It didn’t take long for her inner walls to tighten around me, to suddenly start convulsing as she cried out, her eyes squeezed tight. I pressed one last kiss to her lips and held there, buried deep, as she shattered in my arms.
Only when she came back down did I start mindlessly thrusting again. My release was so close that it only took a few moments before I followed with a groan, my climax tearing through me.
For a long moment, neither of us moved. Just clung to each other in the sweltering dark, sweat-slicked skin pressed tight, breath mingling.
“Holy hell,” she whispered, barely audible.
I let out a low, satisfied grunt and kissed her temple, revelling in the aftershocks.
She drew back just enough to look up at me, her eyes still dazed. “That…counts as a full meal, right?”
I grinned. “A feast fit for a king.”
She giggled, which only made me groan again. I slowly pulled out of her, then lowered her feet back to the ground.
I brushed a light kiss against her lips, smiling.
“Let’s not go back to camp tonight,” she said. “I just want to be alone with you.”
I understood. Alone sounded like pure bliss. But… “This place isn’t exactly comfortable.” Here, we had no bedrolls, no blankets. Nothing but each other.
“I know,” she said. “But I’d rather us be alone over comfort right now.”
I nodded. “Then we stay. It’s not like I’m eager to be roasted by Eliza’s commentary again.”
We begrudgingly dressed—because sleeping naked in Hell was stupid—then lay down together. Lily curled into my side like it was the most natural thing in the world. Her hand landed over my heart, and her breath evened out against my skin.
She stared up at the sky, or the illusion of it, painted in red and ash and flame. “Think Eliza or Levi will try to find us?”
“They know better,” I murmured, stroking her hair.
“Good.”
We fell quiet after that.
The tower groaned once beneath us, a low protest in the windless dark, but neither of us flinched. The distant roar of geysers. The hiss of burning gases. The occasional wingbeatof something large circling high above. All of it was just background noise now.
Because we were together and, for once, alone. And that was all that mattered.
Chapter Seven
LILY
I shotawake at the sound of a piercing scream.
I instantly bolted to my feet, my breath caught in my throat. Rathiel already stood next to me, just as alert, his eyes wide as he scanned our surroundings. For a moment, it was so quiet that I wondered if I’d imagined the scream. Maybe I’d dreamed it? But then why was Rathiel on guard as well? Or had he simply responded to me?
A second scream rent the air, confirming I hadn’t imagined anything.
Cursing under his breath, Rathiel instinctively reached for me. He snatched my waist, forced out his wings, then shot us up into the air. I barely had time to wrap my arms around his neck before we were airborne and racing toward the screams.
And right toward our camp.
We tore through the hot air, the smoky wind cutting past us in searing bursts. When a third scream reached us, my gut tightened and my heart pounded in my chest. Iknewwho wasscreaming, and every worst-case scenario ripped through my head.
Had Lucifer sent his forces? Had they found our camp? It wouldn’t take a genius to find us—we were staying at our former rebellion base, for crying out loud. Likely the stupidest thing we could have done. Rathiel, Eliza, and I had been so careful to always keep on the move. But once we’d joined with Calyx, Levi, Gorr, Mephisar, and Sable, we’d grown overconfident.
Were we paying for that cockiness now?
