Chapter 62
Chapter sixty-two
Seraphina
Part of her wanted to let the current take her away.
Wash her out to sea with the mer. Maybe a deadly sea monster like the kraken or the leviathan would eat her whole, and she could cease to exist. No more death magic, no more guilt for not getting to Nora, no more shame for not having enough witch magic. There was no time for that, though.
Sera burst from the water. “You asshole!” Pulling her hair from her face, she stood in the soft sand and rock of the riverbed. Cool water ran from her hair down her arms. Her leather pants collected it like a water skin, sloshing as she made her way back to the shore.
Vasso’s boots were already off. Then his shirt, and Sera did her best not to sigh as his rippling muscles glistened. His shoulders were sun-kissed from riding shirtless the day before, but the rest of him was as sleek as a mountain cat. Where Alistair was bulky, Vasso was defined, athletic.
But he didn’t stop there.
Next, the demon lord proceeded to unbutton his trousers.
“What are you doing?”
“Going for a dip.” With one fluid movement, he was naked. Gloriously naked. Sera stared at the man as if she were dying of thirst and he was the last brew on the continent.
She didn’t even bother to close her gaping mouth as he waded into the river and dove into the current.
“Are you just going to stand there?” he yelled from the middle of the river, his mouth curved in delight.
She was no stranger to the male form. Quite fond of it, actually, and Vasso was an exquisite representation of it.
Sera shuddered, remembering his body pressed against hers.
The way his kiss had awakened some deep desire, ripping it to the surface, something her soul craved.
Now that he was staring at her, a pleading eagerness in his eyes…
How long had she wanted a warlock to look at her that way? To feel a connection deeper than something temporary? She hadn’t had anyone since this darkness awakened, fearing that whoever she got close to would run.
But Vasso, he was made of the dark.
She pulled the black shirt he’d made for her over her head. Kicking off her boots, she unbuttoned her pants, peeling the wet leather away from her hips, agonizingly slow.
Vasso’s devious smile faded to a straight line. By the time she stepped out of her pants, his eyes were blazing red.
She let her undergarments fall into the pile of soaked clothing and sauntered into the cool water.
He’d never been so still around her. So silent, so incredibly predatory, lying in wait to see if she would get close enough to catch.
Water lapped at her knees. Droplets fell from her hair, down her back.
The slight breeze against her wet skin had her breaking out in goose bumps, and Vasso’s eyes dropped to her chest.
A tug on the tether almost made her miss a step while she waded toward him. More than just one quick pull, he was reeling her in, and she was pretty sure it was due to his pure want and not because he actually meant to.
“Tell me everything you know about Nora.” She’d play this game only if she got the information she needed out of him first.
He lifted his hand to his mouth before slicking back his wet hair. Without a response, he dropped under the surface.
Sera paddled against the light current.
Back above the surface, Vasso’s eyes still blazed red, but he seemed a bit calmer than moments before.
“She’s not in the lower dungeons. She has her own room, which is still guarded, but she’s fed well and has a designated guard.”
“So she’s eating? She’s all right?”
“No one has harmed her that I’m aware of,” he said.
How strange. What was the point in kidnapping her in the first place if they were going to treat her like a guest? “Do you know why he took her?”
Vasso swam closer. “There is a rumor about a prophecy, a witch bride. I think Supay assumed that because she opened a portal to the underworld, your sister was to be that witch.”
“Shit,” she said.
“What?”
“It wasn’t her who opened it, or well, it was, but…” She didn’t know how much she should tell him. “My magic, it escaped me that day. It clung to her portal like a magnet. I had no control over it; it just reacted.”
“Tell me about you and Honora,” he said as he swam in a lazy circle.
“Why?”
“I want to know more about you.”
“A question for a question?” She raised a brow at him. She wanted to see if he’d reveal what she needed to know.
Vasso assessed her.
She’d heard stories about the mer that made her wonder whether they, too, derived from demons. From the way Vasso glided in the water, she’d believe it.
“All right, you answer first,” he said.
“I call her Nora. She’s three years younger than me. A pain in my side for most of my life, though we’ve started to grow closer. She’s so powerful and kind, thoughtful, smart—well, in the book sense—and didn’t deserve what happened to her.”
“I’m sorry,” Vasso whispered, avoiding her gaze. Sera stood, her feet sinking into the smooth silt. She leaned against the current.
“Why don’t you want to bring me to Gehenna?”
Vasso groaned. She couldn’t help but smile at the trap he’d walked into.
He swam to her and stood. She looked up at him, at the hesitation in his gaze. “The one I am bound to—” He winced. “She wants—”
Vasso groaned and shook his head.
“She wants—” he gasped.
“Stop.” Sera gripped his shoulders. A bead of black blood dripped from his nose. “Not if it hurts you this much.” He let out a breath of relief.
“Do you have siblings?” she asked, trying to change the subject and stop whatever entity was ripping into his brain. He was bound. There had to be another way to find out the information without him getting hurt. Vasso wiped the blood from his nose.
“Not really, no.”
Sera snorted. “What do you mean, not really?”
“It’s difficult to explain. I wasn’t exactly born in the sense that you were.”
“You had a father and a mother, correct?”
“Yes,” he said. One side of his mouth tilted upward. “And now I get to ask you three questions.”
She splashed him. “That’s not fair.”
“A question for a question, Subdina.”
She dared to get closer. “What does Subdina mean?” She was almost breathless. He seemed to be fighting himself, not whatever was lying in wait in his mind.
“Destiny.” The word came out throaty and raw. She was weightless. He had called her his destiny from the first time he’d seen her. He’d known for that long that they were fated. Stroking her breastbone, she remembered the shocking pang that had rocked through her.
But he’d given her time to learn. To try and understand what this was between them. He had let her choose her course: Mortal enemy or lover. Executioner or inamorata. At times, she had wanted to be both. It was written… fated.
Vasso reached out his hand, just below the surface, beckoning, just like he’d done in the woods at Crowpass. That same feeling of being pulled toward something greater than herself ran through her. This time, she took his hand.
He pulled her to him, and that unsaid question lay in his eyes again. He’d looked at her the same way when they mounted the horses, and when he told her he didn’t want to bring her to the underworld.
His lips hovered above hers. “It’s your choice, Seraphina.
I won’t try to convince you one way or the other, but know this…
The moment I saw you, that was it for me.
Looking at you felt like dying and regenerating at the same time.
You in the dirt, your feet bleeding, watching the forest creatures—just like I do.
And I felt that tug in my chest.” He raised his hand to his chest and tapped two fingers in time with his heart. Thump, thump. Thump, thump. “I knew.”
She needed to be closer, wanted his heart to align with hers. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner? After the images with Ophelia?”
“Because I wasn’t sure you wanted the same. I knew you had feelings for the warlock.”
“It was nothing like this.” The words came out on an exhale. She didn’t want to talk anymore, and wrapped her arms around his neck. Vasso lowered them into the water.
She wanted to feel. To feel something she knew only he could give her. Leaning forward, she brushed her lips against his, tightening her thighs, grinding herself into his length.
His composure broke with a moan, and he gripped the back of her head.
“Touch me,” she whispered into a kiss. He ran a finger from her chin down her neck.
Sera leaned far enough back so he could grip her breast. The calluses on his palm, which grazed over her nipple, had her gasping. Pushing herself up with her thighs, Sera arched, and Vasso happily obliged.
She was burning. A drumming ache pulsed at the apex of her thighs. She ground herself against him to try and relieve it.
Aching want.
Desperate need.
She wanted it all, wanted it now. Vasso groaned again as if he could hear her. The sound vibrated through her as his tongue teased the hard bud of her nipple. When she wasn’t sure he could worship her anymore, he bit down.
She gasped.
Her throbbing grew heavier, needier. More, she needed so much more. Every inch of her skin felt like it was on fire, and she would burn herself alive for him if she could.
His lips were back on hers. She vowed herself, to anyone who might be listening, that she’d learn every texture of his mouth, of his body. Reaching between them, she palmed his length.
“Fucking gods,” Vasso cursed.
His grip on her ass was so tight that she was sure it would leave a bruise. Fuck, she’d beg him to bruise her. As she ran her hand from his base to tip, the river water created a delicious friction against his skin.
Vasso broke their kiss, and Sera whimpered at the lack of contact.
He looked up and cursed after a loud boom of thunder clapped in the distance. Heavy drops of rain bounced against the river’s surface.
He lifted her to him and started carrying her toward the bank.
“Where are we going?” The clouds were angry, blotting out most of the sky to the west.
“I’m not done with you, Subdina. Not in the least. But I’m also not taking the chance that you get electrocuted before I get to taste you.”
Sera shifted in his hands, and he let her down at the river’s edge. Rain poured in buckets, and she ran to the tent, giggling.