He tilted his head as he looked at me and smiled. “Are you curious aboutme, Bale?”
“I’m simply asking you a question.”
However, I was curious about him and trying to figure out what made him tick. Aside from the fact he stood for everything I despised and liked to manipulate others to murder, he could be decent at times. It was difficult to understand him.
Maybe he isn’t meant to be understood.
So many things in this world, Heaven, and Hell were full of mystery, but I’d never expected my Chosen to be such an enigma. I might never understand this man, and I kind of liked that possibility. Life as an immortal could get boring, but while he was in my life, there would always be surprises.
Unfortunately, I didn’t know how long we could be in each other’s lives.
“Freedom is like the high after a brutal battle you’ve won. It’s the excitement pumping through your veins, the rush of survival, and death that catapulted you into a champion. It’s like….” He closed his eyes as he inhaled deeply. “It’s like fresh mountain air and the strength of a powerful wraith flooding your system when you feed. It’severythingright in this world and the next ones. It’s freedom, and I willnevergive it up again.”
There was a glint of warning in his eyes when they met mine. He would die and take as many others with him as possible before he ever allowed himself to be locked away again. And I would never let that happen to him. If he had to be destroyed to protect everything we’d sacrificed for, then so be it, but he would never be a prisoner again.
“Freedom is amazing,” he said.
I dug my nails into my palms to keep from reaching out to him. I’d never yearned to touch him as badly as I did then, with the sun’s rays cascading over his black hair and shimmering in his onyx eyes. He was gorgeous and savage, yet there was a vulnerability to him that dug into my heart.
He was a brutal killer, but he was also a man who was nearly broken by his imprisonment. Yet somehow he survived it, and I admired him for that. I didn’t know if I could have survived being locked away for millennia. I found it a little annoying that I was starting to like him more and more.
“Freedom is everything,” he said.
“It is,” I agreed as I turned to look at our golden prison. “Or it was.”
“Wewillget out of here.”
“Yes,” I agreed because I couldn’t consider the other possibility.
We continued, and as we traversed the lower level of the palace, we would occasionally stop to stare out the windows. Without any glass to stop it, an icy breeze drifted through the open panes. Despite no longer having my coat, vest, or shoes, I welcomed the colder climate of the earth as it breathed fresh air into this stifling place.
By the time we made it back to the main entry, the daylight was starting to fade, and we’d discovered nothing but empty, cavernous rooms.
“There’s nowhere else to go but up,” Wrath said, and he started to climb the stairs.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Bale
The second,third, fourth, and fifth floors proved to be as empty as the first floor, and so did all the spiraling towers. We returned to the second floor and entered one of the rooms facing Mytaz’s crypt below. The day had faded away hours ago, and now only the moon illuminated the barren landscape.
Wraiths hung in the sky over the graveyard. I should have known those twisted souls would make an appearance here; they always gathered in places where there was a lot of death. Their malformed shapes slithering from the earth and winding their way into the sky only added to the gloom of the landscape.
I fed on those wraiths, yet the sight of them sickened me. They were the worst of humankind. My feeding from them was a punishment and painful for them, but they deserved worse.
“We should get some rest and search the caves tomorrow,” Wrath said. “We can decide about exploring the other end of the tunnel after that. Are you hungry?”
“No, are you?”
“Yes.”
With that, he leaned out the window and lifted his hand. The power vibrating from him rippled against my flesh as he drew one of the wraiths to him. His muscles swelling with power and the sensation of it crackling over my skin caused my nipples to harden.
It took everything I had not to settle my palms on his back and run my fingers over his quivering muscles. I longed to trace the edge of every well-defined muscle while following my fingers with my mouth. He would taste of fire and sin, of things that should never be but were too enticing to resist.
He drew the wraith closer, and as he fed on it, his power grew, and his muscles swelled from the creature’s nourishment. My gaze fell to his lower back, and the pants hanging low on his waist. If I slid my arms around to grasp his dick, it would swell in my palm. His hips would thrust into my hand before he grew tired of foreplay and took me.
Cries of pleasure reverberated in my head as I imagined him pressing me against the wall while he fucked me until nothing else in this world mattered, his skin sliding against mine as his arms enveloped me.
