Chapter Thirty-Eight
CHAPTER
THIRTY-EIGHT
Thousands of vespers watched from the trees surrounding one of the most crystalline pools of water Aurelie had ever seen. Sunlight shone upon it, painting the surface a gleaming gold. As she watched the steam curling from it in delicate tendrils, desire thickened her throat.
A bath. Finally, she was getting a bath.
She bent eagerly, swirling her fingers in the water.
Light, the temperature was perfect.
“Our wings will cover us,” Yuri offered from behind. “You can go in first. Severin and I will keep our backs to you.”
“Speak for yourself,” Severin muttered, smirking when Aurelie shot him a glare.
“I’ll go in after you,” Yuri continued, ignoring him. “And I’ll ensure this wretched demon keeps his eyes to himself.”
Was she imagining it, or was there a new edge to his voice? It sounded almost territorial.
“Trust me,” Severin hissed, “the last thing I want to see is angel dick.”
“Mind your tongue, there’s a lady present.”
“Her?” Severin’s eyes slid over her, heat curling at the edges. “She’s no lady. And she’s certainly no prude, either.”
Heat crept up her neck as his gaze lingered.
Yuri shoved him in the chest.
Severin shoved him back.
A profound sense of loathing flooded the bond as the two faced each other, though their tussle lasted only a moment before they both flinched, hands flying to their cheeks.
Aurelie’s own cheek flared red from where she’d slapped herself, hoping they felt every bit of the burning skin as she glared at them both.
“Do not forget that I feel every strike you give each other,” she snapped.
“I know children who behave better than you two. I am sticky, I am tired, and my father is a fucking demon. So we’re all going to bite our tongues and clean ourselves up so that we may enter hallowed ground and help him. Am I making myself clear?”
A long silence dragged between them, in which Yuri looked properly chastened while Severin seemed impressed.
“Apologies,” Yuri muttered. “It won’t happen again.”
He turned away, waiting. When Severin didn’t follow suit, Yuri grabbed him by the collar and physically rotated the demon. His wings stretched wide, forming a shield.
Aurelie waited to ensure that Severin honored it before she turned back to the spring and stripped out of her shredded makeshift dress.
Steam kissed her bare skin, and she sighed with pleasure as she slipped into the water.
The heat enveloped her like a lover, smoothing over tension she hadn’t even realized she carried and sinking into every bruise and ache.
“You can come in now.” Aurelie dipped lower. “I won’t look.”
“You can if you want,” Severin said. “I, for one, have nothing to hide.”
Aurelie ignored him, tipping her head back to enjoy the breeze along her skin as she listened to the sound of clothing hitting the ground.
“Do you plan to wait all day, angel?” Severin taunted.
“Don’t be shy.” He slipped into the water, and Aurelie was grateful for the steam that gave her cheeks their natural flush.
Her traitorous body chose that minute to remember the press of his body against hers and the way his lips had grazed her skin back in the pleasure den.
Then she thought of the way Yuri had looked at her after the battle. How he’d held her stare as he’d peeled off his clothing the night prior, as if challenging her to view him as any less stunning than the demon.
She squeezed her eyes shut, but the sound of Yuri entering the water made her pulse jump.
“See?” Severin said smoothly. “Nothing to be embarrassed about.”
A pang of annoyance surged through Yuri as the angel furrowed his wings and turned away, beginning to scrub them clean. “You’re free to look, Aurelie.”
And Light help her, she did.
Her eyes drifted to her bonded, watching beads of water trail down Severin’s back as he bent forward to scrub at his hair, then to Yuri as sunlight spilled onto his form, painting him ethereal.
Aurelie was grateful that she could only see the back of him, as the way water glided down his skin was doing her no favors.
Light, he was an angel. She shouldn’t be staring at him like this.
She sank deeper into the water, trying to ignore the heat spreading through her chest.
Vex floated past, trailing lazily on the water’s surface. “Which one do you think is prettier?” she taunted as she drifted by, following Aurelie’s gaze.
Aurelie stiffened, her pulse thundering. She hadn’t realized she’d been so obvious.
She shot a burst of water at the vesper, feeling guilty a moment later as Vex shrieked and coughed on the small wave. It was easy to forget how small she was.
Aurelie hoped desperately that the men hadn’t heard. But she wasn’t that lucky—Yuri tensed, and Severin’s satisfaction curled like smoke through the bond.
“It’s fine,” the demon said with a confidence that sent a dangerous heat coiling low in her belly. “We said you could look.”
The air between them thickened, charged with electricity. But before she could make sense of it, something bit her thigh.
Aurelie yelped, scrambling for the bank. “There’s something in the water!”
She hauled herself from the hot spring, water streaming from her bare skin as she rubbed at the spot that ached.
Everything happened very quickly after that.
Both Severin and Yuri had turned toward her, on the defensive, and Aurelie froze as she caught their stares. The breeze hit her damp body, cool and sharp. For a heartbeat, no one breathed.
Yuri was the first to react. His body tensed, wings twitching as if preparing to unfurl, but he couldn’t bring himself to move. Color surged up the pale line of his throat, blooming as his silver eyes locked on hers.
Severin, too, was drinking her in like he was indulging in a fine wine. Light glinted in his eyes, a predator’s gleam softened by something dangerously close to reverence. He didn’t speak. Didn’t smirk or taunt like she expected him to. He only stared, and Light help her, Aurelie couldn’t move.
Sunlight kissed the curves of her body. Droplets clung to her skin, gliding slowly down the swell of her breasts, the dip of her waist, the line of her thigh. Severin’s eyes followed one as if under a spell.
The air was charged like the moment before a lightning strike, humming with a heat that sank beneath Aurelie’s skin.
The knights at Rhovar saw her as a soldier. The court saw her as a pawn. Even Nicolas had seen her as the dutiful wife he hoped she could be.
But the way these men watched her now was unlike anything she’d ever known.
And Light, she liked it.
She liked it so much it made her tremble.
Desire bloomed beneath her ribs, curling tighter with every breath. She wasn’t sure who it belonged to—herself, or them. The bond tangled it all.
Suddenly, Vex popped out of the water, sputtering. “Serves you right,” she seethed, looking at the angry red mark she’d made on Aurelie’s skin.
The spell shattered.
Aurelie gasped and scrambled backward, plunging back into the water. She crossed her arms over her chest, her skin hot despite the chill of the air. Her glare at the vesper was murderous.
“Careful,” she hissed at the creature. “Next time, I might accidentally drown you.”
The warmth of the water should have soothed her. Instead, it only made her more aware of all the places where no one had ever touched her, and everywhere she wanted them to.
Yuri had returned to scrubbing at his wings as if he could scour the image of her from his mind. He didn’t speak. Didn’t look at her. But tension radiated from him like heat off stone.
Severin, however … Even without looking, she could feel the weight of his eyes on her. His desire simmered through the bond, an invisible touch that clung to her skin.
He wanted to finish what the bond had started, claiming her not just in soul but in body.
And the most terrifying part of all wasn’t his hunger—it was hers.
Their attention still lingered with her, and Aurelie despised how much she liked that.
She was a knight. A servant of the Divine.
A woman who had been raised to walk a holy path, who had been taught her whole life that purity was strength and virtue was sacrifice.
But in this spring, with a fire coiled low in her belly, she couldn’t remember what any of that was supposed to protect her from.
Aurelie tipped her head back against a stone, closing her eyes against the quiet ache of desire she wasn’t supposed to feel.
Just who was this person that she was becoming? She could feel herself changing, but there was nothing she could do to stop it.
And for the first time, she wasn’t sure she wanted to.