19. Caly
19
CALY
E very muscle in my tired body tensed as the door creaked open. I held my breath as I waited for someone to come out from behind the large door and greet us.
Nothing.
I glanced back to Eli, puzzled. He looked slightly creeped out. His mouth turned down as he shrugged. My eyes landed on Mendax next. As I knew he would, he nodded for me to enter but began to step in front of me so he would enter the house first, keeping me safely tucked behind him. I cut him off and gave him a thankful look as I moved in through the door.
“Hello?” I called as I stepped inside.
The inside was beautiful, with a cozy, antiquated sort of appeal to it. A few wall sconces were lit with the familiar firefly-like lights I’d seen in Unseelie. They lent a warm glow that flickered just as a candle would.
“You can’t bring that thing in here,” Mendax grumbled at Eli.
“I’m not leaving her out there. Thistle’s a part of the team now, huh, pretty girl?” Eli said as he rubbed the large brown ears of the squat mare.
Mendax rolled his eyes but didn’t do anything more as the clip-clop of the floricorn’s hooves landed on the polished wood floor of the entryway.
“They said there was hay in here. They knew she would be coming with us,” I added.
There was a large, formal dining room with a fully set long table to our left. To the right looked like some sort of a sitting room or something. It was hard to see much with the dim lighting. It really did give the impression of an old, haunted manor. It was even equipped with a winding, black staircase to the right that appeared to go up about two floors.
However, the most interesting part was the hallway in front of us. It was the most well-lit space in the house, leaving no question as to exactly where we were supposed to go. It wasn’t very long; in fact, the inside of the house appeared modest in comparison to what I had expected.
I glanced to the guys before continuing to the hallway. It appeared to have three rooms that branched off from it, one on the right and two on the left. The door on the right was closed, leaving only the door at the end on the left open, with bright beams of amber light spilling into the hallway from inside.
“It said hay is in the first room on the right, but we are supposed to enter the second door on the right,” I recalled.
I took a step forward, making room for Eli and Thistle. The old floor squeaked with the weight of my movements. Eli took a breath and then opened the door. Every one of us, including Thistle, braced ourselves, ready for something to leap out and attack us.
The plain black door glided open, and Eli gasped, making both Mendax and I grab our weapons.
“Okay, this is kind of freaky,” Eli said, stepping inside and turning to us with a grin.
He and Thistle moved inside tentatively, and Mendax and I brought up the rear. The second we stepped inside the room, it was as if we were transported to a beautiful stable. A door inside was beautifully painted with vines and a small brown unicorn that said Tack room and supplies . Startled by my faltering steps, I looked down to see another brick floor, similar to the path we had followed to get here.
“Holy shit, look,” I said, pointing to the bricks at our feet.
THISTLE was carved into at least ten bricks that lay in a beautifully staggered pattern across the center of the floor. The sides of the room were lined with clean, darkly stained stalls that I couldn’t help but notice were the perfect size for a small pony. It was as if this room had been made just for the little unicorn. As promised, there was a mound of hay at the back wall that was so tall, it touched the high ceiling. I stared and stared, trying to understand how this room could be so big when I knew that the rest of the house was so small and that there were at least two other floors above this one.
Thistle happily walked over to a metal bin filled with grain attached to the wrought iron top of the stall closest to us.
“You okay to stay here while we check out the other room?” Eli whispered to the floricorn.
She didn’t move her eyes away from the large bin of food.
“Okay then. I’m just down the hall if you need anything, okay?”
Her mane flicked as she moved her weight to her other feet and continued happily eating.
Eli shrugged with a smile as he turned back to us. “Okay then, I guess it’s time to go face the music.”
As we turned and walked to the door, I noticed a small iron hook on the other wall draped with a beautiful leather saddle emblazoned with small intricate suns. A beautifully knit orange blanket lay next to it. I squinted as the boys moved out the door in front of me.
My breath caught in my throat at what I read on the small gold label attached to the saddle.
“Cal, you coming?” Eli asked at the door.
I bit my cheek as I passed him and walked out the door, looking at him in a completely different light.
Eli said another goodbye to Thistle and closed the door. As we stepped into the dark hallway, I noticed that the second door on the right now had a light glowing from under the crack at the bottom of the door.
Mendax took the lead this time, stepping up to the black door and turning the round brass handle. Warm light spilled into the hallway, illuminating the cozy space. Not a sound could be heard other than the shuffle of our steps and the creak of wood throughout the old house.
Mendax stepped inside, and I followed close behind, once again ready should we need to fight.
The familiar smell hit me like a brick to the head, confusing me in more ways than I ever could have thought possible—the slightly dusty smell of old books.
We were in a library, and not just a medium-sized house library like I would have expected of a home of this size but a humungous library, with rows upon rows of leather-bound tomes. A modest fire burned at one end with two dark, wing-backed chairs positioned cozily in front. I noticed an ornate gold frame with an older-looking painting of a harpist, another with what looked to be as nicely suited man.
In school, I had spent many evenings in a library studying. It was one of the only places that gave me an escape from what was happening when I was at home. Our local library looked scant in comparison to the many volumes in this room. Just like Thistle’s room, this one was shockingly large. There had to be at least four hundred thousand books in this room alone, and none of them looked newer than a hundred years, with many of them falling apart at the bindings.
“Well, what do we do now? This definitely isn’t the secret lair of Moirai,” Eli said.
I shrugged and began down one of the many aisles of books. The shelves were a beautiful dark wood that were lined up in a similar style to my local bookstore, except much grander with a gold wall sconce and painting on the end cap of every row. I moved down the aisle, scanning the book spines for some type of a clue. Most of the titles were in a language I didn’t know; some didn’t even have a title. I picked a random book from the shelf and flicked through the thick parchment pages of the deep red book, looking for some type of a clue.
It was completely blank.
I returned it and grabbed another. This one had a story about a girl and a wishing well. It looked fascinating, and for a split second, I thought about taking it with me, having completely forgotten where I was.
“Well?” Mendax asked.
“I haven’t a clue.” I shrugged. “Some are blank, while others have long, detailed stories. I haven’t found anything significantly telling though. What do you think?” The fire in the back of the room sent a warm glow that backlit the enormous man, giving him even more of the appearance of a shadow than normal.
“I think this was some sort of a way to throw us off track by your father. No one is in this house besides us. I would be able to sense their heartbeat. Whatever this is, it isn’t Moirai,” he stated.
“But the bricks outside and Thistle’s room? This is the address,” I whispered. I don’t know why I was whispering, other than out of habitual library etiquette.
“I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head. He looked so exhausted. Even his cheeks had begun to look sallow and sunken.
“Wait,” Eli interjected as he joined us. “Five hundred thirty-eight lilies. What if that’s a book?”
Holy shit.
“He’s right. We need to check the books,” I said, feeling my heart begin to speed up. It was so obvious. Almost too obvious.
“Check all these books? Are you mad?” Mendax sneered.
“I don’t know.” I shrugged defensively. “What else could it mean? We are in a library. I think that makes the most sense.”
“And what if this is all just a ruse to waste our time?” He put his hands on his hips. The small action instantly made him look twice as intimidating—and sexy.
“Do you have any other ideas?” I was so aggravated. We all were.
He was silent for a moment. “Then I suggest we spread out and hurry.” He walked past us to the end of the aisle and turned sharply, heading to the next one over.
“He’s not gonna make it much longer,” Eli whispered.
“What?” I drew back in surprise.
“Mendax. He’s doing worse than he’s letting on—worse than us. If we don’t get to Moirai and in front of the Fates soon, he’s going to be the first to go.”
“What do you mean he’s going to be the first to go? He’s fine,” I stammered, knowing it was a lie.
Eli shook his head. “That’s what he wants you to think. He’s been passing you his powers since long before I was, but you obviously knew that.”
My mouth fell open. “What do you mean? How would I know that?”
He tilted his tanned face and squinted. “The smoking—you only started doing it after you left Mendax in Unseelie, right? When you were injured?”
I couldn’t find words.
“I think he’s been sending you some of his powers through the bond since you left Unseelie and were injured in the last trial,” he said.
“There’s no way. That’s a part of the bond, or it’s because of my sister’s Artemi powers. They took some of Mendax’s powers,” I whispered in complete shock.
“I don’t think so, Cal. I think he wanted to protect you even when he wasn’t around.” His mouth turned down in a deep frown. “Except I think it’s going to kill him, and soon.”
“Oh my suns! What do I do? Can I give him some back? How can we help him?” I was going to snap.
“I think we just need to find this book, if that’s what it even is, and get to the Fates as quickly as possible,” he said as he took a few steps back. “I’ll start at the end. Five hundred thirty-eight lilies.”
He went to look, and I was left alone with my thoughts. Hot tears filled my eyes, and I had to grab the shelf in front of me to steady myself. Of course, Mendax had done all that for me and never even let me know. He was going to die keeping me alive, and I couldn’t do anything to stop him.
My chest tightened as I sobbed against the shelf, doing everything I could to keep my cries silent. How could I have let this go on for so long? Was that why he’d been so quiet? Because he was dying? He was right. How were we going to find one book out of all these?
My chest heaved, and I was forced to cover my mouth to silence the sounds.
I couldn’t let this happen; he couldn’t do this. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I turned the corner. My pace picked up as I began to run, checking each aisle for Mendax. I turned down the row he was in, and he looked up, surprised.
“What’s happened?” he asked. His face turned menacing as he strode toward me.
My teeth ground together as the tears picked up upon seeing him. As soon as I was within reach, I swung at his face, quickly following with the other arm after he grabbed my wrist, stopping it before it could connect.
“You prick!”
He pulled me against him as he held my wrists. His thick black brows wrinkled with concern.
“You were going to let yourself die giving me your power!” I struggled against him, trying to hit him again. The tears somehow flowed faster when he let go of my wrists and held my waist against him instead.
“And?” he said calmly.
“What was the point of all this if you were just going to die before we even made it to the Fates?” I shouted.
“I should ask you the same question,” he rumbled.
“What?” I wiped at my cheeks.
“You were going to die before we made it to the Fates. Am I wrong, pet? You were planning to remove yourself so that Aurelius and I could live. You would be at peace with”—he grabbed my pendant—“your sister. Am I wrong? Tell me I’m wrong, Calypso.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but I was still shocked that he had figured all that out. “How did you know?”
“In your weariness, you’ve grown forgetful about blocking me from parts of your mind, love,” he said harshly. “I forbid you from leaving me, and that includes via death.”
I squinted. “You can’t forbid me from dying,” I barked.
He moved his face in front of mine and pushed my back into the bookshelves behind me. His eyes slowly trailed up my body. “I can do anything I want to you, and that includes forbidding your death.” His statuesque body towered over mine.
“Then—then I forbid your death,” I snarled back.
Even in the barely lit aisle, I could see his dimple when the corner of his beautiful mouth lifted. “Do you now?” He pressed his thumb against my lower lip, pulling it down as he continued to run his thumb down my chin, then my neck. He stopped below my clavicle and latched his hard, draconic eyes onto mine before he continued pressing his thumb down until it reached the top of my cleavage. Goose bumps riddled my skin.
“I do,” I said huskily, suddenly aware of the pounding ache between my legs.
He grinned his wicked, lopsided smile, and I thought then and there that I could die completely happy. His thumb slowly moved from my cleavage, and before I knew it, his large palm covered my breast while he pressed his body against me. A ragged breath left my mouth. My head, suddenly too heavy to hold upright, fell back against the bookshelf.
“Say it again,” his deep voice breathed against my collarbone. His left arm framed me in against the shelf while his other skimmed down my chest and abdomen until he was running his palm across my throbbing parts.
I nearly choked on a breath when my body reacted so atomically to his touch. It was electrifying. Heat seared through me so full of want and need it was almost unbearable.
“Say what again?” I rasped as my hands moved to his shoulders and then into his thick black hair. I needed to feel his silky hair and touch his body.
“I do. Say it,” he commanded.
I could feel his long length pressing against me. “Why?”
His fingers dipped in my waistband, causing me to suck in an empty mouthful of air.
“Because I told you to,” he whispered sternly. Something about his almost terrifying demeanor always got me hot and bothered, and this was no different.
His eyes challenged me as he slowly moved his hand down the front of my pants. His cool, rough skin sent a chill over me as it moved across my warm skin and underwear.
“I do,” I breathed the words into his ear as I bit the lobe. I was rewarded with his finger tracing the line of me over my panties, dipping just enough to feel my wetness transfer onto the fabric. I breathed out heavily and dug my nails into his shoulder.
“Oh, Caly,” he sighed. His mouth found mine and quickly parted my lips, pushing his tongue into my mouth.
Neither one of us was able to taste enough of the other fast enough. Moans and breathy panting filled the aisle as we both struggled to be consumed by the other. His hand dipped into the front of my panties, parting me with his finger.
“Mendax,” I gasped softly.
He breathed out heavy and frustrated as he removed his hand from my panties. His hand went under my armpits and abruptly lifted me a few feet onto the edge of one of the bookshelves. My arms went around his neck as he pushed his lips to mine hungrily and gripped the waistband of my pants on either side, pulling them off torturously slowly. I lifted my hips to help.
As I sat on the shelf, his body parted my legs to either side of him.
“Say it again,” he commanded, pulling only a breath away from my mouth. His forehead still pressed against mine.
“Why—” His hand pressed against my sensitive flesh again, and I let out a moan. “I do,” I panted.
“Again.” He pressed three fingers inside me, rubbing against my clit with every delicious motion.
I cried out. “I do, oh fuck, I do.” I moaned.
He was breathing fast. His cock felt hard enough to break something as it pressed against the inside of my thigh. I pulled at the few pieces of armor he wore impatiently. He took a small step back and removed his chest plate, tossing it to the ground before reaching over his head and pulling his shirt off and returning to me. Greedily, my hands ran over his warm skin. I pulled his face down to mine and kissed him, biting his lower lip so hard I drew blood.
He pulled back with his eyes still closed and licked his lip. He looked absolutely euphoric. When his eyes opened, there was a dangerously intense spark to them. He held my waist with one hand and held the other out in front of him as his wicked eyes locked with mine. He spit into his hand and rubbed it against me. I dug my nails into his shoulder until I was certain he had to have been dripping with blood. My other hand gripped a clump of his hair as I ground myself against his hand furiously.
His moan sounded feral as he dropped to his knees and covered my throbbing body with his warm mouth. Books fell to the ground from the shelf next to me as my hand struggled to grip ahold of something, anything. I panted and moaned, but no sound came out. His magical tongue flicked and sucked as it pressed inside me and tasted my most sensitive spots. I gripped his hair with both hands and pressed and pushed until I thought I might suffocate him. I stopped worrying about it when every shove urging his mouth deeper caused him to let out a deep moan as he continued to feast like he needed my pleasure to survive.
I was close to climax when he pulled away and cold air hit me with a disappointed gust.
Mendax stood to his full height and wiped his wet face on his arm before undoing his pants with one hand and dropping them to his ankles. He stepped up to me and pressed his mouth to mine. The taste of myself and his smokiness danced on my tongue. I felt him rub the head of his cock along my slick center. Tingles burst over my body, and I was nearly ready to come from the quick action. He wasn’t even inside me.
“Marry me, Caly.” He pressed the first inch of his cock inside me.
I inhaled sharply and wrapped my legs around his waist. My body and heart tingled with emotion.
“You are proposing”—a moan slipped through my words—“while you fuck me? When one of us is almost guaranteed to die.” The words evaporated as he slid another inch of his thick, solid cock inside me. I grabbed his arm that pushed against the bookshelf next to my head.
“Yes, pet, I am,” he whispered into my neck with a bite. “Tell me again what you’re going to call out when they marry us.” He pushed his full length into me in one fluid movement.
I had to shove my face into his shoulder to muffle my cries of pleasure. He rocked back and forth slightly, adjusting himself to my tightness, sending waves of sensual tingles across my body.
“That’s not it,” he whispered huskily as he pulled himself almost completely out of me.
The sharp edge of the bookshelf dug painfully into the lower part of my butt and my back. “Mendax,” I begged, growing impatient and angry that he wasn’t fully inside me.
He leaned his upper body away slightly, and the lighting caught the dips and ridges of his chest and abdomen, highlighting the features of his warrior body like a painting. I opened my mouth to protest, suddenly afraid he was going to pull out and away because I hadn’t said the words he’d wanted to hear. Instead, he reached above my head and pulled free a cream-colored, cloth-bound book.
“It may sound like I’m asking you to marry me, hellhound, but I’m not.” He absently flipped through the book before he pressed the book’s fore edge against my chest. “Marriage is simply a formality needed alongside the bond for us to return as king and queen of Unseelie.”
He pressed the corner of the book into my skin and dragged it slowly down my chest and over the top of the sensitive skin of my breast. It was sharp, and the pain coursed like waves that crashed into my lust. Mendax knew how to play my body like an instrument, easily getting the reaction from me he sought.
“I don’t need a marriage ceremony to follow you.” He thrust himself inside me, dragging the book’s sharp corner over my hardened nipple.
My body clenched around him.
“You feel so fucking good,” he said, sucking in a breath through his teeth. His eyes had closed.
For a moment, I thought he’d lost complete control as he pulled out and slammed into me so hard the books on the shelf moved. He caught himself quickly though, and when his eyes opened again, the pupils were blown out under heavy lids. He looked absolutely vicious like this. Anyone else would be petrified for their safety. It made me an absolute horny mess. I couldn’t get enough.
“You’re mine, pet.”
He used his thumb to fan the edge of the pages against my nipple. The sensation felt like he was tickling and blowing on my skin times a thousand. I gasped at the multiple sensations when he began thrusting into me again, so deep it felt like I was folding around him.
“You will never escape me.” He closed the book on my nipple and squeezed it together, pinching my nipple like a clamp.
I squealed in pain and moved to shove the book off my nipple. He slapped his hand over my wrist and pressed it against the shelf above my head, holding it there with force. I felt my mouth curl into a devious smile. My pleas were swallowed by his lips as he kissed me roughly. It wasn’t a romantic or even a loving kiss. It was the selfish kind that burned inside you, turning you into a savage. He clamped the book together harder until tears prickled at my eyes and it was close to being too much.
“Whether I live or die, you possess me, Calypso,” he whispered. “Your happiness is annoyingly important to me now. Tell me you will marry me after this is all over and you will rule Unseelie at my side forever.”
The pain was starting to make me aggressive, so I dug my nails into his shoulder with my free hand. His eyes flickered shut, and his pace quickened. Still he held my nipple prisoner in the pages of the book.
It wasn’t a real plan he wanted me to agree to, I knew that. It was a hope-filled dream that we could pretend we’d get to experience before we entered this mess. I would never be the same if Eli died because of me, but I could never move on without Mendax. If he had heard all my thoughts through the bond, then I was going to have to find a new way to take myself out so I could be with Adrianna.
Still, this wasn’t a real plan—it didn’t get to be. It was a fantasy that a dying man was telling himself to feel in control when he had none. It was the dream a girl who had to die would gleefully agree to.
“Yes. I will marry you if we leave Moirai?—”
“When we leave Moirai,” he corrected as he dropped the book to the ground and licked my nipple.
“Yes, oh gods, yes,” I cried out as I bucked my hips against him.
He dropped his hold on my wrist to wrap his hands around me, lifting my butt off the shelf and cupping my cheeks as he plowed into me, pulling me off his cock and then slamming back into me. He was in complete and total control of my body as he pounded into me at the perfect speed. My eyes rolled back in my head at how deep his cock was and what it was doing to me. Never in all my life had I been fucked so good. He manipulated my body over his cock, and I just limply floated in euphoria, being controlled.
He spun, turning so his back was now against the row of bookshelves. My arms tightened around his neck as he let go of my body to grab my ankles and set each foot on a shelf at his back. I settled my weight in my toes as he grabbed my hips and slid me up and down on his cock. His head fell back into the shelf, and I realized what he’d done. I grabbed the shelf behind his head and one by one moved my feet up one shelf higher. I pushed off the shelf and used my leverage to bounce up and down on his hard as steel cock. He kept his palms on my hips and ass, but this time, I was the one in control.
“Finish me, Caly. Do you want to feel me when I lose it? I want you to feel everything. I want you to fuck me until you can’t take it for another second. If I die today, I want that pussy tender and raw as a reminder of how I’ll fucking haunt you even if I’m gone,” he panted.
“Shut—the—fuck—up,” I moaned as I rode him. He bit at my neck with a feral growl. “Maybe I’ll be the one doing the haunting,” I said through clenched teeth.
“Like Tartarus you will,” he said as he lifted me up and spun me again.
My back hit the bookshelf as Mendax thrust into me. I had no way to talk or argue through the pleasure and pain that my body was feeling. All I could do was hold on and enjoy it. He was right. I wasn’t going to be able to sit for days after him. Somehow the thought made me even wetter, and I felt tension coil in my lower belly like nothing I’d ever felt. My orgasm erupted, and all the tension turned to bliss as I started to come. Mendax’s thrusts deepened and slowed with shallow grunts. He was about to come too. He stuck his thumb inside his mouth and ran it over his tongue, then pressed and rubbed it against my clit. I came and I came and I came.
“Oh fuck, you’re coming so hard,” he said, pulling out at the peak of my orgasm while he continued to rub me with his thumb.
He kneeled down and began lapping at my clit.
It felt like ten barrels of pleasure poured over me, and I felt my lower body clench.
Mendax moaned as he sucked and ravaged me with his mouth.
I felt liquid pour from me, and this time he completely lost it, sucking and swallowing against me.
“I would die happy if this was the last thing I tasted,” he groaned. “Your cum has the taste of my salvation.”
I blinked, and he was standing again, pushing inside me. I was about to protest, feeling the hot burn of being completely raw, but the instant my body filled with him, I felt another orgasm start.
“I can’t,” I whined. “Another one will kill me.”
“Good. That’s the only way you should go. Now, beautiful, at the same time as me,” he whispered as he moved slowly in and out.
We clung to each other as we climaxed in unison.
“I love you, Caly. I love you like you’ll never understand.”
“I love you,” I returned with tears in my eyes. “I love you.”
We held each other for a moment in a ludicrously tender embrace before a shout broke through the quiet of the library.
“If you two are done fucking, then come to the last aisle. I think I might have found something,” Eli shouted from across the room.
Mendax and I looked at each other with smiles playing on our lips. We kissed one final unhurried time and began to dress.