Page 53

Chapter

Thirty-Nine

Bloom

In His Bed

I opened my eyes to a vast four-poster bed that wasn’t mine. The silk pillow beneath me carried Nero’s scent of sandalwood, winter rain, and brimstone. This was his room.

Overhead, arched wooden beams bore runes and symbols, their meanings beyond my grasp, but I knew they were protection wards, their power undeniable.

The air held the crisp tang of the lake outside, layered with wood incense.

Soft golden light glowed from the walls, as if magic hummed beneath the stone.

The floor was dark marble streaked with veins of red and orange, like frozen hellfire.

Across from the bed, flames flickered in a black marble hearth, burning in unnatural shades, purple and blue twisting through the gold.

Two plush velvet chairs faced each other over an ornate table, set on a Persian rug woven with pomegranates and dark blooms. Every detail spoke of old wealth, of a refuge made to last.

I pushed back the silky sheets and sat up slowly. A pitcher of water stood on the side table, a crystal glass beside it. I fetched the glass and took a swig, the cool water soothing my parched throat.

Morrigan must have healed me. The pain that had nearly consumed me was now no more than a faint ache, like an echo.

The thirst eased, and I noticed I was wearing a black silk shirt that fell to my thighs. Nero’s, no doubt, as it carried his scent. The familiarity of it was strangely intimate and comforting.

I checked my arms and legs, seeing no marks on my skin, as if the wounds had never existed. I lifted the shirt to check the old scars beneath my breasts, relieved to find them still there.

Someone, either Morrigan or Nero, had cleaned me, but I still needed to scrub away the terror that clung to my body. Once I felt like myself again, I’d find Nero or return to my room in Ravencrux Tower.

I padded toward the side door, looking for a bathroom.

A vast tub of black-and-white marble stood against a diamond-paned window, overlooking the dark lake. Steam curled off the water’s surface, already drawn and scattered with rose petals. Candles lined the marble ledges.

I slid into the tub, heaving out a satisfied sigh as the heat of the water sank deep into my muscles, expelling the chills from my bones.

Nero had prepared this for me. I hadn’t expected such thoughtfulness from him, this kind of tender care. When we first met, I’d assumed he wanted nothing more than a few rough fucks. I’d been wrong.

Beyond the window, storm clouds rolled over the lake, swift and heavy. Then the rain came, a hushed rhythm against the glass. For a moment, it was almost poetic, almost peaceful, though the peace was a lie. I’d nearly died today.

If Nero hadn’t found me, I’d have bled out by that well, my Weaver magic grabbing the throats of my enemies as I dragged them to hell with me.

My chin lifted. I was still here and they were not. My jaw clenched. I was harder now.

Footsteps approached. The water rippled as I tensed, rose petals swirling around me. Shit, I’d left the door open.

I surged from the tub, water sluicing off my skin as I lunged for the door. But Nero was already there, filling the doorway before I could reach it.

I froze.

He was ruinously beautiful, the kind of beauty that inspired ballads or bloodshed.

His eyes flickered between emerald and frost-green, shifting with the light, depths swirling with ancient power and barely leashed hunger.

His hair, black as a starless sky, was tousled like he’d been dragging his hands through it.

The armor was gone, replaced by a black shirt and slacks that clung to the lethal grace of his body.

The fabric stretched taut over the hard planes of his torso, sleeves rolled up to reveal forearms roped with muscle. Every angle of him was honed perfection—the edge of his jaw, the breadth of his shoulders—as if the gods had taken the very concept of masculine power and forged it into flesh.

A smirk curved his sinful mouth as his heated gaze traveled over me, dripping wet, one arm crossed over my breasts, the other hand shielding my sex from his view.

“I, uh—” I scrambled backward toward the tub. “—I’m going back to my bath. You can shut the door behind you. Thank you.”

I clambered in gracelessly, half-hoping the water would swallow me whole, half-praying my ass looked at least somewhat appealing.

His low laugh curled around me. “Why would I leave when the view’s so captivating?” He prowled closer. “There’s no need to be shy. I know every curve of you by now.”

Heat flooded my cheeks.

Three strides brought him to the tub’s edge. He knelt beside me, sleeves still rolled up, forearms flexing as he reached for the washcloth.

“Let me help you.”

“Your expensive shirt will get wet,” I protested weakly.

He didn’t even glance down as water splashed the fabric. “A sacrifice I’m willing to make.”

Every time he said “love,” my heart leapt and my pulse fluttered.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” I murmured, mostly to distract myself from the way his knuckles brushed my shoulder blade.

His grin was all wicked promise. “I’ve had practice, baby.”

His fingers slid through my hair, gathering the wet strands with ease and surprising skill.

The moment he began massaging the shampoo into my scalp, the pressure just shy of rough, I nearly unraveled.

Pleasant tingles raced down my spine, and I dug my teeth into my bottom lip to stifle a moan.

I forced my breathing steady, just to play it cool, as if being bathed by a lethal and gorgeous immortal happened to me all the time.

He was meticulous, each movement deliberate. When he guided my head back to rinse, his palm cradled the nape of my neck with a tenderness that made my throat ache. Warm water streamed through my hair, his fingers following, ensuring nothing remained but the scent of roses and the heat of his touch.

A sudden, vivid memory flashed behind my eyes?—

A sunken tub filled with red roses.

Nero lounged in the water, my head resting against his cut chest.

Beyond the window, an impossible shoreline stretched, purple sand melting into a twilight ocean.

His teeth grazed my ear before he thrust deep inside me.

The vision splintered.

I blinked, disoriented. The memory felt too real, toovivid, but it couldn’t be. This was the first time Nero had ever touched me like this. And I’d never known another man, let alone one who looked like he’d been carved from the shadows of a forgotten god.

Why did I remember things that never were? Why did I keep drowning in deaths I’d never died?

Genetic memory? Too neat. Too clean.

A darker thought slithered through me: What if I kept dying, kept being reborn, only to bleed out again in some endless, cursed loop?

I shook my head hard enough to rattle my teeth.Madness.This was what happened when you let Nero Ravencrux kneel at your feet. When an immortal with centuries of sin in his smile looked at you like you were the only woman he craved.

I closed my eyes as he massaged my scalp. He had damn good hands. For a moment, I let myself imagine those fingers tracing lower and lower.

I bit the inside of my cheek. At least the water hid the heat pooling between my thighs.

“I need you to know,” I started.

“Know what?”

I was grateful he didn’t lecture me for leaving the academy’s wards. Grateful he hadn’t said I told you so .

Opening my eyes, I met his gaze. I wouldn’t shy away from this.

“Those hunters…they talked about raping me.” The words tasted like rust. “But one stopped them. Said a mating bond protected me.” A hollow laugh departed my throat.

“That’s impossible. We haven’t exactly—” My face burned.

“Technically, I’m still a virgin, right?

Even if you truly…uh, fucked me, mating bonds are but bedtime stories.

A myth. Something for true mates.” I swallowed.

“The hunters must’ve mistaken me for someone else because of my very red hair. ”

The rest lodged in my throat, the visions of redheaded women dying, their faces mirroring mine flashing before my eyelids. Every time I tried to speak the depths of it, the words dissolved like mist.

His fingers froze in my hair, his entire body going rigid with tension.

“The next hunters won’t lay a fucking finger on you,” he said in a harsh, guttural voice.

“Next hunters?” I twisted in the water to face him fully. “More are coming?”

His expression turned feral. “I’ll hunt them first. Make them beg before I gut those fuckers.” The promise in his voice was colder than steel. “There will be no mercy. Not in life, not after death.”

A shiver ran through me. Could the dead truly suffer? Then I remembered the tormented wails outside my chamber window.

Beneath his fury, I sensed his fear, raw and visceral and thick enough to choke. Without thinking, I reached up, my wet palm cradling his jaw.

“I’m fine,” I murmured. “I’m here. They’re not. Because of you.” I forced a smile. “And you know what they say? What doesn’t kill you…”

He caught my wrist, pressing a kiss to my palm that sent heat and shiver spiraling through me. The hunters had failed to end me, but this—he—might be the death of me.

His grip tightened around my wrist, urgency sharpening his voice.“Your training begins tomorrow.”The words held a desperate edge.“Youwill learn to protect yourself, and you must survive!”

A flicker of realization, cold as ice and sharp as a blade , cut through the haze in my mind.

Had we done this before? Not just in this life, but in another? I’d never believed in reincarnation, but after everything I’d seen—monsters, ghosts, the wailing dead—why should past lives be a shock?

How else could I explain the death visions? The way Nero and I burned for each other despite every reason we shouldn’t. That impossible pull between us, as old as time.

The way he whispered “Remember” against my skin like it was a prayer and the only word left in the world.

But he never said more. Because he couldn’t.

Something bound him, a blood vow, a curse, or chains I couldn’t see but felt, tightening every time his lips brushed my throat.

I stared at him, the pieces falling into place.

Whenever I tried to grasp the truth, my skull threatened to split. And as soon as a memory that wasn’t quite mine surfaced, some unseen force dove toward it like a vulture to carrion.

And now hunters were on my trail, and more would come for me. I had to wonder why they’d chase a nobody so relentlessly.

Unless I wasn’t nobody.

Unless I was a threat to them.

I glanced at my frail body.

Seriously, how could I be dangerous to anyone?

Then a spark flared inside me and ignited like starlight. I wasn’t entirely weak, was I? My magic had awoken, and it was damn powerful.

There was more to me than I knew. Nero and our enemies knew it as well.

Was my magic the threat?

Now I knew, remembering was the key, the path to the forbidden, hidden truth. But how could I remember something that had never happened to me—or at least, not in this life?

I shook my head. If I kept thinking like this, I’d plunge over the edge.

Then again, maybe that was exactly where I needed to go.

Maybe I just had to be brave enough to fall.

“I’ll try,” I said, peering into his eyes.

He couldn’t tell me things, but I could seek clues.

He swallowed, a riot of emotions reflecting in his winter-green eyes. The first fragile light of hope pierced through despair, though he clearly feared to trust it.

“That’s all I’m asking,” he said.

The air between us whipped with electricity, his gaze burning with pure male need, mine answering with the same passion.

He was still my professor. I was still his student. What we wanted was forbidden. If we were found out, the consequences would be more than I could afford. If I surrendered to him, it’d change everything.

Yet this connection between us was more than desire; it was older, deeper. Nero was air to my lungs, and as I peered into his eyes, I saw the same truth mirrored back.

“Why me?” I whispered, needing to hear it. “Why do you want me when you could have anyone?”

“Your kindness,” he said, as if the answer was written in my bones.

“Plenty of people are kind.”

“Not like you.” His thumb brushed my cheek.

“ You’re compassionate, yet utterly untamed , though no one else sees it.

You’re the wildest thing, even when they bind you.

No chains, no rules, no one can hold you down.

You always find your wings, love, and you soar.

” His voice dropped in reverence. “There’s never been another like you. Not in any world. Not in any lifetime.”

They called kindness a weakness, yet here he was, this powerful, lethal man, cherishing it like a rare gift.

And when he gazed at me like that, I melted. For the first time, I was seen.

Something inside me cracked open. Awakening surged through my blood. My thoughts were relentless, my emotions a storm, my hunger for Nero roaring to life. In an instant, I became someone new. I was stronger, brighter, and more alive than ever.

Fuck the rule.

You live only once.

I seized his face between my hands, fingers tracing the scars that mirrored the ones on his soul, and crushed my mouth to his.

My lips were ice, fire, war, and desire. And they claimed what was mine.