Chapter Two
Bellamy
T here were very few things in life that I knew with absolute certainty.
One, the sun would rise again. I knew this because it did every day. With each nightmare that plagued me in the evenings, the sun was there, dawn coming to chase away the beasts in my head. I woke up, and the sun did too.
Two, I would die one day. It was not until a year ago that I realized how soon death would knock on my door. But that was inevitable, right? We all died. The difference was that not all of us lived.
Which brought me to the third thing that I knew without a shadow of a doubt. Asher was my life. She was the gift given to an undeserving, wicked being. She was my Eternity.
Looking at her never felt real, as if she were a mirage that would disappear upon closer inspection.
I could still recall the first time I ever laid my eyes on her. Not the time Pino had shown me visions of the wonderful and short future we would have, but the real experience of seeing her.
It had been days after I brought Pino to Eoforhild. I had panicked upon hearing his many prophecies. The past, present, and future that needed to merge to create the only possible outcome that would see the world survive. It was…overwhelming, to say the least. But when I finally left my chambers in Haven after painting so much of what I had seen in Reader River, I portaled to Betovere—to The Capital. I had to wait nearly four hours before she finally emerged.
It was a gloriously sunny day, and she wore the most hideous gold gown. It sucked into her waist so tightly that I swore it was impossible she was breathing. The layers and flare of the skirt had to have been suffocating as well, especially in the heat of early spring. But as she walked by herself through the green grass, the sun beating down on her tan skin and glowing in her gray eyes, I could not imagine a more beautiful female. A more beautiful anything.
That day was the first of my true life. The first day I took a breath and wanted more. She revived me after an existence stuck in purgatory. No star would ever burn as bright, no water would ever be as deep, no fire would ever feel as warm, no darkness would ever be as all-consuming as my love for her.
After two centuries of never feeling as if I belonged, I had finally found my home.
Now, as I watched her browse through the shelves upon shelves of books within the palace library, I could not fathom how life could possibly be this right. Especially when war loomed, threatening to burn the world to dust.
Yet there she stood, the picture of serenity amidst the mahogany shelves built from floor to ceiling. They lined the walls and housed the thousands of books the royal family had collected over time. A family that I was not technically part of.
But Asher, she could be my family, just as my Trusted were. Those idiots, with all their nagging and foul mouths and ferocious souls, they were what I had cherished the most all these years. Adding Asher to the dynamic had felt natural.
Not having her with me had been the most painful torture, one that had led me to paint and repaint my chambers until I had to move into new ones. To hide away from such a dark space.
Now I was left wondering what would happen when I told her all that Pino had prophesied, all that he had shown me of the past. Those truths would change everything, and I was not eager to watch this joy crumble.
“When I was young, the scholars had to lock me in here and force me to study,” I said to her. She turned, her face lit up with a smile that threatened to steal my breath away.
Gods she was beautiful.
“Oh really? Sounds about right,” she retorted, her stormy-gray eyes scrunched in amusement. “You are a bit dimwitted.”
“I chose to hone other skills,” I responded, my tongue sliding across my lips as I slowly took her in from head to toe.
I heard her swallow, the tempo of her heart loud in my ears as it sped. Her face did not show any sign of nerves or lust. No, Asher was used to playing a part, to hiding all she felt.
“However, I did find that books were excellent hiding places.” My words piqued her interest, her brows raising.
I waved my hand, motioning for her to follow. Many days had been spent locked in this room—so many that I knew it like the back of my hand. It was not long before I was at the shelf I needed, pulling out a book with a faded green spine and a title no longer legible.
The ceiling stretched nearly four stories high, the wooden shelves built to reach the very top. Ladders and stairs were not nearly as useful as magic to the many scholars who maintained the royal library. But the magic that had been infused within me did not manifest like that of other Moons. I could not wield the shadows like Noe, only able to merge it with my flames or portal with it. So I had settled on easily accessible shelves those many years ago.
Asher was impatiently waiting, her ever curious mind paving the way for a rare moment of eagerness. She did not smile enough. I would have to work on that, to show her what happiness could be like if she allowed herself to feel it.
Books smelled horrid. They were boring and dusty, and I so loathed being confined to these four walls in my youth.
Who wanted to read about wars past when we were constantly on the brink of one? Who wanted to read about the gods when they never answered my prayers anyways? Who wanted to read about smut when there was always a willing female to fuck?
Perhaps I had been wrong. Asher’s love for reading, her eagerness to escape from a world she felt so lost and alone in, made sense. Though what I had done with the books instead had brought me my own version of escape.
“You did not do that to a book,” Asher said with a gasp. I chuckled, grabbing the small vial from inside the pages I had jaggedly hollowed out with a dagger many years prior. “Stupid demon, you vandalized it!”
Her smack stung against my arm, but the giggles that filled the room made me think she was not quite as mad as she was attempting to portray herself. I smiled at her, a wicked and mischievous raise of my lips.
“I needed something to pass the time, and this right here did an astonishingly fine job of keeping Henry and I distracted from our studies.”
That perked her up, gray eyes widening as she stepped closer and inspected the teardrop-shaped vile of lavender colored liquid.
“What is it?” she asked.
“It was something Henry and I had cooked up after many failed attempts. If you drink it, you lose all inhibitions. It brings euphoria and energy to the surface while masking fear and nerves,” I said, eyeing her to gauge her reaction.
Asher did not disappoint. Her mouth dropped open, and a book fell from her hands. For a moment she remained that way, frozen in shock and disbelief, then she burst into laughter. The melodic sound of her full and unencumbered amusement, the view of her throat when her head tilted back, made something low within me stir.
She was driving me mad.
I had not been this horny since that one time Henry and I had spent a week straight in a shady Eros brothel. In fact, the very concoction in my hand had single-handedly helped us work through the predicament of an odd number of female entertainers. I silently chuckled at the memory of us settling on sharing the odd one out.
None of them compared to Asher though. To the way the Sun magic glinted off her large eyes and full lips. To the curve of her neck and the sultry sound of her voice. To the way she commanded every room she walked into. She made me want to fall to my knees and pray to her.
“Books are good for something it seems,” I said, my voice hoarse from my frantic thoughts.
“You would be surprised what you can find in a book, Your Highness,” she responded.
Her hand moved to her chest, fingers slowly grazing the black fighting leathers and lingering just above her full breasts. I swallowed, salivating as she let her hand trace her curves.
“Like what?” I asked, not trying to hide the way my voice deepened in yearning.
With calculated slowness, she began backing away from me. A groan escaped my mouth when I watched her hand disappear behind her back then heard the sound of buttons popping free.
She would be the death of me.
With immense effort, I maintained her pace, stalking her like a predator hunting its prey. Yes, that was what I was. Because, when the game ended, I would devour her.
“Well, I once read this tantalizing book where the male tied the female to a bed. Glorious descriptions, if I do say. I especially enjoyed the vivid way the writer described how the ropes chafed as the female climaxed.” Her fingers slipped under her leather trousers, and I lost all control.
I ran at her, dipping low to pick her up with one hand and roughly tug her hair to bring her lips to my own with the other.
She smelled of vanilla from her bath that morning and tasted like the mint leaves she constantly chewed. Everything about her was intoxicating in a way that no mead or wine could ever compete with. She was delicious and addicting and mine.
Her arms were around my neck, hands in my hair. Setting her down on a large table I distinctly recalled once passing out drunk on, I pressed her down until her back thudded against the dark wood.
Taking her this time was different. It had been an unbearably slow burn of need that led up to the first time I was inside of her. Even when I had her a second and third time last night, it was surreal. A year of dreaming about what I would do to her when I had her in my arms had made me sloppy and desperate.
Now, with her beneath me on the table, I could show her what I truly had to offer. I could give her anything and everything and watch as she unraveled from the pleasure of it all.
I broke off our kiss, pressing my hand to her chest when she tried to follow me as I stood up straight. Her bottom lip jutted out, pouting like a youngling who did not get their way.
With deftness that seemed to take her off guard, I ripped her leathers over her head, tossing the top and then moving to pull off her shoes before yanking off her trousers in one clean motion. She gasped, but it was I who was left speechless. Her naked body was luminous, olive skin glowing in the demon light above. The chandelier reflected small rainbows over her body, like she was covered in thousands of tiny diamonds. Her brown curls were fanned around her, already somewhat knotted from my tugging on them.
I drank her in like a dehydrated male in the desert. That was where I felt I was these days, living in a constant state of desire—eager for a taste of her.
With no explanation, I began backing up to the many windows on the nearest wall. Her brows scrunched as I threw open the sky-blue curtains, giving us a view of the setting sun as it met the horizon. It bathed her in orange and pink, the rainbows from the chandelier mixing and making her look like a goddess in the flesh. Like Asta as she descended The Above. Fitting, as she too had stolen the heart of demon royalty.
“I want to see all of you. Every minute detail. I want to learn you, to study you. I want the shape of your body to be burned into my mind—my soul. And, once I have seen it all, I want to lick every inch of you,” I rasped.
Asher’s inhaled gasp was delicious. A sound that could undo me as swiftly as my hand. She remained laying down, watching while I untied the ropes that secured the curtains back and kept each as I went.
When I had four of the silver ties, I began my slow stalk towards her once more, each step sending her heart racing faster—her breaths coming harder. I could not read minds, but I knew what Asher was thinking—felt the lust and desire radiating from her. She filled the room with it, making my head swim and my cock throb.
At the end of the table, I stopped, peering down at the way the light reflected between her thighs and highlighted how tauntingly wet she was.
Unable to help myself, I took my finger and slowly grazed it up her core. Her back arched, breasts bouncing and throat vibrating as she moaned. Her eyes found mine as I sucked on my finger, tasting her. Savoring her.
I winked, then moved to the side of the table where her head was. She gazed at the bulge in my leathers, and I felt my own cheeks heat at the intensity of that stare.
“Not yet, Princess,” I whispered to her, leaning down to place a kiss on her lips.
Instead of standing back up, I grabbed her hand and yanked it towards the corner of the table. She let out a yelp, and it took everything in me not to laugh at her baffled expression.
Then I began tying the rope around her wrist. The confusion made way for pure need as she realized what I was doing.
When I had made a tight enough knot, remembering her comment about the pleasure of the rope rubbing, I leaned the rest of the way down and secured the rope to the leg of the table. I repeated this with her other wrist then slowly moved towards her legs, tying her ankles too.
One look at my handy work nearly had me losing my control. She was glorious, arms and legs spread so no part of her was hidden from me. Between her thighs she remained wet and hot, calling to me like a beacon in the night.
“Such a long journey we had, Princess. Are you as hungry as I am?” I asked as I leaned forward, placing my palms on the table.
She looked at my face for but a moment before her eyes found my trousers. Found my cock. I growled, an animal hunger taking over.
“Starved,” was her only response.
Then I was on her, my mouth sinking between her legs and desperately lapping up the results of her desire. She wiggled and jerked, indecent and erotic moans leaving her lips in irregular intervals. I reached down and tightened the ropes with the ends I had left free, having figured I would need to adjust later on.
Now she was pinned, but it seemed the bite of pain had only turned her on further. As if to prove those thoughts correct, she gasped in pleasure. Further encouraged, I slipped two of my fingers inside of her and gave a slight shake of my head. Arching my fingers as I added a third, I leaned in further and devoured her. She tasted like nothing I had ever experienced before, a sweet and salty concoction that had liquid beading in my trousers.
I continued my ministrations, rasping praise against her as she writhed and bucked on the table—encouraging her to come for me, to give me what I wanted.
And she did.
Asher let out a beautiful scream of pleasure, orgasming onto my tongue and pulling on the ropes so hard that I knew she would have bruises. But she did not seem to care. No, Asher was not finished in the slightest.
“ More, demon. Give me more ,” she ordered, her voice taking on that haunting tone of The Manipulator.
With my shield of black flames down, I was unable to fight off the order. But I did not want to. No, I would never deny her, never dream of doing so. Not now, when I knew that she loved me. That she was mine.
“Yes, Your Highness,” I said, slowly unbuttoning my trousers and letting them fall before tugging my shirt off in one swift motion.
I grabbed onto my hard cock, pumping as I made my way back to the head of the table. She smirked, but I could see the way she eyed me, the hunger in her gaze.
When I reached her, she opened her mouth—impatient as ever. I thought about teasing her, considered how I could draw this out, but Asher was fast.
In my mouth, Bellamy. Put it in my mouth, now.
With her silent orders ringing in my head, I shoved myself down her throat, listening as she gagged when I was halfway in. I nearly pulled out, but then she adjusted, beginning to work me inside of her mouth with alternating sucks and licks and taking me deeper with every thrust I offered.
When her teeth grazed me, I hissed in pleasure, pounding harder. She moaned, the vibration sending me into a frenzy. I could see how wet she still was, the way she glittered in the light begging me to take her.
I ripped myself out, bending down to loosen the ties at her wrists before making my way to her legs and untying her ankles. When both were undone, I tied them together, forcing her legs to remain tightly shut. Then I pulled her as far as the ropes around her wrists would allow, her ass nearly hanging off the edge.
Bound ankles in hand, I straightened her legs, resting her feet on my chest. And, just as her eyes met mine, I thrust the entirety of my length inside of her. She bit back a cry, arms ripping on the silver ropes, but they did not budge.
“Come on, Princess. Scream for me. Say my name.” And then I began pounding into her, holding her legs to anchor her to me.
Filthy curses mingled with my name, and once or twice I heard her mention Eternity. She was my Eternity. My salvation. And every thrust, every sound that slipped past her lips, had my orgasm building, rising like a steep mountain peak.
“Do you like taking all of me, beautiful creature?” I asked her, thrusting harder.
She nodded, a messy and violent movement that sent her hair flying. I smirked, watching as she lost control—as I made her come utterly undone.
“Then say it. Tell me how much you love feeling my cock inside of you. Tell me how desperately you need it. Let me hear that pretty mouth sing, Princess,” I ordered.
“Someone might hear,” she gasped between her heaving breaths, my own breath hitching at the sight as I enjoyed the view of her losing all thought. Seeing pure freedom find her as I pumped harder and faster, the lightness something she never seemed to be able to hold onto.
Soon she would have it, not just beneath me but within herself. Freedom was hers now, and I knew she would change the world with it.
“Let them hear. Let them walk in and witness the way I claim you. Let them watch as I worship you. Let them see all they desire but cannot have,” I said, feeling her climax build as she tightened around me. I nearly came. Nearly.
What I did not say aloud, was how I would gouge their eyes from their sockets as I watched my release drip from inside of her.
Asher gave in, screaming my name and straining against the ropes as her back arched up. She was a divine offering, a gift worth more than all the gold in Betovere. This female was molded by the gods for me as I was for her.
As a reward for the beautiful way my name left her lips, my thumb began working between her thighs, stroking her softly and quickly. I watched shamelessly as my fingers sent shaking spasms to her legs, my other hand gripping her bound ankles tighter.
Then she was shattering beneath me again, the feel of her soaking my cock forcing me over that edge as well. Together we finished, orgasms rushing through our bodies and leaving us both trembling. My body felt heavy, entirely spent, as I stood above her. And I could not help but silently beg to Stella to spare my life. To give me more time with my stormy-eyed princess.
Slowly, I untied the ropes until she was free once more. She did not sit up though, instead remaining slumped on the wooden table. I picked her up, our lips meeting in a delicate kiss as I portaled us into my chambers.
Setting her down on the bed, I rushed to my bathing chambers to grab a rag. My powers flared to life, seeking water to dampen the cloth. I watched a small stream of it float through the window, soaking the fabric. Then I was back in my chambers, making my way to Asher. She was lying back on the bed, her smile soft and her eyes half closed.
I made quick work of cleaning the two of us before I laid down beside her. When she curled up into me, her head against my chest and an arm over my stomach, I smiled too. Without thinking, my own hand drifted to her hair, massaging gently.
Taking care of her in this way—in any way she would let me—was comforting. Asher made me feel as if I had finally found my place. Like perhaps I was no longer split in two, both sides warring with the other to return to where they belong. Instead, I was whole, my entire being seeking her as if she were the center of my universe.
As her breathing slowed, I whispered three words that did not feel like nearly enough. Maybe no words would ever exist that could explain the way I felt for her.
“I love you.”