Page 100 of The Heart of Nym (The Twisted Roots Duology #1)

It ached to think that he was still there, still waiting for her to find herself and that he was now here to try and get her to understand that she’d never truly been lost. Not completely.

She’d only ever been lost because she was too afraid of what she’d find when she looked at herself too closely.

No one wanted to look at themselves and see something that was hard to stomach.

But she was her own worst enemy. And pain was far too familiar a feeling for her to have the desire to feel anything else.

“You’ve already ruined me,” She sighed, hands moving at their own accord as she trailed her fingers over the darkened veins that were visible between the top of his glove and the bottom of his sleeve. “It wouldn’t hurt to have you destroy me completely.”

Aziel’s hand was weaving through her own, immediately tugging her towards a dark cupboard under the staircase that led to the upper deck of the ship at a neck-breaking speed.

She collided with the wall, Aziel’s hand cushioning the back of her head before it could smack against the wood.

Though it was not rough at all, it still left her breathless.

“It would be an honor to absolutely destroy you, to make it impossible for you to even look at another person and be hopeful that they could give you the same feelings that I can.” Nymiria hadn’t realized that she was gripping the front of his shirt, nor had she even noticed that his leg was pressed between her thighs until she tried to move, only to feel a small budding sensation of pleasure bloom through her stomach.

She drew in a ragged breath. “I don’t want to smell another person on your skin unless it’s me.

You can call me selfish—you can call me anything you want, but just know that the mere thought of anyone else touching you makes me want to rip the heads off of everyone who has tried and nothing you could ever do would change that.

Love is not an emotion that is easy to rid oneself of. ”

It didn’t bother her at all. Quite the opposite, his words made her back arch and her hips rock forward against him once again.

Aziel fingers were now settling on her hips, the pads of his fingers digging into her skin harshly, but not so much that it hurt.

He urged her on, shifting his leg so that it was wedged closer to her throbbing sex.

“You like that, don’t you? You like knowing that I’d murder anyone who dared to touch you in front of me—that I would drag them all to hell for even looking at you?

I would fuck you on a bed of their corpses, if only to get you to remember what I'd do to someone trying to claim what is mine.”

Nymiria nodded, all sense of rationality replaced with the urge to lower herself onto his cock right then and there. She would feel the pain later. She would torture herself over her poor decisions in the morning.

He was now guiding her hips back and forth, releasing shuddered breaths of his own as her head fell forward into the crook of his neck.

“I’ll be whatever you need me to be. Your worst enemy or your nightmare.

I will let you use me as your own personal carving board if it means that you do not inflict another ounce of pain on yourself.

Hurt me, moonflower. Hurt me, instead. Come home and fucking ruin me. ”

Speechless, she shook her head, her grip on his jacket growing tighter. “I don’t want to hurt you.” She whined, that blooming sensation now spreading through her thighs. She was nearing her climax, pushing down against the thigh situated between her legs, grinding harder.

“You don’t want to hurt me?” He asked.

Though they were both lost in the pleasure of their nefarious deeds, his voice sounded so soft—so distant that she could feel the sadness radiating off of him, her heartache mingling with his own. “Of course not.”

“Then. Come. Home.” The words came out between clenched teeth just as an explosion of blinding pleasure pulsed through her body, her hips stuttering and her thighs trembling around him.

She gasped, clutching at him with all the strength she had left in her body.

The word home echoed through her mind, etched its way into her tender heart until a small sob bubbled from her lips.

He pressed a kiss to her mouth, swallowing the sound of her sadness, letting his hands rest at her sides, applying gentle strokes in place of his once vise-like grip.

Suddenly, like a blow to the gut, Aziel was pulling away from her, his warmth replaced with a blistering cold that made her want to curl in on herself.

He parted with those words, alone, vanishing out of the darkness just as quickly as she could blink.

That roiling anger returned, her sobs turning into angry breaths.

She pulled her shoulders back, steeling her emotions as she set out into the crowd to find him.

The bastard. A true demon.

He’d done all of this on purpose, surely, as there was no other reason he would have touched her under these circumstances.

He’d always seemingly used his affection as a way to get just what he wanted out of her.

Whether intentional or not, one touch from him could have her bending to his will immediately.

It didn’t matter where she went or where she searched on the ship, she didn’t see a single flicker of silver hair amongst the crew or the travelers. He was gone.

Releasing a groan, Nymiria slumped against the railing of the ship, looking down at the deep blue waters that lapped at the hull.

The winds were growing stronger, the water slapping against the barnacled wood and spraying white foam across the tossing surface.

She looked over her shoulders and watched as the crew prepared to launch the ship from port, all of them shouting commands at one another as they found their stations.

Twenty minutes ago, she had her heart set on sailing off to another continent with Oran.

They were going to escape their nightmares together and find their places in the Shidoshan islands, where Oran would soon be marrying his fiance.

He’d offered Nymiria a place at his side, ensuring that he would take care of her and that she wouldn’t have to worry about anything for as long as she decided to stay.

Now, she couldn’t shake the words Aziel said to her as she rocked herself to completion on his leg, nor could she satiate the desire to drive her fist right into his ridiculously beautiful face.

If he wanted to play games... fine. They could play games.

With one final, fleeting look at the sails going taut in the wind, Nymiria drew in a deep breath before lifting her leg over the railing.

Even though she’d learned to swim in the past few months since she’d left Yaar, the sight of the vicious waters down below still made her stomach churn with fear.

She closed her eyes, muttering a prayer under her breath and balling her hands into fists, her body leaning forward against the railing.

People shouted for her to get back on deck, but Nymiria couldn’t hear them.

All she could hear was the wind swooshing in her ears and the hissing of the waves under her feet, and the voice that was calling her home.

Nymiria smiled, cursing Aziel’s name as she looked up at the overcast sky.

And then she jumped.

To Be Continued

In

The Gods of Eadyn

(2026)