34. Chapter 31
Chapter 31
Never make a magical oath. Once, when I was young, the only magical oath that could hold a human was a deal with the Shade. Now… Now, everyone’s oaths are bound in blood. Damn Draeven, and damn his chains.
~Sir Alistair Hawking, Magical Combat for Humans
Maeve
I’ve spent a lifetime of memories trying to get back to Cole. His touch drove me to confront the hardest parts of my life and survive them when everything in me wanted to give up.
He stands stretched out by my shadows, so similar to the way he’d taught me to wield my powers. His naked body is on display, and I could do anything to him. I could play with his body in ways I never even imagined.
Cole’s eyes follow me, and I can sense the lust in them. I know he wants me regardless of the ruin I’ve brought my body as I’ve healed my mind and soul. I stand in front of him, shadows pouring from my fingertips, and I smile up at him. Darkness hardens over my nails, becoming just as black and just as sharp as the Shade’s, and I rake them over his cheek.
His breath comes out slowly, and his chest quivers when my nails run down his neck just as his have moved over mine so many times. Down to his bare chest, my nails leave thin white lines in their wake.
He groans, and his hands strain at the shadows pulling his arms taut over his head. “You’re beautiful,” I whisper. I walk around him to his back, and I trace the scars along his shoulder, long striations that are physical reminders of the pain he endured. My hands move further down, and they grip his ass.
I stand on my toes to whisper in his ear, “I let you do what you wanted when we were in that cave. I begged you to let go, to forget any restraint. I asked you to show me what hid behind your masks. Today, I want something different.”
My shadows snake around his body to find his cock, and they tighten around him. Cole’s body shakes and tries to pull back again. I can feel him throbbing under my shadows, desperate for me to be there instead of that inky darkness.
“Today, Cole Cyrus, you’re going to follow through with a promise that you made me. You’re going to give me all the pleasure that you teased me with. You’ll follow through on all the times you made me beg.”
I squeeze him harder with my shadows, and he groans. I know he could burn away all that darkness if he wanted. He could break the rock that holds him in place if he tried hard enough. Instead, he’s letting me hold him.
“I want you to take me the way you promised me,” I whisper to him. “Can you do that, Cole?”
He turns his head to face me, and his eyes have lit up with orange flames. “I’ll need the Shadowed Cloak. And I’ll need a promise from you.”
A promise? “What kind?”
He smiles at me, more than a little sadism in those eyes. “Not a magical one. Just a simple promise that you won’t take my shadows from me, my Queen. When I tempted you like that, you were not quite so capable as you are now.”
A magical oath isn’t necessary. “I promise not to take command of your shadows, Prince Cole.”
I raise a hand, and his body is released from its bondage, the shadows dissipating and the stone melting away into the floor. The only things still holding him are the shadows wrapped around his cock, slowly sliding over him like the softest silk cloth, and I can’t help but imagine what he’ll do now that he’s free.
Now that I’m letting him be in charge, everything is different. My shadows release him, and he stands up straighter while a slow smile crosses his face. I wonder if that’s what he looks like under the black hood of the Shadowed Cloak, but then the thought passes as he walks away from me, leaving me all alone.
My eyes follow him as he walks into the bedroom, and my body quivers just the tiniest bit. I’ve spent what feels like years hidden in my mind on that island, and when I rested, this is what I fantasized about. I’ve played this out so many times in my mind.
Until this point.
From here, I don’t know what will happen. I don’t know what the Shade will do to me to give me agonizing pleasure. Then I feel the shadows swirling behind me, and the Shade is right there. His shadows wrap around me frighteningly quickly. The midnight dress I’d worn disappears in an instant as he rips control of my shadows away.
I’m left naked, my arms bound above my head just as his were a moment ago. More shadows spread my legs, and several wrap around my torso, caressing me continuously, teasing me and reminding me of just how much experience he has.
Those black-tipped fingernails run through my hair, scratching my scalp as I stare away from him. His fingers tighten, and he pulls my head back. “You would have had far more pleasure without the Shadowed Cloak,” he whispers into my ear.
A shadow slides between my legs, becoming thick and hard, yet it doesn’t enter me. It just presses against my opening, reminding me of what the Shade could do. Then his nails run over my ass and up my back, just like I’d done to Cole.
“I didn’t come back to this world just for pleasure,” I groan. “I came here for all of you, just like you promised.”
His hand wraps around my throat, yet he doesn’t use any pressure. He just needs to feel me, to touch me everywhere. Those black tinted nails dig into my skin, always on the verge of cutting me.
I can’t help but give into the sensations, and I let go of any kind of control. When his hand moves from my neck to my breast, the shadows between my legs press harder against my opening, and I slowly grind against them. The temptation is agonizing. The Shade presses himself against my back through the linen of the cloak, and I want to beg him to stop teasing me. I want to tell him just how badly I need him; how long I’ve spent fantasizing about this very moment.
Instead, a deep moan slips from my lips, and the Shade grips my breast so hard I’m sure that there will be bruises under his fingertips. The other hand slaps my ass, and the sound echoes in the otherwise silent room.
I shake, not from what he’s doing to my body, but from trying to hold back the pleading. I need him inside me.
And then I feel the slightest bit of shadow slide into my entrance, and I let myself hang, doing everything I can to get them deeper inside me. “Please,” I beg. “Please, Shade, stop teasing me. I want all of you.”
“This is only the beginning,” he whispers from behind me. “I told you that you wouldn’t be able to handle what I was offering. I told you that you’d be screaming until morning. That’s what you asked for. That’s what I promised.”
The sound of his voice is so rough I can’t tell whether he’s trying to scare me or whether he’s desperate to give in to what I’m begging for. “Please,” I whisper, and his hand leaves my breast, moving down my stomach. “Please, please, please.” The words tumble from my lips with none of the control that I’d forced myself to have as the Queen of Nyth.
I’m that stupid Wyrdling in the woods again, with the Shade playing my body against me. Except that this time, I know that he’ll show me everything I’m terrified of.
Shadows move upward, past his hands, and become claws with sharp nails on them. They grip both of my breasts, squeezing them and driving those talons in. Drops of blood well up, bits of red on midnight black, but I barely notice.
Because the Shade’s fingers slide between my legs.
I don’t bother to hide my desperation as I grind against him. “Yes,” I mumble. “More. More, Shade. I need everything.”
A single finger finds my wetness and slides past what little resistance is there. My body shakes at the long overdue intrusion. But it’s not enough. I don’t know if anything could be enough. Yet, that drumbeat continues to speed up. My own shadows flow from my fingertips, weaving their way around the Shade’s and there’s something sensual about it.
Then the Shade pulls away from me, and I grit my teeth as my body begs for him to return, to at least continue that bit of teasing. “No, you said that you’d give me everything this time,” I beg.
“I’m going to,” that gravelly voice says as he glides in front of me. “But part of that requires you to be a little higher in the air.”
He moves his finger to the darkness under the hood, and I instinctively know that he’s licking his finger clean. “You’re delicious, Maeve Arden. Like the first cup of sweet wine after months on the road. I should have taken you like this long ago.”
The shadows rise, moving my body with them. They twist and contort until I’m reclining at head level, my back and ass supported by dark shadows. My arms and legs are still spread wide, and then shadows cover my face just before I feel a brand new sensation.
The Shade’s tongue between my legs.
His shadows whip around my body, teasing every inch as his tongue fills me, teasing me and pushing that drumbeat inside me to an impossible tempo.
“Gods, Shade,” I groan as his tongue finds my clit, and pure lightning races through me. I strain against the shadows holding me still. I want to pull him closer to me, to press that magical tongue so deep inside me.
Then I feel a thin bit of shadows slip past my opening and my legs shake as he fills me while he continues to lick. That constant drumbeat that I’ve felt ever since I woke up to see Cole is the only thing I can hear. It’s everything. It pounds the time of my heart and breath and has become the rhythm of the world that everything revolves around.
Just like I’d used shadows to tease Cole’s cock, the bit inside me is moving agonizingly slowly. The Shade grips my ass, and his nails dig into my cheeks. Everything inside me wants to move, wants to squirm and both pull him tighter and push him away.
But I can’t do anything except moan. “Is this what you wanted, Maeve? Is this what you dreamed about while you were stuck in your mind?”
“Yes!” I scream, and my hips buck against his face as he goes back to licking me. The drumbeat reaches a crescendo, and it’s like a dam is breaking. My body is filled with uncontrolled power as I shake, suspended in the air.
It lashes out of me as whipping coils of shadow, striking the stone walls and sending dust into the air. Tiny pieces of crystal explode from my body and shatter against the walls. More than anything, I scream. Not in pain. No, there is no such thing as pain while the Shade’s tongue is between my legs. No, I scream because the power has to go somewhere. My body can’t hold it any longer. I can’t see, can’t move, and can’t force the Shade to lick faster or harder. My scream dies as my body does everything it can to regain control.
Just as I think I can’t go on any longer, I claim the shadows that control me. I don’t mean to. The power raging inside me does what it feels it needs to. The darkness goes away, and I look down at the Shade, whose tongue is still fast at work. He hesitates for a moment as he realizes that he’s lost control, and I maneuver the shadows holding me.
I break away from him, setting my feet on the ground and letting go of the restraints. I smile as I stand in front of the Shade, completely naked. “You are so much more than you were in my dreams,” I say, and my fingers brush his cheek so softly as they move past the hood into the darkness. “But just like my mind, it’s time to put the pieces together.”
Shadows wrap around me, suspending me, and the Shade’s gaze rakes over my body. My body is too weak to stand on its own right now, but my powers are at full strength. Both of my hands move to the edges of the hood, and I lower it until I’m staring at Cole. Pieces fall into place in my mind.
I’ve known for a long time that Cole and the Shade were the same person. I’ve known, but I’ve never seen it. Now, the last bit of fuzziness clears and I smile at the man I fell in love with. “Now it’s time for you to have your way with me, Cole. And you don’t necessarily need to use shadows.”
He smirks at me, and this time, he isn’t gentle. He bends down and presses his lips to mine with so much passion that there’s no doubt that he’s been just as desperate as I have. This was his dream, too. The two of us, together in ways that no human could imagine.
“I love you, Maeve,” he growls. His voice has returned to normal, but there’s no lack of roughness to it. Those beautiful lips are so close I can feel them move. His head is pressed against mine, and his breath comes in little gasps. Rough fingers move to my throat again, holding me still as he crushes my lips with his.
There’s no lessening of need in that kiss. “I’ve wanted you so badly for so long.”
“Then take me, Cole. I’m not some breakable Wyrdling. Show me the Immortal Prince I’ve never regretted being betrothed to.”
He snarls at me, his eyes staring straight into mine, and I realize just how feral he’s become. The first time that I told him to give in to his desires, he’d smiled and laughed and let go of the weight of everything. Now, he looks like an animal that’s been caged.
This is what it’s like when someone has had to restrain themselves for too long. “Take me, Cole.”
He grips my throat tighter, and then we’re falling through the world for only a moment before we come out thirty miles from Draenyth’s gates to a place I’ll never forget. The riverbank where we bound ourselves together.
I swallow hard as shadows curl around me, not to control me, but to tease me, to remind me I am his. To remind me that this isn’t over. Cole takes a step back and pulls the Cloak off in a single movement and throws it to the ground. The shadows around me dissipate, and I stare at the man in front of me for a moment before he changes.
He puts his hands at my waist and picks me up as if I’m weightless. I wrap my legs around his thighs and feel the insistent pressure of him pressing at my opening. I stare into Cole’s eyes. Not the Shade’s. Not a memory of him. This is Cole Cyrus, and he is everything.
He lowers me onto him at the same time that he kisses me. Like the flames that he controls, he consumes me. He breathes deep, taking my breath from me. Sharp nails dig into my back as he thrusts into me.
I try to gasp, and he breathes it in, not giving me a chance to make a sound. He is everything here, the flame that I’d love to be burned by. As if he’s reading my mind, flames erupt around us, and Cole pulls away, a smile on his face and a fire in his eyes. He pulls me to him, pressing my breasts against his chest, and where I’d been cold for so long, his warmth fills me up.
He moves me up and down, but our eyes don’t stray. I fantasized about the Shade’s touch, but it was this—this feeling of wholeness—that I’d really missed. When our bonded souls matched our bonded bodies.
“I love you,” I say after a gasp.
“You’re my everything.” It’s a declaration, not only to me, but to the very world, as if he’s challenging it to try to take me away from him again. There’s a seriousness in his eyes that doesn’t agree with the bright orange sphere that we’re in.
I put my head on his shoulder as he lifts and lowers me. My body’s exhausted already, and with how bright the fire is, I can’t use shadows to support myself. I gasp and whimper as he takes me higher than I could have imagined.
My mind blends with his through our bond. I can feel his need building. I can feel the strange blend of needing to protect me and devour me. I can feel everything.
The flames flicker across my skin, scorching me, and I sigh, my breath coming out hot against Cole’s neck. Cole lets out a deep groan, and I shake. Shadows dance within the flames, neither of them fighting against the other.
The pounding of the drum inside me stutters as the rhythm gets too fast. I try to scream, but once again, Cole presses his lips to mine, drinking in my scream and my power. He consumes me as I feel his release deep inside me.
I want him to have everything I have to give. My power. My body. My love. I rewatched my entire life, and the one thing I know without a single doubt is that this man is the only person who will always protect me first, the only person who I can always trust.
And I will give him anything he needs or wants.