Page 169 of The Reaping Rose

No matter how many stars are in the sky above us right now, even a wish won’t guarantee what will come from tomorrow. Malachi summoned me, which means he has a plan. I can only hope the one we discussed with our courts earlier is smarter than his.

I can only cling to tonight, where I have my mate beneath a blanket of stars, staring into my eyes like I’m the only one worth looking at.

“Want to see something?” I bite my lower lip, and Wilder nods. “I’ve been practicing my magic. Summoning it in bits and pieces, learning to control it.”

I lean to the side and press my fingertip to a point of grass. Starlight spills out, moving like water down the blade, flowing out across the field. Sparkling brighter than a fresh fall of rain glistening on the grass.

“I’ve been sitting with my magic, trying to understand what it can do besides bringing destruction. It comes from this other place, but I can weave it into the fabric of this one, changing it.” The grass loses color, becoming translucent and shimmering. Clear as glass but soft to the touch. “It’s like my magic allows me to see the threads that weave it all together. Down to the heart of where it began. The stardust we all came from. If I think about it, I can pull it apart. I can put it back together.”

My fingertips dance over the grass, and they turn to ash at my touch. Becoming nothing. Until I wiggle them again and the blades reform.

“I still don’t understand its limits,” I admit.

Wilder weaves his fingers through mine. “You’re a celestial wielder. Maybe there are none. After all, Voilene’s magic is that of creation.”

Aether threads spill from Wilder’s fingertips, dancing through my magic and webbing across the ground. He casts a warm glow, turning the blades of grass from silver starlight to golden.

Beauty in a dying realm.

Hope where we have every reason to have none.

Wilder lifts my hand, flipping it until we’re palm to palm. Now, instead of flowing out, his magic swims within. It courses through my veins, my belly, my bones. It surges through my chest.

He presses his palm over my hanging heart rune, and I can hardly contain the crest of magic that moves through me.

“Aether is the substance of all things here. I harnessed the entirety of the realm and still felt empty until I found you.” His gaze softens. “Who knew I’d be so lucky.”

Aether hugs the back of my head, pulling me close. Our lips meet, and the night around us brightens. We sit beneath the gods-blessed sky, and I hand my mate my heart, my trust. And he does the same.

Wilder’s hands roam my back, my hips. He rocks me over him, and I can already feel need building in my core. A flash of desire he stokes with such ease. But I want to draw this out. Exist in this moment a while longer.

I shift off him, slowly inching down in the grass between his legs. Kissing a path along his chest and stripping his shirt off as I do. But that crown, heavy and gleaming atop his head, remains.

“What are you up to, Starfire?”

I crawl farther down his body, tugging free the strings of his pants and releasing his steel length. “Bowing for my king.”

His pupils blow wide as I sink my mouth over him, dragging my tongue up his length and drawing a slow, torturous circle. My eyes don’t leave his as I wrap my lips around him and take him down my throat.

Tears spring in my eyes. The salty taste of his desire coats my tongue. His hips buck in pleasure, driving deep, and I gag, but it doesn’t make me pull back. I relax and hum until his head tilts back, and he’s growling.

My mate. My king.

Yet he’s at my mercy.

Wilder groans as I take him deeper, enjoying every strong thrust of his hips. My hand grips what I can’t take in my mouth, and his hands hug the sides of my head.

“Godsdamn, you feel so good.” He groans. “Come here, so I can taste you.”

My lips slide up his cock, and I smile. “Not yet. I’m enjoying pleasing you.”

His eyes narrow as I sink back down. “You think just because my hands can’t reach you that I can’t please you? Think again.”

Aether crawls from his fingertips down my shoulders, caressing my back. It hugs my ass and slips between my legs, pulsing where I’m aching for him.

I hum, sucking him harder as his magic throbs between my legs.

“You’re so wet already.” He drags aether up my inner thigh. “So pretty with your mouth on my cock.”