Chapter Thirty-Five
“Follow me,” Daemon says, leading me along the cliff. “I’ll explain when we get there.”
“Get where?” I ask, but a moment later, as we step around a boulder sitting along the cliffside, I see a narrow, rocky trail leading down into the darkness.
Daemon leads, his hand in mine, as we carefully make our way down the path.
It hugs the side of the cliff, steep and perilous with loose pebbles sliding everywhere as we move.
Switching back and forth, it takes the better part of half an hour to finally make it to the bottom.
There’s a skinny stretch of beach before us, set into a small cove where the cliffs dip in.
Waves crash against the sand mercilessly, and the moon catches the water, leaving a glowing trail far out to sea.
I turn to Daemon, the wind blowing my hair back like a banner. “What is this place?”
“The location of the third challenge,” he says, his face stormy. He lifts an arm and points out to sea. “Or rather, the start of it. The challenge takes place out there.”
“In the ocean?”
He nods, his jaw rolling in anger. “The challenge is to swim to an island far out to sea, and back again. It’s a distance that no human can survive.” His eyes burn into mine. “Which is why we’re leaving tonight.”
I shake my head. “But… but the spell that binds the tournament… won’t some magical punishment befall us if we back out?”
“I’ll take my chances,” he growls. “Because if you stay, you die, Embyr. And I’m not going to let that happen.”
My fingers squeeze his. “We can figure out something else… I can go a short ways out and tread water. Just forfeit the challenge. It’s not as if I care about winning it.”
He shakes his head. “You don’t understand. Each challenge grows in danger and complexity. There will be beasts in the water, Embyr. If you stop, or go too slow, they’ll drown you.”
“So, the council…”
“They did this intentionally to weed out the humans.” Daemon’s eyes flash with fury. “It’s a way to punish House Harkyn for invoking the tournament. And damn all the other royal human houses while they’re at it.”
I turn and stare out across the waves. It looks so peaceful now, in the night. But tomorrow it will be my death sentence.
“Daemon,” I begin, turning to look up at him. I cup his jaw in my palm softly. “I always knew I wouldn’t survive this tournament. And I’m not going to let some magical curse befall you to save me.”
His eyes flash again, and this time I can tell his anger is directed at me. His voice, when he speaks, is a low growl laced with heat. “If you think I’m going to let you die tomorrow, you know nothing about me, Embyr. I would rather die a thousand times than see that happen. Do you hear me?”
I stiffen, taken aback by his ferocity. “I’ll go, then. You stay. That way we’re not both breaking the spell…”
He cuts me off before I can finish. “It’s too late, don’t you understand?
My family is already planning some awful fate for you.
They told me that if I don’t win the rest of the tournament challenges, if I let myself be distracted by a human, they’ll kill you.
That’s why I had to get the heart stone.
And now I’ve made a scene at the dinner.
But I couldn’t let those brothers treat you that way.
Not after sitting at the table listening to them talk about you. I wanted to kill them, both of them.”
Daemon is shaking in fury, shadows beginning to spin off him. I step into the curve of his body, sliding a hand around his back. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll figure it out.”
“You’ll come with me, then? Tonight?”
I hesitate, and he pulls back. “I don’t want you to get hurt, Daemon…” And I realize as I say it that it’s true. I’ve spent all my life running, trying to protect myself, but now when I have the chance to run one last time, to save myself, I only want to protect Daemon.
Daemon’s green eyes burn into mine. “And it will end me if anything happens to you, Embyr. I can’t explain it, but you’re a part of me. I feel you everywhere you go, an ever-present piece of my soul.”
My breath catches, and Daemon slides one hand up into my hair.
His other hand snakes around the small of my back and pulls me closer.
He rests his forehead against mine and lets out a shaky breath.
We stand there like that for several long moments, the waves crashing against the shore behind us.
Then I pivot my face and press my lips to his, sweet and soft.
“I am yours,” I murmur. “And you are mine, too.”
Daemon’s hand on my back tightens, and our kiss deepens.
He twists his tongue against mine, probing and flicking, sending sparks racing down the length of my body.
When he sucks my lower lip and grazes his teeth against it, I moan against his mouth, and he lets out a dark growl in response.
My body shivers against his, my heart pounding harder than the waves.
The hand that’s on my back slides around to the front of me, slowly moving along the edge of my hip bone, then down, down, down, sliding along the silk of my dress until his fingers find the soft star at the apex of my magic.
A gasp climbs out of my throat as Daemon swirls his finger over it.
His lips move to my earlobe, flicking his tongue along it before taking it in his teeth.
Another swirl with his finger, making me arch into his touch. “Daemon…” I moan inarticulately.
He works his finger over me until pulses of pleasure ripple through my body, the waves a distant crash as the rushing of blood in my ears consumes their sound.
Right as I reach the edge, my breath coming in short gasps, my legs trembling, Daemon sweeps his ankle against mine, kicking my legs apart.
I gasp in surprise and Daemon laughs, low and dark, a rumble that vibrates against my neck.
His lips trail down along my jaw and back to my mouth.
He hovers there as he slides one finger, with excruciating slowness, into me, pressing his thumb to my clit at the same time.
I cry out against his lips, my knees buckling, and his hand in my hair tightens, knotting into it.
He dips in again, faster this time, and stars spin around me.
His finger curls against the core of my sweetness and pleasure pulses, pulses, unfolding one petal at a time.
When Daemon picks up speed with his finger, pressing his thumb firmly against me on the outside, I am lost.
I cry out and fall against him as wave after wave of bliss envelopes me.
He bites down the side of my neck, each mark of his teeth sending another jolt of ecstasy through me.
When it’s finally over, he makes a sound of satisfaction like a dark little purr, and then he lifts me, carrying me to a small boulder a few feet away.
The universe is still spinning as he sets me down.
He drops to his knees in front of me and runs his hands up the insides of my thighs.
“Lean back, Embyr,” he says, his voice deep and rough as if there’s a beast inside clawing its way out. “I need to taste you. Now.”
He doesn’t give me time to obey but flips my dress up and buries his head between my legs.
My back arches up off the stone as another cry flies out of me.
Daemon’s hands slide under my ass as he pulls me toward his face.
He devours me, entering me, sucking, tasting.
My pleasure, still echoing from the last climax, surges again instantly.
His teeth graze over my clit and the world spins.
He claims me with his tongue, and within moments I am completely shattered for a second time.
My screams are torn away by the wind, carried off over the ocean.
Daemon kisses his way up my stomach and between my breasts as I lay there quivering in the afterglow. “You are my queen,” he says as he kisses along my jawbone. “I will worship no other for all of my days.”
I lean up into his kiss, and our tongues tangle. “I need you, Daemon. All of you.”
His eyes darken and he stands up, pulling me with him.
He pulls off his tunic, and I shimmy one strap off of my dress, and then the other.
He watches, his gaze predatory. When my dress drops in a pool of silk in the sand, I shiver as the wind caresses my bare skin, my unbound hair cascading down my back.
Then I step forward and take the buckle of his pants, undoing it as swiftly as I can, my heart pounding so loudly I’m sure he can hear it.
When his pants fall, my heart pounds even faster, my eyes roving over the massive length of him, his hard muscles in the moonlight, his eyes that are looking at me like he’s going to be the end of me in the best possible way.
We drop to our knees in front of each other, and I place my hand on his chest, pressing so he sits back.
I climb into his lap, straddling him, and he runs his hands up my back.
Slowly, I reach down, and I guide him into me.
We gasp simultaneously as he enters me. I arch forward, widening my thighs to take him even deeper.
Then I roll my hips, grinding along the length of him.
Daemon moans and bites the side of my neck, and I buck my hips again.
His fingers dig into my back, and wisps of shadow begin to curl out around him.
I move faster now, gyrating back and forth, riding him as he holds me tightly from behind, kissing and biting and sucking at my skin.
The ocean rolls up across the sand a few feet away as we move together.
I wrap my arms around Daemon’s neck, my hands winding up into his hair.
His shadows spin around us, and I’ve never felt more safe than I am now, in his arms, in this moment.
Skin to skin, heart to heart, Daemon’s strength and magic wrapped around me.
It feels like we’ve done this a thousand times, a thousand lives over, like he is the night sky, and I am the fiery stars that burn inside him.
I want to stay like this forever, but too soon I am trembling again, pleasure rippling through my core.
Daemon’s length gliding in and out of me is more than I can take for long.
My moans intensify into cries, and I can feel heat moving through my limbs, my body starting to glow.
Daemon growls and crushes me even closer, his lips moving to mine as he claims my mouth with his tongue until I’m breathless.
When he starts to shake, too, I feel myself start to spin over the edge.
“Look at me, Embyr,” he commands, his voice darker than the night. “I want to watch you come.”
And I do as he says, looking into his eyes, seeing the glow of mine reflected there.
I pulse my hips once, twice, and then we’re gone together, dissolving into each other.
Daemon yells and thrusts upward as I cling to him, breaking apart into a trillion glittering pieces as pleasure takes me, destroys me, drowns me, ends me.
We collapse into the sand, Daemon pulling me against his chest as we lay there. I listen to the thrum of his heart, the pounding of the waves. The glow of my body fades but doesn’t dissipate, a soft golden edge lingering along my skin.
“I don’t know what I did to deserve this,” Daemon murmurs into my hair, “But now that I’ve found you, I’m not ever going to let you go.”
I rotate my face and press my lips to his, soft and sweet. “Nor I, you.” I tremble as the words leave my lips, because this whole thing seems impossible. How had my life taken such a turn, after everything else that had happened?
We lay there in the sand for a long span of time, and at one point I drift off, the waves and Daemon’s heartbeat a lullaby I can’t resist.
I am awoken sometime later by a harsh sound cutting across the sky.
Daemon and I sit up at the same time, and his head whips toward the cliffs above us. “What was that sound?” I ask, my heart pounding in an entirely different way now. “It sounded like…”
His brow furrows, his lips pressed into a thin line. “It sounded like battle horns.”