Forty-Two
F ORTY - T WO
CALDRIS
She stood before me, bathed in darkness that clung to her skin as if it were a part of her. She didn’t seem frightened of the dark, and though she looked the same as the woman I had bound myself to, there was something distinctly different about the mate that raised a hand, gliding it through the void that surrounded her. She had yet to become aware of my presence as she spun her fingers through the air, and I sucked back a shocked breath at the thread of gold she wound around her fingers and clasped within her hand.
The threads of fate.
They were more than merely gold, I realized as I watched. They pulsed with power and magic that the Fae could only dream of achieving with the mediocre hint of power that flooded through our veins. The Primordials had given their offspring nothing but a taste of the magic at their fingertips, and I watched as Estrella tugged on the thread. Her gaze went skyward, her eyes gleaming with golden light as a star appeared in the darkness. Estrella’s face split into a blinding smile as she stared up at the star she’d brought into existence, the light she’d created in the darkness that attempted to swallow her whole. That was the moment I realized what had changed in her in the brief moments since I’d plummeted into the bond between us.
Estrella had found her peace.
I lingered in the background even when I wanted to go to her, allowing her the moment of joy and watching. A smile curved my lips, witnessing a moment of pure, uninterrupted joy in a life that had not offered many.
Estrella gathered threads, making them appear from the darkness. I could not see them until the moment she touched them, whether that was because she created them or a limitation of our bond, but the shimmer of magic was breathtaking as she gathered them between her hands. She waved her hands slowly, her movements dance-like as she swayed to music that only she could hear—the music of the Fates.
When she finished, the loosely tied knot of threads floated before her without her touch, and she tilted her head as she watched it. The mannerism was so similar to the night in Blackwater, to the animalistic part of her that had risen to the surface. But where that had felt like something dark and dangerous, this felt like the lightness on the other side.
She touched the threads, grasping them between her hands and studying the woven web of power. Her smile widened impossibly as she raised her arms suddenly, tossing the ball into the darkness above her.
I gasped as the ball exploded into hundreds of pieces, filling the Void with burning embers of light.
The stars shimmered in the pure darkness, illuminating me finally as Estrella’s golden eyes met mine. They were the perfect echo of the gold in the stars as she took her first step toward me, the blue of her dress trailing along the surface of the water behind her. I met her step for step, approaching the woman I was certain thrummed through me just as much as I did myself. Her consciousness tickled at the edges of my mind, her eyes glowing as she smiled at me.
She swept her hand along the water beneath her feet as she moved, a line of golden thread appearing as she walked. She tugged at it, pulling me off my balance as I made my way toward her. A bright laugh bubbled up from her throat, lighting up her face in the way that made everything in my chest clench. It seemed so much stronger in the absence of the snake, as if the beating flesh itself swelled under her attention. She used it to pull me toward her, making my feet slip along the surface of the water until I stood just in front of her.
The gold faded from her gaze, shifting to the dark of the night sky with the twinkle of a galaxy contained there as she raised her hand and cupped my cheek in her palm. Her skin was warm, as if she herself burned with the fires of the stars she’d crafted from nothing.
“I’ve been looking for you,” she said, tilting her head back to allow me to slide my hand beneath the curtain of her hair and cup her neck in my hand. My thumb grazed over her jawline, reveling in the shiver she loosed and the way her eyes drifted closed.
“And I’ve been waiting for you, min asteren,” I said, leaning down and rubbing my nose against hers. Our bond was tremulous, pulsating between us as it begged to be completed. The moment we came together would be the moment it snapped into place, the thread becoming indestructible.
Unbreakable.
“I’m sorry I made you wait so long,” she said, her voice tinged with laughter.
I sighed, lingering with my lips just off hers as I held her gaze. “You were worth every Gods-damned second,” I said, leaning forward and closing the distance. My mouth touched hers, the heat of her spreading through me. Light tickled at my eyelids, the warm golden glow of it threatening to pull me from the moment. I shoved it away, letting my other hand fall to Estrella’s waist and pulling her in tightly. She molded to me perfectly, as if her body had been carved from mine. The perfect fit, all of her hills and valleys nestled into mine to create a single being.
Two bodies. One soul.
She slid her hands around my waist, her nails digging into my spine and feeling like a claim on my physical being in the same way she’d already taken my soul for herself. I’d give her anything she needed, anything she wanted to take, if it meant that I would never have to leave this moment or this feeling. I slid my hands down over her hips, parting her dress at the slit in the thigh so that I could touch her bare skin. Her shiver in response pulsed through me, drawing a ragged groan from my mouth. She swallowed it, devouring it as she angled her head and deepened the kiss. I lifted her into my arms, reveling in the instinctive way she spread her legs and wrapped them around my hips.
“Everyone out,” Medusa said, her voice breaking through the haze. Estrella pulled back from my mouth suddenly, her nails digging into my shoulders as her eyes flew wide. I smirked up at her as her cheeks turned pink, her gaze bouncing from person to person as they grinned at her and backed toward the doorway they would take to leave the cove. Estrella squirmed in my grip, but I refused to release her as her mother made her way to the door last. “The water is waiting for you, daughter. Make sure you enter it as you were always meant to be.”
Her cryptic words seemed to strike something in Estrella, her eyes pulsing with golden light in acknowledgment. Medusa nodded thoughtfully; her face full of pride in spite of her daughter’s incriminating position. She closed the rough, wooden door behind her as she disappeared, her voice trailing off as she spoke to those who had accompanied her to our handfasting.
“Well, that was awkward,” Estrella said, her cheeks pinking all over again. I raised a single hand, keeping my other beneath her ass and using it to hold her steady, to brush my knuckles over the deep rose flesh.
“I believe you’re the only one who was bothered by it, wife,” I said, watching her eyes flare. I guided her over to the rock face that waited beside the lagoon, setting her upon it and standing before her.
“Say it again,” she said, her fingers skimming over the skin of my shoulder as if she couldn’t stop touching me. I understood the need, the itch that existed within us. We’d been separated for far too long, suffered in one another’s absence for far too long.
I leaned forward, touching my mouth to hers with gentle ease and kissing my way over her jaw. I peppered every inch of flesh I passed with affection, spreading my love through her body as I made my way to the side of her neck. She bent back for me, her hair draping down behind her to scrape the stone. Grasping the knot at the base of her braid, I slowly worked the ribbon that had been tied there until it fell to the stone beneath her. My fingers speared through her hair, spreading it and allowing it to drape freely as my mouth found the hollow in her collarbone.
She let out the slightest gasp, the sound of her pleasure all the more satisfying after all the time we’d been forced to spend apart. I wanted nothing more than to feel her skin wrapped around me, to drag her into the waters of the lagoon and make her mine permanently. The final piece of our bond was so close I could taste it, the press of her mind on my own just the tiniest bit distant.
I could hear her; I could feel her, but it reminded me of some one speaking to me through a wall, one last barrier between us that needed to be demolished.
My fingers found the laces at the back of her deep blue dress, untying them as she ran her hands down the front of my chest. She scraped her nails over my abdomen, tormenting the flesh and leaving tiny pink trails in her wake. Those deft, cruel little fingers found the laces at the front of my trousers, tugging them open with fervor. I finished with her dress, moving my hand around her body to still her hand as it parted the fabric to slide into my pants.
“I want to take my time with you,” I said, pulling out of her embrace. She cocked her head to the side as she looked me up and down, leaning back onto her hands so that she looked like a siren waiting on the rocks to bring me to my demise. Raising a single hand at the same moment she curled her legs up to point her knees toward the ceiling and cross her ankles delicately, she raised her dress to her thighs, revealing the expanse of her legs as she swept the fabric to the side and let it drape over the rock.
The dress slid down her left breast, the flesh puckering in spite of the warm, balmy air as she stared at me from beneath her lashes. I swallowed, shaking off the desire. The mating bond pulsed between us, her arousal meeting mine in the clash of a storm that felt tumultuous and chaotic.
“Are you sure about that?” Estrella asked, the smirk that played at her lips the only indication that she was aware of how she affected me. There was no question in that expression, no uncertainty in her gaze.
This woman knew she owned me, body and soul, and that she would retain possession of me for all eternity.
“My star…” I said, my voice trailing off with a groan as I closed the distance between us. I wrapped my hands around the backs of her calves, fingers splaying over the flesh and kneading it as I tugged on them until she lowered to lay herself flat over the rock. She spread her legs as I crawled over her, leaning into her space as she smiled up at me triumphantly. “What do you have against letting me take my time with you?” I dragged my nose up over the column of her throat as she arched beneath me, giving me better access to the most vulnerable part of her throat. Her other breast slid free of her dress and it bunched at her waist, revealing more of her smooth skin than I thought I could handle.
“We have an eternity to take our time,” she whispered, reaching between our bodies to touch her fingers to the hollow of muscle at my hip. She slid them in a line over the curve there, moving slowly to the center until she found the fabric of my pants all over again. “For now, I just want you to fuck me.”
She slid her hand into my fly to accentuate her words, wrapping her hand around my length and squeezing me. I groaned as I crashed my mouth into hers, swallowing her answering whimper and claiming it for myself. My hand found her breast, kneading the flesh as she arched up into me and worked my cock with slow rocks of her hand that threatened to steal every bit of my control.
I shoved my trousers down over my hips, cursing them when they caught at my knees. Estrella giggled into my mouth as I pulled away from her, maneuvering on the stone so that I could push them down the rest of my legs and tear them off. She took the opportunity to lift her ass up, pulling her dress down her thighs and tossing it to the stone beside her until she lay before me in all her glory.
She was Gods-damned beautiful, every inch of her skin taut with a mix of muscle and softness. The hollows in her body that had once existed as a consequence of her life in poverty had begun to fill, leaving her healthier as she smirked up at me. I reached into the pocket of my trousers, wrapping my hand around the short dagger that one of the Gorgon men had handed to me, explaining the final step to our handfasting. Estrella quirked her brow as she studied it, her gaze rising to mine. Her voice was all seduction and rasp when she spoke, her mouth forming the words as she laid herself flat against the rock again.
Her hand found her breast, gripping it and toying with her own nipple as I watched. She spread her legs slightly, giving me just a glimpse of the pleasure that waited for me there.
“So eager to be rid of me already, husband?” she asked, making everything within me clench. I set the knife on the stone by her feet, growling as I lowered myself into the waters of the lagoon. The warm water wrapped around me, going to my chest as the spark of pleasure tickled over my skin, elevating the arousal I already felt. Estrella studied my expression as I felt my eyes bleed to black, my own magic rising to meet the spark of Tartarus that existed within the waters.
I reached up, grabbing her by the feet and pulling them toward me. She sat up as I turned her, that hand that had tormented her breast moving to support her weight as I dragged her over the stone. It scraped at her skin, leaving it pink and irritated in a way that made me want to drag my tongue over it to soothe her, but I could not be bothered with gentleness as I shoved her feet apart and stepped between them. My hands went to the inside of her thighs, grasping her and tugging her to the edge and positioning her right where I wanted her. Those dark eyes flashed with sparks of gold as she stared down at me.
“Do you still want me to rush this?” I asked, touching my mouth to the inside of her thigh. I kissed the sensitive, soft skin that met me, staring up at her as she sank her teeth into the inside of her cheek. She shook her head, spreading her legs wider as I grinned. “I thought as much.”
I leaned in, inhaling the scent that I’d come to know as her and her alone. She smelled of darkness and earth, of the faint hint of a fire burning away on a summer’s eve. Dragging my tongue through her folds, I let her wet heat envelop me as I groaned into her. Estrella sighed, wrapping her legs around my shoulders and placing her hands on the stone behind her to support herself as she watched me, that ember gaze burning where it touched. She rocked into me, fucking my face with her cunt as much as I used my tongue to drive her mad, tormenting her as her chest heaved.
I cupped a handful of the lagoon water in my palm, lifting it and letting it drip onto her thigh. She shuddered against me the moment it touched her, that magical sensation spreading through her. It was so similar to the way the tree of life had made me feel, a heightening of all the arousal we already felt for one another. I held her stare as I reached into the lagoon once again, pulling my mouth from her pussy in spite of her protest.
I grinned at her, my mouth wet with her arousal as I raised the water to above her body and watched the liquid pour down from my grip. It splashed against her pussy, coating her in the distinct sensation as she made a sound caught between a whimper and a scream. Those stunning eyes filled with molten gold, her hand reaching for me and grasping the hair at the back of my head.
She pulled me back to her cunt, making her desire very, very fucking clear. I dipped both hands into the water, wetting them before grabbing a breast in each palm. Her desperation drove higher, her writhing against the stone a thing of beauty as I slid my tongue inside her and fucked her like a man starved.
If I were ever to get to choose a last meal, if I were to die with her taste on my tongue, then I would step willingly into the abyss.