Chapter 27
Chapter
Twenty-Seven
B y the time we emerged from Kaden’s chamber, Adriel had the horses saddled and loaded down with the supplies he and Sorsha would need for their journey back to Cragsmuir.
Sorsha gave Kaden and me each a tearful hug before mounting the dappled gray mare that had been with us since Klod?sch.
Adriel’s goodbye was little more than a stiff nod at me and a glance at Kaden, but the look that passed between them held a promise — a vow that he would guard the prince’s sister with his life.
As I watched them go, a leaden weight sank into my gut. Though Sorsha was my enemy’s sister and Adriel had been my prison warden, somewhere along our journey I’d come to think of them as friends.
I didn’t know when — or if — I’d see them again. We were headed to Dorthus to steal back the Death Bringer’s hands so we could find a way to sever the threads bound to Semphrys’s soul .
Infiltrating the demon palace and making off with the Dark King’s trophy would be no easy task, and part of me had already accepted that we might not make it out alive.
When we returned to the house to prepare for the journey, Fiona had a hearty breakfast already waiting for us in the dining room: fresh-baked scones dotted with the same tart berries I’d tasted in the wine the night before, smoked sausage, boiled eggs in speckled green shells, and an assortment of fruit.
Though my activities with Kaden meant I’d worked up an appetite, dread at what we were about to attempt had my stomach in knots. I’d only managed a few bites of my scone before the sweet dough started to churn in my gut, and I pushed my plate away.
We dressed in silence, our leathers magically cleaned and dry after our plunge in the marsh. With Sorsha gone, there was little reason to fear a run-in with Alfrigg’s patrols, so Kaden swept me into his arms and flew us over the Ravenous Woods.
We stopped periodically to eat and drink, and so that Kaden could rest his wings. Our progress was swift in the skies, though we lingered along the way to give Adriel time to return Sorsha to Cragsmuir before our rendezvous in Dorthus.
We ate little and slept even less, both of us preferring to spend those dark hours tangled up together to keep the terror at bay. On the last night of our journey, we made camp in a chilly clearing, and Kaden laid out our bedrolls in the tall grass beneath the stars.
I sat cross-legged at the end of mine, practicing my runes as he made a fire. Flames crackled to life, and he flopped down beside me, tracing patterns along the inside of my knee.
As that familiar leather-and-night scent wrapped around me, I felt my concentration slip. Brushing the stones off my bedroll, I lay down beside him and stared up at the winking stars.
“I think you actually moved one this time,” he teased, rolling on top of me and brushing his lips against mine.
I gave a noncommittal hum — my mind already far from runes as he allowed some of his weight to press down on my body, nestling his hard length between my thighs.
Slowly, I reached up and unbuttoned his jacket, shoving the leather aside so I could feel his taut muscles through the thin material of his shirt.
Gods , he was perfect. Hard and sculpted, but with that soft, decadent mouth that was already exploring the sensitive spot along my neck.
Shadows ghosted over my skin as he magicked away my jacket and top, leaving me bare beneath the sky. The tips of my breasts prickled in the cool night air, but then he engulfed one with his hot, wet mouth, igniting my whole body.
A soft moan slipped out of me as I arched into his touch. His tongue flicked out to tease my nipple, and heat surged between my legs.
Growling in frustration, I tugged at his clothes, struggling to divest him of his leathers.
He gave a low chuckle, and his jacket vanished, along with the shirt he wore beneath.
My hands roved hungrily over the hard planes of his chest, feeling the sharp lines of his pectorals and steady beat of his heart before trailing over the ridges of his abs and the V-shaped divot that led down beneath his waistband .
Feeling bold, I allowed my hand to travel lower, palming his hardness through his leathers and feeling him twitch in response.
Always in such a hurry, he chided, that tone of smug amusement echoing in my mind as he captured my nipple between his teeth.
My soft cry echoed through the clearing, my nerve endings sparking as my insides grew molten with need.
I prefer to take my time with you . . . see what other delicious sounds I can pull from your lips before they’re wrapped around my aching ? —
A frustrated growl was my only reply as I bucked my hips, seeking the friction of his body. The throb between my legs was already unbearable, and he was going to play with me — tease my body with that wicked mouth and taunt me from within my mind.
Well, we’d see about that.
Concentrating on the wall of brambles I’d built, I grew the vines thicker. Denser.
I could sense his shadows billowing around the woody branches at the outskirts of my mind, and I sent up new thorns that had those shadows retracting.
“You’ve been practicing,” he purred against my skin as he kissed a trail along the swell of my breast and over the soft flesh of my stomach.
“I had to,” I murmured, my breath catching as he reached a sensitive spot along my side. “You’re insufferable enough without having your voice constantly in my head.”
Kaden’s answering chuckle sent little tingles of sensation skittering up my spine. “You know, you can keep that lethal garden hedge shored up while leaving me a pathway to communicate.”
“And why would I want to do that?” I asked, annoyed at the breathless tone of my voice as his tongue lashed out to taste my skin.
“So that I can explain what I want to do to you in vivid detail, even when we’re not alone.”
I sucked in a breath.
“For instance . . .” Bracing himself on his elbow, Kaden flicked open the button securing my leather pants. “We could be at a very civilized dinner party, bored out of our skulls, and I could tell you how I plan to shred whatever pretty little gown you’re wearing the moment we’re alone.”
My heart fluttered as his hand slid below the waistband of my pants, cupping me through the damp fabric of my underwear.
A low growl of approval rumbled up his throat. “Wet for me already, love?”
A strangled note of annoyance escaped me, but my hips moved of their own accord — lifting into his touch.
Kaden started to move his fingers, making tantalizingly slow circles over that sensitive bundle of nerves. “I could tell you how ravishing you’d look splayed out on my bed in nothing but your skin.”
He abruptly withdrew his hand, gripping the waistband of my leathers and peeling them down my thighs, underwear and all.
Almost lazily, he pushed my legs wide and situated himself between them. “I could plant an image of exactly this,” he whispered, using his thumb to spread my folds as he gazed down at me in reverence. “How fucking perfect you are.”
I shivered as his tongue shot out, making one bold stroke up my center .
“I could show you how sweet you taste,” he rumbled, sliding a finger into me so quickly that I gasped.
Lifting my head, I watched in stunned fascination as he withdrew his finger, holding my gaze with those silvery eyes as he licked my essence off his skin.
“How?” I rasped, embarrassed by how breathless I sounded.
“Like the nectar of the gods.”
“No,” I growled, frowning at the obscene demon kneeling between my thighs. “H-how do I open a-a pathway?”
Kaden hummed in amusement, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth as he splayed his palm along my stomach and stroked up along the curve of my breast. “You already know how to find me, love. You need only reach out and let me in.”
Though it was extremely hard to concentrate with Kaden caressing my naked body, I thought back to that glimmering strand of gold I’d found when I’d invaded his mind back in Adraeis.
I hadn’t known what it was at the time — the thread that represented our mating bond. And yet I could still feel it — that connection between us.
Reaching out with my senses, I was surprised when I found the thread instantly. It was thicker and brighter than the first time I’d seen it, likely the result of our newly solidified bond.
Carefully, I released the hold I had on my wall of vines and felt a pathway open in the brambles. Leaves parted and blooms sighed as that shimmering thread wound between them, managing to avoid the thorns and barbs as if it already knew the way.
“There,” Kaden breathed, closing his eyes. His face was more relaxed than I’d ever seen it, and a soft smile graced his lips.
There was a rightness to it, this bond between us. And despite my resistance to Kaden invading my thoughts, the relief I felt at letting him in was palpable.
“Good girl,” he rumbled.
He opened his eyes, and the feral pride swirling in those stormy depths made my core throb with need.
This time, when he slid down my body to lap at my center, I felt a flicker of arousal that was not my own. It was heady and raw and decidedly male — strong enough to steal the breath from my lungs and ignite my own need.
Kaden moaned in approval as a fresh gush of wetness spilled out of me, his tongue lapping at me with a frenzied passion that made my thighs tremble in anticipation.
“Not yet, little huntress,” he whispered against me, his breath tickling my sensitive flesh.
I growled as the pressure inside me became almost unbearable. But then he entered me in one hard thrust, and stars flickered in my vision.
I could feel him everywhere . In my body. My mind. The prince was wrapped around my very soul, every sensation of him moving inside me magnified by the echo of his own pleasure.
A searing heat unfurled between my legs, sending me crashing toward oblivion.
A ferocious howl ripped from Kaden as he chased my release with his own, and I felt the shockwaves of his pleasure travel down our bond.
Still heaving for air, Kaden rolled back, tugging me onto his chest. Starlight gleamed in his silver eyes, and I felt a surge of overwhelming warmth that hadn’t come from me .
“You can leave the link between us open until we reach Dorthus,” he said. “My kind are sensitive to such mental pathways, and if one of them were to sense the one between us . . .” His gaze darkened. “It would not take much for them to guess what you are to me.”
My insides quivered at his words, but not from fear. It was the way he’d said it.
What you are to me.
His mate. I was Kaden’s mate.
Which also made me the demon prince’s greatest weakness.
A shiver rolled down my spine as he reached over, fumbling in that invisible pocket of his. Something silver gleamed in the moonlight, and I sucked in a breath when I saw what he held.
My witchwood blade.
Kaden’s throat bobbed as he swallowed, bringing the dagger between us. Holding it carefully by the blade, he used his free hand to capture one of mine, wrapping my fingers around the hilt.
Holding my fist that gripped the dagger, he brought the tip straight to his chest, allowing it to hover just over his heart.
For a moment, neither of us spoke. I didn’t think he was breathing.
“Why?” I asked, my hand trembling where I held the dagger, as if my body rebelled at the notion of sinking the blade into his heart.
A breath whooshed out of him, and I felt some of the tension ebb from his body. Had he truly thought I might take this chance to end his immortal existence?
“Because,” he breathed, still gripping my hand. “I will not send you into the Dark Palace defenseless. Should anything happen to me —”
“ Nothing is going to happen to you,” I growled, surprised by the ferocity in my tone.
A slight grin tugged at Kaden’s lips, and he brushed his thumb over my hand. “You are my mate,” he said simply. “If I had any other choice, I would keep you out of this. I would take you as far away from here as possible — somewhere my father could never touch you.”
Something dark flickered in his expression, and I felt his shadows surge out around us, forming a protective wall. As if he wished to shield me, even now. “But in the end, it must be you, Lyra.”
My senses prickled at his use of my name.
“Only you can end him . . . and me , if necessary.”
“But —”
“Swear it,” he croaked, his voice filled with a new kind of urgency. “Swear to me that you will find a way to end him, no matter what the cost.”
I swallowed, the sensation like downing shards of glass. Kaden’s dark power prickled over my skin, reminding me of the bargain I’d made with Caladwyn. A promise sealed with magic.
Kaden might have been the demon prince, but he was still half fae. I would be magically bound to fulfill any deal I struck with him.
It felt all wrong, like a bargain I’d live to regret.
I opened my mouth to tell him so — tell him to drop his godsdamned faerie magic — but then his grip around my hand tightened, bringing the tip of my dagger to rest against his bare chest.
One tiny move and it would break the skin. And if I were to throw my weight behind it, the blade would sink through flesh and bone to pierce Kaden’s immortal heart.
Every fiber of my being rebelled at the notion, and I couldn’t suppress my shudder. There wasn’t a single part of me that wanted to kill him now, but Semphrys ?
Why was I hesitating? Of course I would end his father. My hunter blood sang at the prospect of driving my dagger through the demon king’s heart. He was evil incarnate, and I had no other choice.
If we didn’t find a way to kill him, he would continue devouring souls, leaching magic from the land. The Ravaging would spread across Anvalyn and eventually swallow both realms.
Life as we knew it would cease to exist.
I felt my mouth moving before I’d had a chance to question my conviction, and my teeth rattled in the wake of Kaden’s ominous power as an answer formed on my lips.
“I swear.”