you. He’ll consume you.”

“You see, they doubt you— They don’t think you’re strong enough—”

The grimoire’s whisper was sharp and anger boiled up inside me.

“Do you really think I’m that weak?” I snapped.

“Please,” Bastian implored in a tone that surprised me. “We’re not ready to lose you.”

I took a breath and let it fill the silence. My heart ached with their sincerity, but I couldn’t deny the rage that crept into my chest.

It would be easy to ask for their help, so easy to depend on them.

“Every time you’ve trusted them, they failed you,” the grimoire hissed.

Had they?

“You know it’s true—”

I couldn’t falter now.

I wouldn’t.

“I have a plan,” I mumbled. I meet Titus’s gaze first, steady and unflinching. “I know what I’m doing.”

His grip tightened on my wrists, and the chill of his worry pulsed through the blood bond. “Do you really? Lucian is unpredictable— Everything that’s happened— It’s only made him worse.”

“You have to trust that I know what I’m capable of.”

“What are we supposed to do?” Bastian asked. “You can’t expect us to just… watch you go through with this without doing anything.”

They were so close to me, so close to making me admit I had no idea if this plan would work.

So close to making me crumble.

I could feel their hearts pounding in time with mine.

The look on their faces, the rawness of their desperation, the way they surrounded me—it would be so easy to ask them for help.

But—

“You’ll have to,” I said as firmly as I dared.

I had to do this.

Alone.

“Not alone,” the grimoire whispered.

Valen turned away and his shoulder knocked against the dress form. The shimmering gown wavered and almost toppled before he grabbed it and then pulled his hand away as though he’d been burned.

His expression was tight as he glared at me. “Did you choose this?”

“You know I didn’t,” I snapped back.

I wasn’t going to let him make this my fault.

“She’s not going to listen to us.” Bastian’s eyes were wide, and the uncertainty in them made my chest tighten.

Titus’s grip loosened, and he released me, but his gaze stayed locked on my face. “She’s just as stubborn as we are.”

He had no idea how accurate that statement was.

There was a moment of silence as the three of them looked at me, each of their expressions filled with anger and something that could have been regret—

“If you change your mind…”

Bastian snorted. “She won’t.”

“What can we do?” Titus asked.

I stared back at him in surprise. “What?”

His dark gaze didn’t waver. “What do you need from us?”

Bastian moved forward and Titus passed him one of my hands. He held me in a firm grip and the warmth of his palm burned against my skin. “We can make you forget—”

“Forget?”

Valen came up behind me and his hands fell on my hips.

His breath was hot on my neck. “If you won’t let us help— We can make you forget all of this… just for a while.”

I bit my lip.

I wanted to forget.

I wanted to block this nightmare out.

If only for a little while.

I needed to be strong. I needed to be reminded why I was fighting against this fate that was being forced upon me.

But—

“Be careful,” the grimoire warned. “They’ll ruin everything.”

My mind was a whirlwind of doubt and rage and longing and fear. I wanted to believe that I could do this alone, but—

“Please, Avril,” Valen said.

“Or just tell us to fuck off if that’s what you really want,” Bastian added.

Couldn’t I have both?

I looked at each of them and I felt as though my heart was being torn into three ragged pieces.

“I don’t want you to go,” I said finally.

Their response was a tangle of growls and my head fell back as Valen’s mouth pressed against the side of my throat.

Bastian tugged at the knot of my robe and the silken fabric fell to the floor to be trampled under their boots.

Titus pressed his body against mine, his breath hot as he whispered. “We’re going to make you remember every fucking second.” The sting of his words shot through me.

I was already remembering everything.

I was remembering how much I wanted them.

How much they’d hurt me.

Their cruelty and their kindness.

How they’d saved me from Lucian and how they’d delivered me back to him.

How they’d promised to protect me… and how they’d failed.

Bastian’s mouth was on mine, fierce and demanding. “You belong to us,” he said against my lips.

I opened my mouth to reply, but my voice died in my throat as Valen’s hands slid over my skin.

Their touch was a reminder of what was at stake. Of what I stood to lose.

And of what I would take back, one way or another.

My fingers raked over Bastian’s shoulders and he bit back a groan as I pulled him against me.

Valen’s hands were on my ass, on my thighs, pulling me tight against him.

Titus dragged his nails down my sides, and I cried out as heat and want flooded through me.

Bastian’s mouth was hot and insistent as his tongue traced the curves of my collarbone.

I was lost in them.

Lost in their hands and their mouths and their bodies and—

“Yes,” the grimoire sighed. “Lose yourself.”

I melted against them as they moved me to the bed.

I fell back onto the sheets, and they were on me—around me—

Bastian’s fingers twisted in my hair, and he pulled my head back, arching my throat for his lips. Titus’s mouth was on my breasts and Valen’s hands were on my hips, lifting me against their bodies.

I was expecting rough hands and hard cocks—the usual delicious violence that I craved from my stepbrothers.

But the hunger in their hands was tempered, almost gentle.

“Tell us what you want,” Bastian hissed in my ear. “Tell us what you want to remember on your wedding night.”

Valen’s hands slid down to my thighs, and I bit back a gasp as his lips pressed against my heated skin.

Titus lifted his head from my breasts, his eyes dark. “Tell us, Avril. Or we’ll just have to guess.”

They were so fucking close to me, so close to making me admit that I’d never wanted them more.

Bastian’s mouth tugged at my ear. “Tell us.”

I shuddered and closed my eyes as Valen’s mouth moved closer to the apex of my thighs.

“Everything.”

The word tumbled from my lips on a gasp and Valen’s tongue swept over my pussy.

“That’s cheating,” Bastian murmured.

Titus shifted on the bed and moved behind me so I could lean back against his chest.

Valen knelt on the floor beside the bed, his face buried between my thighs.

Bastian’s hands roamed over my bare torso, plucking and pinching my nipples to draw them to hard peaks while I gasped.

Titus held me gently, but his hands were firm so I couldn’t squirm away.

“Tell us what you want,” Titus growled in my ear.

“Everything,” I said again, breathless.

Valen’s tongue pressed hard against my clit, and his fingers teased at my entrance. I was already so close to the edge.

“We’re not going to make it that easy,” Bastian said, and the wickedness in his words made me shudder.

Titus’s arms tightened around me. “Remember this,” he hissed. “Remember who you belong to.”

Valen’s lips and tongue teased the heat between my thighs. Bastian’s teeth grazed my nipples. Titus’s fingers whispered over my skin.

My head fell back, and I gasped.

I was going to come.

I was going to—

Valen’s mouth left me and I cried out at its loss.

“Not yet,” he said, his voice a rasp of hunger.

I was trapped.

I was caught in them.

And it was exactly what I wanted.

Valen’s fingers pressed against my slick entrance and I shifted my hips to urge him on.

“Tell us what you want,” Bastian demanded.

I whimpered and rocked against Valen’s fingers, but he pulled them back and my breath hissed through my teeth in frustration.

Titus’s breath was hot on my neck as he whispered. “Tell us, Avril.”

“Fuck me,” I whispered. “With your fingers…”

Valen’s smile was wicked as he slid two fingers inside me, but his strokes were slow and measured, and I wanted more.

My gaze flickered to Bastian and my cheeks burned with a strange shame as I commanded him. “Rub my clit.”

Bastian chuckled and his hand slid between my thighs and his fingers teased against the hard bud of my clit.

“And me?” Titus growled in my ear.

I twisted back to look at him and didn’t bother to bite back a groan as Valen added a third finger to his thrusts.

I couldn’t ask for it.

“I know what she wants,” Bastian said with a dark chuckle as his fingers moved over my clit. Valen’s movements stretched my aching pussy as they drove me closer to the edge.

“She has to ask,” Titus growled, but the pale green smoke of his magic wound around my torso and crept over my breasts. Cold and sinuous.

Yes. That was what I wanted.

“I want you to fuck me,” I moaned. “All of you.”

“How?” he urged.

I was desperate to cum, and my hips bucked as a jolt of pleasure shot through me.

“Lift me up—”

“You know what she wants,” Bastian said hoarsely, “give it to her.”

His pale eyes glittered with lust, and I could see the hard outline of his cock against his jeans.

Valen’s thrusting fingers never slowed in their rhythm, and Bastian rubbed my clit in quick, tight circles and my orgasm drew closer as Titus’ magic wound around me.

“Fine,” Titus hissed.

I let out a cry of frustration as Valen and Bastian abandoned their duties and left me quivering on the edge of release.

Valen pushed his fingers into his mouth and kept his eyes on mine as he licked them clean.

My pussy throbbed, aching to be filled as Titus’ magic wrapped around my limbs and bore me aloft.

I floated just off the bed, bound by his magic.

This had once been a torture I’d fought against. But now I relished the feel of his magic as it burned and caressed my skin and drove my pleasure higher.

A tendril wound around my throat and squeezed gently—not with malice, but with another intent.

I moaned as the pale green smoke slid down over my breasts and between my thighs to move against my swollen flesh. Teasing and tormenting with every second that passed.

I watched my stepbrothers with hungry eyes as they undressed and threw their clothes aside.

Whoever was naked first—

Titus.

Of course.

He never wanted to wait.

His magic responded to a flick of his fingers and my legs were spread wider apart, almost painfully, exposing me to them in ways that should have made me cry out in shame and horror.

But I wanted this.

Wanted them.

My magic flexed and coiled inside me, aching to lash out, but instead they stoked the flames of my lust even higher.

Titus stroked his hand over his cock with languid ease as he approached the bed.

We’d done this before—and I was suspended at the perfect height, open and ready.

Dripping wet.

He rubbed the head of his cock against my entrance, teasing me with it, and my eyes drifted closed as I gritted my teeth to keep from crying out in frustration.

It was one thing to be bound—another to be kept waiting.

“Command me,” he said.

His words made my eyes open wide to stare at him.

Valen wanted to be commanded, Bastian wanted the exchange of power—but Titus? He was always in control. Always took what he wanted.

“Fuck me,” I said without hesitation. “Give me every inch of your cock.”

His magic tightened around my throat—a caress—and he positioned the head of his cock at my entrance.

“Now,” I groaned.

Titus’s dark eyes flashed with lust as he took hold of my waist and did as he obeyed my order.

He fucked me with reckless abandon, with a force that drove all thought from my head and made me forget everything except the feel of him inside me.

My release was already building, already surging, and I let out a choked sob as the pleasure ignited every nerve ending and sent spasms through my body.

Titus’s magic squeezed tighter and his hips moved with relentless speed as he fucked me harder. He didn’t slow, didn’t stop, even when my muscles clenched around him and I came with a sharp cry that tore from my throat.

He thrust into me until I felt his cock pulse inside me and his magic squeezed so tight that I thought I would pass out.

Another tremor of ecstasy tore through me as he pulled out and spilled his seed in hot spurts over my belly and breasts.

He pulled out and his magic held me aloft for another moment, suspended in a helpless anticipation that made me shiver.

Bastian’s laugh was low and wicked as his hands closed around my hips and dragged me to him.

Titus’s magic relaxed long enough for me to take a deep, shuddering breath before Bastian sank his cock inside me.

He wasn’t slow or cautious. He moved with the same raw urgency that Titus had—and I knew why.

I was theirs, and they would remind me of it over and over until I couldn’t think of anything else.

Until I couldn’t forget who I belonged to.

Valen’s lips captured mine, his kiss smoldering as I shuddered around Bastian’s cock.

Bastian’s movements were wild and uncontrolled, and each thrust sent a jolt of pleasure shooting through me.

I was weightless with sensation.

The world was a blur of heat and need and the pulse of blood in my ears that drowned out even the grimoire’s whispers.

Bastian’s cock moved inside me with quick, hard thrusts, and my gasps became cries as my body surrendered to the pleasure.

As my pussy clenched around him, Bastian groaned. “Say it. Say it, Avril.”

“I belong to you.”

The admission came out on a whimper and my back arched as I came.

Bastian’s fingers dug into my hips as he drove into me, and his cock pulsed and throbbed as he followed me over the edge. A choked groan ripped from his lips, and he pulled out of my hot cunt and stroked his cock with quick strokes before he came on my stomach and his seed mingled with his brothers to drip down my ribs and onto the hardwood floor.

Titus’ magic shimmered against my over-sensitized skin as it cradled and caressed me. Bastian and Titus flanked me, breathing heavily, their bodies flush against mine, while Valen took up a position between my legs.

“Every goddamn second,” Valen said, echoing Titus’ earlier promise. The look in his eyes was hungry and possessive. I bucked against him as he pushed the thickness of his cock inside me. The exquisite stretch of my pussy around his cock dragged a moan from my lips and my head fell back against Titus’ shoulder as Valen began to move between my thighs.

He fucked me hard, each stroke deep and claiming, and I let them keep me captive in their arms as Valen drew out my fevered cries. My body was a map of sensation, wrapped in their magic and painted with their release.

Titus’ mouth was a demand against my lips and I opened for him, letting him claim me with his tongue as Valen claimed me with his body. I melted against them, giving myself to the pleasure and forgetting everything except the feel of Valen’s cock inside me and Titus and Bastian’s hands on my body.

Valen thrust faster, harder, his hips snapping against my ass until my breath came in ragged gasps. His cock drove me to the brink, and the world was a blur of heat and want and the raw possession in his eyes as he looked at me.

“Say it,” he growled, and I knew what he wanted.

What they all wanted.

“I belong to you,” I moaned, barely able to form the words as he fucked me with ruthless intensity. “I belong to all of you.”

My words pushed him over the edge and he exploded inside me, his release hot and deep.

I gasped as his seed poured into me and my body tightened around him, drawing out every last tremor of his climax.

Valen pulled out, leaving me empty and aching, and the three of them held me. The pale green smoke of Titus’ magic dissipated, and the brothers wrapped me in their arms like a prize they’d won.

“Remember this,” Titus’s voice rumbled in my ear.

My breath was shallow and uneven, and my pulse was frantic as I lay on the bed with their bodies around me. I could feel their cum slipping down my skin in wet, sticky trails.

“I will,” I murmured.

I’d given myself to them.

But I’d only lost myself for a little while.

This time, I wasn’t going to let them change my mind.