Chapter 31
NOT THE BEST MORNING
Azrion
I’m in love.
Finally.
Completely.
Katarina is my soulbond.
What the fuck do I say?
Azrion had, in fact, already said it, but Katarina hadn’t heard.
At least, he didn’t think she did because she had only made a small, contented sound and then started snoring.
He could hardly blame her, not after that feat, the way she had commanded his cock and kept his orgasm at bay while simultaneously milking the both of them to completion.
She would need food when she woke and then a long soak to ease her muscles, and he would rub every inch of her in magical salve after the bath so that she felt no pain, but he couldn’t leave her yet.
She lay in his arms under the morning moonlight that streamed into the studio, all golden and naked and wrapped around his body just as she should be.
He had never thought that about anyone else—that they should be anything, but then there was Kat.
And Kat should be his.
Everything had changed in the post that day. He was an idiot to not see it then when his mind had told him she was the one—not the one to help with the ludicrous plan to win back a demon that he didn’t love. She was just the one. His soulbond.
The magic he thought had ruined him hadn’t actually, it was only that she hadn’t been there in Heck to make him feel it until Ockna had graced the sky. She’d come on the stars and now…
He glanced across the room at the canvas that remained covered. There was only a bit left to do, a bit that he’d been avoiding because his hands wanted to craft something he was sure before was wrong. That would change today.
“Are you all right?” Kat’s sleepy voice asked from the crook of his arm. She blinked up at him, her brows bent but face beautiful.
“All right? I’ve never been better.” He hugged her tighter to his side.
“You look sad.”
Azrion gripped her under the chin and kissed her. “Only that you weren’t yet awake,” he said then nipped at her nose. “But now that you are, I’m going to make you breakfast.”
“Not yet,” she commanded, blunted claws digging in. “I want to lay here a little longer.”
So they did, the feel of her hair in his hands and her skin under his tail as he listened to her breathe.
“It’s so strange,” Kat eventually said, lifting her hand into a beam of moonlight so that her veins shone blue. “It’s morning, but everything is silver.”
“You come from a place with a much brighter star. Do you miss it?”
“The sun?” She snorted. “No. I didn’t spend much time in it anyway. Kaly and I worked when it was dark, and vagrancy is…frowned upon, so we had to hide during the daylight hours. But I think I might like this better anyway.” She turned her hand over, and the brightness of her palm shimmered.
Azrion reached up and entwined their fingers. “You still prefer Heck then? For all its foibles and strangeness?”
“Prefer it?” She tipped her head up to him. “I can’t imagine being anywhere else.”
His heart squeezed with the knowledge that she intended to stay. It was all that he wanted, yet it meant danger too.
“What about your sister?”
“She wants to stay too.” Kat snuggled closer, rubbing her cheek on his shoulder. “I knew she would come around. Well, I thought I’d have to convince her, but I guess purple demon cock is a lot more convincing than any amount of gold.”
The two laughed, and it echoed joyfully into the studio, but as it fell away, an emptiness filled Azrion’s chest. He wanted her to stay—he’d wanted to convince her with everything he had: coin, kindness, cock—but the problem of the council still persisted.
“If there were an opportunity to go elsewhere, would you take it?” He couldn’t muster the truth of what he wanted to say, that the retribution of a scorned demon might not leave her with any choice.
Kat shook her head up against him. “I’ve been dreaming about somewhere soft to land for ages. Now I’m here, and I…” She traced the tattoo on Azrion’s chest. “I love it.”
“You love it,” he repeated.
“Don’t you?”
He nodded but could feel the sting behind his eyes because as much as he did love Heck, it wasn’t the place that had his heart anymore. A human owned it now.
And she couldn’t know.
Azrion peered up at the ceiling so she wouldn’t see whatever it was she was so good at seeing in him, which was half the reason for his love of her in the first place. He took a heavy breath, and it moved her hand atop his chest.
Kat pushed herself to sit up onto her hip, the heat of her taken away and her hair falling between them. “If you could leave, would you want to?”
Azrion shrugged, still trying to not look at her.
“Where would you go?”
“Oh, you know, there are other places where demons live. Some even alongside humans. Where it’s safe to…mingle.”
“I suppose if you’ve never actually run away before, it might seem like an exciting thing to do.” She frowned down at the floor. “Especially if there’s nothing keeping you here.”
“There’s plenty here I’m bound to,” he admitted, the truth being that he could never leave without her, could never bear the rest of his life without even tiny glimpses of her to know she was safe and happy and free.
“Right,” she said, and her arm came up to cover her chest as she reached for her shift.
“What are you doing?” Azrion sat up, heart suddenly pounding.
“Getting dressed.”
“Oh, yes, it is cold.” He rubbed at his arms and found his pants. “Well, what would you like for breakfast, darling?”
“Nothing. I can’t anyway. I have work,” She got to her feet and searched for the rest of her clothes.
“Not this early.” He struggled to pull on his pants from his spot on the floor as they’d half dried in a heap, and the cold sent a shock through him. “Surely you have time for a few eggs and some hash, and I’ve just got in this new tea that—”
“No,” she said, and that was it. She had stepped into her outer dress and was fussing with the strings, her back to him.
Azrion sat on the floor, half dressed, shivering, no idea what to do.
His charms had never really worked on her, and he didn’t want to use them anyway.
He longed to kiss her, to show her, but he could sense that would make things worse.
And the words…the words that admitted everything might be worst of all, especially if he didn’t solve the problem of the council first.
He stood slowly, tucked himself away, and paced up to her.
Carefully, Azrion took the ties out of her hands and tightened the lacing at her back.
His fingers protested, cold and craving her skin rather than the chilly fabric, but he told them silently that at least they got to be here with her for another few moments, and they should be grateful for whatever she would allow.
When he tied off the laces, Kat turned. Her face wasn’t cold like he expected, but it was deeply troubled.
She hesitated to touch him, which wasn’t at all like her, not in the last few weeks, and when her fingertips landed on his chest, they felt tentative and afraid.
“Thank you,” she said, watching her hand as it barely skimmed over his skin.
“I think I…I think I know what to do now.”
“What do you—”
Kat kissed him, and it was like that first time, a quick peck, a test, only practice.
Azrion wanted to grab her and climb her like she had done to him that first time.
He wanted to explore her mouth with his tongue, and then her breasts and her belly and show her exactly why she should stay there with him, hidden away in his home for the rest of their lives.
But he didn’t. He let her step back from him, collect her shoes, and go.
He stood alone in his studio for a long time after the sound of her footsteps faded away. There was an ache that fought the love, both blossoming, both at odds, neither letting the other fully form.
He would have to come up with a solution. Maybe he could just get Melora’s mother removed from the council? Or curry favor with the remaining members? Ask his father for help?
Gods, if he thought that, he must be going mad.
Azrion shook his head and paced up to the covered canvas.
He pulled off the sheet and revealed the work beneath.
Not as beautiful as the real thing but close.
He needed to finish the piece first, and then he would come up with a solution to it all, so he picked up a brush and let the magic he’d been fighting finally take over.