Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Samara
“FUCK!” Kieran yelled as I buried my fangs into his neck. His thrusts became harsher, and my thighs trembled while I matched his pace as I straddled him on the couch in my suite. One hand was tightly wound up in my hair, and the other gripped my ass so hard, I knew I’d have bruises. A delicious heat was building in my core as his breathing grew ragged, and I knew we were close.
He’d already made me come several times with his fingers and tongue, but I just couldn’t get enough of him. I pulled away from his neck, blood dripping down my chin, and arched my back. Kieran released my hair, both hands moving to grip my hips as he pounded into me. Then he leaned forward, kissing and licking my breast before sucking a nipple into his mouth.
I let myself lean back as far as I could, trusting Kieran to not let me fall, and reached one hand down, brushing over my already sensitive clit as a breathy moan slipped from my lips.
“That’s it, gorgeous,” Kieran growled. “Play with that clit for me while I fuck this amazing pussy of yours.” His words had me practically coming as my fingers swirled through my hot slickness and pushed down on my clit.
“Harder, Kier!” I screamed.
He let go of my breast and leaned back against the cushions, his grip punishing as he did as I commanded, the new angle allowing him to reach even deeper. I couldn’t stop the scream that erupted out of me as I came hard all over his cock, and Kieran bellowed as he came with me.
With trembling muscles, I leaned forward and slumped against his chest. “First part of the plan, done,” I panted.
Kieran laughed as his arms wrapped around me. “I don’t know. Maybe we should go again just so everyone knows for sure where we are and what we’re doing.”
“That’s what you said an hour ago,” I mumbled into his chest. “Besides, I’m running out of dirty things to scream.”
He tightened his arms around me. “Just please be careful, Sam.”
I raised my head enough to meet his gaze. “I will, I promise. It’s probably nothing anyway, but I know I saw that glyph in the caves by the beach. I think it’s just an escape route, but the Fae might have left something there, and we need to find it before Draven does.” I pursed my lips. “He suspected I was holding something back earlier about the symbol. I know he did.”
“He’s always been annoyingly observant,” Kieran said tightly.
“You okay?” I asked, searching his face for the answer. “I know it’s got to be difficult being around him again, and I’m sorry I have to spend so much time with him.”
“It’s okay,” Kieran assured me. “Is it fucked up that I’m kind of glad he’s here? I should hate him. After everything that’s happened between me and him, and us knowing what we do about him and the wraiths . . . plus him trying to marry you for probably bullshit reasons. But . . .” He trailed off .
I kissed him gently. “You missed him.”
“This is all kinds of fucked.” He blew out a breath. “I’m still inside you and I’m thinking about him .”
“Lucky for you, my ego is unshakable.” I bit down on his bottom lip hard enough to draw blood, and he groaned. “I’m equally fucked, because I was thinking about him too, and Alaric.”
The glass ball containing a memory from Draven was currently sitting on the table in front of my settee, nestled amidst books and paperwork. I hadn’t scrounged up the courage to see what he’d transferred to it and didn’t know if I’d ever be able to.
“We are fantastic at complicated relationships.” Kieran brushed my hair back over my shoulder, gold streaking through his brown eyes. “I love you, Sam. Whatever happens with the others, you have me forever.”
“I love you too, Kier.” I snuggled back down against his chest and breathed in his scent. Kieran always reminded me of dawn on a spring day. If I closed my eyes, I could almost picture the dewdrops hanging off the tulips that bloomed early in our garden. “We’ll figure the rest of it out.”
“The rest being the evil prince who we both have the hots for, the Marshal who may or may not kill you, and my asshole best friend who is absolutely in love with you and refusing to admit it?”
“Yes. That.” I let out a husky laugh. “I’m reasonably sure Vail isn’t going to kill me. At this point, he’s had two chances, and both times, he’s ended up saving me instead.”
“After trying to kill you,” Kieran pointed out.
“I mean, he didn’t try that hard.” Reluctantly, I raised myself off Kieran, both of us groaning as he slid out of me. “If Vail truly wanted me dead, then I’d be dead.”
“Was that meant to be comforting?” He gave me a flat look. “Because given that you’re about to go traipsing around in a cave with him, I’m gonna let you know it’s not.”
I cleaned myself off with a towel before pulling on some clothes. Not much point in rinsing off, considering where I was headed. “Alaric will be there too.” I quickly braided my hair and then wrapped it up in a bun.
Kieran walked over to where I was standing by the window, concern stamped all over his face. “Don’t say anything to piss off Alaric. He might shove you into the water, and then you’ll come back smelling like seaweed.”
“No promises. I exist to piss that man off.”
“That is definitely what Alaric believes.”
We both snickered as I unlatched the window and swung it open. This was the trickiest part of my plan. I needed to climb down the wall to the courtyard and then quickly make my way out of House Harker. Draven had said he was retiring to his room after dinner, but I doubted that. Ary and Aniela were also still here, and I wouldn’t put it past them to do a little sleuthing before they left tomorrow morning. Luckily, this window opened up to one of the smaller courtyards near the outer wall. There was a secret tunnel on this side that we could use to get outside the walls so we didn’t have to go through the main gate.
I just needed to climb down without drawing attention. Or falling.
The cool night breeze danced across my skin as I peered down. My living quarters were towards the top of the tower, and it was a long way to the ground, but it wasn’t fear racing through me right now. Exhilaration lit up my skin as I breathed in the crisp air and admired the cloudless and starry night.
We might currently live our lives by day, but it was night that made us feel truly alive. Even tonight, when the moon was barely a sliver in the sky.
Moroi. Velesian. Furie. We were all Moon Blessed .
I sat on the windowsill and swung my legs until they dangled over the edge, Kieran’s lips quirking as he watched me.
“You’re kind of insane. You know that, right?”
“It’s one of the many reasons you love me.” With a sharp inhale, I let my bloodlust rise. It was easy to control during the day, but beneath the moonlit sky, it surged forward, and I had to claw it back so I could stay focused.
Kieran’s brown eyes studied me, noting the change in my eye color and how my nails had lengthened into claws. There were other small changes, ones I couldn’t see but could feel, like the killing instincts that slumbered beneath my skin coming out to play.
Not the least bit afraid, Kieran leaned down and claimed my mouth with his, gold sparks dancing in his eyes when he pulled back. “I want to feel those claws running down my back later as I bury my cock inside you again.”
“Have I ever told you that you’re excellent at providing motivation?” I smirked before twisting off the window and letting myself fall, my clawed fingertips instantly finding purchase between the bricks. I tilted my head back as much as I could to meet Kieran’s stare from where he was leaning out the window and shaking his head at me. “You better be naked when I get back.”
He laughed quietly and continued to watch as I hugged the wall and quickly scaled down towards the ground. It’d been a while since I’d done this, but I used to all the time when I’d been a kid. My parents hadn’t liked me roaming around at night, but I loved walking on the beach under a full moon, so I’d sneak out without them knowing.
Or try to.
More often than not, my mother would be waiting for me at the bottom of the tower, fighting back an amused grin while she tried to lecture me about the dangers of climbing down a tower wall. Then she’d take me on a moonlit ride.
Of course, back then, my chest had been considerably smaller. I should have wrapped my breasts tighter. Aside from being cumbersome and making it difficult to cling to the wall, they weren’t exactly comfortable. As soon as my feet hit the ground, I gently placed my hands over my breasts while I silently apologized to them.
“What are you doing?” Alaric hissed in a low voice from where he was standing with Vail in the shadows.
“Apologizing to my tits for dragging them against the bricks for the last two minutes,” I snapped back as quietly as I could, the two of us glaring at each other.
“I’d say fuck and get it over with, but you already did that,” Vail grumbled. “We doing this or what?” He didn’t wait for an answer, just strode off down the narrow passage that stretched between the main tower and two of the smaller ones.
Alaric started to follow after him, but my hand shot out, and I gripped his arm, letting my claws sink into his flesh. Not a flicker of pain appeared on his face as he took in my predatory black eyes. I knew he didn’t like it when I let my bloodlust ride high like this because it reminded him of the cousin who had turned Strigoi when they had been kids. While I understood why he felt this way, I didn’t agree with it. Our bloodlust made us stronger, and it could be controlled. Even Moroi who didn’t belong to the House bloodlines could do so with careful practice. Alaric was deliberately inhibiting himself by denying his true nature.
“How does he know about us?” Alaric was hardly the type to kiss and tell, and he certainly wouldn’t where I was concerned.
“There is no us ,” he growled and yanked his arm out of my grip. His rejection stung, but I refused to let him see that. Alaric clenched his jaw and looked away when I merely arched an eyebrow. “I ran into him after I left your study. He could smell you on me.”
“Great.” I blew out a breath. “Now he’s going to be even more of an asshole.” I let my claws shrink back into nails but didn’t bother trying to pull my bloodlust back any more than that. This close to the House, it was unlikely there would be any nasty beasties, but it was still nighttime in Lunaria, so one could never be too careful.
Alaric huffed out a laugh. “Can we go now?”
“Lead the way.” I gestured dramatically down the alleyway, and Alaric just rolled his eyes before stalking away. Vail had accused me of sleeping with both Kieran and Alaric before, and now he knew it was true. I didn’t fully understand Vail’s problem with me, but for someone who claimed to hate me, he acted awfully jealous of my lovers.
The Marshal of House Harker was waiting for us at the end of the passage. The sides of his head were freshly shaved, and he’d pulled his shoulder-length, brown hair back into a bun. He’d trimmed his beard back quite a bit and ditched the bones that he often braided into it. Only Vail could still look half-feral despite the cleaned-up appearance.
The silver streaks in his dark grey eyes glinted at my approach. He’d been avoiding me the last couple of days, Alaric having to track him down and inform him of this plan. While Alaric was unnerved by my eyes full of bloodlust, Vail’s reaction was the slight flaring of his nostrils and a hard look at my neck. The silver in his eyes expanded before he turned away and flattened his hand on the outer wall, activating the glyph on it. A section large enough for us to pass through vanished from the thick stonework, and the three of us quickly slid through. Within seconds, the hole vanished, and the wall was once again solid.
It was a shame the Fae were gone, because their magic was truly extraordinary .
Not gone, I reminded myself. The wraiths were Unseelie, and now they were using that extraordinary magic of theirs to reclaim what they’d lost. At the cost of our lives.
“Let me scout it out first,” Vail said from where we stood at the mouth of the cave. The entrance was enormous, towering far above us. Water rushed in, surging around the jagged rocks that broke the surface here and there. It was low tide, which would make things a little easier for us. Vail hesitated before glancing at me. “You remember the path we used on the right side?”
“Yes.” I nodded. “My memory is a little foggy about where I saw that glyph, but I think it’s behind the large, flat rock.”
“Alright. Listen for my call, and then follow in after me.” He slipped away into the darkness, the moonlight reflecting off the large sword strapped to his back. We’d never encountered any monsters when we’d explored the cave system as kids. Given its location on the beach and the tide rolling in and out, it wasn’t particularly appealing to the beasts that roamed the woods.
“I forget sometimes . . . that you and Vail were friends,” Alaric said quietly.
“Yeah.” A bone-weary sigh slipped past my lips. “He was my first friend, really. You always hated me, and Kieran didn’t show up until we were teenagers.”
“I never hated you, Samara.”
“Really?” My gaze cut to his, and I saw desperation and need in his eyes before he quickly turned away. Frustration filled me. Maybe it would be me pushing him into the seawater, but if I didn’t ask him, I knew I’d regret it. “What do you feel for me, Alaric?”
Big surprise, he didn’t answer. I rolled my eyes, lacking the patience to deal with Alaric’s bullshit right now, and returned my attention to the cave. Occasionally, I’d feel his attention on me and thought he might say something, but he never did. After a few minutes, Vail’s sharp whistle cut through the air.
“Let’s go.” I headed towards the right side, watching my step as we moved from the sandy shore to the slick, algae-covered rocks. “Step where I step. This path was challenging a decade ago, and it’s probably gotten worse. I really don’t want to go for a swim tonight to save your ass if you fall in.”
“You just don’t want to get your hair covered in seawater,” he sniped back.
I looked over my shoulder at the hair he kept closely cropped to his head. “You don’t know what it’s like to care for long hair. There’s a bunch of algae and seaweed in the cave. I’d probably just cut my hair off rather than deal with the grossness of it.”
“No,” he said quickly.
“No?” I stopped and turned more to face him.
Alaric stared at me for a long moment, his lips pressed tightly together like he was debating something huge before finally saying, “I like your hair.”
“You mean you liked having your hand fisted in it while I sucked your co?—”
“Samara!” he growled. I laughed and resumed walking towards the path. He made it too easy.
Silvery beams of moonlight lit up the cavern, courtesy of the random holes in the ceiling. Vail and I used to stare at them and try to figure out what had caused them. Something about them didn’t seem natural, but we’d never been able to figure out what.
Bioluminescent algae shimmered in the water as the waves rolled in. There wasn’t much of it this time of year, but in late summer, the entire shoreline practically glowed an impossibly bright blue. Right now, it was more like little gems sparkling in the dark.
After telling Alaric to be cautious, of course I was the one to slip on a loose rock while admiring the water. A strong arm wrapped around my midsection before he tugged me back against his warm chest.
“Careful,” Alaric whispered in my ear. Then he flexed his fingers, his thumb brushing the underside of my breast before he stepped back.
I immediately mourned the loss of heat, even as I wanted to growl at him for being so indecisive. He wanted me, that was certain, but one minute he was determined to deny that feeling, and the next he was running his hands over my body.
Once again, I debated pushing him into the water. It’d serve him right.
With a frustrated exhale, I continued forward, being extra aware of where I was stepping. It didn’t take long for Vail to come into view. The cavern basically went straight back before the rest of the tunnel plunged under the water. There wasn’t actually that much to explore, it was just precarious to do so because the few rocks that rose above the water level were always damp and slippery. During high tide, it was impossible to get to the back without getting wet.
Vail waited for us on a large, circular, flat rock. It was the only part of the cavern that was never submerged. Just as I was about to jump from our path to join him, something below caught my attention, and I stopped to peer into the depths. The water directly in front of the rock Vail was standing on was cast in shadow, and it was difficult to see anything.
“Samara?” Alaric asked from behind me.
“I thought I saw something,” I murmured, my eyes still scouring the water but finding nothing. “Maybe it was just some seaweed.”
“Scared, Heir?” Vail taunted, and I glared at him before launching myself across the open water to the large rock, Alaric landing gracefully behind me a second later.
I brushed past Vail and headed towards the back of the rock but couldn’t resist looking up to the sky above us. This section of the cavern had the most damage to the ceiling. When we’d been kids, I would beg Vail to sneak out with me to come here at night. We’d lie on our backs and stare up at the stars while the waves crashed around the rocks beneath us. Vail would point out all the constellations to me, and I’d hang on his every word.
Then our parents had died, and everything had changed. I’d only come back here once after the night the wraiths had attacked and changed both our worlds forever. Part of me wanted to ask Vail if this was his first time returning to this cave since then, but I couldn’t bring myself to utter the words.
“I remember it being somewhere back here. Be careful around the edges, Alaric,” I said over my shoulder. “This rock doesn’t extend entirely to the wall, so it’s possible to fall through the crack.”
The three of us started searching the cave wall for any sign of the glyph, but because of the constant moisture, algae grew in patches on the rocky surface, making it challenging to see what was beneath. I started running my fingers across the surface instead of relying only on my eyes. Even when glyphs were completely tapped out of magic, something about them still called to the magic in our blood.
Minutes ticked by, and I started to lose hope when I felt it, the slight tingle across my fingertips when they went over a rough patch of rock. I slid my dagger out of my thigh holster and scraped the algae aside, a triangle with three horizontal lines through it greeting me.
“Found it!” I called out.
Vail and Alaric moved towards me, but I didn’t wait. I dragged the blade across the back of my hand and dipped my fingers into the blood that welled. Magic pulsed as I pressed my bloody fingertips against the glyph, a static charge filling the air. I barely felt it across my skin, but two pained grunts sounded from behind me.
“What the fuck was that?” Alaric cursed.
“I don’t know,” I said, frowning at the glyph. “It didn’t hurt me though. I felt it brush across my skin, but that’s it.”
Before we could debate it more, the rocky surface shimmered and vanished. As soon as I stepped across the threshold, Fae lanterns blazed to life, painting the large room in a warm, soft glow. It wasn’t nearly as big as the space I’d explored with Draven earlier, but it was more than the simple tunnel I’d been worried we’d find. The walls were lined with shelves, most empty . . . but not all.
I moved to a section that had several shelves full of books and carefully pulled one from the shelf. Just like in the previous room, no dust covered the leather-bound book. Whatever spell the Fae had used to keep this room clean was still working, along with the lanterns.
Alaric appeared at my side, pulling a different book from the shelf while Vail moved around somewhere behind me, but I couldn’t pull my eyes from the page, not believing what I was seeing.
“This wasn’t written by the Fae,” I whispered.
“What?” Alaric’s fingers froze mid-page flip.
I swallowed. “This is my mother’s handwriting.”