Chapter 24
LIGHT REALM
Ada
I woke to the weight of Hakan's arm across my waist and the steady rhythm of his breathing against my neck.
Dawn light filtered through the silk curtains of his chambers—our chambers now, though the formal announcement hadn't been made.
I'd stopped pretending I slept anywhere else weeks ago.
My belongings had migrated here piece by piece: a hairbrush on his vanity, my books stacked beside his, my scent woven into his sheets so thoroughly that neither of us could tell where one ended and the other began.
It felt odd not to have my own independence but I loved him too much to stay away.
I lay still, unwilling to break the spell of this moment—his body warm and solid against my back, his shadows curling lazily around us both even in sleep, as if they couldn't bear to let me go.
Three days since the healers had declared my father's recovery genuine. Three days since the crushing terror had finally lifted from my chest. Three days of celebrating in the only way I knew how: wrapped around Hakan in every conceivable position, in every room we could find.
Yesterday it had been his study, bent over his desk with my skirts around my waist while he fucked me so hard the inkwell had shattered on the floor.
The day before, the hidden alcove behind the tapestry in the eastern corridor, his hand clamped over my mouth to muffle my screams while a patrol of guards passed mere feet away.
And last night—gods, last night had been its own particular madness.
I shifted slightly, feeling the delicious ache between my thighs.
Hakan had been insatiable, taking me against the wall the moment we'd stumbled through his door, then again in the chair by the fireplace, then finally in this bed where he'd kept me pinned until I'd lost count of how many times I'd shattered apart beneath him.
My body bore the evidence of his attention. Bruises on my hips from his grip. Bite marks scattered across my throat and breasts. A pleasant soreness that reminded me with every movement exactly who I belonged to.
I loved every single mark.
Hakan stirred behind me, and I felt him harden against my ass before he was even fully awake. His arm tightened, pulling me flush against him, and his mouth found the curve of my shoulder.
"You're thinking too loudly." His voice was rough with sleep, sending shivers down my spine. "Stop it."
"I was admiring the evidence of your barbarism."
"Mm." His teeth scraped the mark he'd left on my neck last night, making me gasp. "You didn't seem to mind my barbarism when you were screaming for more."
Heat flooded my core at the memory. He was right. I always screamed for him, wanting more. He was never enough. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"No?" His hand slid down my stomach, fingers trailing through the slickness already gathering between my thighs.
I was always wet for him now. Always ready.
My body had learned to anticipate his touch like a prayer anticipates its answer.
I truly never had any girlfriends to talk to about this stuff because of my status in the Light Court.
Other women always kept their distance. "Then I must have imagined you begging me to fuck you harder.
Imagine you crying out that you'd do anything if I just made you come again. "
I tried to respond, but his fingers had found exactly the right spot, circling with savage intensity, and all that emerged was a whimper. My heartbeat sped up as his shadows wrapped around us like a cocoon.
"That's what I thought." He bit down on my shoulder, hard enough to bruise, and I arched back against him with a moan. I like his slow torture, he knew exactly how to drive me crazy with need for him . "Such a demanding little princess. Always wanting more."
"Hakan—"
He withdrew his hand, and I nearly sobbed at the loss, my light magic flaring.
But before I could protest, he'd flipped me onto my stomach, his weight pressing me into the mattress.
One hand fisted in my hair, wrenching my head back until my spine curved into a painful arch.
The other gripped my hip hard enough to leave fresh bruises over yesterday's marks.
"Every morning," he said against my ear, his voice low and dark.
His rough voice send the shiver down my spine.
I realized I was at his mercy and that just made me wetter, more eager.
"Every fucking morning I wake up and you're here.
In my bed. Smelling like me. Covered in my marks.
" His cock pressed against my entrance, thick and nudging my wetness.
"Do you have any idea what that does to me? "
"I don’t know what you’re talking about," I replied, my voice innocent.
Hakan growled with displeasure, lifted my nighty and then slapped me pretty hard. I cried out, feeling the burning sting on my buttocks and panted for air.
“Don’t play coy Ada,” he snapped and then dragged his shadow over the sensitive skin, my whole body was burning and I needed him inside me.
Before I could comprehend or say anything Hakan thrust his hard cock into me in one brutal stroke, burying himself to the hilt, and I cried out at the sudden fullness.
The stretch burned—he was too big, I was too tight, it was too much—but the pain bloomed into pleasure so quickly I couldn't tell where one ended and the other began.
He didn't give me time to adjust. Didn't give me time to think. He just started fucking me with a single-minded intensity that bordered on worship, each thrust driving so deep I swore I could feel him in my throat.
"This is mine." His grip tightened in my hair, pulling harder. "This cunt. This body. Every fucking inch of you belongs to me."
"Yes—"
"Say it."
"I belong to you." The words came out broken, scattered between moans. "All of me—yours—only yours—"
"Fucking right you are."
He shifted his angle, hitting something inside me that made stars explode behind my eyes and my light poured out of my skin, the room started to shine with it as our magic connected once again.
I screamed into the pillow, my hands clawing at the sheets, my entire body trembling with the force of what he was doing to me.
"You're going to come for me," he growled, his breathing labored. "You're going to come on my cock like the good girl you are, and then I'm going to fill you up so fucking deep you'll feel me for days."
His free hand snaked beneath me, finding that sensitive bundle of nerves, and he rubbed mercilessly while he continued his brutal pace.
The dual sensation was too much—pleasure crashing over me in waves so intense I couldn't breathe, couldn't think, couldn't do anything but surrender to the onslaught.
"Come," he ordered. "Now."
My body obeyed before my mind could catch up. The orgasm ripped through me with savage force, tearing a scream from my throat that probably woke half the academy. My inner walls clamped down on him, and I felt him swell even larger inside me, felt his rhythm stutter and break.
"Fuck—Ada—"
He slammed into me one final time and came with a roar that shook shadows from the walls. I felt the hot pulse of his release flooding me, filling me, marking me from the inside just as thoroughly as he'd marked me from the outside.
We collapsed together, both of us breathing hard. His weight pressed me into the mattress, but I didn't want him to move. I wanted to stay exactly like this—pinned beneath him, full of him, surrounded by him—forever.
Eventually, he rolled to the side, pulling me against his chest. His hand stroked down my spine in lazy, possessive patterns.
"I should go see my father," I murmured, though every bone in my body protested the idea of moving.
"Later."
"The healers are giving their morning assessment. I want to hear it myself."
His arm tightened around me. "Then I'm coming with you."
I turned in his arms, meeting those green eyes that could shift from tender to terrifying in the space of a heartbeat. "You don't have to shadow me everywhere, you know."
"I'm not shadowing you. I'm accompanying you." His jaw set in that stubborn line I knew meant arguing was pointless. "There's a difference."
"Is there?"
"When I shadow you, you don't know I'm there." His thumb traced my lower lip, his gaze darkening. "When I accompany you, everyone else knows you're mine."
Something warm and fierce bloomed in my chest. "Possessive bastard."
"Always." He kissed me—softer than before, but no less claiming. "Now let's bathe before I decide my cock needs to be inside you again and we never leave this room."
The bathing chamber connected to Hakan's quarters was one of my favorite places in the academy.
Steam rose from the sunken pool, carrying the scent of cedar and something darker—shadow-kissed minerals from the deep springs that fed the light realm's waters.
I meant for the bath to be quick, practical.
Hakan had other ideas.
He took me against the tiled wall, my legs wrapped around his waist, the water sloshing around us as he drove into me with relentless force.
He made me forget about everything when he was close and I had trouble refusing him.
I never wanted to. The tiles were cold against my back, a sharp contrast to the heat of his body, and I clung to his shoulders while he fucked me through another shattering orgasm.
"Insatiable," I gasped.
"You love it."
I did. Gods help me, I did.
By the time we finally dressed and made ourselves presentable, the sun had risen fully and the palace corridors were bustling with activity. Hakan's hand rested on the small of my back as we walked—a subtle claim that nonetheless made servants lower their eyes and courtiers step aside.
We'd barely made it past the first junction when a familiar voice rang out behind us.
"Well, well. The dead rise at last."