Page 10 of The Dark Will Fall (Twilight Lake #5)

My hips rocked with every tentative thrust of his thumb inside of my pussy.

My hips met every movement of his hand, as if it were his cock inside of me.

I grabbed at the sand. Back arched, as I pushed my hips to meet his hand with urgency.

My orgasm hovered on the edge of my periphery. The slow exploration of my core kept me from tumbling into the abyss, but I was moments away from clawing my skin off.

Cormac exhaled against my clitoris, and he pressed a kiss to my core, replacing his finger with his mouth. His tongue was flat, wider than his finger, but more dexterous, as it rolled over the bundle of nerves.

He added another finger, and then another. Stretched, as he slathered my pussy with his tongue and licked my juices as if they were nectar.

I looked down at the golden head between my legs, moaning against my taste—and I came.

I grabbed his head, pressing his face to my core, without care for his need to breathe, as my orgasm washed over me.

My toes curled and my body went stiff as I writhed.

His fingers, all four of them, pressed inside of me to the hilt as I spasmed around his hand.

His tongue still circling the nub until it became too much as I squirmed away from him before collapsing in the same position. My hair plastered to my face in sweat.

“Did I do well?” He beamed; my juices still wet on his lips.

My only response was a garbled ‘ yes ’.

My sweat had dried on my skin, my back coated in sand.

It had been days since Cormac’s declaration. That we were mates. Days since I had lain down with the Mer-King and welcomed him into my body. For the first time, and every time after that.

The storm I had been expecting had not yet come. The dark clouds beyond the lagoon, invisible from the pristine beach, did not advance.

The hunger inside me had eased, a mite, though my stomach gnawed with it. A dull ache that refused to leave, but proved easier to forget when Cormac’s body pressed mine into the sand.

“Daydreaming, Princess?” Cormac rolled over, resting his head on his hand, his elbow extended to hold the weight. His emerald eyes glittered, the way they always did before he teased me.

The barbs had grown softer, which left me vaguely uncomfortable. As if our relationship had changed when I hadn’t paid attention.

Sensing my deep thoughts, Cormac’s attention sharpened. “Something wrong?”

“I’m forgetting something,” I told him, gnawing my bottom lip.

“Maybe you just need help?” Cormac suggested, his lips pulling into a crooked smile. “Though it’s hard to remember something forgotten. The very nature of being forgotten, I’m afraid.”

“Ha.” I rolled my eyes. “So witty.”

“I try.”

“Do you remember?” I asked. “The Lake? The War? How we died?”

Cormac smacked his lips thoughtfully, as his own memories hovered on the tip of his tongue. He squinted, his eyes searching the horizon. “I was a Mer.” He said. “But I don’t have a tail anymore.”

I snapped my fingers. “Exactly! A Mer!” I exclaimed. “I wasn’t a Mer. I had scales, though.”

“Undine.” He reminded me.

I repeated the word thoughtfully.

“Don’t worry, Princess.” Cormac waved a hand dismissively. “This lagoon is paradise. No hunger. No thirst. No sleep. Just you, and me, and as much time in the Tuatha Dé Danann as we desire.”

My cheeks turned pink as I thought of desire and the feel of Cormac’s body.

Sensing the conversation turning amorous when I sought answers, I stood up, clapping my hands on my cheeks. “I’m going to swim,” I told Cormac. Even a few steps from the Mer made my stomach churn with hunger and my throat burn—as if my body had become more substantial without his touch.

Cormac lifted a brow. “Do you want company?”

“I’m going to catch a fish.” I declared.

“A fish? There aren’t any fish out there, “ Cormac frowned.

“How do you know that? We haven’t gone in the water.” I replied, hands on my hips.

“Yes, we have.” His frown deepened.

My words died on my tongue. My memories were fading with every step forward.

Unnerved, I turned to the water and dived into the turquoise waves. I closed my eyes, feeling the cool press of the sea on every inch of my skin. My scales rose up to greet me, redder than the last time I had seen them.

Redder ? I stopped myself.

My memory was playing tricks on me.

I broke the surface, turning back to the sand. Cormac stood at the shore, the waves lapping at his feet. He caught my gaze and waved. Mourning on his face, the expression harrowing, though he blinked it away.

We maintained eye contact. I waved, shooting him a smile.

“Come in the water!” I shouted.

“Maeve!” His response was brief, sharp, and filled with fear.

My brow furrowed.

Cormac lifted a shaking finger to the horizon; all the color had fled his face.

I followed his gaze.

Between the two cliffs at the end of the lagoon, curling around the water like cupped hands, rested a pale white dragon so large that its two legs rested on either cliff.

It was miles away. Logically, I knew that it could not see us from such a distance. Cormac and I were tiny specks on the beach.

But the dragon extended its long neck, sending a roar through the skies that shook the water, pushing an incredible wave towards the shore.

“Get in the water!” I shouted, my head whipping from the dragon to the Mer on the beach.

“I fecking can’t!” He growled.

The dragon extended its wings.

“Cormac!” I slapped the water in frustration.

It took off from the cliffs in one swoop, diving down to the surface, its wings outstretched as it rode the breeze on the sea. The opalescent beast was eating up the distance faster than I could comprehend.

Snarling in frustration, I took off for the shore, swimming as if my life depended on it.

I could’ve dived deep and hidden in the coral, but I was afraid. Not of the dragon, but that I would lose Cormac the second I got too far from the Mer.

His previous words had stuck in my craw, as he had intended them to.

Cormac was dead in a different way than I was.

Panic scattered my thoughts like a frightened school of fish, as I reached the shore and pulled myself free.

Cormac stared up at the sky with wide emerald eyes, frozen. I grabbed his biceps, pulling his gaze to mine.

“ Run !”

Before either of us could move, the breath exploded from my lungs as a claw latched onto both of us, lifting us to the sky.

Too high, too cold, the wind above the sea stole my voice and plugged my ears, as the dragon’s claws dug into my middle, pressing me against Cormac Illfinn as we sailed above the lagoon.