Page 65 of The Reaping Rose

Wilder retracts his teeth, and I’m throbbing. His warm tongue drags over my neck, and I clench him between my legs, eliciting a growl, so I do it again.

“Careful, Starfire. You’ve yet to understand just what you do to me. But keep that up, and you will.”

“Is that so?” My smile grows as I purposefully squeeze him again, and his body shivers.

He hums, dragging his tongue over the blood dripping from my neck. With my blood coating his lips, he turns my face to the side and presses his mouth to mine. The bloody kiss sends a swarm of emotion to my heart. A rush of his love for me barrels down the thread, and I’m overwhelmed by the intensity of what I am to him.

His tongue moves in a slow dance in my mouth, coaxing a fresh wave of desire. Our passion tangles, until there is no difference between what is me and what is him. All I see are the images Wilder sends me. The feelings I stir in him.

“Is that how you feel about me?”

“I could never properly show you how I feel about you.” His magic brushes me like his hands have multiplied. “You are peace in an endless darkness. Temptation my body can’t deny even if I’m caged in obsidian.”

He kisses the back of my neck, slow and controlled, pouring his love through the thread until I can hardly drink it down. To see myself through his eyes—to feel myself through him.

It’s not a matter of human or Fae.

It is a matter of fate.

The other half of existence. A white sparkling light that glitters with gold at the edges, and I cling to it while he paints this vision for me.

Wilder pulls out, and the loss of him is overwhelming. This craving is insatiable.

“Did you think I was done with you?” He flips me over, pinning my arms overhead as he hooks a leg under his arm and teases me with his length. “I’m going to be dripping from you all night. Unless you’ve had enough?”

The hitch of his eyebrow is a challenge, and I can’t help but smirk.

“Not yet, King Riven.” I bite my lower lip as his eyes heat at my words.

And when he drives back in, I lose sense of place and time. All that’s here is us.

Until the fates unwind.

Chapter 22

Wilder

Aether sweeps the balcony. It reaches along the stone and down the mountain, crawling through the moss and roots. It drifts with the leaves on the wind, woven through every object and being.

I weave my magic through the realm, reaching out until it finds the sandy shore far at a distance. An edge where the Well bites back in harsh waves.

I try to stretch farther but find a limit.

Those didn’t exist before I went into the prison. Within the realms, my magic was endless. Even in places where aether was not at the heart of the realm, my magic could do just about anything. It’s why I shaped it into lightning, careful that no one would know the truth. Power is fickle, and at a certain point, others do nothing but fear it.

But now, with my heart knocking hard beneath my ribs, the Beating creating a reminder of my imminent mortality in my chest, my fingers shake the harder I push my magic. What was once endless has a stopping point. Not around me but within.

Footsteps rustle behind me, and aether draws back in, collapsing into my palms and wrapping around my heart.

I turn to see Elorie walking through the arch that leads to the balcony. She’s wrapped in a thin sheet she stripped off the bed. Her hair is a wild mess that was splayed out on the pillows beneath me not too long ago. Even when we’re physically apart, I’m lost inside her at one glance. Nothing sates this desire.

I’ve kept my distance in recent days, giving her space to work through what happened in the Ley Court and the prison. Now that she’s let me back in, it takes everything in me not to throw her over my shoulder and carry her back to our bed.

No more barriers between us.

No more fear.

I understand her hesitation. How I feel about her terrifies me more than anything in this life. She is my one weakness. My heart wandering outside my body. The other half of my soul.