Chapter 47 Into The Darkness #2
Smiling up at the man of my dreams, it was easy for the first time in my life to confess my feelings.
“As long as you don’t push me away again Alaric, I’d love to learn how to work through my own demons instead of running from them, with you by my side.
No one should go through life alone, especially during the hard bits. ”
He smiled at me with tears lining his eyes. “I’m so proud of you, Seera.”
Godsdamn it, now I felt warm liquid pooling in my eyes.
“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again—I don’t deserve you, but it would be my greatest honor to work through all that we’ve been through, together.
With you by my side, life has felt less heavy.
Seera, being with you feels like breathing for the first time in years after drowning in my own self-induced hatred.
And for that, I’ll forever be indebted to you. ”
Tears quickly gathered at the corner of my eyes, and Alaric leaned in, claiming the physical embodiment of my emotions with his lips.
His mouth swallowed every ounce of water that leaked from me, showering my cheeks with agonizingly soft kisses.
His lips drew dangerously close to mine, and my heart leapt in my chest.
“Alaric,” my voice was breathy, and I did my best not to move since he was within an inch of my lips.
“Seera, you know I can’t control myself when you say my name like that,” he growled against my skin, sending a wave of vibrations racing for my lips.
I savored the feeling of his lips pressing against me in any capacity, an intense yearning warming my chest. With the wine muddling the clarity of my mind, I let myself drift to the one and only memory of when our lips crashed together.
“Are you ready?” Alaric searched my eyes for any shadow of doubt.
This was my last chance to back out of our bargain, to not sell my soul to him.
But what choice did I have?
It was either return to my homelands and risk my mother capturing me again, only to lock me away for good in her tower, or I could sell my soul to the handsome king who stole my heart over the course of the past three weeks.
I wasn’t ready to let Alaric go, and if I had to sell my soul to keep him near me, I would do it.
“I’m ready,” I said with a newfound confidence that I gained during my time in Morotis.
He smiled down at me, but it held none of the softness I’d grown to adore. I thought he’d be ecstatic to finally have our lips meet, so why was he looking at me with such a cold and calculating glare?
A million thoughts raced through my head as our lips collided. I was prepared for a soft kiss, but this was far from a lover’s kiss.
This was a carnal act, one used to claim all of me—my lips, my body, my soul.
This was not an act of passion.
This was a display of possession.
Alaric kissed my cheek again, making the memory dissolve into the mist spraying us from the nearby waterfall.
“Seera,” he whispered against my skin. “Where did you drift off to?”
“I—I was thinking about when we first kissed, and I was wondering if it would feel differently this time . . .”
His cool lips lifted from my flushed skin, his eyes searching mine. “How so?”
“Our first kiss was fine, but it was not full of the passion and desire I thought it would be brimming with. It felt more like an act of possession—it was my first kiss, Alaric.”
“Truly?” He leaned back, shock tugging his lips down.
“Who else would I have kissed locked away in a tower?” I arched a brow in challenge.
His soft laugh filled the small bit of space lingering between us.
“Good point.” He cocked his head, his gaze drifting to my lips.
“I regret making your first experience lack all the things a proper kiss should entail. If I could do it again . . . if I could make it right—” His hand snaked up my spine, all the way to the base of my head.
There was no escaping from the king’s claiming grip, and I wasn’t sure I even wanted to.
“Alaric . . .” That one word was charged with seventy-five years of need, of longing.
His agonized groan crawled over my skin, and I watched with alarm as his eyes darkened. Panic gnawed inside me at the tell-tale sign the Serpent King was on the edge of losing control.
“Alaric—” He cut me off, planting a finger firmly against my lips.
“I told you there would be consequences for saying my name like that, sweetheart.” The green in his eyes dissipated into complete and utter darkness.
I tried to mumble against his finger, but he moved quicker than lightning, claiming my lips with his.
Fucking gods, Alaric was kissing me . . .
And it was nothing like our first kiss.
His lips softly pressed against mine, allowing me a moment to adjust to the contour of his full mouth.
Since it was too late to stop the foolish act of the king, I explored this forbidden territory.
If our theory was right about the world ending when we kissed, then I had every intention of making my last kiss the best one yet.
Hesitantly, I moved my lips against his, but I swiftly lost myself in the taste of Alaric. He tasted like cherries, and I wanted to devour the sweetness seeping from his lips.
My tongue darted out, and he granted me the pleasure of exploring further by parting his lips for me. Our tongues tangled in a wicked dance, and I grasped onto his locks, tugging him into me to deepen our kiss.
His hand roamed down my back, while the other tightened against my throat. A shock of pain jolted through me when I felt his canines nip at my bottom lip, and a wildfire blazed low in my belly.
There was no better feeling in the world than kissing Alaric. I could happily die in his arms, doing exactly this.
A loud whipping sound split through the air, forcing us to come up for air.
Then, the quaking began.
I felt the stone below us shift, and I watched in horror as a fissure began to tear the platform into two. The cave trembled with the ferocity of a wild beast awakening from an eternal slumber, and shards of stone fractured from the ceiling, raining down on us like sharp daggers.
The crack was nearly about to separate Alaric and I, but before it could, he scooped me into his arms and jumped backward. We watched as the gaping crevice quickly devoured the cliff we were standing on.
Why was this the reaction our kiss always provoked?
I buried my face into Alaric’s chest, and he placed his hand atop my head to cover it from the falling rubble.
“Whatever happens, don’t let me go!” I shouted into his shirt, the booming growing louder with every passing second.
“Not even the gods could tear you from my arms, Seera,” he whispered into my ear while stroking my hair softly.
Even with the world crumbling around us, he tried to keep me in a state of tranquility.
The ground trembled ferociously, but it was as if time stopped when Alaric hooked his finger underneath my chin, forcing me to look up at him.
Stone rained around him, and strands of his black hair hung into his eyes. They were no longer as dark as the depths of my mind—instead, they were the brightest green I’d ever seen.
At this moment, Alaric looked like my own devastatingly beautiful reckoning.
“Fuck it.” His eyes dipped to my lips, stroking his thumb against my bottom lip. “If the world is going to end, I’d rather die with the taste of your lips lingering on mine.”
Alaric dipped his head, planting a kiss against my lips that felt like it sucked all the air out of the lair collapsing around us.
I faintly heard a loud snap cleaving the air while our lips intertwined in their own destructive dance, but I was too distracted by the taste of cherries and rose petals between the languid flicks of our tongues.
While I kissed the man who fulfilled all of my dreams, I finally realized what these notes represented . . .
Long ago, there was one thing I craved more than power. One thing that consumed my every waking thought, a feeling that now slammed into me as our lips fused into one—love.
A furious crack that felt summoned by the gods had us begrudgingly breaking apart, then the ground below Alaric’s feet completely disintegrated into rubble. His arms tightened around me right as the sensation of floating washed over me.
The Serpent King held true to his promise, never once letting me go. Frigid air whipped my hair around our faces, and I knew we were free falling toward our untimely deaths.
Yet, I was not surprised this was occurring, for every time I was around Alaric it felt like we were living on borrowed time, our impending demise was on the horizon whenever we came together.
So, I locked my hands around his neck and smashed my lips against his one final time, desperately craving the taste of sweet cherries to be the last thing I consumed before meeting whatever awaited us in the Land of the Wicked.