Page 57 of The Eternal Mirror (Lucifer’s Mirror #3)

Unbound

“Mirror of stars and shadowed glass,

Break the veil and let me pass.

Where he walks, let me be led—

To the soul my own has bled.

No bond now ties, no fate commands—

But love still reaches, aching hands.”

I whisper the words and a mirror forms. Will it take me to him?

Only one way to find out.

I take a deep breath and step into...hope?

It’s nighttime here, but I know exactly where I am: in the forest clearing close to where Hecate’s village once stood on Valandria. It’s a beautiful, magical place, and where Khaos and I made love for the first time, soon after I found out who I really was and what I had to do.

Towering trees encircle the space, their bark shimmering with a silvery luminescence, casting a soft, ghostly glow that bathes the clearing in an otherworldly radiance.

The trees reach up toward the sky, their branches forming intricate, twisting patterns that create a tapestry of shadows on the forest floor.

In the center of the clearing, a crystalline pool reflects the starry night sky above, its surface smooth as glass.

Sitting beside it, his fingers trailing in the water, is Khaosti.

I close my eyes for a moment. I really thought I might never see him again. And he’s so beautiful: long lean muscle, golden eyes half-closed, sharp cheekbones. His lips are slightly parted, and he flicks his tongue over the silver ring in his lower lip.

My heart leaps, and a wild joy fills me.

His hand lifts, but there’s hesitation in his eyes—like he doesn’t quite believe I’m real. I walk forward, my heart beating a slow, steady rhythm.

I slip my palm into his, and suddenly I’m on my back with Khaos looming over me. He lowers his mouth to mine, and we share a deep, intoxicating kiss. He tastes so familiar—heat and spice—and my heart clenches, as though the bond is drawing tight. But I know it’s just us.

I reach up and thread my fingers through his silky black hair, holding him to me.

Finally, we run out of air, and he raises his head.

But I don’t want to talk. Not yet. Things always go wrong when I talk.

So, I pull him back down for another kiss, wrapping my legs around his hips to hold him tightly against me.

I can feel the long, hard length of him pressed against my belly, and my insides clench with need and longing. I don’t care anymore what the future brings; what’s right now, and here in this place, are all that matter. And this man, who I have pushed away for the last time.

From now on, it’s his decision whether he stays or goes.

But I know he will stay to the end and beyond.

His hands are everywhere, dragging my t-shirt over my head.

He unfastens my pants, pushing them down over my hips.

He pauses as they get tangled around my ankles to nuzzle his face in the spot where my shoulder meets my throat, licking and biting, then lower to suck one nipple into his mouth.

He nips me with his sharp teeth, and my back arches as pleasure shoots through me.

Then lower, licking my belly, he takes a moment to breathe in my scent.

My pants are in the way, so I kick them off, and his mouth is between my legs, hungry, ravenous.

He burrows his face against me, and the stubble along his jaw scratches my inner thighs.

I open my legs wider, and his lips trail over my skin, his hot breath playing over my sex, and I lift my hips.

Then his mouth is on me, his tongue sliding between the folds of my sex, pushing inside me, and I’m melting, turning molten.

He laps in slow, deliberate strokes. Then he circles my clit, and I go still, just concentrating on the pleasure pulsating from that spot, imbuing my body with a radiance it can’t contain.

Then he sucks my clit into his mouth, and I’m gone, lost—I'm a star imploding in the darkness. I throw back my head and scream.

When I come back to myself, he’s pushing inside me. Still fully dressed, his pants shoved around his hips as though he couldn’t spare the time to take them off.

I love it, and I lift my hips as he thrusts inside, filling me. Everything is slick and tingly from my orgasm, and I can already feel another building.

He stares down into my face as he makes love to my body, worshipping me with his.

Long, slow strokes go on and on until I don’t know where I end and he begins, and we are truly as one.

I love all the leashed power, but I want it unleashed.

I want him wild and free, and I slide one hand through his hair, pulling him down to me, his mouth to mine.

Pushing my tongue inside, I shift my hips so the delicious friction against my clit drives me higher.

I feel the moment when he loses control, all wild wanton madness.

He’s hammering into me until I can take no more, and I shatter into a thousand pieces.

He’s with me, his eyes glowing down into mine, a tiny peek of Wrath behind his gaze as he spills himself inside me and then collapses, rolling so he pulls me on top of him, holding me in place with a hand on my ass and another tangled in my hair.

I kiss his throat. “I love you,” I say. Because it needs saying. “And I don’t love you because I have to. I love you because I fucking want to.”

“I know.”

Is that it? Nothing else? I resist the urge to knee him in the balls.

“Well,” I prompt.

He chuckles. It’s been so long since I’ve heard him laugh—Hawaii, maybe—that my eyes prick.

I lift myself up a little so I can look down at his face.

A lazy smile lingers on his full lips, reflected in his eyes.

I trail a finger over the scar on his cheek.

He never did tell me where he got it, and I won’t ask now.

“I love you,” I say again. Because it’s good to say it without doubt and fear and guilt.

He smirks, and I poke him in the ribs.

“I love you,” he says. “I’ve loved you from the moment you crashed into me that night on Earth.”

“Really?” I sniff, though I love that he’s saying this. “I thought you were an asshole.”

“I thought you were dangerous. And sort of inept.” I poke him again. “But that didn’t alter the fact that the moment I touched you, my world changed. Shifted on its axis.”

“Mine too,” I admit. “I kept thinking, why am I attracted to assholes? Now I know it was the bond, but that doesn’t change the fact that we were connected.”

He’s looking at me, still smiling. “Selene told me something tonight,” he says.

“She did?”

“She told me that the mating bond was not bestowed upon us until that day you nearly died on the battlefield on Valandria.”

I was tracing the tattoos on his throat, and I stop. I look at him and can feel the frown forming on my face. “The day she told me about the mating bond? But that was months after we met.”

“I know.” He smiles, and it’s so smug that I want to kiss him again. “You’d already told me that you loved me. ”

I remember. The first time I said it, we were right here. We’d made love. “I thought you were asleep.”

“Coward.” But the word sounds like a caress.

And he’s right, but in my own defense: “I’d just found out I was heading for Hell, probably with a one-way ticket. It didn’t seem fair to drag you along.”

“Sweetheart, I thought you’d learned by now that life is never fair.”

Right now—I don’t care. This is a gift, and I say as much. “And I’d really like to unwrap my gift, please.” I can’t believe he’s still got all his clothes—nearly—on.

I pluck at the buttons of his shirt, baring silky skin and more tattoos. I kiss his nipple, then shuffle off him so I can tug his pants off. And now we’re both naked. What shall we do?

I get to my feet and hold out my hand. He frowns but takes it, and we’re both up. I peer at the pool; the water looks deep and welcoming; a myriad of stars reflected in the dark surface.

We dive in, scattering the stars. The water is cool and soft like a caress, and I swim beneath the surface until I feel the glide of a hand over my skin. I push up, gasping for air, and he pulls me into his arms as the world fades to nothing beneath his kisses.

Afterwards, we lie on a bed of moss and stare at the stars. Here, there’s no spinning mirror, just constellations that twinkle in the deep dark sky. I can see why Selene loves this world.

We lie together until the stars fade and dawn lights the horizon.

“We need to go back,” he says.

I’m glad he said it and not me .

“We have to go and stop my father. One way or another. But just promise me that we try to kill him first. We only destroy the Mirror as a last resort.”

“I promise.”

And I know what he’s saying: that we will stand together and do what needs to be done, whatever the consequences. I’m pretty sure those consequences are going to be bad, but I’ll do everything in my power to prevent the final outcome.

“You know,” he says, “they’re my family as well—Zayne and Josh, Grimlet. We will do this for them and for the rest of the worlds that will hopefully survive. They were failed by our people. They looked to us as gods, and we gave them devils.”

“Hey, that’s my dad you’re talking about.”

He chuckles. I love the sound of Khaosti laughing; I could stay here and listen to it forever.

But that’s not going to happen. I untangle myself from him, get to my feet, and hunt down my clothes.

The stars are fading. The world is waiting.

Time to end what others began.