Page 23

My encroaching death was undeniable, but before my life was extinguished, I had to be sure there were no other people trapped in the castle.

I smoothed my hands down the linen dress that had been placed across the end of the bed when I woke up. It was the same material as his shirt. It’d been one I’d seen when we went to the swap meet.

I wonder when he grabbed it.

I bunched the fabric of the dress, and the hem brushed across my shin. My steps echoed down the long, ominous hall.

Coming down here could be a useless endeavor, but it was something I had to do. Maybe it was some crap way of me making up for caring about the monster that had hurt so many. Fortunately, I wouldn’t live with the guilt about it for long.

I slipped through the final hidden section in the wall and slowed to peer into every cell I passed. Dust piles were still spread across the floor, and the door I’d managed to open was latched again. The torches propped between each of the cells highlighted the floating dust particles.

I gave up holding my breath, even though it felt like I was inhaling the dead’s remains. This time around, I walked down the corridor, making sure to check every single cell, but there was no sign of life . . . until a whimper reached my ear.

“Hello?” I called out hesitantly, creeping forward and trying my best to avoid the dust piles on the floor. “I’m here to help.”

Another whimper that was almost too low to hear. I headed deeper into the passageway and stopped where the last torch lit my way. There was a pitch-black section, but past it, in the distance, light flickered from around a corner.

I carefully stuck my foot out and pressed my hand into the side of the wall, making it without falling into an abyss.

Once I was safely away from the dark section, I exhaled in relief and turned the corner.

I stopped at the wide entrance opening to a long, rectangular chamber.

At the end of the straw-covered floor was a slumped form dressed in tattered rags. I hurried forward, my steps thunderous.

The closer I got, the easier it was to see why the floor was coated in straw. Dried blood spread across the ground toward the dirty bundle huddled near a pole in the middle. From what I could see, the form was male.

A torch lined each of the four corners of the room.

He slumped against the post, his thin, frail body covered in dirty rags. An iron cuff around his ankle led to the jutting branch from the metal pillar embedded into the floor with large screws. His skin around the cuffs was raw and bloody, as if he’d tried to pull free.

He lay in a starfish position, head turned away and arms sprawled outward, but where there should have been hands was gruesomely burned flesh. Like his hands were chopped off and then a flame held to the wound.

This was meant to be a slow, painful death.

“Hello?” I whispered, waiting with bated breath to see if he was still alive. He twitched and rolled his head to the side. Human nose and ears . . . a beard grown out, but what I could see of his features was enough.

I went ice cold.

No way, no way .

Andrew.

His blue eyes flared, and he grunted, scrambling to get away from me.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” I said, breathing unsteadily. I fell to the floor, unable to keep upright. He was emaciated, practically one foot in the grave. I clasped my neck, gasping.

My mind raced with explanations and reasoning. When Corvus came to my room, before dragging me into his realm, he’d mentioned me fucking this man. He’d wanted to punish me for sleeping with him. That wasn’t a coincidence, and I was starting to believe nothing in my life had occurred by chance.

He weakly groaned, and it ripped me into action. This was my fault; I had to get him out of here.

I ignored his flinch and crawled next to the ankle cuff attached to the metal pike.

I reached out toward him.

“Do. Not. Touch,” Corvus bellowed.

I yanked my hand back as if I’d been electrocuted, startling upright. I shoved to my feet and whirled.

“What have you done?” I accused through gritted teeth. He moved so fast, and suddenly, he was leaning down, his face an inch from mine.

“You should have obeyed.” The same words he’d said when he first came for me.

A ball throbbed in my throat, and I struggled to heave in another breath.

“Why would you do this?” I shook my head, unable to move.

“He is lucky to be alive. I snapped the necks of the two before him. The ones you brought to release with your mouth.”

My knees gave out, and I slumped to the ground with a whimper. So much guilt . . .

“I fucked him three years ago, Corvus,” I whispered. “He’s been here that long?” I shook my head, not really asking; it was obvious Andrew had been suffering for a while. “How is he even alive?”

“I had an attendant assigned to keep him alive. She begged you for death.”

The pieces were connecting.

“The Novian who tried to kill herself.”

“Pitiful female deserved death.”

Andrew groaned, shifting to his side to watch us. His eyes flicked from side to side, like a wild, pained animal.

“Let him go.”

“No.” Corvus peered at his claws, rubbing something off the surface.

“You said jealousy is a human fallacy, but this is worse!”

“You are mine. He touched what is mine.” His dark eyes seemed scarier with the shadows whipping around him. “He filmed my sacrifice. He touched my Little Mortal.”

His words gave me pause, and I shook my head, taking a moment to make sense of the situation.

“What?” I croaked. “He filmed me?” I whirled on Andrew, my eyes wide.

My body jolted from impact, and I fell to my knees, just barely catching myself before I face-planted.

“Do not look at him,” Corvus hissed in my ear.

Shadows caressed my thigh, and cold air sent a chill through me.

His grip on my hips stiffened, and he seated himself inside me.

His sudden possession scrambled my thoughts, and my channel flexed.

With the rub of his divot against my clit, my shock disappeared.

My body felt too attuned to him, as if he’d trained it to his liking. Shadows tickled my skin, brushing against my arms and caressing, igniting the lust.

He wrapped his hand around the back of my neck, pinning my cheek to the floor. The smell of blood and the earthiness of straw filled my nose.

Corvus thrust, ripping a grunt free.

He fucked me hard, demanding, greedily.

The blood-stained straw bunched under my hands. I couldn’t help pushing back against him until my skin slapped against his thighs.

“Mine. My Mortal,” he snarled, and his shadows expanded, falling over Andrew. All the while, Corvus didn’t stop pumping into me. The sexual sound of our flesh smacking together was rivaled by my moans.

The shadows retreated, and his grip on my neck lifted me and forced me to look at the husk.

He thrust upward, seating himself deep.

“Look at what happens to whoever thinks of touching you.”

I panted, on the precipice of an orgasm. I wiggled, but he didn’t move, drawing out the ache.

“ That is jealousy, Corvus,” I spat, grinding back to feel every inch of his thick, textured cock. “Not just a human fallacy, huh?”

His body began to shake behind me.

The low hum of horns rent the chamber. Multiple horns that had to be ridiculously loud, if the noise spilled into the room.

He snarled, his grip turning agonizing.

“It is Novareth,” he bit out and let me go so suddenly, I had to catch myself before falling on my face. His announcement left me with no confusion. I knew what had been coming since the beginning.

Rumbling and hisses exploded from Corvus. I scrambled to my feet and ended up with my back to the wall, several feet away from the large pole. I would never make it around him.

Corvus’s wings were spread out wide, and shadows whipped around him violently. He lowered his head, and the trembling stopped, making him so still it was frightening.

I tried not to move, to hold off breathing, but my pounding heart didn’t allow it. I sucked in a ragged inhale.

He was suddenly in my face, shoving me against the wall, gripping my wrists to pin them to the brick. His teeth pressed against my throat, his tongue flicking up the side of my neck.

I moaned, my hips twisting to press against his hard abdomen. If I were just a bit taller, I would be able to rub my aching core against his thigh.

Corvus pulled back, his sweet breath fanning against my neck and making my hair flutter at my temples.

“You are my sacrifice,” he snarled as if trying to convince himself. Tendrils wound up my arms.

“Goodbye, Corvus,” I panted. Resolve settled over my thoughts, and they calmed with acceptance. The more peaceful and still I became, he became the opposite.

His body began to shake again, and he bared his sharp teeth. Was he holding back?

“No,” he hissed out, his head shaking from side to side, his wings flexing. He was holding back.

“Don’t act like you’re good now,” I breathed. “Do it.”

“I cannot contain—” Shadows whipped outward and extinguished the nearby torches. They plumed, and my vision was overtaken by darkness.

I gasped, a painful tugging originating in my chest and spreading throughout my body, as if he’d taken hold of my veins and yanked at them.

Tears welled in my eyes, but I couldn’t move; my body was growing painfully cold. I whimpered, and suddenly, it all stopped, and my vision returned.

The torches were still lit even if the room was unfocused.

In a sudden motion, he yanked back with a roar, his body vibrating. The shadows wound around his wrists and slowly pried him away from me. He’d been grabbing onto me so hard that, upon being pulled away, deep cuts opened along my arms.

I screamed from the stinging agony as red lines split my skin. I could only watch in shock as the shadows writhing from him wrapped around the iron pole, bending it at a right angle.

Corvus shoved himself backward, and the tip of the pole where Andrew had been chained to went through his torso. Black liquid oozed from where he’d impaled himself; the split flesh was a gruesome sight.

“Leave.” He shook his head, his claws digging into his torn chest like he was trying to rip himself open. “Get away from me until I am no longer conscious.”

I couldn’t look away from the oozing black blood.

“Run,” he bellowed.

So I ran.