“I belong to you,” I purred.
“Yes,” he agreed as he pushed deeper into me. “Yes, you fucking do.”
Swiftly, he kissed me, moving faster and deeper inside me. He broke the kiss to meet my eyes. My back arched up off the bed as my hips raised to meet his powerful thrusts.
“Mine,” he growled. “You are mine.”
“Yes,” I hissed, bucking against him, grabbing two handfuls of his ass. “Yes, I fucking am.”
“Saints,” he snarled. “That feels too good.”
“Come,” I pleaded. “Show me you belong to me.”
His release sent me over an edge I hadn’t known existed. One where love and comfort ruled alongside pleasure and pain. With Ares, I was finally home, and so was he. I closed my eyes as I pulled him closer to me. We had eternity together, and that was finally enough time.
I finally had all I needed.
CHAPTER 45
ARES
SIX WEEKS LATER
A frigid windrattled the dry stems and leaves of the barren winter garden. It would snow soon. The Almanac swore up and down every news feed in existence that it was about to be the darkest, snowiest winter in years. Ember and I agreed that before the snow set in, we had to ward off Oleander Cottage.
The whispers had started the very first night on the property. At first, it was just that we’d find ourselves stuck in the kitchen, staring at the back of the cottage. Slowly, it had turned into more.
A week ago, Av found Briony at the garden gate, just about to walk through. That had spurred Ember into action. Calypso was a remarkable researcher, and she’d managed to dig up a rather clever warding that Ember and I could weave together now that she had her sword back.
The copper-haired Maere still hadn’t told us why she wanted to leave Aradios so badly, but at least from my perspective, it looked like she was fitting in well with the other Maere. Even Max, who still had not left. She was expected to replace Calypso in Aradios before winter set in, but showed no signs of leaving.
And neither did we. While Oleander Cottage was certainlya problem, Hemlock House was the seat of Necroline power. The spirits here were Roman’s people, and they respected me, liked Eryx, and were happy to have Av around. It looked like we were moving in. There was space in the carriage house that we made into official Necroline offices and it was remarkable how happy our people seemed to come and go.
The necromancers of Orphium had never liked our offices in the Carlyle. They were rightfully suspicious of the Consulate, and all its trappings. But now that we resided here, that our headquarters were on neutral ground, they came and went frequently. Sometimes just to say hello, other times to ask for help, which I found much easier to give these days without the Consulate ever-present, looking over my shoulder in the bureaucratic wing of the Carlyle.
I hadn’t known how much being there had stifled all of us until we were gone. And even though winter approached, it felt like a kind of spring within the house. It felt like we were growing, changing in ways that I probably wouldn’t understand for years. And for the first time, that felt good. It felt right, after so many years of feeling stagnant and hopeless.
But good as things were in Hemlock House, everyone was rightfully wary of the cottage and the lingering concern about Fairchild. He’d gotten away, and between my network and the Maere’s there was no sign of him, or whatever remained of the Chioric sect. It was as though they’d disappeared into thin air.
All we could do was keep an eye out for them at this point. Remain vigilant and try to understand the ritual they’d performed, and figure out whether they could do it again. There were questions left open, and I hated that, but we were doing what we could.
At least Oleander Cottage and its alluring evil whispers were problems I could more easily solve. I crossed my arms over my chest, waiting for Ember. I’d already laid down the salt. I was just waiting for my coffee now.
Ember came out of the house, bundled up in a matchingsweatsuit, a puffer and fluffy-looking booties. Her honey-colored hair was plaited into two braids and her cheeks were flushed with the cold. She looked like she’d let Briony pick out her outfit, which was probably accurate. The teenager had more influence on us than anyone else these days.
“Ready to seal this bad boy up?” she asked, scowling at the haunted cottage.
Even now, the pull to enter it was strong, and I’d whispered the words Calypso had found for us as I salted. That should have quieted things down until we finished the wards. We had to find a more complete solution to the problem of the cottage, but until we did, this was a good temporary one.
Ember smiled a lot more these days, and as time went on, I saw her deepening into a trust that the people she loved could come and go, but that they did actually love her in return. Whenever I found her with Briony, my heart swelled with love. Somehow, I’d ended up with a family.
Ember shook the mug she’d brought out for me, her movements jerky and impatient. Something was irritating her this morning.
I took the travel mug that Ember offered me and took a long drink of warm coffee. “What’s wrong?”
Her eyes moved back towards the house, though her body stayed still. “Rhi got a call from her mysterious superior at the Consulate this morning.”
A low growl rumbled in my chest. They’d been bothering all of us since finding out that we’d moved out of the Carlyle completely. I had a theory that we’d made things worse by moving intogether. And not just me and Ember, but all of us.
