Page 21

He snarled, pacing from one end of the chamber to the other.

I tried so hard not to look at him, fixing my gaze on the terrace in his bedroom.

The platform was blocked by a see-through door, but I could see the columns propping up the awning over it.

He made me feel things , and I knew it was wrong, but I still wanted to touch him, fuck him, be with him—I couldn’t handle this guilt.

“Speak,” he hissed.

I pressed my lips into an even tighter line, crossing my arms. I’d given him the silent treatment for the last however much time had passed, and he seemed increasingly erratic.

While I’d been sitting on the edge of his bed, I’d taken in the items in the room. The intricate designs carved on the oversized chest to the edge of his bedroom were similar to the ones on the frame of the bed. He’d pulled out a black linen shirt and trousers the same color from the chest.

“Enough.” The word ripped through my dazed thoughts, and he suddenly gripped the back of my neck, dragging me toward the terrace.

Shadows whipped open the glass double doors and bent me over the balustrade.

The air was sucked right out of my lungs as I gaped at the deep fall to the ground.

I’d hit the protruding bits, and if I managed not to get impaled on them, then the stones at the bottom would finish the job.

My fingertips and toes immediately began to tingle. Anger and frustration bubbled to the surface.

“Do it,” I muttered. He stiffened, teeth audibly grinding together. “Hurry up and do it.”

There was silence from him as that vibration in his chest turned up another notch. I exhaled in a gust. He needed me alive for Novareth, so this was posturing. “You won’t, so let me go.”

“I would not,” he grumbled tightly, but he didn’t loosen his grip. My hair swayed around my cheeks. There was movement behind me as tendrils widened my thighs, and he tugged my skirt aside. It all happened so fast, I couldn’t speak.

He slid into my channel. The textured surface of his shaft thrusting in, rubbing against my inner walls.

There was no resistance with adrenaline pumping through my veins.

I gasped, my hands grasping at the edge of the stone rail, which dug into my stomach. He pumped his hips with harsh, punishing slams, the slap of his cold, inhuman skin thwapping against my thighs. His next thrust shoved me forward and wrung a moan from my throat.

So much pleasure sizzled in me. At least before he killed me, I’d had the chance to experience good fucking.

With each rut, I pushed back against him until his grip moved to my hips, poising them higher.

His cock slammed in at an angle, touching a sensitive point deep inside.

An orgasm ripped through my nerve endings, turning my hearing fuzzy.

He didn’t ease his pace, and another release throbbed through my channel.

My scream echoed off the valley below. The sound of my pleasure only inflamed him, and he groaned, the sound deep, guttural, and maddening.

I wasn’t sure how many orgasms later, but my brain processed movement far off in the distance. Corvus continued gliding into me with gentle pumps; he stopped every time I felt his base throb as it did right before release, slowing the glide as if savoring the moment.

Unlike the other days, the sky was beginning to change, and I knew I didn’t have much time left.

“What’s over there?” I panted, weakly pointing at the collection of lights in the distance.

The illumination glistened on the horizon through the milky haze of the atmosphere. It seemed to have thickened.

“I will take you.” He smoothed his palm down my skirt. “Once I am done with you.” He picked up his pace, chasing me toward another orgasm.

With a pump of his wings, gusts caused my hair to whip wildly around my head.

He descended with a smooth glide, and his flying turned into a brisk walk.

I bounced around in his embrace. It was a clear indication of how careful he’d been every time he’d touched me that he wasn’t gouging into my skin.

He put me on my feet, and my knees gave out, but he caught me before I could drop to the ground.

“Careful,” he ordered. Tendrils had wound around my arms, keeping me upright while I tried to regain sensation in my feet.

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” I huffed and rolled my ankle to chase the tingles away.

Laughter permeated the clearing we’d landed in, and then two Novian kids burst through a stout shrub. They immediately slowed, eyes wide with horror.

“Lord of Shadows,” the taller one in the back said. A damp spot grew in the front of the shorter boy’s pants.

I peered at Corvus. I didn’t doubt he knew they were present, but he wasn’t looking at them; he was angled to the left, eyelids narrowed, and shadows lingering around him. He was such an ethereal creature.

So frightening, so violent . . . so alone.

If everything that laid eyes on me ran or attacked me out of fear, it’d make me grumpy too.

“Run, before he sees you,” I whispered dramatically toward the kids. Gasping, they peeked at each other from the corner of their eyes and took off sprinting.

I turned toward him, scanning the sharp planes of his face. He didn’t seem bothered by it, nor did he seem to have even processed it, but seeing him so alone, so rejected—it kind of hurt. I pursed my lips and stepped in front of him.

“I’ve seen enough, let’s go back,” I said.

“No.” With the abrupt denial, he strode ahead. Mid-step, he vanished into thin air. My stomach dropped to my feet, and I lunged like I could somehow catch him.

“Corvus?” I shouted, throwing myself forward. My momentum didn’t allow me to steady myself before my face smacked into a large feathery thing . “Argh!”

I clasped my cheek, and he was suddenly visible. It’d been his fucking wing.

He hurtled forward and cupped my jaw. I squinted up at him from one eye.

“You must take care.” His growl reached my stomach and spawned flutters.

“Well, you disappeared,” I snapped, trying to mask my pleasure at seeing him concerned about me. “A heads-up would have been nice.”

“Why would you desire a head? If this is a necessity, I will get?—”

“No!” I gasped, gripping his wing before he went on a killing spree. “It’s an expression.”

He continued to stare at me, head cocked.

A loud, rumbling horn echoed from nearby, and I whirled toward it.

“What is that?” It sounded like a tornado warning but with a deeper vibration.

“The villagers are testing the horns for Novareth.”

I walked toward the sound, pushing through the thick foliage. Leaves crunched underfoot, and I avoided tripping over a vine.

After trekking a few more yards, I stopped at the break in the trees, peering out at the people shuffling to and fro. There were stations of sorts, and some had set up items on surfaces.

This was like a ‘swap meet’ back home.

“Why are there sirens?”

“The energy the day exudes is of rebirth, strength, and fertility, but to channel it, Novians need to know it is beginning. That is what the signal is for.”

“So, there is no specific day or time to indicate Novareth?” My heart jumped at that because this entire time I’d believed it was a particular time we headed toward, not something that could happen with a moment’s notice.

“The day changes every thirty years.” He curved his wings close to his back. “I will glamour myself; otherwise, they scurry like ants.” He was gone with his last word.

“Do you do this often?”

“Here and there.” The murmur was very close to my ear, wringing a shiver from my body.

I stepped out of the break in the tree line and no one turned to look.

My shoulders relaxed at the lack of reaction.

Novians continued setting up their stations, and my eyes snagged on a human.

That was why my presence wasn’t attention-grabbing; humans lived here, too.

I strode down the straw-covered path that branched in two directions with tables being set up on either side.

The familiar sensation of being watched settled over my shoulders. I’d become used to his presence—just another aspect to cause alarm.

“I could never understand the allure of what you humans feed on,” he murmured, wringing a shiver from me. I eyed the meat slices neatly organized on the raised plates on one of the stands as I walked past. His earlier comment about the people here echoed in my memory.

Had he spent countless times observing from the outskirts?

“Fruit, get your fruit,” a female Novian called from the station diagonally from me.

Their surface was full of different, odd-looking fruits.

Nothing close to what I’d seen in my human world, but there was one that looked like a banana, except it had growths all over the surface like a dragon fruit.

Crossing a few other stands, my gaze snagged on a spread of pastries, and I hesitated in front of it.

A slim human woman stood beside a male Novian with hair that fell to his waist. I scanned the sweets. Everything was different from what I was used to, and in various colors, strange to my human eyes.

“All freshly baked this morning,” she chirped, her bright blue eyes settling on me. She rubbed her pregnant stomach. The male hovered over her, and from the quick glance, I could see he was incredibly protective. He seemed ready to pounce at a moment’s notice.

“No, thank you,” I replied. She just smiled, turning her attention to the Novians stopping at her stall.

The crowd was beginning to grow, and it was neat to see all the different features. A larger building stretched past a few more stalls, and people lounged in front of it in different states of undress.

“Lovely human, enter here, we will make it worth your while,” a Novian male murmured from where he leaned against the brick wall. “The Pleasure Den is here to serve you.” His grin showed extra teeth.

“No thanks,” I mumbled, but he reached toward me. I didn’t have time to react, my entire essence froze, and I widened my eyes, knowing this wouldn’t be good.

His hand stopped inches from grabbing me. I sighed and clicked my tongue.

“Do not touch,” Corvus hissed, appearing beside me. Everything turned into chaos; screams and shouts rent the air, and then the thundering sound of running.

“Lord of Shadows,” he breathed, horrified.

He yanked and tugged uselessly as his face crumpled with pain.

I threw myself into Corvus’s arms, putting my entire weight behind it.

My stomach landed on his arm, and I would have flopped to the floor if he hadn’t grabbed me.

It had the desired effect, he released the sex worker, but his wrist was crushed and he held his arm to his chest as he scampered away—as did every single living soul in the swap meet.

All that was missing was tumbleweed and the soundtrack clip.

“You know how to clear an area,” I muttered.

He didn’t comment or react to me, and his wings spread out behind him, the heavy whoosh sending a nearby stand tumbling to the side. He lifted me higher in his arms until my butt was nestled in the crook of his arm. I grabbed the top of his curved ram horn to balance myself.

He didn’t react, so I took advantage and felt the rough, dipped surface. He slowed his wide stride, hesitating next to the pastry spread, and plucked up the one I’d been eyeing.

“What are you doing?” I hissed.

“You wanted this.” He held it up, flat on his palm, the tips of his claw curled upward. The stuffed sweet sitting in his palm and looking so innocent was at the opposite end of the spectrum to his monstrous hand.

I carefully took it, and he watched me expectantly.

It occurred to me that maybe my stomach wouldn’t be able to handle Novian food.

But I had nothing to lose, so I bit into it. Flavors exploded on my tongue. It was as if a cupcake and a churro had a baby, but the texture was perfect and spongy and somehow crispy, too.

“It’s-so-good,” I mumbled, taking another bite.

He watched my mouth with intense focus. To the point that I wondered how he wasn’t tripping over the uneven terrain. I swiped my tongue across my lip, and he exhaled. I held the last bite toward his mouth.

“I do not eat.”

Right, he fed on souls. My stomach swirled with nerves. A few more long strides later and I mustered the courage to ask what I’d been wondering.

“How many sacrifices have you had?”

“I do not know.” His eyelids thinned, looking into the distance. “Too many to count.”

That sickness in my stomach turned up a notch. It wasn’t nerves, it was jealousy.

“Oh,” I said on an exhale.

He beat his wings, and the last bite of pastry slipped out of my fingers. I huddled closer to him, grabbing onto his horn for dear life. He jostled me as he took off into the air and cradled me against him like I was a child.

I squinted against the wind. Novareth was coming, and I wouldn’t have a timeline toward my end. I wasn’t sure if that was worse.

Before my death, I’d go to his cells to see if there was anyone left to help; my little rebellion toward the hand fate dealt me.

I just had to wait until he fell asleep again.