Chapter 13 The Key
THE KEY
LUELLA
Luella woke to a chill shivering over her skin.
The soft thump of a heart under her cheek lulled her. Slowly, she lifted her head, finding her chin pressed on a bare chest. Warm, scorchingly so.
The ship swayed, and her fingers curled against the demon’s chest, feeling out of sorts and off-balance. The wind and the rain were the softest of lullabies and—
She swallowed, momentarily allowing her face to press back upon Az’s warm skin, ear against his chest, listening to his heart. She needed to be grounded, if only for a moment. She remembered everything…
The waves crashing against the ship, Bastian coming undone, the way his fangs had felt as they slid into her neck.
It had hurt at first—only for the span of a single breath.
Then that prick of needle-like pain turned hot, desperate, aching, making her want to seek out the brief flash of pleasure that had consumed her on the altar, before it had turned to piercing agony.
Teasing her, just like his thigh that had been notched between her legs, pressing against that electric spot that she was growing increasingly aware of the more time she spent around these males—her Vincire.
They were attractive. It was undeniable.
Even Tharen, for all of his gruff demeanor.
Her time in the Temples had awakened something within her. A curiosity both shameful and innocent. Blooming like rose petals dripping with melting snow. She wanted to shake free the vestiges of her past and grow, let the water that threatened to drown her sizzle away in tendrils of smoke.
Listening to the steady sound of Az’s heartbeat, her hand drifted up to graze lightly over the throbbing bite on her neck. She winced, flinching. It was sore, but that soreness did not make her want any less.
Her lower belly clenched. One of her legs was draped over Az’s hips, her other stretched out behind her, foot tangling with his calves.
Each steady rock of the hammock they were lying in made her press against him.
The storm threatened to drown out the soft, traitorous sound that slipped past her tightly pressed lips as the ship rocked to the side, making her hips shift against him.
She had to leave.
Luella’s cheeks burned as she pushed herself up on weak arms, her amulet thumping against her chest from the movement.
Az slept soundly, even as she slowly began to extricate her body from his, carefully sliding over his hips to place her bare feet on the floor.
She stood, a hand placed on the wall to keep herself steady.
With the rocking motions of the ship and her unsettled balance due to her wings, she was ripe for an accident.
Peering back at Az, she found his chest rising and falling steadily as he slept.
His face was so relaxed, so handsome. Her heart clenched as she stared at him.
Oh, how she loved him. Her wings made her wobble as she walked across the creaking floorboards, but luckily, the rain drowned out the sound of her leaving.
She felt stifled. By the storm, by the wood surrounding her on all sides, by the weight of her wings at her back. Whoever thought wings were freedom had never had a pair that did not fly… It was a peculiar sort of nightmare, to be trapped by something designed to give freedom.
Trapped in a cage of her own machinations. The roil of feelings and power within her were the bars, her wings were the locked door, and the males she was tethered to were the…
She stilled, realization slamming into her like the waves battering against the ship.
They were the key. Dangled just out of reach. They kept her cage locked, but she wanted them to unlock it.
She wanted them to set her free.
And only they could. But not quite. They could unlock her cage, but she alone had to take the first step out of it.
Suddenly, it became hard to breathe, hard to think.
She left the small room in a blur, barely aware of where her feet took her as she stumbled down the halls, lit with tiny flickering flames. She leaned into the wooden panels heavily as the ship tossed her about. No windows, spluttering firelight. A pressing darkness, all around.
It reminded her so much of when she had been sightless, she had to press a shaking hand against her eyelids to feel them, to ensure she still had her sight and was not blinded by a silken ribbon.
She stumbled into a small room. Devoid of any light.
And in that darkness, she sank to the ground, neck aching, thighs trembling, and back throbbing as her wings brushed against the wall.
Luella wanted them.
She wanted to follow through on what she had proclaimed—to join them.
Whatever that might mean.