I dragged my cock out slowly, only to pound into her once more, fucking her harder, our tongues and breath mingling, the magick gathering in strength and intensity as it twined around us, an invisible force that swirled and roiled, connecting us, binding us, revealing to me with every deep thrust the truths I’d suspected since that night on the balcony—the night I’d told her about the magick of Midnight, and a perfect black rose had bloomed in her palm.
Haleybelongedto Midnight. Belonged to me, as surely as she belonged to the others. I didn’t pretend to understand our connection, but I could no longer deny the pull of her, the fire I would willingly allow to consume me if only she wished it so.
“Evander!” she cried out once more, and her body tightened around me, everything inside her pulsing with heat, with pleasure, with a fury of magick and flame neither of us could contain.
I reached up and grabbed her throat, pinning her to the wall as I fucked her harder, faster, my fingers sliding down between us to graze her clit, and this time, when my fierce little thief shattered for me, I fell right over the edge of that dark, jagged peak with her.
Right into the deep abyss.
* * *
“You don’t have to leave, you know,” Haley said, gazing up at me.
We were stretched out on the bedrolls beside the fire, warm and content and naked, my fingers trailing along her bare curves.
If not for the fact that Ididhave to leave—and soon—I would’ve called it a perfect moment.
No, that wasn’t exactly fair. Itwasa perfect moment. The fact that it would soon come to its end only made it all the sweeter.
“If there is a way to win this war,” I said, “I must find it, Haley. And I must do it soon.”
“Not alone, though. You’ve got allies. ”
“No, little thief.You’vegot allies. Friends. Lovers. Me? I’ve got prisoners. People forced to do my bidding merely because they fear the consequences of refusing my command.” I sat up and gazed into the fire, my thoughts drifting to my men. To Oona. To the generals I was relying on to hold the northern front. “Loyalty inspired through fear and coercion can only last so long.”
“I don’t want you to go,” she whispered. “Elian wouldn’t want—”
“Donotspeak for him.”
She sat up beside me, drawing her knees to her chest. “I’m not. I just… Iknowhim, Evander. I know what he would say if he were here. Can’t you at least consider that? Consider the possibility that he might want the chance to get to know you again? Not as the children you once were, but as the men you are now?”
“He may be my brother, as you say. I can’t deny it—we share the same face. But I have no memory of him. No memory of my past. No memory of our bond.”
“Memory is not the only thing that binds brothers, Evander. Elian spent most of his life searching for you. He never gave up on you. Hestillhasn’t, even while you push him away.”
“Elian,” I gritted out, the name still tasting like bitter blood on my tongue. “He and I are strangers tethered by a single thread—you.” I cupped her face, gazing into her eyes for so long I feared I might fall into them. “You aren’t just the thread that binds us, either. You’re a formidable witch and strategist. A woman I’ve come to know as a trusted advisor. Whatever comes of this war, Ineedyou by my side. Tell me you’ll fight with me, Haley. Tell me you’ll continue this fight, even if I perish. And not just because we…” I trailed off, unable to find a word perfect enough to describe what we’d shared tonight.
For me, that word simply didn’t exist.
Haley nudged me in the ribs. “If you think my loyalty can be bought with a few little orgasms, you are an egotistical—”
“Little?Little?” I shook my head, a wicked grin breaking across my face. “You nearly brought down the very walls of this chamber with your screaming, woman. Not to mention the terrible singing that followed.”
She laughed, a sound even more beautiful than the singing, which—however terrible—had filled me with endless pleasure.
“Yeah, that’s kind of my… thing,” she said. “When I… you know. Finish.”
I was still holding her face, and now I drew her closer, my lips brushing hers ever so gently. “When youcome, you mean?”
She shrugged, her cheeks darkening with a new blush.
Sliding my hand down to cup her breast, I whispered, “If you’ll let me make you come again right now, woman, I will gladly endure another round of your terrible singing.”
She rolled her pretty eyes. “So romantic.”
“I’m not trying to romance you.” I leaned back on the bedroll, pulling her down on top of me. “I’m trying to make you—”
“Haley.” A dark, broken voice shattered the moment, and Haley scrambled to her feet, grabbing my shirt and wrapping it around her body.
