44. Greer
Greer
Regret is a sickness. It carves at the soul, slowly transforming it into something ugly. It’s a lot like the Well. A plague so empty that it eats and eats and eats until there’s nothing left. And still, it continues to search for more. Never satisfied.
It eats away at me, and I let it.
“We’re getting closer.” I glance up at the rustling branches.
There isn’t enough wind to move them. Something else vibrates through this part of the forest. A steady thrum that can only be that of the orb as we draw closer.
“What’s the plan when we find him?” Atlas asks, and I quirk an eyebrow, surprised he’s deferring to me when I sense he’s used to being the warrior others listen to.
“We can’t take out Malachi ourselves. We get close enough to find out where he is and what he’s planning, and then we leave,” I say.
That reality has my stomach flipping over. I’d like to walk up to Malachi and plant my sword in his heart—maybe I will. But we all saw what happened when Selia did that in the Ley Court. An attack against Malachi when he’s wielding the orb will only get us killed.
Hopefully, in the heat of the moment, I’ll remember that.
“Do you think they found the void?”
I glance up at Atlas, smirking. “If anyone can, it’s Elorie.”
He chuckles, nodding. “She’s going to keep Wilder on his toes.”
“Seems he could use it.” I shrug.
Atlas hums in response.
“What about you?” My voice pitches, and I hate that it gives me away. “How many females currently keep you on your toes?”
He tips his head back in a laugh. “None like you, Greer.”
That answer makes my heart stutter.
Pathetic. Irritating. Heart.
“I tried once.” Atlas drags his hand through his hair, which is left loose today. “I tried to settle.”
“What was her name?”
“Ahlia. She was a member of my father’s army. We were sent to scout the situation in Tael when the Well first started spreading. She was too kind to be on the front lines of battle.”
I look up, knowing too well it’s not an insult. If anything, I wish that were me. Someone with a heart who couldn’t stand the thought of another at the end of my blade.
“When the eastern island was drained, she refused to leave. There were Fae not willing to abandon their home, and she wouldn’t let it go. She swore she’d find a way to get them back.” He drops his chin. “She suffered the Beating. Died within weeks.”
“I’m sorry,” I say, though it feels insignificant. “Did you love her?”
“I cared about her…” Atlas glances over, spearing me with his gaze. “But those like us were built for battle and blood, not love.”
It’s a sentiment I know too well, even if I sense the hurt he hides behind those words.
“You?” he asks, and I shake my head, not elaborating.
I’ve never loved, and I don’t plan on it now.
Gods forbid I ever meet my mate. If I do, maybe I’ll choose to reject the bond.
There’s no point in opening myself up to that vulnerability.
Who knows, maybe with the defenses I’ve fortified to this point, I’ll never feel the mating bond at all.
It’s not something as obvious as some might think.
There are those who know the second they meet their mate, and there are others who have to accept it for it to become clear.
I have no intention of entertaining a connection with another, much less a mating bond. Maybe I’ll get lucky and never feel it.
A shadow shifts on my left, and Atlas moves with me, both of us unsheathing our swords when darkness creeps over the trees.
The closer we get to the orb, the more dangerous the forest becomes.
“We need to find shelter for the night,” Atlas whispers.
“There’s a hill up ahead.” I jut my chin toward it. “We can see if there’s cover.”
Tents worked when we first entered the forest, but the closer we get to the lightning fields in the north, the more we can’t bind anything to the trees in case one of them is struck.
Atlas and I take a path that forks from where we’re going, heading toward a nearby hill. I breathe a sigh of relief when we stumble upon a cave.
“I’ll check it.” Atlas holds out his palm, fire flickering in his hand as he steps inside first.
With his other hand, his sword is ready, but thankfully, the cave is abandoned.
He sets fire to a thick branch, leaning it against the wall to create light while he casts a shell of magic over the entrance to hide us. I might hate the magic he wields, but it’s convenient in some ways.
I strip off my bag, getting to work setting up for the night. Atlas lays out our sleeping blankets, while I grab the fruit we picked today and prepare something to eat.
“Ouch.” I wince when the dagger slides through the peel and into my thumb. “Godsdamn it.”
I shake my hand, and Atlas walks over. “How deep is it?”
“I’ll be fine. It just hurts. That damn orb is making everything more sensitive.” Like my hip, which is beginning to ache with every step, though I don’t mention that to Atlas.
Atlas grabs my hand, flipping it over so he can see it. The graze of his skin against mine only proves what I just said, because with the pulsing magic in the air, his touch is electric.
He lifts my hand, eyeing my thumb as a bead of blood drips down my palm. In the glow of the fire, his eyes are darker. A deep purple that sparks like embers spitting into the night.
With the gentlest touch, Atlas brushes his thumb over the wound, cleaning up the drop of blood and then reaching down to tear off a piece of his shirt.
“You don’t have to do that,” I grumble.
“Let someone help you for once.” His eyes narrow as he presses the fabric to my thumb.
His palm wraps over it, warming the cut.
“This will sting for a second,” he warns, just as a sharp singeing sensation makes me jump. “Sorry.”
When he pulls the cloth away, I see he’s used his magic to seal the wound. But even though my bleeding has stopped, he doesn’t step back. My neck cranes as I stare up at him in the dimly lit cave. My throat throbs with my heartbeat. I can hardly catch my breath with him this close.
“I think we’re going to find Malachi tomorrow,” I whisper.
“Probably.”
The unknown rests beyond one last sunrise, and I don’t know what comes after that. We either achieve our mission or don’t. After all we’ve gone through to get here, Malachi could end us with one twist of the orb.
It’s the only explanation for why I step closer.
We’re probably going to die tomorrow, so it doesn’t really matter.
I plant my hand on Atlas’s chest, and my stomach is no longer growling. Thoughts of food are lost in this hot pulse beating between us. His heart thrums slow and steady, especially here where there’s more than enough magic to have our veins open.
Our magic stirs, though none of it is a promise of survival, considering what we’re up against.
“I still don’t really like you.” I glance up at Atlas.
A devious smirk climbs the corner of his mouth. “Stop lying to yourself.”
He’s arrogant.
Cocky.
Infuriating.
Yet when he dips his mouth to mine, I grip his shirt and pull him closer. Needing that hit of ego when everything has been an uphill battle. Clinging to this rush that has my heart thundering. Letting it erase the defeat that has been endless lately.
Atlas bends, gripping the backs of my thighs and wrapping my legs around him. My back strikes the stone wall, and the cave shudders.
Or maybe that’s my breath.
Stuttering as he caresses his tongue over my lower lip, daring me to let him in. For a moment, I pretend I can resist this need cresting in my core. My nails bite into the back of his neck, and I fight this desperation swelling inside me.
He grins against my mouth, rocking his hips against mine, forcing out a moan. “You want me to stop, Greer? You want me to set you down and walk away?”
Our eyes connect. His glinting. And I say the truest thing to cross my lips in weeks.
“No.”
When Atlas kisses me again, there’s no more restraint. His tongue dances with mine, and I’m a lightning bolt crashing to the sand. Untethered. Relentless.
“Take off your pants,” I demand, shoving my hand down and cupping his steel length.
The growl rattling his chest is feral. It echoes through the cave.
Atlas sets me down, and I don’t take my eyes off him as he unlaces his pants and shoves them down.
Not the least bit ashamed as he strips before me, no doubt enjoying that there’s blood rushing to my cheeks.
His magic makes it too easy for him to sense the heat building between my legs as he fists his hard cock in front of me.
Gods, he’s carved from solid stone. I’m far from inexperienced, but even I’m left speechless at the thickness that swells.
He reaches his free hand to my throat, gripping it firmly and pulling me to him.
This kiss is the one that decimates. It tears through me as if his lips were flames spreading fire across my skin. Down my throat and into my belly.
Atlas releases himself to undo the laces of my pants and shoves them down as he drops to his knees at my feet. The second he frees one of my ankles. He grabs the backs of my thighs again.
“Hold on, beautiful.”
My hands barely have time to grip his hair before he’s tossing my legs over his shoulders and diving between them. His tongue is hot and needy as he feasts. Flicking my sensitive bud and then sucking on it until I’m screaming as I writhe against the cave wall.
Sound is trapped by the shell he’s cast around us, and it holds in all heat. A bubble that is just us. A night that is just ours, no matter what the morning brings.
His tongue laps down, drawing circles, until my thighs are so tight around his face I might suffocate him.
But Atlas doesn’t pull back. He doesn’t stop until the first spots start to sparkle at the corners of my eyes.
It’s not fire that tears me apart; it’s an electric storm rushing through me.
Striking through the realm again and again as I shake against him.
When I finally catch my breath, Atlas grins up at me. “Sure you don’t like me, Greer? You didn’t seem to mind that.”
“Shut up.” I shove him down onto the cave floor, climbing over him, erasing his grin as I sink onto his shaft.
“Damn it all to Sarrow.” His fingers dig into my thighs as he groans. His teeth grit in pleasure as I start to rock.
He’s so large, stretching me so deep I see stars. But I latch onto that bite of pain as I move over him. Aching with need as it slowly starts to churn into pleasure.
Atlas reaches up, grabbing the front of my leathers, and rips them down the front.
“You’re lucky I have another pair.” I narrow my eyes.
He sits up, grinning. “Stop trying to pick a fight and ride me.”
With an arm at my waist, he nips at my neck, teasing my nipple between his fingertips. And I can’t help but follow his command. I rock harder, meeting his rhythm as he angles his hips and forces me to take him deeper.
I hate him and I need him and I want him.
It’s a messy cluster of emotions warring in my chest, my mind, my soul. Atlas flips us, pinning me to the cave floor as he pounds into me until I can’t think. He wraps my wrists in one hand and holds them overhead, trapping me with his body—with his kiss.
I never allow this. I’m always on top. Always in control.
But when his purple eyes meet mine, I’ve never been less in control than I am right now. And that’s what has me shaking. What sends me over the edge as his hips pulse, and he follows me.
I let go.