32. Chapter 32
Someplace between waves of listlessness and shapeless dreams, I inform Sylas about the rings.
My words slip into a puddle of incongruency as his beautiful, pale eyes widen in horror above me.
“You can bomb her into oblivion,” I say as the potion slurs my words into intangible things.
“You can destroy her entire army.” The warming lull of sleep slinks its tendrils into my heart, slowing my chaotic beats into a steady decrescendo of ceaseless serenity.
My limbs tumble downward, downward, downward, until they spiral to the bottom of an inky black sea, forcing my eyelids to flutter shut as I drift off into a pocket of sleep.
“But that won’t stop her from killing us all. ”
Everything goes black. Then it comes roaring back in colors of ultraviolet light.
Suddenly, I’m seated on the edge of a mossy precipice, staring down at a rip-roaring waterfall below.
The waterfall tapers off into a blue lagoon, which is placated by cerulean tranquility, almost like a mirror for the universe to see through.
A man steps out from beneath the waterfall, his trousers soaked to the bone.
Those trousers leave nothing to my imagination, yet force me to imagine everything all at once.
Augustine.
His sculpted form drips with rivulets of condensation as he strides up the hill to greet me, his golden eyes focusing on mine with chest-crushing intensity.
Without a word, he scoops me up into his powerful arms like my body is composed of atom-filled stars.
Then he says, “What are you doing here?” His voice is both sultry and raw, his gaze pooling into all of my tender spots and making me feel warm.
So warm. “How did you get into my dream?” he asks, adopting a firm look.
“This is my dream,” I inform him, my pulse quickening beneath the weight of his scrutiny.
I soak in the plethora of gilded spellmarks carved into his biceps, which are pulsing like they’re on fire.
A crescent moon, a constellation of stars, a planet with little rings, a supernova exploding, all a testimony to his raw power.
“No,” he says as the waterfall roars behind us. “This is my dream, Shadow.”
A dream. This is just another lucid dream. Which means that nothing here matters. I can do anything I want. Like be completely irresponsible for once.
Fuck it.
I wrap my legs around his waist, an action that makes him stop in his tracks.
The girth of his manhood rises up to meet me as his eyes widen slowly, almost like he’s not sure how to receive this message I’m so clearly giving him.
Before I have time to change my mind, I bury my lips against his and drink him in, clutching both of his biceps tightly as he carries me toward a patch of moonlit grass where a million little fireflies blitz above our heads.
“Stop leaving me,” I whisper into his ear, planting him with a dozen electrified kisses as he lays me down gently on my back. “I hate it when you leave.”
“I thought you hated the sight of me,” he rumbles back, leaning over me and smirking. I cup his face in my hands and look up at him seriously, trying to recall the first moment we met.
“At first, I thought I did,” I freely admit, brushing a dark strand of hair away from his eyes.
“But quickly, I came to realize that I hated being without you. I hated opening my eyes to find you gone, or that I’d wish so badly I could drift off into another pocket of dreamland just to find you again.
What I feel for you is the opposite of hate, Augustine.
What I need… is for you to stop leaving. ”
Augustine’s eyes flicker, like he hadn’t been expecting for me to say that.
He trails the freckles along my collarbone with the soft pad of his thumb, as though regarding my words internally.
Then he whispers, “If that is what you wish, Raven. Then your wish is my command.” His eyes fill with emotion. “I will never leave you ever again.”
“Good, now that that’s settled,” I say, trailing my finger down his bare chest. “I’m about to do something that might surprise you. Bear with me.”
“Do what?” His brow upticks.
Gods, the potion Sylas gave me must be laced with wyrm shit, because I am losing my ever-loving goddamn mind.
Without explaining any further, I grab his arms and pull him onto the damp grass beside me.
He goes down willingly, like putty in my hands.
Giggling, I climb onto his lap and straddle him as my heartbeat thumps wildly in my chest. Then I watch in fascination as he concedes to his primal instincts, his gaze drifting down to my breasts.
Which, by the way, are spilling out of my dress.
His mind spins before my very eyes, and he catches his bottom lip with his teeth, smirking like he wants to ravage me.
But he’s holding back.
I’m tired of him holding back.
I pull my dress over my head to reveal my pretty undergarments for his viewing pleasure.
In response, a low growl erupts from the depths of his throat, hinting that he’s been aching to take my clothes off for ages.
“Are you sure about this?” he murmurs, his fierce, intoxicating eyes brimming with unending desire.
His muscles loosen beneath my touch like his wits have already unraveled in the palms of my hands.
Like I am the one in control in this situation.
Like perhaps I always have been. “Raven?” he says, jerking me back into the present moment.
“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life,” I tell him.
He wastes no time tearing off my bra and tossing it aside, then goes to work cupping both of my breasts into his warm hands.
He tries to sit up and put my left breast in his mouth, but I push him back onto the grass with a little shove.
Smirking, I lean down to kiss his lips, my tongue dancing with his in a fiery symphony of tangled heartstrings and sins.
I unzip his pants next and find his manhood with my hand, which is thick, ready, and throbbing—as though it’s been waiting a thousand lifetimes for me.
But just as I’m about to do something sinful, something I might regret, I pause, suddenly slammed by a sensation of déjà-vu.
I’ve been here before, naked and on top of him. Haven’t I?
His fingers greedily trace the hem of my panties in response. “I’ve imagined this happening a million times before,” he says with a throaty lilt, as though he can read my mind. “During every waking moment of every day, and every second of the night.”
I don’t believe him.
He hasn't just imagined this moment.
He's reliving it.
Maybe it’s the way he dips his fingers beneath my panties and finds the exact spot that makes my toes curl, releasing a gushing wave of ecstasy from the depths of my fucking soul.
Or the way he tears off my underwear with one sweep of his hand, like they’re made of mist and not handspun fabric.
How he dives his cock inside of me slowly at first, until I’m moaning out his name—scratch that, screaming out his name—causing him to pick up his pace and pump harder, his heart devouring mine from the inside out like I’m his most treasured secret.
It's only then do I realize…
Yes, we’ve done this before.
I’m quite certain of it.
“Come. I want you to come for me, Raven," he says, as I whimper for every inch of him to plunge into every one of my orifices and fill me to the brim, both of us panting together in unison.
Gods, this man is going to be the death of me.
“Shadow, wake up.” A flurry of hands grabs me by the shoulders and yanks me to a stand, just as a sliver of morning sunlight pirouettes around my pallet. Maxine presses her nose against mine as she says, “We need to leave here at once.”
“Wha…” My brows buckle, and my lips twist. But more importantly, my thighs are unfortunately still throbbing from the dream I’d been having. They couldn’t have at least waited to let me finish?
“What’s going on? What are you guys doing here?” I riddle out, the tips of my ears feeling red-hot.
“The queen is here,” Bella explains in haste.
“And she’s looking for you. She’s killing everyone who stands in her way,” Maxine quickly adds.
A loud boom engulfs the walls with a quake, sending bits of rock sailing over our heads.
The castle outside reverberates with the rallying outcry of a thousand men, paired by the roaring sound of a dozen dragons tearing through the sky.
As the sound of flesh scorching and steel bending echoes all around us, I suddenly realize what’s happening.
“War.”
“According to the map I found in the library, there’s a passageway through that door that leads to the Silverhorn River.
” Bella points to an arched, gothic door, which is positioned behind the statue.
The corners of her eyes tighten in concern as she adds, “I know what you’re thinking, and the answer is yes.
Of course I visited the library while you were unconscious.
What else was I supposed to do? Sleep? At a time like this? ”
I stare at them both in shock, my mouth slipping open wordlessly upon noticing the bags under their eyes.
“It didn't help that Veilbreaker wasn't exactly forthcoming about your whereabouts, even after I held a dagger to his throat,” Maxine butts in. “We've been searching for you for days… Shadow.”
“The ships. We must get to the ships,” Bella reiterates, grabbing me by the arm.
“Ships?” I query in confusion.
She pauses to unravel a note from her pocket and stuffs it into my hand. “It’s the strangest thing,” she says with a bated breath. “When I was in the library, I found this.”
The letter is a piece of golden paper with crisp edges and perfect handwriting. The same handwriting as the note I once received from Augustine. It glows like a celestial star, as if demanding I read it immediately.
Bring her to the Silverhorn River at daybreak. The ships there will escort you to safety.
I rip the note to shreds.