Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
EMORY
I sank down into the silver-hued water that was surrounded by small boulders. Steam curled into the air, and I moaned. I actually moaned out loud. It had been over a week since I’d had a proper bath, let alone a hot one.
Aron had eventually returned with El, who seemed in better spirits. Such good spirits that she’d told me about some hot springs in the forest that were a safe and private place to bathe.
She’d probably been able to smell me from across the fire. I’d planned to wait until everyone was asleep to slip away, but Aron and Driscoll had stayed up later than I anticipated, both of them huddled together, Driscoll entertaining Aron with gossip that Aron seemed genuinely interested in. He asked actual follow-up questions. He also got Driscoll to open up about himself. I’d learned that Driscoll had four siblings. Four. I thought he was an only child. Aron had this calm presence that balanced Driscoll’s chaotic one.
They’d still been chatting when I snuck away and followed El’s directions, half worried the queen of hearts was leading me astray.
Now those worries melted away as I lay back in the water, hair floating around me, another moan escaping my mouth as the heat of it soothed my aches and pains, my creaky joints.
As tired as I was, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to sleep anyway. Not after learning so much about the Wilds, about all these creatures here. So they’d once been survivors who somehow transformed into something else. It was almost like they’d been given another chance at life, but in these monstrous forms, I wasn’t sure what kind of life that might be.
I also wondered if the other courts had any idea about what truly lay in these Wilds. The frost queen had proclaimed there was nothing left here but death and destruction. How had she missed all of this? Missed the survivors like El and Aron?
Aron might have been a wolf, but he was kind and helpful, and he didn’t deserve to waste away in a place like this. At least, I thought he might be wasting away. I actually didn’t know if he aged in this form. It didn’t seem like it, but I hadn’t actually asked.
Another question, another mystery.
They’d answered a lot of our questions, though, even if the answers hadn’t been what I wanted to hear. I’d hoped they would know more about a way to escape, but we would still have to figure that out on our own. I wasn’t sure where we went from here. El made it seem like going to the library was a fool’s errand. But if we went with them to the safe haven they’d created for their people, we’d be wasting time.
Maverick was determined to find his sister, and we’d made a deal. I’d promised I would help, and in exchange he’d let me have the bolt. The bolt we no longer had in our possession. I sighed in frustration.
I could go back on my promise to Maverick, but the thought of his sister being out here alone, possibly already dead, was enough to motivate me. I couldn’t leave her. Whatever had happened between me and Maverick, I knew his sister meant everything to him, and for some annoying reason, that meant she meant something to me too.
The plan formed easily in my mind. We’d find Maverick’s sister, we’d scour the lands and find the bolt, and we’d use it to escape this spirits-forsaken place. Once we found it, maybe we could even offer to help El and her people escape. Though that would present a whole new problem. I had no idea what place these creatures could have in our world. It wasn’t a very accepting one. We didn’t like conflict. We didn’t like things that made us uncomfortable. We didn’t like change. Especially not the frost queen. These monstrous creatures were all of those things, and I didn’t know what would happen to them if they escaped the Wilds. It was such a mess, and right now, all I wanted to do was sink under this warm water and let it wash away every thought from my mind.
Nothing had disturbed me so far, so maybe that meant I was actually safe here, that I could relax.
A splash sounded, and I stiffened, standing up in the water, which barely covered my breasts.
I was naked, no weapons on me, but I had my magic. I summoned a dagger of ice and gripped it tight. A cluster of rocks that sat in the spring blocked my view from the sound. Water splashed again as I rounded the pile of stone and ran right into Maverick Von Lucas.
He stared down at me, surprise flashing in his eyes.
“Stalking me again, little rabbit?” he asked, voice low.
Our bodies were plastered together, so close I could see the water droplets clinging to his eyelashes, rivulets dripping down his nose, landing on his full lips.
I shoved myself from him, then quickly lowered into the water when I realized my breasts were on full display.
“Emory,” he said, gaze dipping with my movement. “I think we need to talk.”
“We agreed to work together,” I said quickly. “I’ll help you get your sister. You help me get that bolt. We don’t need to talk beyond that unless it has to do with planning, which”—I gestured to my naked body, now covered by the silvery water—“now’s not really the right time for.”
His eyes flashed with heat as they followed my hands, and I realized I was pointing directly at my breasts, the swell of them still visible. I cleared my throat and sank lower until the water reached my chin, hair now floating around me.
He was so damn close, his chest broad and hard, his abs carved by muscle. Scars laced his arms, and I wanted to trace every single one, which only made me back away farther.
“Why are you running from me?” His voice was low as he stepped closer, towering over me. “We were... friends. All those years spent passing notes back and forth, adventuring together.”
“You never knew me,” I said. “And I never knew you. Not really.”
“You know that’s a lie,” he murmured. “You can taste the bitterness of it on your tongue, on your lips.” He reached out and brushed a thumb across my lower lip.
A shudder rippled through me, heat pulsing at his words.
“How else would I know that as much as you’re afraid of this place, you’re also enticed by the adventure? You can’t help but want to know more about the Wilds.” He stood in front of me now and lowered himself in the water until his face was inches from mine. “You want to explore as much as I do. You want to figure out what happened to the star court as badly as I do. Because you and I, we’re the same.”
I stared at him, the way the purple sky shone over his umber skin, the way the water lapped at the hard muscles of his chest. I wanted to take the leap, to close the distance between us, but I stayed frozen to my spot.
“What are you afraid of?” he asked, his gaze so intense I thought I might combust under it.
“I don’t know,” I burst out. “I’m not used to this. Okay? I’m not used to letting others in. The only person I ever let in was—” I stopped.
“Me,” he guessed.
“The bone collector,” I said, and he winced.
“It’s humiliating, you know. How much I shared with you about my stupid dreams of working at the academy one day. I’d never shared that with anyone. You must’ve thought me such a fool.”
“No.” He grabbed my shoulders and gave me a small shake. “I thought you were the bravest person I’d ever met. The fiercest. The smartest. The prettiest.”
I raised a brow. “Now I know you’re lying. You didn’t even know what I looked like.”
“I knew you were gorgeous.” His lips twitched. “And I was right.” His face sobered. “Did you not listen to a word I said in the crypt or the forest? You’re the entire reason I was brave enough to become the Maverick Von Lucas. You’re my inspiration. My muse. I was in awe. But I was never ever laughing. Not at you, Emory. ”
My heart squeezed, my body flooded with heat. Those were the words I needed to hear ever since I found out his true identity. To know I wasn’t just some joke to him, that maybe Maverick Von Lucas and the bone collector had more in common than I realized.
I’d never thought the day would come that my real name would be on his lips. Then it wasn’t just my name on his lips. He leaned forward and brushed his mouth against my jaw. I couldn’t move, so intoxicated by whatever was simmering between us, had been simmering between us for years.
“If you don’t want to talk, then maybe we can do something else,” he murmured.
Then I was turning my head, letting his mouth press against mine. His lips were soft, warm, so impossibly perfect.
“This is much better than talking,” I agreed and moaned against him as he deepened the kiss.
He probed my mouth open as his hands wound around my back, pressing into my slick skin, sliding down and cupping my ass.
Before I knew what was happening, I was wrapping my legs around him, his hard length pressed right against my entrance. Blood and frost, things had escalated so quickly. Then again, considering how we’d been dancing around each other for six years, maybe not.
The area between my thighs ached as our mouths moved together. I’d never felt anything like this. With my husband, it had been the same every time. I’d lay in bed, he’d roll on top of me, shove up my dress and push inside. A few pumps later, he’d be done.
If my husband had siphoned the light from me, Maverick was shining it back in. He was the light himself.
With every thrust of his tongue, every touch of his hand against my bare skin, I felt more alive than I had in years. His fingers slipped down below the water, and he dragged them up my slit, making me cry out against him.
“Is this okay?” he asked.
“Yes,” I breathed.
Yes, yes, yes.
He rubbed up and down my center in slow, languid motions .
“Have you ever had an orgasm before?” Maverick murmured against my lips.
“Mm-hmm,” I gasped out as his finger swirled in a circle around my clit. “When I touched myself.” I could barely get the words out.
His lips went to my ear, and he nibbled at the lobe as he added more fingers, circling my sensitive bundle of nerves.
“What did you think about, little rabbit? When you touched yourself?”
I swallowed, knowing my answer immediately. I’d thought about a man in a cloak. I’d never pictured his face. Never needed to. Just his hands. Pictured them on me. Pictured the way they’d roam over my breasts, tweak my nipples, the way they’d slip under my own cloak, under my tunic. The way they’d slide down my legs and in between my thighs. Only I never could’ve imagined just how good they’d feel kneading the pleasure from me like he was doing right now.
His finger plunged inside of me, and I gasped. “What did you think about?” he asked again.
“You,” I said without hesitation. “I thought of you, of shoving that hood off your head, your cloak off your body. I thought of unlacing your trousers, letting you take me in the middle of whatever current challenge we faced. I thought of how it would feel if you were buried inside of me.”
“Fuck,” he said.
It was all true, even though every time I touched myself and came thinking about the bone collector, guilt had riddled me afterward.
“Good, little rabbit. So good.” He added another finger, pumping them in and out while his mouth went to my neck. “Because I thought of you too. Every single time I stroked my cock. Every time I came, it was you I pictured.”
My entire body clenched tight, sparks dancing in my belly, his words wringing the orgasm from me as it made my insides quake.
I cried out, unraveling around his fingers, my release rushing through me with his words. He captured my mouth again, holding me tight to his hard body while I became a puddle in his arms. I clutched tight to him, breathing heavy as my release ebbed, and all I could do was cling to him, mouth still pressed to his .
He lifted his head so I could see his face, his smile. “I never thought I’d get to hold you in my arms like this, to see your perfect face as you came apart. To be the one to make you come apart.”
I cupped his cheeks with my hands. “I didn’t either. I never thought this could be my reality. Not when...”
I trailed off, not wanting to mention my husband, not wanting to even think of him in this moment, but it felt like his was a presence I couldn’t ignore.
Maverick tucked a strand of wet hair behind my ear. “I’m sorry you had to endure so many years with him. I’m sorry you were stuck in a marriage with that monster. All that time I was a professor at the academy. Do you know how many times we were in the same room and I never knew it was you... I don’t know what I would have done if I had known. What I could have done. Not when you were a married woman and I had a job at the academy.”
“It doesn’t matter anymore,” I said. “That’s in the past. Now we can make our own future.” I realized how much I wanted that. It was like this light-bulb moment. Of course I did, and I could have it. I didn’t have to run from him anymore. “If I’m not in prison, that is.”
“I won’t let that happen,” he said fiercely, pulling me tighter and letting me feel every honed edge of his body.
Heat gathered between my legs again. Blood and frost, I already wanted more of him.
“Does this mean our games are officially over?” I trailed a finger down his chest.
He leaned down and pressed a kiss to that sensitive spot behind my ear. “I think it means we’re just going to be playing a different kind of game.”
I reached under the water and ran my hand down his shaft as he shuddered. “Now that I can get on board with.”