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Chapter forty-four

A strid couldn’t pinpoint when sharing her meals with Dimitri became pleasant. He’d returned with her breakfast, and aside from dismissing Dobromil who arrived with a small bowl of wild berries, Dimitri had been surprisingly well-behaved.

Astrid finished eating and set her plate on his desk before picking up the snow plant. She turned the stalk, admiring the blooms. “Is this a present from your travels?”

He took the parasitic flower and gently traced the pedals along her jaw. “A gift from Graymalkin. He says you’re an awful hunter and wouldn’t survive if he didn’t generously share his kills with you,” Dimitri said, laying the plant beside her dish. “Come. I’ll show you to your temple.”

Astrid stood and followed Dimitri through the labyrinth of halls.

They stepped onto a veranda and the cold bit into her, sinking deeper until it chilled her bones.

Dimitri stepped closer and curled his wing around her.

The membrane of his wing molded over her back and shoulder.

Astrid stiffened, her reaction immediate and sharp.

It was like walking into a cobweb. She hurriedly brushed it off, in hopes to remove the irate spider before it bit her.

Only there was no way out of the cobwebs Astrid found herself tangled in, and she had to reason with, rather than flee, a much larger spider.

She traced the bones of his wing and swallowed the bile rising in her throat before turning toward him. “Your jacket would keep me warmer.”

Dimitri wordlessly pulled his wing away and Astrid welcomed the winter chill.

He glanced down at her with an expression she’d seen many times—the slight narrowing of his molten gold eyes.

The tension in his jaw. Anger danced with annoyance as he decided on how he would punish her.

Astrid held his stare for the space of three steps, daring him to drag her back to his room.

But what good would that do? Bending him to her will was meaningless if she pulled so hard he snapped.

Astrid stared forward through the snow of the frozen garden space and stepped closer to him. The edge of his wing brushed her sleeve as they walked. She kept silent, willing it to be enough.

Dimitri shrugged out of his jacket and Astrid’s pulse quickened. He placed the cashmere wool over her shoulders and Astrid smoothed her hand over the embroidered lapel. “Thank you.”

They stepped into the frosted, open space and the building towering above them stole her words.

The large archway opened to the temple’s interior and through it, Astrid caught a glimpse of a robed female carved out of marble.

Her facial features were obscured beneath a hood and in her outstretched hands was a coiled serpent.

Astrid’s heart squeezed and the pinprick of tears threatened her resolve.

Her boots crunched through the thin layer of snow that had fallen the night before.

A wave of heat struck her the moment she crossed into the temple.

Astrid blinked back her tears. There had been a void in her chest since she arrived.

Dimitri had taken so much from her. Stripped so much of her—but this. ..

This felt like home.

Astrid approached the altar, staring up at the three robed statues before gazing down the east and west walls. It was like home, down to the placement of the pews and the fountain at the start of the aisle.

Everything... but the Mothers’ serpents, she realized.

Dimitri’s booted steps echoed behind her as he strolled through the silent temple. Without the familiar rasp of scales, it felt empty.

“How did you recreate this? Did you send the earth weavers to my palace?” Astrid asked.

Dimitri nodded. “It was a few days’ travel, and they began construction immediately upon their return. I asked Keres to warm it, since you’re more comfortable in a furnace.”

Astrid laughed and turned to spread her hands over the pristine altar. Every piece had been replicated from the silver-veined marble to the shadowed corner Foxglove napped in.

Dimitri moved to her back. He outstretched his wings, and his shadow cast over hers onto the altar.

A sensuous shiver ran down her spine as he ran the back of his fingers down her arm.

He leaned into her. His chest pressing into her back.

Astrid’s lips parted as his callused hand smoothed over hers—the warmth of his hand a stark contrast to the cool marble beneath it.

Their binding scars overlapped.

His breath fanned over the shell of her ear, sending tremors of anticipation through her as he whispered, “Is this to your liking, neva?”

Astrid swallowed and tilted her chin upward. The Mothers stood silent and in their upturned hands, they cradled birth, life, and death.

The egg, the serpent, and the shed.

She’d asked the Mothers to guide her, to free her, in Clorea. Had Dimitri been sent to her? Was he meant to open her path?

Astrid leaned into his firm body and tilted her head back.

“It needs serpents and offerings,” she said, rotating her hand and lifting her fingers until they were intertwined with his.

“There’s a cobra at my palace temple who means a great deal to me.

I would feel more at home if you brought him here. ”

Dimitri’s arm encircled her waist, and his deep voice thrummed against her hair. “If I handed you the stars, you would still ask for more.”

She lifted their entwined hands and pressed her lips to his brutal scar. He was powerful and handsome, though his affection was misguided at times. A striking addition to her arsenal. A Death Spirit she could deploy on her enemies.

A weapon she would temper and bend by degrees.

“Shouldn’t my husband want to lay the world at my feet?” Astrid asked sweetly.

Dimitri chuckled darkly and answered, “If he possessed his wife’s loyalty.”

Astrid turned in his arms. His muscles flexed beneath her touch as she smoothed her hand higher to cup the side of his face.

“Have I not been loyal?”

He palmed her ass and roughly lifted her. Astrid gasped as the cool marble chilled her bottom. His hand closed over her throat and forced her back against the altar.

“No. Dimitri, this is sacrilege to the Mothers!” she yelled as he threw her skirt over her corset. Astrid thrashed beneath him, but her efforts were useless. He overpowered her, wedging his waist between her thighs.

“Serpents devour you. I don’t worship conquest,” she snapped.

He stilled and Astrid panted her relief. She lay still for the space of a moment and gentled her voice as she sat up. “You can have me,” she whispered as his stubble scratched against her soft touch, “in your bed, at your thermal spring... anywhere but here.”

Dimitri effortlessly lifted her off the altar, cradling her ass and trapping her against him. He leaned in and Astrid met him with soft kisses, stroking his cheek.

He pulled back but remained so close his lips brushed hers as he spoke.

“I’ll have you on your knees tonight. You’re going to wrap those pretty lips around my cock.

You’ll spread your legs and moan for me as I stretch your cunt.

And after I’ve made you come a dozen times, and you’re trembling and flushed beneath me, I’m going to fuck your ass. ”

Images flicked through her mind as his promises fanned across her lips.

Her traitorous mind replayed the feel of his callused hands gripping her waist. The way she arched her back and took each of his strokes.

A flush crept over her cheeks as she cursed the heat pooling between her legs.

As much as she’d tempered and bent him, he had done the same to her.

“You’ll beg for me, wife,” he murmured before smiling at her lips. “And I will relish every moment.”