77
I spent the night pacing back and forth between my room and the terrace like an animal behind bars. Because, after all, that’s exactly what I was.
I was Mornon’s pet, so they wanted to cage me to keep him from using me. And I had no say in the matter.
Because no one trusted me anymore.
* * *
Alone, I refused to have breakfast.
The sun emerged through the glass roof, initially filling my room with a pale light and then, as hours passed, bringing unbearable heat.
Alone, I refused to have lunch.
Leaning with one shoulder against the jamb of the open glass door, the thin blue curtains fluttering around me in the light breeze, I gazed with a scowl from the white Leukós on the hills of the Kingdom of Men to the peaks of the towering trees in the Forest of Witches.
Fighting against the need to go to him.
Fighting against the instinct to fetch the Crystal and take it back to the Kingdom of the Elves.
Alone, I refused to have dinner.
Leaning over the terrace, I attempted to appreciate the night’s temperature, vainly hoping the cold shivers would overpower the creeping feeling of the evil within me.
With my nose up and tears running down my temples, I was watching a bank of clouds glide across the moon in the star-studded sky when I suddenly heard my parents’ and Araton’s voices.
They had done nothing but argue heatedly from the moment I left the throne room, oblivious to being overheard by the servants, who had probably already spread the word of what was happening to me throughout Aegel.
I looked down as my mother crossed the narrow archway of the courtyard in front of the entrance to my wing of the palace, closely followed by my father and my brother.
They discussed my life without bothering to consult me, as if I were no longer capable of understanding and willing.
They clashed over what was best for me, according to my mother, and what was imperative to do to save the people of the Lands of the East, according to my father.
Araton tried to moderate the situation, but our parents looked like two wolves ready to slaughter each other.
“Nauriel is not able to protect herself, Annael!” the king shouted.
She stopped in the middle of the courtyard, and when she turned to face him, her loose hair and the cape of her white dress swept wide through the air. “Remember who you’re talking about, Erech,” she warned him in a hiss.
“Were you blind in that room?” he continued. “Didn’t you see what our daughter has become? Couldn’t you sense the leash the enemy is holding her to him with? We must try to save her,” he said peremptorily.
“Our daughter is stronger than all of us,” Mother declared fiercely. “And she will be the one to save us.”
“She can’t,” Araton said in a grave tone.
Father let out a helpless sigh. “She’s already surrendering to the darkness. And you know that, Annael.”
“No, Erech,” the queen countered resolutely. “She won’t be the one to give in.”
My brother folded his arms on his chest, frowning. “What are you trying to say, Mother?”
She approached them, placing one hand on my father’s arm and the other on Araton’s.
“They are mates,” she said, her voice filled with hope.
“ Mates,” she repeated emphatically, giving their biceps a light squeeze.
“There is nothing more powerful than their bond,” she stated with unwavering determination.
“And their love will overcome the darkness.”
Two tears fell upon my cheeks. “But you don’t love me,” I whispered, my voice cracking with pain.
Behind me, Mornon pressed his body against mine, pinning me against the parapet and gripping it to trap me between his arms. I shivered as his beard brushed my ear, and I instinctively offered him my cheek so he would kiss it.
He didn’t. Instead, he lightly rubbed the tip of his nose against my cheekbone.
“If you let him take you to the witches, prepare to see them die one by one,” he told me.
“Your father.” He pushed his groin against my buttocks, and I took a sharp breath as an intense rush of pleasure surged through me.
“Your brother.” He swayed his hips again, more forcefully, and I couldn’t contain a moan.
“I will kill everyone before your eyes.” His hand moved from my belly to my throat, grasping it possessively.
“Because of you.” He nibbled my jawline. “For you.”
Annihilated, I watched my mother gently touch Araton’s face and shake my father’s hand as she persisted in convincing them to give me the chance to demonstrate how great the light the Spirits had granted me was.
To place their trust in me.
But that light she believed was so grandiose, so invincible, had almost entirely faded.
Because of my insatiable, sickening appetite.
Because of my weakness.
Assaulted by a fit of rage, I spun around and shoved Mornon away with all my strength. He stared at me with a hint of amused surprise, his nostrils flaring.
“Get out of my mind,” I ordered imperiously.
A ghost of a smirk twisted his lips. Unable to bear the sight of him and the inner turmoil he was stirring in me any longer, I marched into my room. I had just crossed the glass door when he seized me by the hair so brutally that I cried out.
“Do you think I’m just in here, Elf?” he growled, gripping the back of my skull in his hand, the pressure so much that I realized he might shatter it in the blink of an eye.
“I am in your flesh.” He traced his black fingers over the exposed part of my chest at the square neckline, pressing as if he wanted to cut into my skin.
“In your bones.” He moved his hand over my breast, squeezing so hard I gasped from the intense mix of pain and pleasure.
“In the air you breathe.” He ran his fingers down my belly and between my legs, pressing his palm against my pubic area, the fabric of my skirt dampening from my arousal.
“And you’re dying to feel me everywhere. ”
“That’s not true!” I snapped angrily, clutching his wrist with both hands to pull his fingers from my sex.
He swiftly grabbed me around the middle, holding me so tightly against himself that I couldn’t move to break free.
“Don’t lie, Nauriel,” he warned. “Not to me. You can’t.
” His hand moved from the back of my neck to my throat, wrapping it in a way that was both possessive and threatening.
“I sense everything about you. I listen to every moan of yours. I see the thirst for power in your eyes. I give your soul what it longs for.”
I drove my nails into the backs of his hands until they pierced his skin, but he didn’t even seem to notice. “You know nothing about my soul,” I snarled.
“I am your soul,” he replied in a low, rageful tone, his breath so scorching against my cheek that it felt like it was burning it. “And you need to stop hiding from me and accept that you can’t stop me. You can’t stop this.” He took my chin, turning my face toward him, then claimed my lips.
No, he mauled me.
He was a beast who ravaged my mouth, his tongue sliding over mine as if mimicking intercourse, his teeth clashing against mine in the heat of the moment.
I tried to fully turn around to return the kiss with equal passion, but he wouldn’t let me, pressing himself against me with his whole body. I could only lift one hand to run my fingers through his hair, tugging when he bit my lip, causing his groan to blend with mine.
I only realized we had reached the bed when I bumped into it. I then climbed onto it on my knees, spreading my legs to the sides of his so he could rub himself against my buttocks, now at the ideal height for his groin.
A moment later, he grabbed the collar at the back of my dress and tore it in half with a firm tug, leaving my back completely exposed.
He forcefully pushed me forward, causing me to land on my elbows on the mattress.
Afterward, he climbed onto the bed, propping himself on it with one knee and one fist, leaning over me as his other hand moved from the base of my spine up to my shoulder blades.
I shivered when he pressed his fingertips hard against the spot where the arrow meant for him had pierced me.
“You have already proven that you would die for me,” he said softly, his voice laced with lust.
I turned my head to declare through gritted teeth that he was wrong, wrong, wrong. But as soon as I met his burning gaze, I lost all my will, bewitched by the lunar glow that made his beauty even more sinister.
Mornon took his hand off my shoulder, holding it in midair with a slight sneer. “And I,” he continued as black claws extended from his fingertips, “love seeing your blood on my hands.”
His claws descended on my skin.
Flesh tore along the entire length of my back.
And I didn’t scream in pain but in pleasure.
I sensed Mornon’s smirk as he lowered himself onto my arched back, beginning to lick the abundant blood rivulets, sucking to make it surface even more.
And I couldn’t keep quiet. I moaned as if seeing and hearing him drink my blood were the most erotic experiences I had ever had. I was out of breath, infected by the immense arousal he was building inside me.
I clutched the blankets, pressing my butt against his crotch.
His hand covered mine, and I instinctively opened it so he could intertwine his fingers with mine, crushing them against the mattress.
He reached under my torn dress and roughly squeezed my breast while he ran his teeth along the deep scratches, almost as if he wanted to spread them even further to taste the fresh tissue.
To chew me piece by piece.
To devour me and show me who I really was.
I was a creature of darkness, twisted and eager to bleed for the one I belonged to, from whom I could no longer hide, who had now inexorably taken me.
And together we were the embodiment of the darkest passion’s fury.
“Stop . . .” I panted as the feeling of his tongue grew so intense that everything around me started to spin slowly.
Mornon took his hand off my breast and moved it to my nape, his fingers threading through my hair and making me shiver. “Tell me what you want,” he whispered in my ear.
I felt the outline of his erection against my buttocks, and I instinctively moved them up and down until he groaned with pleasure. “Please,” I gasped.
He pulled my hair, coaxing a hoarse sound from me. “ Say it,” he growled.
Two tears escaped the outer corners of my eyes as, tired of fighting, I surrendered to the brutal feelings I had for Mornon the Abomination.
The greatest enemy that had ever walked this earth.
The embodiment of the most atavistic evil.
The one I loved.
“I want you,” I said under my breath, in a tone that was half liberating, half heartbroken.
“And you have me,” he replied in a voice steeped in voluptuous satisfaction.
He gradually took his hand away from my hair and unfingered his grip from mine, then straightened up.
Maintaining eye contact, he pulled back his tunic, unbuttoned his trousers, and revealed his erection.
He ran his palm over my back, still bloodied from the scratches, and smeared it onto his sex with sensual movements that made me gasp in anticipation.
With his other hand, he gathered my skirt around my hips.
I moaned with pleasure as he rubbed two bloodied fingers across my vulva, spreading my arousal fluid all the way down to my anus.
Finally, he grabbed his erection and stared at me with such intensity that I felt as if I were on fire.
“You have had me from the beginning,” he said.
Then he pushed the swollen tip into my butt. I let out an inarticulate sound of surprise and instinctively tried to jump to the far end of the bed, but he quickly grabbed my hair and yanked me back.
Fully entering inside me.
I let out a deafening cry that resonated throughout the room, joined by Mornon’s ecstatic roar. I leaned back, resting my head against his chest, and tried to get used to that violent intrusion and focus on his breath, which was puffing against my hair and my cheek.
Mornon let out a warm, seductive chuckle that enveloped my heart in a grasp, then leaned in to kiss me with such passion that once his hips started to sway, the pain swiftly gave way to unimaginable pleasure.
Suddenly, a black aura rose and engulfed us.
“Don’t be scared,” he said, wrapping one hand around my throat.
“I’m not,” I panted, mesmerized by the shadows darting around us like snakes.
He smiled against my temple. “That’s my elf.”
Before I understood what I was doing, I reached out to touch the dancing darkness. The black bands curled around my fingers, soft like velvet and hot as flames. I sensed them penetrating every pore of my skin, merging with the shadows I already harbored.
“That’s it . . .” Mornon’s voice brimmed with greed. “Take the darkness. Now it’s yours, too. And take me.” His hand slid from my neck to my chest. “All of me.”
He pierced me with his claws, injecting his darkness straight into my heart.
I welcomed it without offering any resistance, without shame, feeling helpless before its power and, at the same time, addicted to the pleasure and sense of invincibility it spread throughout every fiber of my being. I fully breathed it, holding onto Mornon.
I begged him to give me more of it.
I implored him to never stop.
And he gave me all of it.
For together, we were everything.
While we possessed each other with vehemence and eagerness, I desperately understood that Mornon was right.
I would die for him.
And to prevent him from having Calien’s Crystal.