42. 42
forty-two
Sarah
My sleeping chamber is dimly lit, shadows stretching long across the walls as if the room itself is keeping secrets.
Warmth spreads through my body, skin prickling where Orion’s breath teases my cheek.
We’re tangled together on my bed, his body beneath mine, the soft bedding sinking around us, yet the moment feels too exposed. Too witnessed.
Every object in the room seems to stare. The carved shelves. The vanity. Even the crystalline barrier of my window. All of them are silent spectators to my desire.
Heat rushes up my throat, and I jolt away from him, sliding off his lap far too quickly to look graceful. My back bumps into the table across from the bed. Fingers curl over the edge to ground myself as I force my gaze upward, anywhere but him.
If I meet those deep ocean-blue eyes again, I know I’ll drown willingly.
The nightmare transforms us into human forms. Orion looks exactly as he did the first day we met at my penthouse, bare-chested, skin sun-kissed and muscles carved like he never misses a gym day.
His knee-length shorts are torn and wet, clinging to him like a memory.
His ink-dark hair is tousled, wild from sleep . . . or from me.
He pushes up onto his elbows, eyes cutting toward me with that maddening blend of command and amusement.
Is something wrong, Snapdragon? His voice is a low cadence of confidence. You want this. You think about it constantly. You whisper the most sinful things in your mind, pretending I cannot hear them.
My breath stutters. “Orion, it’s not that I don’t want you. I do . . .” The confession slips out before I can rein it in. I don’t even know where I’m going with it, only that fear is tangled tightly with my need for him.
He rises from the bed in one smooth motion, muscles rippling beneath his pallid skin as he rakes a hand through his dark hair. Each slow step he takes toward me is purposeful . . . predatory.
“But I just don’t think I'm what you want,” I rush out. “Or need.”
I push off the table and scramble to slip past him, but he moves faster. So much faster. In a heartbeat, I’m backed into the corner. His arm braces above my head, caging me in place while his body blocks every escape.
“Orion, listen to me.” Panic and want war in my voice. “You need someone born of the sea. Someone who can match your strength . . . your power. Someone—someone meant for royalty. I’m not meant for royalty.”
He studies me with a hunger that makes my knees weaken.
His gaze drags over my body, lingering on every exposed secret.
The pale blue fabric the Echo Cavern has placed me in is thin, too thin, and the dim light does nothing to conceal how my nipples strain against it, betraying every lie my mouth tries to tell.
You're my mate, Sarah. His voice drops, rich and possessive.
That means you are mine, chosen by the sea herself.
He pauses just long enough for the words to sink into my bones.
I'm not asking you to be royalty. Not yet.
I only want you to be the female who trembles for me.
The one who has thought of my hands when she believes I'm not listening.
The hunger in his eyes spikes. Before I can breathe, his restraint snaps. His hands seize the delicate frill at the top of my slip, and with one sharp, fluid motion, the thin fabric rips down the center. Cool air spills over newly bared skin as the ruined dress pools at our feet.
My mouth closes. Heat rushes up my chest, not anger, but the scorching awareness of how completely he sees me.
I turn my head and squeeze my eyes shut, unable to meet the intensity of his gaze, too exposed beneath it . . . Too afraid he’ll see how badly I want him.
A low grunt escapes him, a sound of pure approval that vibrates through my chest. A glistening heat rushes between my thighs, humiliatingly obvious to both of us.
His fingers ghost over my breasts, circling each peak with slow, aching precision. My breath hitches, traitorous and needy. He drags his touch lower, swirling once around my belly button, teasing the place where nerves and desire collide.
Panic flares, not because I don’t want more, but because I do.
I catch his wrist, trying to hide the trembling in my voice. “Orion—” It comes out hoarse, desperate, nothing like the refusal I wish it sounded like.
He looks at my hand on his and something hungry flashes in his eyes.
In a single smooth movement, he lifts both my wrists and pins them above my head, his body caging mine. My pulse leaps, wild—fear tangled thick with want.
His thumb glides over my lower lip, slow enough to steal the ground from beneath me.
You think you're afraid of me, he murmurs, darkness circling his gaze. But what you fear . . . is how badly you crave this.
I shake my head, breath uneven.
His lips brush my ear, his whisper igniting heat deep in my core. By the time I am done, Snapdragon, he purrs, you will beg me to keep going.
My mind struggles to grasp his words, distracting me from his next set of actions. I’m on my feet one moment, and the next, he lifts me over his shoulder like I weigh nothing. The world turns upside down until the soft give of the bed catches me with a muffled thud.
Orion towers at the edge of the mattress. His broad body appears as if it was carved from shadow and light. The air between us thickens—my pulse pounds so loud I can almost taste it. Every inch of me is aware of how exposed I am, how easily he could undo me.
Why does this feel like a nightmare when it’s everything I’ve secretly wanted?
The Echo Cavern hums, its unseen current wrapping around us, urging surrender. It isn’t trying to frighten me, it’s forcing me to see what the bond truly means. Denying it would be denying Mother Ocean.
The words slip out before I can stop them, soft but reckless. “I want you.”
His gaze breaks open with raw, primal instinct. His breath roughens, and he strips away his torn shorts, the last barrier between us, letting his length spring free.
My eyes trail down his chiseled abs until they meet his stiffness, a bead of precum forming at his tip. The cavern’s light catches on him for a suspended heartbeat, as if he is under a spotlight. All I can do is stare, every sense flooding with want and awe as the dream tightens its hold.
Hunger burns behind his eyes, but every movement is deliberate, drawn out like ice surrendering to warmth. He sinks to his knees at the bedside, fingers curling around my thighs; the sheets rustle, and the air tightens as he drags me to the edge. I don’t break his gaze now. Instead I invite it.
His blue eyes turn a shade darker with roguish intent as his tongue makes a slow sensual path up to where I need him most. It's a light caress, his tongue reminding me of its presence as it connects with the bundle of nerves below.
My head tilts back and euphoria takes me.
No words could ever reach the height my mind escapes to.
But every time I go too far, he slows down again until I am a rolling tide, building me up and bringing me back down.
Every nerve is alive—the flutter in my stomach that started as a small crescendo is now a constant demand making my fingers tremor as I clutch the bed sheets. Stars dance behind my eyelids and the moans escaping my lips would get me sent to HR if I was back home in San Francisco.
Leaving me drenched and dripping down the sheets, he slides upward, his teeth nipping at my inner thighs, slow and careful.
His head lifts ever so slightly and a guttural growl escapes his mouth.
With the taste of you on my lips and the feeling of you under me there is no argument on who and where you belong.
A passionate kiss follows after each bite, each one feeling like a claim, trailing up my stomach, and eventually to my chest. His mouth traces over my sensitive skin, drawing patterns that steal the strength from my body.
Each breath he leaves behind races through me and goosebumps trail over every inch of my body.
His lips meet mine, and the world sparks alive.
For one breath, it feels like that kiss—the kiss—the warmth of his mouth, the unexpected tenderness that I remember so vividly.
But this is different. Hungrier. As though the dream has taken what was real and twisted it into something I can’t resist. Our mouths move together in a frantic waltz, pant against pant, both afraid of the silence that would follow if we stopped.
The moment stretches, fragile and burning, as he presses closer, until every pulse, every inhale, feels shared.
Every inch of his appearance tightens the air around me.
He draws closer, heat and intention pressing against me, trapping air in my lungs.
Sweat coats him, leaving me achingly aware of how intimately entwined we’ve become.
His body covers me entirely as his length presses into me, his pulse echoing against my chest. His lips move, forming words that stir me, yet the sound warps.
Sarah, wake up; we need to go!
The cadence repeats, insistent and jarring. The dream shudders, twisting and unraveling around me, and the heat and closeness fade in an instant. My eyes fly open to the real world, my chest hollow with sudden emptiness.
It was a dream.
He was a dream.
My eyes adjust to the soft light. The Echo Cavern is silent. No whispers, no illusions—only the hollow echo of my own mind. And then I see him.
Defymin hovers beside me, bent low to meet my gaze.
Tears well in my eyes but never fall; the sea claims them before they can escape.
“Is it over?” My voice trembles. “Where's Orion?”
“I'm so sorry, Sarah.” His tone is hurried, strained. “There was an attack on the kingdom’s barrier. They're working to raise it again, but I volunteered to come get you. The threat is already here.”
I don’t have time to think, to breathe. “I want to go to him. He said he would be here when it all ended,” I say, the words breaking free before reason can contain them.
Defymin’s hand tightens around my wrist. “No, you cannot. I have strict orders to bring you somewhere safe—somewhere no one can find you. The threat is coming for you.”
His words strike hard, hollowing my chest.
“Me? Why?” Orion promised he would be here when Current Three was over.
I barely manage a breath before Defymin grips my arm next, pulling me forward. “I don't know that information. We need to go! NOW!” His urgency puts me on edge again.
This is another trick. Brought on by the cavern. I leave the previous hallucination to be entered into this one?
No…
What does this mean? Why is Defymin here?
“If we're going anywhere, it's straight to Orion,” I demand, but Defymin’s grip becomes unbearably tight and my arm loses feeling.
“I cannot do that. I have been given my orders. I must obey them.” He leads us back through the main section of the cavern.
It fades behind us, its familiar shadows and muted echoes disappearing as we emerge into the open water.
The ocean shifts, cold and wild, the faint glow of the kingdom’s boundaries recede, swallowed by the endless darkness beyond.
Currents tug at me from all sides, carrying the scent of the deep sea and the threat lurking somewhere unseen.
The barriers of the kingdom, once a comforting wall of magic and protection, are now far behind, leaving only the vast, empty expanse of the ocean stretching in every direction.
I feel small, unshielded. But Defymin pulls me along with unstoppable force.
Orion would never ask Defymin to collect me. He would most definitely do it himself. If not him, then Nyxalene. Something doesn’t seem right.
Each stroke forward is full of fear and concern. Leaving the kingdom’s safety—leaving my newfound home breaks me. The water around us hums with quiet tension, and I can feel every ripple pressing against my skin.
The threat chases me, according to Defymin, but something within me tells me the threat is getting closer with every stroke forward. Which only reminds me of how far I am from Orion.
My gut twists from within. My magic stirs restlessly beneath my skin, tugging and pulling as though it senses something I cannot. Every instinct screams that something is wrong. Dread sharpens into anger.
The emotion burns through me, hot and sharp, eclipsing everything else as I wrench against Defymin’s grip.
“What aren’t you telling me?” I shout, my voice carrying through the water. “Orion would never send anyone to gather me other than himself or Nyxalene.”
The words hang between us.
Defymin freezes.
For the first time since entering the open sea, he stops swimming altogether.
The current drifts around us, carrying strands of my hair across my face as silence settles heavily between us. His grip loosens from my arm, and something in his expression twists. Regret. Guilt. Sorrow.
My stomach drops. The look is so foreign on his face that it steals the air from my lungs.
“Defymin?” I whisper.
His gaze falls briefly before lifting back to mine. The frantic urgency remains, but now I see something else lurking beneath it.
An apology. “I'm sorry, Sarah.” The words are barely more than a breath.
My pulse pounds violently. “Sorry for what?” The question leaves my mouth, but I already know I don't want the answer.
Defymin’s jaw tightens. Then everything happens at once.
His hand moves with startling speed, emerging from beside him with a jagged stone clenched in his fist.
Confusion flashes through me.
I don't have time to react.
The rock collides with the side of my head. Pain explodes through my skull. The force sends me reeling, a sharp ringing flooding my ears as the ocean tilts sideways. Stars burst across my vision. My body goes limp for a heartbeat before instinct forces me to fight against the dizziness.
The water around me blurs. “Defymin…” I gasp.
The betrayal hurts more than the strike itself. I try to summon my magic. Try to push away. Try to swim. Nothing responds fast enough. The world sways violently. Shapes stretch and smear together. Yet somehow I remain conscious.
Defymin curses beneath his breath. “I am sorry,” he says again, the words breaking apart with desperation. Then he raises the rock a second time.
“No—”
The impact lands harder than the first. A sickening crack reverberates through my skull. Pain flashes white. Every sound vanishes. Every feeling follows. The ocean, the currents, the fear, Orion—
Everything disappears.
And the only thing left is darkness.