Chapter 16
Cat
Three dachshund ghosts scurried ahead of me up the stairs inside the Wake.
The tower was a tight spiral of stone stairs interrupted by a solid landing every twenty steps, the wall beside it punched through by a window that overlooked the prairie.
The ghosts floated up a flight of steep stairs I knew those short legs would never be able to mount if they were living, and a smile pulled at my mouth.
Footsteps echoed off the old stone as my husbands scaled the stairs behind me, their presence both a comfort blanket and a constant charge of electricity, threatening to shock me if I got close enough.
Tor was serious about crowning me, even though that was pure insanity.
And the way Death had smiled at me… my stomach was in knots as I thought about it, the staircase never-ending enough that it gave me plenty of time to think about the fight in the prairie, their reactions, and my own.
I completely flipped when Pain got hurt.
It wasn’t a conscious decision, instead pure instinct triggered an eruption of rage and protectiveness so strong it transmuted into magic.
I made sixty spirits scream, ripped Violence’s compulsion away from them, and I didn’t even see what happened to the vauns.
I had a feeling they spontaneously combusted.
All because Pain got burned. All because he cried out, whimpering at the scorching agony.
I might not know who I’d been, but that was who I was now. Someone who took no prisoners when the people I cared about were hurt. Someone who ruthlessly pursued revenge.
The stairs circled around again, carrying me past a window, but when I looked at it, it wasn’t the slightly warped, thick slabs of glass that peered out on the prairie.
This was a view through a crystal-clear pane, the window twice the size of me and casting light across a hallway landing.
My stomach rippled, a thrill quickening my heart. Illicit. Sexy.
I blinked and I was pressed against the glass, the window cold against my bare skin.
Pleasure carved a home through my body, spreading to my toes, to the fingers I splayed over the glass.
And when I glanced over my shoulder, panting, my back arched, it was to see the glory of Miz fucking me. The look in his eye was pure obsession.
I stumbled back to the Wake when my toe smacked into the next step, and I gasped when Tor’s arm came around my waist to stop my fall.
There were layers of clothes between us, but my skin burned.
My heart galloped, wild and out of control.
When he turned his face into me, pressing a lingering kiss to my sensitive neck, I shuddered hard.
“Careful, beautiful,” he said, delicious and gravelly. “Do you want me to carry you to the top?”
“No,” I rasped, and cleared my throat. “No, I’ll be fine.”
I’d keep my gaze fixed forward from now on, no more detours into the past until I had the scales. And that was the past. It was too clear, the sensations as real as if Miz had me pressed up against this wall, driving in and out of me.
I shook myself and pulled away from Tor, my whole body heated, and I kept walking.