Chapter 31
Crane
I quickly gather up all the items I brought out for the ritual, stuff them back inside my satchel, and then pull Kat up toward the faculty dorms. The elixir will take time to wear off but I can put a circle of salt inside my room, ensuring it’s a dead-person-free zone.
It will at least prevent us from seeing the shapes beyond the veil until the drug fades.
As we walk into the building, I’m so angry I’m beside myself with it.
But it’s not the usual anger that leads to rage and unwanted consequences.
It’s a different kind of anger. It’s not directed just at Brom, it’s also directed at myself, as well as the coven.
It’s a helpless anger, the kind where you know that letting it out won’t make a lick of difference, and that there’s nothing you can do to prevent it. It just exists, it just is what it is.
I just feel like such a bloody fool. I should have seen this coming, should have picked up on the many, many times that Brom hinted that he liked the horseman, that he thought he had a special bond with him, that he thought he could control him.
I never actually thought he would find himself so attached that he wouldn’t want to expel him at all, especially when he knew, he knew, exactly what was at stake.
His own life and Kat’s.
“He’s playing with fire,” I mutter as I unlock the door to my room and usher Kat inside. “He doesn’t know what he’s doing.”
“He’ll come around,” Kat says simply, and it’s enough to make me slam the door so hard it nearly comes off the hinges.
“Come around!” I yell at her, unable to keep my fear at bay. “There is no time, Kat! The coven is going to drug you, they’re going to take over Brom with the horseman, and that’s it. There’s no time for Brom to figure this out on his own.”
“I know!” she yells back, her eyes blazing, wet hair hanging around her shoulders. “I know there’s no time, but what do you want me to do? What do you want me to say?”
I shake my head, my chest feeling like it’s caving in on itself. “We’re going to lose him, sweet witch,” I whisper, the realization eating me alive. “We’re going to lose him.”
Her jaw goes tight, her eyes widening. “No. We won’t. I won’t stop believing in him, even if you do.”
I stare at her for a moment, at how much she’s changed in such a short time.
Though her face is still round, sweet, and angelic, she’s no longer delicate.
There’s a toughness in her blue eyes, there’s a ferocity in the way she holds her mouth, there’s resolve in the set of her jaw.
She’s no longer just a student of mine, she’s my equal and more.
She can teach me. I used to think she was more powerful than she ever knew, but I’m starting to suspect she finally knows it.
“I won’t stop believing in him,” I say, coming over to her and putting her beautiful face in my hands. “Because you won’t. But until he comes around, I can’t take any chances. I am going to have to do everything I can to protect you, and I mean everything.”
She goes still at that, frowning with a faraway look in her eyes, as if she’s remembering something.
“Brom said something like that to me too,” she says.
I ignore the petulant flare of anger inside me.
“I’m sure he did, but now I’m talking about me and I’m talking about you.
” I kiss her hard and fast, stealing her breath, reminding her of who she’s in front of.
“I’m not going to let them get away with what they’re planning,” I whisper to her, my forehead pressed against hers. “You’re mine to protect until the end.”
“What are you going to do?” she asks, breathing hard.
I run my hand down her face, my thumb over her lips, and so many emotions are battling inside me for dominance, I don’t know which one to let through.
“I want to make a baby with you,” I whisper to her point-blank, staring intensely into her eyes.
They widen in shock. “Wh-what?”
I lean down and kiss her open mouth, drawing her lips against mine for a moment, then pull back and smooth her wet hair off her face. My cock is already hard, already wanting her, wanting this. It always has. “I want to father your children,” I tell her. “I want to breed you.”
She blinks wildly, and I have to smile at how innocent she looks, knowing she’s anything but.
“Crane,” she whispers, placing her hands on my chest.
I bite my lip. “Let me be the one to get you pregnant, sweet witch. Even if this is something you don’t feel ready for, even if it’s something you never thought about with me, let me be the one to do it.”
“Now?” she asks incredulously, searching my eyes.
I smile and press my lips against her cheeks.
“Yes, now. Obviously there’s a chance you might already be pregnant after earlier, but I want to do this with purpose.
And I normally wouldn’t be in such a rush, but considering current circumstances, the sooner I can get you with child, the better it will be.
Think of the worst-case scenario here. Think about what could happen. ”
I don’t want to think about it, but I need her to.
She pulls back with a gasp, looking fearful. “You think that would work?”
“If I get you pregnant before Brom does, then yes. Then their plan is foiled.”
“If they find out, they’ll…”
“They won’t find out. They can’t know. I’ll do everything in my power to stop them from taking you, but in the event the worst happens, this is insurance that you won’t birth the damn anti-Christ and bring about the end of the world. I think it’s worth a shot, don’t you?”
“So you’re only doing this to save the world?”
I can’t help but laugh, holding her bewildered face in my hands.
“The world? You are my world, Kat. You’re my everything.
And I want you to be the mother of my children.
That’s plural, sweet witch. More than one.
I want to have many beautiful babies with you.
It’s all I’ve wanted from the moment I first saw you.
I’m starting to think you don’t realize what exactly you mean to me. ”
She swallows hard. “I guess I’m too afraid to see it. In case it isn’t true.”
“It’s true, Kat,” I say, kissing her forehead. “I love you to death.”
“And Brom,” she says warily, searching my eyes.
“If all goes well, if he comes around, like you said, and we all get out of this alive, he’s going to be there too. He’s part of my world, right alongside you, and I’m not forgetting him in this. Whether that grump wants to be there or not.”
She finally smiles at that and looks away for a moment before she slowly nods. “Okay,” she whispers.
“Okay?” I ask, my heart lodged in my chest, afraid of the hope of it all.
She nods. “Okay,” she says, taking my hand and pressing her lips against it. “Put a baby in me.”
“I thought you’d never ask,” I growl. I walk her backward across the room, tugging at her robe until it falls loose, then push her gently down on the bed.
She lies beneath me, naked in the moonlight that beams through the window, and I have to remind myself to take it slow with her, slow and easy.
She just had both our cocks inside her, and I haven’t even had the time to apply the healing oil to the cuts on her arms and her chest. For all I know she’s still high on the elixir too.
“You’re so beautiful,” I tell her as I discard my robe at my feet and prowl over her. “So beautiful it hurts to look at you sometimes,” I admit. “As if just gazing upon you is a gift, one that you know can be taken away.”
Her throat moves as she swallows and stares up at me. “Then don’t let me be taken away.”
My possession over her, my protectiveness, it roars inside me like a caged animal, infiltrating my veins, making my blood run hot.
I pounce, pinning her arms above her head while I slip my hand between her eager thighs.
She raises her hips to meet my fingers, and it’s so natural, like instinct, like breathing.
A soft flutter falls from her lips as her legs spread for me and I find purchase in her wet cunt, feeling her desire and my seed from earlier.
I stroke her with gentle touches, soft strokes that give more than they take, letting her wetness build all around my fingers until her lower belly trembles and her breath comes out in pants.
Her eyes shine as she stares up at me, half-lidded and hazy.
In my mind I see the seed I’m about to plant, the seed of our future life, and I feel my cock pulsing even harder in anticipation.
I’ve never wanted anything more.
“I love you,” I whisper as I spread her legs wider, pushing my fingers in deeper.
She’s soaked, and I run my tongue along her collarbone before pressing my body against hers.
She moans as she feels the full weight of my body press her into the bedding beneath us, and I watch as her eyes go heavy and soft, her lips parting as my cock presses against her belly.
“I love you so damn much,” I murmur again as I adjust my cock at her entrance, kissing her again, our tongues dancing with each other, deeper, messier.
She gasps when I enter her, when I spread her open and push my cock into her waiting cunt.
She arches her back to me, her breasts taut and her nipples hard as I draw out and push back in, all the way inside her, her body shivering under the moonlight.
It’s like fucking her for the first time, like being reunited with a part of myself I thought I had lost forever.
I drive into her, watching her eyes flicker, seeing her lips open in pleasure and feeling her legs wrap around me as I grind into her.
When I feel myself rising up, getting too close, I pull back, trying to regain my control, trying to give her this time, this moment. This moment where I mark her as mine.
“I want a baby with you,” I whisper. “I want that, Kat. I want you.”