The tunnel slopes hard like a dirty slide before coming to level brick flooring. The room opens up to thick darkness and one single torch on the far wall, just near the barred cell.
Growls and hostile threats echo around the space, but one violent voice rings out to me among all others. “Fuck you! Fucking touch him again, and I’ll shove my fist so far down your throat, your asshole will have a gag reflex.”
“Zav, calm down. We don’t want the guards down here again,” Damien whispers, his palms planted on each of Zaviar’s sweaty biceps as the angel glares pure rage at the other five men around them.
The others shift on their feet. Violence pulses like an organ pumping blood through the bricks of the walls surrounding them.
Whispers and slurs are spit their way, but no one dares to step toward the two men in the corner.
The ones who are so close to me, I could reach out and touch them. My heart aches with how near they are. It’s a pain and a need, all at the same time.
My hands lift between the cold bars, and my fingers lightly kiss their skin. Dirt rolls beneath my fingertips, but I don’t notice it. I’m too focused on how the tension eases from each of the two men’s shoulders and wings. I know they feel me in a way that tells them exactly who I am with just a single touch.
“Aries,” Damien says on a catching whisper.
His dark wings shudder before he spins on his heels, and then he’s looking down on me with big brown eyes. In a swoop of movement, he takes both of my hands in his and comes as close as the bars will let him as he drags his big hands over every inch of my body.
“I’m okay,” I say slowly, but he’s cradling my face in his hands and searches there as well, before his gaze slides from my lips to my eyes. His skin is hot to the touch as my fingers glide over his wrists. “I’m okay,” I tell him once more.
A heavy breath slips from his lips and fans between us.
“You feel good,” he whispers, like it’s a painful admission to show his weakness in front of so many surrounding enemies. It makes me wrap myself around him as much as this fucking prison will allow and never let him go.
Tension presses from my chest and snaps between us as we cling to one another.
On the toes of my shoes, I arch against the cold cell, and ever so gently, I skim my lips against his. It’s chaste. It’s sentimental. But it doesn’t stay that way. He tips my chin up even more, and I gasp against him as his tongue thrusts inside. Reverent strokes taste me deeply. It shoves aside my fears and wakes up my lust with a single demanding kiss from my sweet, not-so-innocent demon. My once-tender touch turns to clawing demanding nails that sink into his shoulders. He takes his time as the whispers begin to build around us.
“Seems the good little demon has found himself a piece of princess pussy,” someone sneers.
Damien breaks the kiss and grabs his brother’s arm tightly just as Zaviar lunges forward, scattering the other prisoners around them with a single lashing threat of violence.
Damien slams his brother back against the cell. Thick pink feathers slip out between the bars, and as I catch my breath, I make a mental note to possibly change his wings back to his holy white ones.
Unfortunately for him, magic is banished down here.
So... just try to keep that badass image intact for a bit longer, my frilly pink-feathered friend.
He’s shaking, though. His fingers tremble against his palm. I know he’s furious and in a constant state of threat here, but...
“Are you two sick?” My fingers slide around Zaviar’s wrist, and just like his brother’s, his skin is blazing hot to the touch.
Dirt streaks their faces, even in the dim lighting. Zaviar slowly slips out of my reach as his blue eyes shift around the room, like a predator taking inventory of his prey. “We’re fine,” he says gruffly.
“Infection is rampant down here.” Krave’s tone is low and quiet, but he’s nearer than I realized. “Any minor scrape is a nice little home for the bacteria that suffocates the warm air in this place.”
Dried blood covers their arms here and there. I try to think back to the night my brother died, but through all the memories of the blood, I can’t remember if they were brutally hurt by the guards. Or even me.
Clearly, they were...
My heart sinks.
“I’m going to get you two out of here.” I turn to the incubus at my side with wide eyes and rushing thoughts. “Krave, get Viral. Tell him—tell him—”
Long tingling fingers catch mine. “Ari, that’s... that’s not possible, love.” The hurt in his black eyes is as palpable as the hurt slicing open my chest. “The king’s magic controls this cell. And only the king’s magic can open it.”
The walls press in on me. His words break me down, and the little hope I had left, until my knees shake like they might give out right beneath me.
“Where’s Ryke?” I blurt so loud that the question echoes up the bricks and around the dark ceiling.
