Page 25

I thumped my head on the surface of the book I’d been rifling through. I’d been combing through the archives in the National Library for the last few days, and I was worried it was another bust. They had tons of scriptures and documents, but nothing concrete.

It’d only been a few months, and I was getting desperate. And losing hope. I’d come close to having drained my inheritance by flying from country to country. I’d researched every culture and religion for any inkling of what he was, but I didn’t find anything.

I didn’t realize how comforting the voices—no, voice —had been. Now that I was without it, their absence was glaring. I often found myself turning so suddenly, as if Corvus would appear out of thin air, but it never happened.

I’d never felt so alone.

I also never thought I’d miss him this much, either.

As cruel as he was, he’d worked those claws deep into my heart.

I’d had time to wrap my head around his nature and everything he’d done to help me escape.

He’d given himself over, and I was a weak bitch because it had worked.

All of his past evils didn’t hold a candle to what he’d given up for me.

Many women have said they could change a man, and they never could, but he wasn’t a man. He was a monster, and he did grow to care for me.

A girl sat in the seat across from me, and her eyebrows furrowed as she watched me.

I probably looked odd, sitting here smiling like a crazy person as I caressed the scars on my arms.

I’d wallowed for days, and then it occurred to me, if magic was real, and it very much had proven itself to exist, then there had to be a way to get back to him. After he’d mentioned the Blood Moon, I’d had hopes that I’d see an inkling of the shadows on the last one, but there was nothing.

I lifted my head and leaned back with a sigh. The rickety wooden chair squeaked with my lean. I gripped my cross.

Please, God, let me get back to him .

I rubbed my thumb against the smooth surface.

My new discoveries about different faiths and the realization that magic existed didn’t take away from my belief. I chose to hope and have faith that I would find a way back to him. Even if the whispers were completely gone, as if they’d never existed.

My only hope was Samhain. From everything I’d read, there was a certain energy to that time of year—a thinning between worlds.

But that was months away.

I wasn’t sure what I’d do once I was with him, but I refused to leave him alone in his torment.

MONTHS LATER

I swiped the ball pen across the square of the calendar hanging on my fridge. I’d waited for Samhain to arrive, literally ticking the days off in preparation. In the times I’d sought answers, I’d gotten my paperwork and such on the house figured out. I’d prepared for every possible outcome.

Samhain had to be the way to get back to him, because if it wasn’t, I had no other recourse. I tucked the pen into the drawer and used my hip to shove it closed, then left the kitchen.

I sat in front of my fireplace, letting the flames warm my skin. I stared into the blaze, studying the sway of the flare devouring the wood.

“Lord of Shadows,” I whispered. “Corvus, please . . .”

I settled in at sunset, waiting. I caught my eyelids growing heavier with each blink.

A chill crept over my arms, raising the hair. It jolted me awake. I gasped, alert and with adrenaline pumping.

How long had I dozed?

The fire I’d been in front of had been completely extinguished, leaving me in the dark with only the moonlight spilling through my wall-to-wall window.

Something moved at the corner of my eye. I gasped, turning so fast it made me dizzy. My smile grew.

“Corvus?” I whispered. A cloud seemed to detach from the wall, and it pulsated. The tendril stretched toward me and touched my wrist, as if in greeting.

“Take me to him.” They curled higher, winding around my arm and against my back. Their cool touch incited a familiar chill through me. It jerked me forward and I flopped onto my stomach with a grunt. It curled under me and began to drag me toward the fog painting the linoleum floor.

I closed my eyes, bracing myself for the iciness.

Shadows squeezed my arms and pinched my skin, then the familiar burn passed through my nerve endings.

I landed on the floor with a hard thump.

I groaned, curling on my side, trying to breathe through the agony stinging my flesh.

It hurt more than the other times. Liquid dampened under my nose, and I touched the tips of my fingers against the slickness.

I lifted it to see blood. I swiped my hand across my T-shirt and scanned my surroundings.

It had spat me out in the throne room.

A thick fog pulsed next to me. Then it curled upward, and it pressed against my lips. . . almost like it was asking for entrance.

I hesitantly opened my mouth, and in a sudden rush, the shadows shoved past my lips. I choked on my breaths, writhing on my back as the sensation settled inside me.

I did not mean to harm you.

The voice echoed in my head, and I gasped, looking around. It sounded similar to Corvus, so, so similar.

“Who’s there?” I gasped, shivering. “Corvus?”

No, I am Corvus Zypher’s soul.

My mind raced to grasp the words as a painful chill slid through my veins.

I cannot stay inside you for long without it harming you. Listen well, you can only wake him by splintering your soul.

“Do it,” I choked out, not exactly sure what I was agreeing to.

You must reunite the soul with the body at his most vulnerable moment.

“What does that even mean?”

Claim him.

“Can you be more descriptive?” I mumbled.

As you humans say—fuck him.

My shivers wracked my body. Violent, teeth-clacking chills.

I scoffed.

Reunite soul with body.

My stomach heaved, and I turned on my side, and thick, inky clouds spilled from my mouth like some horror flick. Once on my knees, I vomited out more black wisps, hacking and struggling to breathe.

The soul gathered an arm’s length from me, dancing in place like it was laughing at my misfortune.

“Even his soul is cruel,” I muttered, staggering to my feet. “Take me to him.”

It pulsed and disappeared. I turned in a circle until I caught sight of a tendril clinging to the side of the wall and followed it. This entire time, it had been his soul haunting me while he lay unconscious.

I hurried after it, passing the archway and the torches that were still lit with a low glow, nothing close to the flames they’d had before. I rounded into his bedroom.

He lay on the intricate, carved bed, his body prostrate.

The Soul prodded me forward, and it was the nudge I needed to run to him.

I climbed up the edge of the bed until I perched over him to clasp his face.

His head was heavy, which I was sure had to do with the ram horns.

I slid my fingertips along the side of his face where his feathers gathered. They were as soft as I’d remembered.

I sniffled and looked up at The Soul.

“Returning you to him will wake him?”

They pulsated and shoved me at him. I licked my lips nervously. He lay nude, with his clawed hands across his stomach, deep in slumber. But I wasn’t fooled, his mind must be pained. The harsh breathing told me everything I needed to know.

His cock lay limp against his stomach, and even then, it was large.

I licked my lips and peeked up at the shadows. A tendril stretched outward and curled around my wrist, guiding me to the length.

Even though no one watched me, I couldn’t help but feel like I was doing something wrong. I gripped him, and with only a single squeeze, the shaft stirred.

The shadows were part of him, and I was the vessel to help his soul return to him.

“You have permission to kill me if this crosses some line.” The Soul squeezed my wrist. The shaft was semi-hard in my hand, and I lowered to wrap my lips around the tip. Liquid beaded, and with a quick swipe, I collected it with my tongue.

It thickened and stretched in my hand, and I slipped my grip lower until I touched his thicker base. I could feel the slightest nodules. This was what expanded barbs into me when he came, hooking him inside my sex.

The Soul jerked my wrist again, almost angrily.

“I’m going.” I quickly shucked my pants and climbed over him, throwing my leg to straddle him. Another bead of liquid gathered at his tip. I sat back, studying the length. The ridges seemed to pulse, and moisture trickled down the side of his cock.

The Soul slid up my neck and gently caressed, like it was petting me. I lifted onto my knees and gripped his cock, poising myself over him. His face was slack, chin tipped away from me, allowing me a view of his profile. Lean, slim, and oddly, supernaturally beautiful.

I lowered until he pressed against my core. The shaft pulsated in my hand, and I dragged the tip along the slit of my sex, slicking his precum across my clit. Each graze flared my lust even higher. I fed him inside me, taking it terribly slowly. His facial features didn’t twitch.

This entire encounter was turning me on. I’d ached for him for so long, craving not only him, but his body. I’d become used to him, and the idea of taking another lover didn’t sit well. I felt like I was betraying him.

I slid down his hard shaft. The ridges rubbed against the walls of my channel, and I lowered until he filled me to the brim.

Corvus grunted, the sound mixed with pain and pleasure.

A tendril crept up my neck and wound around my throat, the cool sensation settling against my skin.

He filled my sex, so large that I could feel him deep in my belly.

“Corvus,” I moaned, hiking up on my knees to glide back down, savoring every inch of his cock. Pleasure licked up my spine, and I ground down until my sex settled flush against his pelvis. I ran my fingers along the tufts of feathers above his cock and caressed the silkiness.

My channel clasped him, and with every movement, I could hear how wet I was. The Soul slid up my neck and pressed against my lips. They parted with a groan, and the coolness slipping down my throat inflamed my desire.

Always mine , it whispered in my head. Then, with a sudden yank in my belly, it pulsed me over the edge. I cried out with soft pants, so deeply enveloped by his presence and vibrating energy. The hair on my arms lifted, and weakness dropped my shoulders.

Slowly, the shadows wrapped around his wrists and wound upward, curving around his torso. An opalescent glowing energy pulsed, interwoven within the darkness. I couldn’t stop bouncing on his reactive cock, chasing another orgasm.

The Soul crawled upward until it found its way to his mouth. It slipped through his lips.

I was so close . . .

Stars burst behind my clenched eyelids, and with the next pulsation of his shaft, his cock jutted warmth in me. My legs shook madly, and I rode the lulling wave, the weight of exhaustion falling over me.

He groaned, and his hips lifted, shoving deeper into my sex. His cock throbbed and the pinch of those glorious hooks sank into me, ripping me into another wracking orgasm.

His eyes sprang open, and he heaved in a deep gasp, his chest lifting off the bed so suddenly, his cock pulsed inside me, further extending my release.

He lifted his hand, and the shadows wound around his wrist, but there was the slightest bright vein within the darkness. He watched the shadows curve around his limbs with his eyes wide.

I was searingly cold, to the point of pain. He took my jaw, his large hands enveloping my whole face. With his touch, the cold settled into a comforting sensation in my chest.

“You’ve shared your soul,” he murmured, awed. “You have anchored me.”

A single pinpoint glowed in the middle of his eyes—a pupil.

“You have saved me.”

He lifted upright, his wings kicking up a wind. He pinned me on my back, hovering over me. His face lowered, and he carefully placed his mouth against mine, mimicking how I’d kissed him.

My heart exploded. I reached a trembling hand to his jaw, rifling my fingers through the feather-like hair.

“I missed you,” I whispered.

He pressed his mouth against mine more insistently, and his long, pointed tongue slipped past the cage of my lips to lick mine. I met the roughness with all my pent-up passion.

I dragged my fingertips down the column of his neck. I’d even missed how cold he was.

He buried his face in my neck with a groan.

“You belong to me, Little Mortal,” he purred.