Page 12 of Up from the Earth (Equinox Seasons Duet #1)
Eleven
Seasons Of Life Progress Without Fail. Embrace Your Verdant Spring the after-effects of birth helped along by my natural ability to progress life along through their innate course. The pain was gone; any lingering effects of a pregnancy or birth vanished, all except for the ravenous hunger that roared louder and louder with each second.
“I must eat—now.”
Food sprouted to life in moments after I spoke, fruit and grain and caught meat. I recognized the banquet I’d seen laid out before me during that second test, and unlike previously, I rushed for it like I might go mad without a bite to eat.
Primal, carnal, I tore into the spread with my bare hands, going for the succulent pomegranates and pears. Juice dribbled down my chin, and I didn’t bother to wipe it. I only reached for more, tasting my fill of the bread and cheese, the shank of wild turkey.
I could taste its death, see in my mind’s eye how it lowered itself before The Great Wolf and sacrificed its essence to feed the roiling hunger of the Queen of Cosmic Equilibrium, to feed me . The plants, too, the images of their reaping seared into my mind as I devoured them, swallowing down the elements of life contained within their cells.
Death could give life as such, but it could not make life.
The feast was refilled as I ate, clawing through the table of wonders to sate my inconceivable appetite. Not a single part of me cared for the way I feasted or how it might look or affect me. I was hungry, so I ate. I was tired? I would rest. I wanted ? Then, by all that was holy in this unending universe, I would take what would satisfy me and revel in the ecstasy it brought.
“Come. Come to me, Beast King.”
My words rang through the forest with potency, drawing about the shifting possibilities of this realm to draw my desire to me.
As he apparated into existence, leaning back against the altar with his arms crossed, The King chuckled from beneath his endless robes. I could just make out a smirk in the shadows created by his hood.
“Little Beast…you called.”
I dropped my chin, staring at him from beneath my brows. Flicking a hand to the side, I forced the trees and vines surrounding the stone circle to lace together, creating a cage of sorts. I wouldn’t have him getting away.
His laugh swelled, and The Beast King shoved off of the altar. As he walked toward me, he shucked his robe from his shoulders, revealing the glistening white flesh of his torso. Black fabric still covered his legs and hips, but the tattered edges drifted off into nothing like smoke. His black locks stretched out behind him into eternity, reflecting his feminine form. Even more intriguing, his fingers were tipped in black, and when he grinned—his white eyes glowing like moonlight—fangs decorated his smile, and a forked tongue licked out like a snake.
When he reached me, The King towered over me, forcing me to look up into his stare with a claw-tipped finger.
“So, then, my Queen…” His lips hovered over mine, his breathing ghosting over my skin with an icy chill. “...are there any other hungers you must satisfy?”