Chapter Forty-One Viola
Aspieri-Mortemagi double bonding is one of the most dangerous bonds.
Mortemagi are fed so much magic; they often use too much, in turn depleting their lifeblood.
Aspieri break their sacred bond with Haal, the God of War, placing them at the mercy of the God of Death. When they cross into the Underworld, they will never be at rest with their kin.
forty-one | viola
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1939
Sylas unravels parts of me I never knew were knotted. His fingers on my skin burn me with all-consuming, incapacitating desire. I look down at his hand and sigh. His thumb rubs slow, lazy circles on my inner wrist. “Tell me to leave.”
Faint light from the stars outside spills through the tall windows, basking Sylas in an ethereal glow that makes me question whether he is human.
I should do what he asks. Tell him to leave, keep him away from the inevitable heartbreak of my death.
But looking at him, sitting on the edge of the chair, the light casting shadows on the lean muscles of his chest, I allow myself to be selfish.
“I don’t want you to leave,” I breathe out.
With a groan, he tugs me forward, and I brace a knee to the right of his legs. His gaze darkens, and he trails a finger up my thigh, sliding his hand underneath my shirt. Maybe it’s the constant threat of death, or maybe it’s just pure, unbridled lust, but I want him to rip it off.
He helps my other knee up, so I’m caging him with my body. My shirt rides up farther, and my bare skin sits against the soft linen of his pants— I should have asked Lyria to grab me some new clothes. When he realizes, his eyes flare with a primal need, his fingers digging deeper into my waist.
I hold his face, brushing my thumbs over his cheekbones. I never want to forget the flecks of amber in his gray eyes nor how they look at me, like he is my disciple and I am his God.
Not just this life, he’d said. All of them.
All of them… My breaths are shallow, my pulse rising. I am in love with him. By Death, I am in love with him. It almost feels painful to admit, because we are a tragedy, like the Gods let me taste the sweet nectar of life before lacing it with poison.
“Are you sure?” His unfairly beautiful mouth parts.
“I’ve never been surer of anything.” I bury my hands in his hair, and he kisses down my neck. I need him to give in. I need him to take the whole of me, make me forget that my days are numbered. I need him.
“Viola, I will stop whenever you want…”
“Don’t stop,” I whisper, my heart thrumming at the rhythm of his kisses on my neck, the insatiable hunger in my lower belly only intensifying.
His hands slide up my chest, caressing the sides of my breasts.
His smooth palm on my skin lights a fire inside me, threatening to ravage every thing in its path.
He takes his time, exploring my body with his hands, his thumbs grazing over my nipples as his lips kiss my throat, my neck, my collarbone.
“Viola,” he groans against my throat. Pressing my hands on his chest, I move against him. His hands go still and a pained sigh leaves his lips. If this is a battle of wills, I’ve just won.
He slams his mouth against mine, breathing life into me, and my body shudders with pleasure.
Our kiss is full of hopeless surrender, of whispered apologies and unspoken vows.
His lips take mine, tugging, teasing, biting.
It’s nothing like I’ve experienced before.
It screams Don’t leave me and This is our last time at once.
We’re a tangle of tongues and lips, ragged breaths and quiet moans.
I can taste the sharpness of mint, the softness of the vanilla; above all, I can taste how easy it will be for him to destroy me.
He glides his hands between my thighs, meeting my eyes with a question.
I kiss him again, nodding against his lips.
His fingers move against me, slow and gentle against the throbbing, then ever so carefully, he slides a finger in, curling it as his thumb rolls over my most sensitive spot.
Heat flushes across my chest, and I don’t know who I am anymore.
He smiles as he finds his rhythm, steady and urgent, soft and demanding.
My heart is racing, my body coiled with a mix of euphoria and despair. I wanted him to make me forget, but Gods, he’s ruining me, his touch burning away the ones before him, permanently etching himself on my soul. I bury my head in the crook of his neck in complete surrender, but his fingers slow.
The next moment, he is standing, lifting me with him, his solid grip on my thighs.
My legs wrap around his waist, and I press my body against him, agonizing over how long it takes to walk to his bed.
He kisses me the whole way there, as if a moment away from my lips would kill him. I think it would kill me.
He settles me in bed, my legs still wrapped tight around his waist, and he brings his mouth back to mine, his tongue parting my lips with delicate purpose.
I don’t want to wait anymore; I need him all over me.
I slow down my kisses and arch my hips against him, and he growls against my mouth. “We can stop…”
My ragged breaths hold my tongue. He is thinking about stopping, when I’m thinking about him inside me.
“Say the word…” He bites my earlobe, trails kisses along my jaw, my neck, pausing right above my collarbone. “Viola, talk to me,” he grunts, rising over me, his arms caging me in.
“Sylas.” His name is a breath I cannot hold, not when he’s worshipping every inch of my body and making me feel things I never knew I could feel. “Please.”
His gaze climbs from my lips to my eyes, and he swallows, searching my face for hesitation he won’t find. I want him more than I’ve ever wanted before. He lets out a long, ragged sigh, and I smirk.
“May I?” He straightens, leaning against the side of the bed, and tugs on my shirt.
Pushing myself up on my elbows, he helps me slide the fabric over my arms and neck. My chest rises and falls, my breath uneven. I am naked in front of him, my soul bare, trusting him with the most vulnerable parts of me.
“Gods, you’re beautiful.” He takes in a sharp breath, his cheeks blushing.
His hand gently nudges my legs off him. “You’re breathtaking,” he murmurs as he bends, kissing between my breasts, his palms cupping them, his fingers gently squeezing my nipples.
Pleasure ripples through me, and I let out a silent gasp.
“You’re everything,” he whispers as his mouth moves lower. He kisses above my belly button, then lower and lower. He pulls back, and I bite down a moan.
“Don’t even think about stopping right now…”
He lets out a low chuckle. Gods, he’s infuriatingly beautiful, and he’s entirely mine. He stretches his arm. His aspiers uncoil to stillness before he places them on the nightstand. He reaches for Scar, and she does the same. Then his ravenous eyes are back on me.
Without looking away, he kneels in front of me.
My breath hitches, and my hands freeze at my sides.
Slowly, he parts my knees, kissing right above the bone.
“Above my name,” he whispers, then another kiss a little higher.
“Above my House.” Another kiss in the middle of my inner thigh. “Above my aspiers.”
I gasp, but he doesn’t stop, and kisses me again, so, so close.
“Above my life.” His breath grazes my delicate skin, and I shudder… from both his admission and the ache his lips lit within me. My heart drums against my chest, and I know that if he stops touching me right now, it will give out.
Right before he reaches the sensitive spot between my legs, his eyes meet mine, and he smirks. “Above my God.” Fuck. His head dips, and he kisses me there.
A desperate moan escapes my lips, but he doesn’t rush. Every flick of his tongue sends my body close to the edge, ready to explode, but he recoils, teasing me, testing my self-control. My fingers curl into the soft bedding, and I lose myself further in the quiet demand of his mouth.
“Sylas.” I’m breathless, caught in the ecstasy of the moment.
His fingers dig into my hips, and he quickens his pace. There’s an urgency in the movement of his lips now, a purpose to every curl of his tongue. He kisses me with more intensity, and pleasure builds and builds until it crests through me. My body shivers, my legs freeze and then go limp.
Sylas trails kisses along my stomach as he moves back up. He pauses in the middle of my sternum, then moves right. I hold my breath. His tongue runs over one nipple, and I cry out in sheer despair of him. He swallows my cry with a kiss, and the taste of me on his lips sends me into a frenzy.
He pushes himself up, bracing his arms on the sides of my head as he searches my eyes for something. I think he finds it because he smiles.
Heat pulses between my thighs, and I run my hands down the lean muscles of his back, settling at his waist. My hands fiddle with the strings of his pants.
His breath hitches—I know how he feels, because I feel it, too.
The raw anticipation and the fear, the quiet reminder of everything the bond changed between us.
“Let me.” I thread my fingers through his hair, and lock his lips in another kiss, pushing the soft linen down with my feet.
“Vi?” My name is a prayer on his lips, a silent plea that I am eager to answer. I arch my hips into him and loop my legs around his waist. He holds himself up with one hand, and the other laces with mine. He lowers my hand until my fingers wrap around the length of him.
I gasp. “I… I’m not on—”
He pauses, his shallow breath fanning my cheeks. “Aspier venom acts as contraceptive.”
I don’t look away, and I guide him inside me.
A small frown knots his eyebrows. He searches my eyes for approval as he pushes himself in, inch by inch.
And every time, I surrender. My heart is no longer mine; it beats in tandem with his.
Pure, unbridled pleasure coils at my abdomen, begging for release.
I hook my legs tighter, giving him a gentle push. His pupils widen, and he lets out a low, achy groan in submission. “Is this… are you…” He swallows hard.
“Yes,” I breathe.
The first thrust is bliss, the second one makes me question my name, and the third one unwinds a feral need for more.
More this, more him, more us. He moves against me so gently, keeping himself propped with a hand so I don’t feel his weight.
But right now, I don’t need care. I need him to send me over the edge. Again and again and again.
“Do your worst, Archyr.” I grin, running my hands through his soft hair.
He raises his eyebrows. “Careful what you ask for, Corvi.”
Then he’s kissing me again, his body moving with the kiss.
The rhythm of his thrusts takes me so close to release and brings me down almost immediately.
By his smirk, I know he’s taking his time to completely ruin me.
His free hand palms my breast, pulling and pinching, as he works me to madness.
My nails dig into his back, begging for mercy.
“Please.” The word comes out in a strangled moan.
He laughs and kisses below my ear, moving at a steady pace.
I tighten my legs around his waist, and he picks me up, turns us around, and lies down so I’m on top of him.
He holds my waist and works me up and down until I’m screaming out his name.
I’ve never felt anything like this. Euphoria.
He’s breaking me and putting me back together again.
Gods, now that I’ve had a taste of him, how do I exist without him?
I frown when his movements slow, but I don’t protest. Catching my breath, I fold on top of him, our bodies pressed together.
“Tired?” His fingers trail up and down my spine, and it ignites a second wave of crushing desire within me.
“Never of you…” I kiss his neck, suckling on the most sensitive part, right above where Raiek sits. His grip on me grows firmer, his moves are deeper, slower. My lips drag to his jaw, kissing the length of his scar.
“You’re made for me.” He sighs.
The surging desire crashes low in my belly. I am a mess in his arms, my body shuddering with a release bigger than my previous one. He gives me a few seconds to catch my breath, then he’s moving again, pressing deeper inside me, thrusting like it’s his life’s purpose. And I want more.
And he gives me more. He flips me around again, his strong body wrapped around me. I close my eyes, lost in the warmth of his lips all over me. “You should’ve warned me,” he says, breathless. His hips shift, thrusting hard again, making me forget how to speak.
I hum in question, my mind too cloudy to string words together. He smiles, and my heart dips. “That you’re divine, Viola.” He kisses the corner of my mouth. “I don’t think I’ll ever let you go.”
My body tightens, the ache between my legs bursting into a quivering moan. He watches me as I catch my breath slowly, chest rising and falling. My fingers brush away the stray strand of black hair from his forehead, and now more than ever, I wish for eternity with him.
“I did promise you all my lives.” I roll my hips against him.
His pupils flare, and something dark flashes across his eyes.
His hands grip my waist, pulling me into him.
Once, twice, and then one last time. His body shivers as he lowers himself onto me.
He presses a final kiss to my lips. Then he rolls over to my side.
My head rests against his chest, against his racing heart, and I smile. If I could carry anything to the Underworld, it would be this feeling. Forever.
“Did you mean it when you promised me all your lives?” He kisses my temple, his knuckles brushing up and down my arm.
“Mm-hmm,” I murmur, sleep already pulling at my eyelids. I could get used to this, the safety of his arms, the soft caress of his breath, and the steady beat of his heart.
“Good.” He pulls the quilted blanket on top of us, holding me closer. I don’t know if I imagine the next words, but I swear he says, “I promise you all of mine, too.”