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I frowned. “But, how terrible,” I said, feeling a deep unexpected song of grief on behalf of Mama.
“Why?” Carnon asked, frowning down at me.
“To be separated from your mate,” I replied, horrified at the idea that they had been apart all of my life. “They never saw each other, after I was born.”
“We don’t know that for sure,” Carnon said gently, lifting my chin and pressing another kiss to my lips. “Are you finally horrified you asked me to break our engagement?”
“No,” I replied as I splashed water at him. “I didn’t know any better.”
He chuckled and splashed me back, catching me in an unexpected kiss as I wiped the water from my face. “Naive little witch,” he rumbled.
“Demanding demon,” I replied, tapping the evidence of that demand, which was currently pressed hard against my thigh.
“Hmm,” Carnon replied, kissing me again with the clear intention of fulfilling that demand. “Only for you, my love. My mate.”
Chapter 23
The next three days passed in a haze of training, reading, and more sex than was probably healthy. Carnon truly was insatiable, taking me against every surface in our room and several surfaces in the library, as well as a few more trees, which I still struggled to wither with accuracy. Despite not mastering my magic yet, I definitely mastered my studies of my mate, learning every inch of him until I could trace the sculpted contours of his shoulders and chest in my mind. He learned me just as quickly, and he could have me begging for him in seconds with little more than a swipe of his tongue.
After one such romp in the library against the shelves, I dropped my head back on the floor with a deep sigh. “Do you think Cernunnos will strike us down for defiling his temple?”
Carnon laughed, kissing my sweaty brow. “I think the god of virility and sex would probably approve the defiling of his temple in such a way,” he said wryly.
“I thought he was the god of nature and beasts?” I asked, realizing I still didn’t know much about the demon religion.
“He is,” Carnon replied. “He is the god of many things, as the Triple Goddess also rules over many things. Sex and virility happen to be my favorite aspects of the Horned God, though.”
“Hmm,” I replied, lifting to rest my chin on his bare chest. “Your name suddenly makes so much more sense to me.”
Carnon flicked my nose playfully, forcing himself to sit up with a groan. “I think this may be a lost cause, Red,” he said, tossing me my undergarments, which he had been lying on. “None of these books seem to have answers, and I’m too damn distracted by you to focus anyway.”
“That sounds like your problem,” I teased, pulling on my clothes as seductively as possible. He groaned, catching me around the waist and pulling me down for another sensual kiss.
“Why do you torture me, my devious little witch?” he asked, and I think he would have ravaged me again right there if a loud thump hadn’t sounded on the skylight above us.
“What the—-” another loud thump had Carnon scrambling to stand. He ran shirtless to the center of the library beneath the skylight, then cursed loudly.
“What is it?” I asked, grabbing the shirt he had abandoned and running after him.
He didn’t respond as he sped up the hallway and the stairs, running so fast down the length of the temple that there was no way I could keep up with him.
The skylight must be outside the temple, and I followed his trail into the forest and around the corner of the huge stone building. Akela had been standing guard outside, and he whined when he saw me, following as we tried to catch up to Carnon. I found him crouched on the ground, cradling something huge and feathery in his arms.
“The shirt,” he demanded, holding out his hand for the clothing I had rescued.
“Goddess above,” I said, sinking down to see Artemis, bloody and battered, cradled against Carnon’s body like a babe. I reached out my healing magic to the strix, and recoiled when I felt my magic hit a wall.
“Strix can’t be touched by demon magic,” Carnon growled, wrapping the bird tenderly in the shirt, covering her battered wings. She was still breathing, but she looked terrible. Her feathers were askew in every direction, and a huge gash oozed blood down one side of her. “Something about their role as wardens of the Darklands.”
“What about witch magic?” I asked, standing with him as he held Artemis like she would disappear if he didn’t hold tight. “It won’t be instant, but it will help.”
“Worth a try,” Carnon replied, shifting into his snake form for greater speed. “Climb up.”
I climbed onto his back, wrapping my arms tight around his shoulders as he sped off into the forest. Akela ran beside us, casting nervous glances at Artemis and growling every so often. If I’d had breath to speak, I would have comforted him, but Carnon was going too fast for me to do anything but hold on for dear life.
“Hop down,” Carnon shouted over his shoulder as we emerged in the Sacred City and slithered to the nearest rope ladder. “I need you to climb in front of me.”
“Gods,” I rasped, climbing down from Carnon’s back as he transformed back into a demon, Artemis wrapped carefully in the shirt and held in his arm. “Why must there be so much climbing when I’m with you?”
