Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
QUINN
M y mind is reeling.
Not only is Aurelia my aunt, but she had a child. Which means that I have—or had—a cousin. I couldn’t bring myself to ask her because the only reason I know about that and what happened to her mate is because I’ve read her journal. It’s an invasion of privacy whether or not I knew it was hers, and that’s exactly the kind of information you only share with those you trust. Losing a mate, and perhaps a child, are secrets understandably kept buried in the past.
That said, I’m debating if I should ask Merrick about it. As the oldest of the dragons, he’d know who my cousin was and be able to tell me what happened to him. It’s more than likely they were lost when Lunae attacked Marein and although having the knowledge will do nothing for me, I’d at least like to know his name so that I might find him in the afterlife one day.
As I walk down the glass hall illuminated by glowing algae growing along the sides of the tunnel floors in special trenches, I marvel at the ingenuity of this place for what’s probably the first time. When we first arrived, I’d been preoccupied with my trial, then we were under attack, and then my bond to Abby was broken and the last thing I was interested in was architecture. But now? I can appreciate the time and skill that went into crafting an underwater city built to accommodate both land and sea dwelling sirens. I remember Tess telling me before we left Rosewood that not all sirens can change at will, and some are bound to the sea for years at a time. This place is the solution to this. Families wouldn’t be separated. Lovers could still be close. Even humans and dragons who’d fallen in love with these aquatic beings would have a place.
If things were different, I could have grown up here. If the ocean wasn’t dying and my mother hadn’t been forced into marriage with a man she didn’t love, my father could have abandoned his duties in Lunae and come here. Evan and I would have been humans living beneath the waves, our father with us, and when the sea called to our mother, she would have returned to it instead of allowing an incurable fever to steal her from us.
I can’t entirely picture growing up amidst waves instead of trees. Rosewood is my home, as is the forest that sustains it. It may have been a witch and the curse of dragon’s blood that turned me into a wolf, but there must have been some of me in there, too. Because why a wolf? Why not a siren or a dragon or some other creature of the forest?
I force the query from my mind when I reach the dining hall. In the time I’ve been gone, it’s been returned to the state it was in before I was forced to clash blades with that fucker Erwyn. I don’t care what Aurelia— Lia —says about the way he treated my mother. She was unhappy with him while they were together, and the first thing he’d done when he realized who I am was to call her a whore.
Lucky for him, he’s nowhere to be seen.
But neither is Abby.
I scan the room again just to be sure and then open my bond as wide as possible. I was never closed off to her, not even when Lia and I were talking, but she’d respected our privacy as I didn’t so much as feel a wisp of her against the tether that connects us.
I feel her now, though, as I reach for her. ‘Stabby?’ I call out to her, keeping my mental voice soft. I already know she’s on the surface, somewhere high above me in the ruins, but the distance I’m feeling between us isn’t entirely physical. There’s something weighing on her mind that wasn’t there before we’d parted ways. I don’t know what could have changed in the last hour, but I know it’ll take a lot less than that to have her smiling again.
‘I’m in the ruins,’ she says, and there’s a hint of sadness that comes with her words. So I’m not wrong. Something happened.
‘I know. I’m already on the way. Are you okay?’ Physically, she’s fine. I’d know if she wasn’t. But emotionally? Something is definitely off.
‘I’m fine. I just…’
I wait for her to continue as I begin the climb up the many, many steps that lead up through the whirlpool and into the ruins. One of these days I’m going to need to count how many there are because this is ridiculous. I’m in good shape, despite the injury to my leg, but I feel as if this staircase has the ability to kick my ass twice over. I take back what I said about the ingenuity of this place. Whoever designed this staircase is a sadistic asshole.
‘I need you.’ When that thought reaches me, the sadness from her earlier words is replaced by a heat that makes me instantly hard.
Fuck . As much as I’m going to enjoy every moment our newly forged bond compels us to be intimate, I could do without the instantaneous raging boners. Especially when I still have five hundred fucking stairs to climb.
I take them two at a time, increasing my pace to as much as my body—and my suddenly too-tight pants—will allow.
‘Stabby…’ My mental voice is suddenly as raw as the fire burning my core. ‘You’d better find us somewhere private, because as soon as I make it up these Gods damned stairs I’m not going to give a fuck if there’s anyone around.’
I fly up the rest of the steps, breathing hard, lungs burning as much as my cock. When I burst through the opening, I’m blinded by sunlight, but it doesn’t matter because I can feel her.
‘Go straight,’ she tells me, even though I’m already headed that way. ‘I’m in the building with the—’
‘Tower,’ I finish for her. ‘I know.’
There’s no door to this building. Or, at least no door that works. My brain can only just register planks of broken wood that must have been split when this place was raided twenty years early. I don’t have time to wonder about the fates of those who once lived here because Abby is so close now. Mere meters above me at the top of the tower.
‘I’m really starting to hate stairs,’ I mutter as I race up the spiral, already unclasping my pants and freeing my erection. That relief only comes second to what I know is only seconds away.
When I enter the room at the top of the tower, Abby is waiting for me. Naked and beautiful and mine .
I move for her and she does the same, jumping as she reaches me so I can scoop her up against my body, holding her as close as possible and still not close enough. Her lips are on mine, wild and hungry, and the warmth of her alone is nearly enough to send me over the edge.
I can’t see where I’m going, but it doesn’t matter. I’d spotted the bed at the back of the room, and any moment now—
We hit the side of the bed and topped over onto the mattress. ‘Did I hurt you?’
‘No.’ Her hands work their way under my shirt, nails clawing at my back as if she can somehow pull me closer than we already are.
‘Are you ready?’
She makes a sound of frustration. ‘Just shut up and fuck me.’
That’s all I needed to hear. I reach between us and press my length against her, and inserting myself an inch to make sure I don’t hurt her.
Her head arches back, breaking our kiss and together we pull in a breath. “Quinn, please,” she says aloud, and there’s no mistaking the desperation in her voice.
I drive into her as deep as I can and Gods, she’s so fucking wet. The moan that escapes me melds with hers into what might just be my new favourite sound.
She’s close, we both are, but there’s something holding her back and blocking her release. ‘Tell me what you need,’ I say through the bond because my teeth are too busy taking turns nipping at her breasts.
‘Just you.’
‘You have me.’ I kiss her again, so she knows I mean it. ‘Every minuscule cell that has a hand in putting me together belongs to you. I am yours, Stabby. In every way you’ll have me.’
‘Alive.’
Alive? Did I hear her right?
‘I need you alive.’
I guess I did. If she’s worried about losing me right now, then I’m not doing my job.
I reposition us so that I’m seated on the bed and she’s on my lap, riding my cock to her own rhythm. I cup her face between my hands and for the first time notice that she’s been crying. Whether it was after I got here, or if she’s been in tears this entire time, I can’t be certain.
“Look at me.”
She does. The bright blue of her irises is illuminated by both the reddening of her eyes and the sunset from the crumbled portion of the tower wall beside us.
“I will never leave you. Not even if the mountains fell, and the sea dried up and the Gods themselves came to drag me away. I’m right here—alive—and I will never, ever, leave you.”
She sobs once before her lips find mine again. She pushes me down onto my back and her pace atop me quickens. The heat consuming us intensifies until it becomes white-hot and near unbearable.
“Quinn!” she screams my name, and I was wrong before. That is my favourite sound.
My release comes with hers and Gods, I will never get enough of this. Enough of her.
We stay this way for a long time. Just a heaving mass of tangled arms and legs, unable to tell where one body begins and the other ends. When I finally find the wherewithal to brush the hair from her eyes, all traces of tears have disappeared.
“I don’t tell you enough how beautiful you are.” She’s even more beautiful than the vines of ivy that now weave intricately along the walls and through the windows of the tower as a result of her orgasm. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that, but I’m not complaining.
“You tell me all the time,” she smiles before leaning forward to give me a quick kiss.
“It’s still not enough.” I move her hand to where the scar on my chest hides just beneath the fabric of my shirt and press it flat against it until it warms the still-tender flesh. “I meant what I said. It would take the destruction of the world itself to pull me away from you. And maybe not even then.”
She takes my other hand in hers and presses it against her chest. “If your heart stops, so will mine.”
“Abby—” I try to object because that’s the last thing I want to hear, but she shushes me before I can get the words out.
“We both know you won’t choose to live without me, so I get to make the same choice. We live together or we die together.”
“Then we’d both better keep our hearts beating.” I bring her hand to my lips and kiss each and every one of her knuckles. She pulls me closer, and just as I’m readying to set about making her scream my name again, my stomach rumbles.
She sits up. “You haven’t eaten.”
Stupid bodily functions. “No, I haven’t.” There’s no point in lying to her about it. “I had other things on my mind.” I move to kiss her again, but her fingers press against my lips.
“Eat. There’ll be plenty of time for this later.” Her teasing laugher fills the airy room.
I flop back on the bed with an exaggerated groan before forcing myself to stand and button up my pants. I can think of so many other things we could do that would be just as filling as a meal.
When I’m presentable, I turn to find her off the bed and staring out the crumbled side of the tower, arms pulled tightly around herself. “Are you cold?” I ask, pressing myself against her and running my hands over her shoulders.
“No,” she says, leaning into me, but her voice would say otherwise. There’s no chill in their air, even with the sun setting, but the word lacked any warmth.
I follow her gaze across the water, over the beach, and all the way to the forest I once called home. Beyond the green tips illuminated by the fading rays of sunlight, there’s a distinctive patch of darkness that has no reason to be there.
Unless...
I work it out in my head as best I can, determining where we are in relation to both Rosewood and Lunae until I’m certain of it. The patch of darkness is directly where I would expect Abby’s former kingdom to be. Which can only mean one thing.
Imelda and her son have returned home.
“We’re safe.” I whisper the words against Abby’s ear and wrap my arms around her. She shivers, and now I’m certain that it has nothing to do with the temperature.
She doesn’t say the words aloud or through the bond, but I know what she’s thinking because it’s exactly the same worries flitting through my mind.
For how long?
How long until Imelda returns? Until her son grows strong enough to wage a war that isn’t just a message to Aurelia and her people? How long until those shadows spread so far and wide that they’ll consume more than just Lunae?
Aurelia’s earlier suggestion returns and the weight of it is suddenly much more intense. “We could run.”
Abby turns to me, wide eyes shining brightly in the golden glow. “Run?”
“We don’t have to stay here. We can go back to Rosewood or find a place of our own. Our fight can end right here and now.”
She shakes her head. “You want to abandon these people? And Rosewood? What about Kaylee and Tess and everyone else who depends on you?”
“I don’t want to. I’m just saying it’s an option. I would abandon everything if it meant we could live in peace. If it meant keeping you safe.”
“We can’t run,” she says after a long moment in silent contemplation. “No matter how terrifying the darkness is, running is only temporary. It will chase us and when it catches up, there may be no one left to fight beside us.”
I blow out a long sigh. “So we stay?”
“We stay. At least until Jade wakes up. We may have to go back to Rosewood eventually, but for now, I think we need to make ourselves comfortable here. Which reminds me…” She trails off as if whatever she’s about to say is something I won’t agree with.
I cup her face in my hand. “Tell me.”
“I don’t want to go back down there.” She gestures to the greenery on the stone walls. “I can’t grow anything beneath the waves. I’m powerless there and I need to feel powerful right now, otherwise I might crumble even more than these ruins.”
Did she really think I would object to this? I press my lips against her forehead. ‘So we make this our home,’ I tell her through the bond, so she feels the words as much as hears them. ‘For as long as it needs to be.’
She pulls away, but this time there’s a slight smile playing at her lips. “Go get something to eat so we can have dessert.”
I can’t stop my grin from spreading. “I hope it’s chocolate cake.”
“I was thinking something a little more exotic.”
And just like that, I have to deal with yet another flight of stairs with absolutely no room in my pants.