Page 19

I looked into the eyes of the King of the Dead and inexplicably felt safe. Warm like I was in bed. Comfortable like I’d known him all my life, when I really didn’t know him at all. “You speak of grief like you know it well.”

He stared at me for a while, his head slightly cocked as he absorbed my words. “I do.”

“Who have you lost?” I asked quietly, feeling a twinge of pain for a man who remained mysterious.

“Everyone.”

“You’re the King of the Dead?—”

“But I haven’t always been so.”

I wanted to know more about his story, but based on his short replies, I knew he didn’t want to give answers. He gave me a window into his soul, but the curtains were drawn and the lights were low. “You said you know everything.”

“I do.”

“Then do you know the occupants of those golden ships?” My father was cautious and concerned, and that made me the same way.

“Yes.”

“Who are they?”

He dipped his chin for an instant. “That’s not how this works.

I cut deals with greedy men, grant vengeance to those who need to extinguish their rage.

Take souls that belong in my realm and souls that don’t belong there.

I’m God of the Dead, not God of the Living, and it’s not my place to interfere with the events that unfold across this world. ”

“You interfered when you killed those men.”

“I interfered for you,” he said. “And I won’t do it again.”

“So, they do have an interest in the Southern Isles.”

“You twist my words like a viper.”

“When I told my father about those men, he was concerned. That made me concerned. It looked like they were going to war. Or they’d just completed a war…”

He looked at me with confidence, with a stare that was potent with surety and strength. The only man who ever looked at me that way was my own father. The only man I knew who had a spine as hard as the steel of his blade.

I stared back, silently begging him to tell me what I wanted.

He gave a quiet breath. “They’re called Barbarians.

Soldiers and warriors who served their king—until they staged a coup and murdered him and his family.

Their kingdom has withered in a frost that hasn’t waned in three years.

A kingdom draped in the curtains of luxury, it’s fallen to ruin.

They blamed the king, and once the king was dead, they had no one to blame but themselves.

They scour the seas in search of their new home, and they’ll take it by whatever force is necessary. ”

My lungs ached as I sucked in a quick breath. I’d considered my father paranoid, but not anymore. Even with the dragons in our ranks, the idea of anyone challenging this beautiful place for themselves still scared me.

He watched my fear stretch across my face. “Their attention is not on your kingdom.”

“Do they know of the Southern Isles?”

“No.”

The relief was so pleasurable I wanted to feel it again. I wished I could share this with my father, but I would have no way to explain my knowledge.

His hands slid underneath my thighs, and he lifted me from the counter, bringing me into his chest like I weighed nothing.

My arms automatically circled his neck, and I was enveloped in his sweltering heat. I was still sore from our night together, but the sight of this gorgeous man made me drop any hesitation. I’d take the pain for the pleasure anytime.

He carried me to my bedroom and laid me down like last time.

His bottoms were dropped, and he was naked—and of course, he was already hard.

He pulled on my garments and yanked them free like they were rags rather than nice articles of clothing.

When he had me naked, he bent me into position and immediately moved his face between my thighs, drawing in a deep breath like all he wanted to do was smell me.

I’d never had a guy smell me.

It was the most possessive thing a man had ever done to me…and I liked it.

Then he kissed me, worshipped my entrance to earn his worthiness. Made me writhe slowly on the bed, breathe harder with every passing second, make me sweat when all I did was lie there.

He sucked my clit hard before he moved over me, bending my knees and folding me underneath him like last time.

He didn’t turn me off or ask for me to get on top.

He bent me until I couldn’t bend anymore then sank inside me like he’d been thinking about this moment every second since the last time it had happened.

He felt bigger than last time. He invaded my lands, carved his name into my soul, felt me deeper than anyone had before. He was the biggest man I’d ever taken, the biggest man to ever fit inside this small bed, to fit inside me.

When he was as deep as he could go, he gave a moan in satisfaction.

Veins popped in his arms and his neck, and he held himself still as he looked down at me, like a predator admiring the prey it had caught.

Then he started to rock into me, his big dick making room for itself within my flesh.

His kiss softened the friction between our bodies, and when that had been soaked up, my arousal did the rest of the work.

It hurt, made me wince, but he continued like he couldn’t stop himself.

“Fuck, you’ve got a big dick.”

He continued to thrust, not showing a hint of a smile. “You can handle it, Xivin .”

I gripped his arms as my eyes remained locked on his, watching him watch me, memorizing my face as I reacted to the way he felt inside me. His arms were far bigger than my hands, so I could only hold on to a section of muscle.

Unable to move because of the way I was stretched, I lay still as he did all the work. He moaned several times and quickened his thrusts, a man succumbing to the desire of a woman, and that was so sexy to watch.

Despite the discomfort of his magnum size, I came all over his dick, swept away by the heat between our bodies that burned the room down to the stone foundation.

The sex wasn’t wild and crazy. He didn’t throw me around or wrap his fingers around my neck.

It was simple, missionary, but our bodies together were pure destruction.

He gave a heated moan as he thrust harder, pushing deeper into me with nowhere to go. The head of his dick hit a dead end, but I didn’t tell him to stop, because watching him get off was so damn hot.

He filled me and came to a halt, still a mountain on top of me, storm clouds that cast my land into shadow. It was the moment he would usually let me unfold and remove the stiffness from all my joints, but he kept me there.

And his dick stayed there.

He started to thrust again, just as hard as he’d been before we’d both finished, pounding me into the mattress and making my headboard tap against the wall. Like a sailor who’d been gone at sea for months at a time, he set foot on shore and released all the desire he’d contained on his journey.

But a man who looked like this didn’t have to wait long for women.

He could have anyone he wanted—dead or alive.

I pulled on a clean shirt from one of my drawers then stepped into the kitchen. An assortment of bottles of white were on the counter, but I grabbed a bottle of red before I uncorked it and poured a glass.

I took a drink then headed back to my bedroom, the house quiet like I was the only one in it.

I stepped into the bedroom, and the fire had been lit in the hearth in my absence.

It glowed and cast Wrath in a gentle light, making his big chest shine, creating long shadows under his jawline.

His dark eyes looked a little brighter, less like the color of earth and more like copper.

I returned to bed with my glass of wine.

He sat up against the headboard and pulled me into him, making me use his chest as a pillow. My body fit between his thighs, and he wrapped his enormous arms around me.

I drank my wine and relaxed into him, cozy and warm.

He rested his chin on the back of my head, the sheets pulled to our waist.

It was hard to believe a man so big was in my bed right now, and I was the only one who could see him.

We sat together for a long time, at least an hour, and nothing was said.

He certainly didn’t feel like a stranger anymore, but a lover I’d had for a while.

I’d felt a twinge of pain in my chest when I’d left Viper behind, but I quickly forgot about him once Wrath came into my life.

He was far more dangerous than a vampire.

Guess I had a type.

“What does Xivin mean?” I looked at the fire across the room, but his arms felt like the flames that gently heated my skin.

“It’s an endearment in the language of Xian.”

“Xian?”

“Death. The afterlife is known as the Realm of Caelum. The underworld is Xian.”

“Oh.” My glass of wine was already almost empty. I should have brought the bottle with me into my room. “And what does Xivin mean?”

“There is no literal translation. But the closest I can explain it is… mine . Completely, utterly, irrevocably.” His deep voice came from behind my ear, his breaths gently grazing the soft shell.

I felt his possession whenever we were together. Whenever he looked at me. And now, I felt it verbally, knowing he would say it again. “When you aren’t here…where do you go?”

“Xian.”

“And what is that like?”

He said nothing for a while, like he might not say anything at all.

“It’s a place with no color, only a spectrum of gray.

The trees are withered without sunlight.

The shadows are long in the light of the torches.

It’s quiet except for the constant hum that thuds in the deep.

Some that enter Xian choose the darkness of the forest. Others choose to serve. Others choose madness.”

Now, I wished I hadn’t asked. “It sounds like a horrible place.”

“There is beauty in all things…if you look hard enough.”

“And this is what you wanted?” I asked. “To rule the dead? To live in a land without sun?”

He was quiet again, his face hidden because he was seated behind me. “No.”

“Then how did you come to be there?”