“You are no father of mine.” Her words were venomous, filled with long-felt hate and pain.
The Keeper gave her a sad smile. “How I wish that were so.”
His body shuddered before his eyes grew glassy, his final moments upon him.
“See me, Matriarch. Remember me,” he said involuntarily.
The girl paused.
“No,” she purred, before fading from the scene, refusing to see and catalog his death, refusing his soul the opportunity to join Solace. “Traitors don’t receive eternal rest.”
He gave one last gasping laugh before the girl yanked herself back to her body in the darkened hut. She groaned in pain, the act of leaving a soul unbound to Solace making her physically ill. But she would bear the pain to keep him from this final rite of passage after his lifetime of betrayal.
The girl crawled shakily to her bed and, with great effort, pulled herself up and under the covers before succumbing to oblivion. Before she slept, she thought she could hear the slow, deep laughter of Solace, and, for the first time, the girl was frightened.
Chapter 27
Faylinn
The fire crackled merrily as I languidly stretched the ache of sleep and sex from my limbs. I opened my mouth in a large yawn as I sleepily plucked the lavender and eucalyptus from their drying rack and added them to the already bubbling liquid in my cast-iron cauldron. The heat of the fire and the steam from the liquid had goosebumps erupting over my still-naked flesh. I hummed idly as I added a few other ingredients to the cauldron and stirred, the relaxing scent of herbs and oil already infiltrating my cottage.
I pushed the pot back over the fire before stepping across the hard-packed earth floor toward my bed and the shelves that held my clothes. I selected a lightweight tunic and pants for today and quickly stepped into them after throwing on my undergarments.
My body ached in the most delicious way as I maneuvered my thighs into my underwear and pants, my mind reminiscing over the way Ben handled me so well.
“Legs up, Fay, let me see that pretty pink pussy,” Ben said as he spread my lips with his thumbs.
I groaned at the contact, the feeling of him staring a heady thing. He licked one large thumb and pressed it hard against my clit, causing my whole body to jolt.
“No more,” I panted. He’d already made me come on his fingersand tongue three times, and the pleasure started to take on a painful edge. Ben simply smiled at me, his face holding nothing but wicked promises.
He kept his thumb pressed against my clit as he notched the head of his cock against my entrance. My pussy was already spasming and he hadn’t even entered me yet.
Ben was lit by the low fire I kept burning at all times, the planes of his body—muscled and large from working in the fields all day—looked sharper in the low light. Sweat adorned his skin, falling in small rivulets down his chest and between the abs that were just peeking through a layer of winter fat.
He was like a bear, my Ben, and I loved the strength and comfort of him, even if I never told him that.
“Your rune is new?” he asked as he teased my entrance.
I nodded fervently. Sharol—the innkeeper and my mentor in Blood Magic—and I had just reinscribed the Conception Prevention Rune on my lower stomach last week. It would last at least through the end of this month, if not longer, depending on how much sex I had.
Though with the number of times Ben and I had already done it tonight, I would bet my cottage that I’d have to redo it sooner rather than later.
The fingers on his right hand absently traced the design on my lower stomach, causing me to suck in a sharp breath at the contact. His feather-light touches sent sparks of want and desire through me.
“Ben,” I whined, and he smiled again.
“I’ve got you, Fay. I’ve always got you. Eyes on me,” he said as he thrust hard into me, seating himself fully so his hips rested against my ass. No sooner was he inside than he began to move in earnest, pulling out until just his head rested inside me and pushing back in until he was fully seated again.
I moaned at the sensation and pulled my legs tighter to my shoulders. Ben groaned at the new angle I provided him, and his hips pistoned faster.
“Not going to last, Fay, when you moan like that. Not when you feel this good. It’s never felt this good before. You’re like my own personal drug, Fay,” he kept whispering as he pressed tighter on my clit, his ministrations matching his increasingly erratic thrusts.
“Come for me, Fay. I’m not finishing until you do.”
I panted, contracting my core muscles and focusing on the feeling of his cock hitting just that right spot inside me. I held my breath and pushed with my core, the orgasm hitting me fully, and I came apart beneath him.
“Oh, fuck, Fay. Fuck!” he groaned as he scooped me up from the bed and sat in the chair a few paces away. He held my hips roughly as I bonelessly lay against his chest, his hips thrusting straight into me at an almost impossible pace.
