“I like it,” Trinity praised, back to her Múspellsheimr side, likely because they were talking about something so dark. “My kind of black magic.”
“Itisthat,” Cian agreed, a hint of appreciation in his voice, but then hewasa dark wizard. “Very black and rarely if ever used in this world.”
“Oh my God.” Raven stopped short when the realization hit. She frowned at Cian. “I created it, didn’t I?”
When Tor was forced to stop short, too, he stopped closer to her than need be.
“Tá,” Cian confirmed. “You created the safeguard you saved us from.”
“For what possible reason?” she asked but suspected she knew when her body again went into overdrive at Tor’s proximity. He had a way of swamping her senses that went beyond the lust caused by being in heat.
“To bring us closer.” He rested his strong warm hand on her shoulder and murmured in her ear. “To remind us how much we cared about each other. What we had.”
Tor was right. Hehadbeen the primary one her dragon wanted saved. And it had been a stark wake-up call as to how connected they might actually be.
Her dragon eyes erupted in response to his touch, and red hazed her vision. She became acutely aware of his hot, hard body at her back. Of his sizeable erection pressed against her. Blazing pleasure shot to her core. A sharp, telling ache blossomed. An undeniable need.
“I get the lusting,” Trinity cut into the moment, clearly sensing it, “I really do. But my dragon’s starting to feel unsettled.”
“Mine too,” Vicar said. “There’s a growing tension in this tunnel it doesn’t understand nor like.”
“It’s my seer magic again,” she managed, barely able to focus now. Lost in the feel of Tor. She closed her eyes and tilted her head when he flicked his tongue over the side of her neck. “It’s...urging us along.”
It didn’t take Trinity long to figure out what she meant. “Like urging you to slake your lust?”
“Yes,” Cian confirmed dryly. “Raven would have been determined to lay with Tor whether she forgave him or not. She would have put every safeguard in place just in case being in heat didn’t do the trick.”
“How many safeguards?” she said hoarsely, pulling on a tremendous amount of willpower not to chant away her clothing then and there. Anything to feel Tor closer. Touching her. Filling her. “Because this is....” Impossible to fight? Unbelievably intense? “A little ridiculous. How desperate was I? Being in heat should have been enough.”
“Desperate enough to take every measure,” Cian said. “Which should tell you something.”
The way he said it made her take pause. He’d been close to telling her something he should not, hadn’t he? She could feel it. A secret so profound that it took almost more magic than he was capable of to keep it from her. Lucky for him, he was in his own way, yet another safeguard, or she would have already dragged it from him.
“Tell them to leave us be,” Tor murmured against her overly sensitive skin. He wrapped a strong arm around her and pulled her back more firmly against his throbbing arousal. “Or let them stay and watch. Either way, let me have you now, woman. Let me show you how good it can be.”
But of course,youwould showme.” She might be a hundred types of aroused, but him saying that gave her just enough clarity to finally yank away. She glared over her shoulder at him. “Because Revna aside, you knew I was coming andstillhad sex with others.”
“Forgiveness,” Cian echoed, but she ignored him and continued down the tunnel a little quicker this time. How was sheevergoing to forgive Tor? It seemed impossible.
“Why when your sisters forgave their mates?”Tor countered telepathically.“Because my cousins knew they were destined for futuristic women, yet they too lay with women here.”
He made a good point, but it didn’t make her any less aggravated. Likely because of the avalanche of hormones and everything else racing through her. Thanks to being in heat, she was an emotional mess, and she suspected it was going to get her in trouble before all was said and done
“Your cousins weren’t the ones who relayed the prophecy,” she bit back. “And again, not the ones who fell in love with someone from here. That’s a bit of a biggie whether it was me inside Revna or not.”
Raven knew she was somehow to blame for that too, but she couldn’t see reason. Just anger and betrayal at both himandherself. She had been forced into virginity of her own accord while he went on to sleep with others. Not just that but likely came pretty close to sleeping with Revna. That meant kissing and touching and everything she had just felt moments before. Hot, erotic moments.
“I was kissing and touching you, not Revna,” he reminded. “Loving you, not her.”
“You didn’t know that!” She strode even faster, navigating the tight areas like she had done it dozens of times before. “That was another woman’s flesh. Another woman’s lips.”
Because at the end of the day, itwas.She might have been inside Revna, but it was the seer’s body he had enjoyed, not hers.
“Yet it will be your body soon enough,” he returned, following her thoughts. “Again and again, over and over, until you feel what I feel. Until you understand what I realized when I touched you the first time. How it was only ever you.”
A delicious thrill went through her at the promise in his voice. His sheer determination. She was about to reply that time would tell but lost her train of thought when she entered a daunting yet wholly mystical cave full of stalagmites and stalactites. So many, so big, that they created cathedral-like hallways steeped in glittering black Vanaheim mist.
“We used to come here all the time,” she murmured moments before another memory manifested. This time they were older and in human form. Maybe seventeen or so. They strolled together slowly. Raven was, as always, transparent. Tor was tall but more gangly and without a beard.
