Fallyn
Chapter seventy
Ididn’t hesitate. I ran like the hell of the new god himself was at my heels for the meadow's edge, and for all I knew, he might have been.
I screamed Ash’s name. He remained at the edge of the meadow, his distress evident. Why wasn’t he coming?
“Fressssh meat,” came an all too literal hiss from my left. “Where do you think you’re going, pretty morsel?”
I didn’t know monsters got so big. Female mortal in appearance from her hips up, but that was where the similarities faded. A giant basilisk body covered in massive, armored scales slithered easily between the final few feet separating Hades and me, effectively cutting me off from my rescue.
“What are you?” I demanded, exchanging my dagger for my sword.
“It’s always ‘what are you,’ not ‘who are you?’” she mused in that reptilian voice. “I’m the last thing you’re ever going to—” Her sentence cut off abruptly with a scream, not of predation but of agony.
“If you touch her, you breathe your last.” Hades plunged the sword into her again before withdrawing. “Find dinner elsewhere, Echidna.”
“If it isn’t the exiled fallen king.” Her laugh was musical, worlds away from her monstrous appearance. When her tail rattled in warning, I felt the vibrations thumping through my chest. “Your words might have some weight if you were your full self, but alas, I now have dinner and dessert.”
Darkness gathered, before erupting. “I could be half of what I am now, and I could still squash you like the overgrown garden snake you are.”
“Big words for such a puny morsel.” Echidna grinned around deadly fangs, her tail rattling like the gong before a fight. “Let’s see you back it up.”
Flames surged in her hands, blazing to life at her whim.
I only just got out of the way of the first fire blast she sent my way, the ground scorched where I had just been standing.
The flames licked too close to my leg for comfort, the heat finding me through my clothes.
The scent of charred flesh and blood and hair of victims past made me gag.
That was way too close. If Hades and I were going to fight our way out of this, we had to fight together. I hoped Persephone could fight, because her memories could return to me any moment now, and that would be great.
Ash had managed to steer clear of the blast of fire, but now flames had erupted around us, closing us in, pressing us closer to her.
I broke away towards where Hades had entered, towards the edge of the clearing.
“It’s no use! You cannot escape the Reaping Field,” cried the Echidna at the same time I slammed headfirst into an invisible barrier at the edge. Monstrous laughter filled the space between all of us.
“Oh, I love when they run,” Echidna hissed, her eyes narrowing on me as she filled my field of vision. Terror screamed through my body at her approach. “I love the moment the little morsels realize their fate is sealed.”
She lunged and I screamed.
And then she did. A scream and a roar bled together into something deeply disturbing.
I saw the blade of Hades’ssword gouged into her tail, pinning her in place.
No, not a sword. There was a glamour on his sword as well.
No longer was it blackened steel. Now what Hades held was a shadowy spear. A two-headed spear?
His bident. Hades had glamoured his bident to appear to mortals as a sword.
“Fuck, did nobody teach you not to play with your food?” Hades peeked around her tail with a taunting sneer. His eyes flicked to me, just enough to ensure my safety, before homing in on her again.
“Funny, I was just about to say playtime is over.” Her shriek disappeared into a hiss.
“Perhaps I’m in the mood for a hot meal, rather than cold.
” Heat gathered, flames scurried to answer the call of their master.
Her jaw opened, unhinged grotesquely, and opened wider.
Plumes of smoke was the only warning we received.
She shot a fireball at Hades, who dodged easily to the side.
Again. And again. He was leading her away from me, I realized.
It wasn’t long before she revealed her back to me, as if in her wrath, she forgot about how vulnerable she’d made herself. I didn’t think.
I pounced.
Grabbing my blade, I let my instincts take over. I ran as fast as I could, leaping and plunging my blade halfway up her spine. The effect was immediate.
A horrific shriek pierced the night air. Nothing predatory in her voice remained, only agony as Hades’s bident encircled her neck—a warning.
“You’re the mother of monsters,” he said, looking into her eyes. “Cerberus is one of my dearest friends and he would be remiss if I dispatched you without mercy. Let Fallyn and I go in peace, and you will be spared.”
Hades—merciful?
She glared, she snarled, she cursed us both, but she nodded.
“A wise decision.” Hades softened his voice. “Lower the barrier and we’ll leave you.”
“Fuck you,” the snake snarled, her tail hissing weakly. The vibrations in the air were null compared to the air-splitting rattle earlier. I wrenched my blade from her spine, where she turned to glare at me.
“What? Did you want me to leave it there? I could have driven it home, if you’d have preferred. It would take me a while to find your heart, so I don’t think you’d want me to go that route.” I seethed. “A deal is a deal. Let us go.”
Echidna turned to Hades. “Are you sure I can’t kill her?” she asked hopefully. “She’s deeply unpleasant.”
Hades, of all things, laughed. Not menacingly, an actual laugh.
Fuck. Him.
“She’s mine. I like her brand of unpleasant.
” He chuckled. His eyes were sharply monitoring for signs of deception, but Hades’ words held.
A bargain was a bargain, especially with the god of the Underworld.
“Let us pass through the barrier.” Then his voice dropped an octave, descending into a tone of feral warning. “Now.”
With a forlorn, mournful sound, Echidna gave us one last reproachful look and dropped the barrier.
A subtle, almost there shimmer lightened the wall of air between the grotesque clearing and the shadowed forest beyond.
Hades and I kept our blades between the monster watching us balefully until the moment we were under the protection of the trees.
We’d made it out of the Reaping Field.
Before I could put more distance between Hades and me, he grabbed my forearm. “I’m not sure where you think you’re going, little shadow, but we have much to discuss.”
“Don’t you touch me,” I growled low in my throat, the warning of a frightened, cornered animal.
A warning that went unheeded as he pulled me into him, ignoring my hands clawing at him.
When his lips ransacked mine, it hollowed me out of thought.
Of fear. And maybe it was the adrenaline from almost dying, or perhaps it was my panic that was ceding to heat, but it was sputtering in the torrent of my rage.
There was an awareness of motion, of movement, before my back met stone, my legs encircling his waist. My breath hitched when he pushed himself into me, brazenly showcasing his need for me.
I told myself this was a normal reaction to nearly dying as I whimpered against him.
I promised myself that this was stress relief.
This meant nothing. None of it. This would be our final goodbye.
Even the thought made my chest ache.
“I still fucking hate you,” I whispered with his lips on mine, hating even more how my body responded immediately to him.
How my core clenched as his grip on my hips held me at his mercy, holding me right there, at the place where if our clothes were gone, he’d already be inside me.
I despised how my hands went from trying to gouge him to clawing him closer.
I resented the breathy whimper I made when his teeth sank into my lower lip and began carving small hurts over my chin to my ear.
“Hate doesn’t mean anything, little shadow.
When I get between your legs, you’re going to be dripping for me.
You’ll beg me to let you come on my face, and you’ll see pleasure has nothing to do with hate.
” His hands held my wrists just at the point of discomfort, with no room for mercy or wiggling.
I was firmly in his grasp, firmly under his spell, and I was afraid that now that I was submersed in him, I’d never want to come up for air.
At least this way, I could ignore my emotions, at least for now.
“Now be a good girl and make that sound for me again.”
“What sound?” His eyes slid to my lips as they shifted into a coy smile. “I don’t recall being significantly invested.”
“Oh, is that how it’s going to be? I wonder if your tongue will be softer for me when mine is on your cunt.
” His words sent heat flooding upwards to my cheeks and down to my core.
His hands left mine, began roaming my body before unfastening the buttons up the front of my shirt.
I moved to assist, or to repay in kind but my hands still didn’t move.
A glance downward explained why—the shadows coiled around my arms and granted them there at my sides. “Can’t have you going anywhere.”
“You always have to be the one in control, don’t you?” I hummed, though my tone had lost its bite when his teeth raked my neck again and I folded into him. At last, I made that sound he loved when his hands, cool to the touch, thrummed the peaked buds of my breasts.
“Trust me, little shadow. You’re going to love me being in control. Now, for once, do as you’re told and put your arms around my neck. I have a better idea.”
I did as he asked. My back met the soft grass before my hands were quickly tied back above my head again.
My pants were off in the next breath, pulled off by his rough hands until I was bare before him.
The molten way he devoured me echoed in my core and I knew he was about to make good on his earlier vow. I closed my legs—
—only for his shadows to coil around each thigh and spread them for him again.
“You don’t hide from me,” he growled before leaning back over me, careful not to touch, not to give me any friction where was aching for him. “You’re fucking perfect.”
“Fuck, Ash,” I whispered as his lips feathered my nipple. My hips also responded, bowing, searching for him, for contact, anything he saw fit to give me. I was getting desperate for release, and he knew it yet he’d hardly touched me.
“Oh no, I’m not fucking you yet.” He kissed down my body, leaving scorching trails in the wake of his lips passing down my torso, past my sex, and to my inner thigh.
His hand came up to stroke me, once, twice, thrice before dipping two fingers in with a groan.
“Fuck, you’re even wetter than I imagined, Fallyn. You’re dripping all over my hand.”
I couldn’t respond. Could barely breathe.
His fingers were scattering my every thought, every fear, but especially at the leisurely pace he’d set, it wasn’t enough.
This want, this craving, would go nowhere like this.
I rocked my hips, just the smallest amount of movement against his shadows that held me firmly in place.
“Gods above and below,” I cursed, trying to urge him on.
He gave me a dark, heated look from between my legs.
“Every god in Olympus and the Morningstar himself are all about to be jealous when they see I’m the name you cry out for.
The name you call out when you come.” That wicked grin again that had my breaths coming shorter. “I’m your god now, little shadow.”
His tongue lashed me once and my head fell back, his mortal l name wrenched from my lips. His tongue found the sensitive bud that’d been begging for his attention, and his fingers picked up a punishing rhythm. There was no keeping the sounds I made to a minimum. In frequency or in volume.
“Ash, fuck, please,” I cried out, my head tipping back again.
“Eyes on me, little shadow. Watch what I do to you. Watch me make you come on my face.”
My hooded gaze snapped to his, watching his tongue and fingers work me into a frenzy in tandem, watching as that tension coiled lower, tighter, more insistent. “Ash—”
“Let go, Fallyn. Come for me. Now.” He crooked his fingers within me to just the right spot and I detonated.
I disobeyed his command, my head falling back as his name was ripped loudly from my lips over and over again as he rode me through each aftershock, each wave of pleasure.
I was still elsewhere when I felt him step between my legs again.
He was naked from the waist down, his massive length jutting into my thigh. Just eying it had me a little concerned.
“Tell me you want this,” he murmured with his forehead pressed against mine. “Tell me you want this as badly as I do.”
Want? This was more like a visceral need, something that went far beyond want. “Yes,” I admitted. “Yes, I need this. Please.”
“Fuck, you’re so good,” he hissed as he eased into me, scanning my face for any obvious objection. I flinched, he stilled, his hand rubbing my arms. “You okay?”
I nodded. “Are you just trying to get me to say you’re massive?” I asked him as he stretched me slowly, taking his time to be considerate. He woofed a chuckle.
“I don’t need you to tell me how big I am, shadow. It’s obvious as you struggle to take me.” He’d already upped his pace and already I was seeing stars behind my eyes. “Fuck, I love how you take me.”
A few more careful thrusts had us completely abandoning caution.
I didn’t want caution or restraint. I needed him, his cock, and the friction it provided in spades.
His shadows tightened, widening my legs further for him.
His thumb came down to stroke my clit again, already throbbing for his attention.
“Hades below,” I cursed before I fixed it, “Hades.” He responded by upping his pace, a silent reward for finally calling him his true name, letting go of the fiction of Ash and allowing his true identity to consume me.
He grunted as he pounded into me in a punishing rate that had me gripping the shadows in turn. “Fuck!”
“Oh fuck, Fallyn, that’s it.” He felt my insides quickening, my legs shaking as he drove me higher toward that precipice. “Give me one more. Come one more time for me.”
A few more thrusts had me following his request—his command. His command my body bowed to as if he owned me and I let it.