“Where are we going?” I asked, my voice unsteady.
“To the port at Southreach,” he said against my ear. “We’ll take a ship to The Spire from there.”
“How long?”
“Another full day of riding.”
Gods. I would burst into flame by then.
I swallowed hard and tried to shift, but there was no escape from the firm wall of his body. I could feel every movement he made. Every twitch of muscle, every breath. My skin felt too tight. My blood too hot.
“What happens at The Spire?”
“I will present you to the Knight Eternal.”
Oh, holy hell of hells. That was theirking.The oldest Death Mage. The most powerful. No one knew his real age, not outside of The Spire, anyway. Some whispered that he had absorbed so much darkness, so many demons, that he was immortal. “Why? I don’t want to meet him.”
“He will dissolve your betrothal to Jarrick and give you to me.”
“What if he doesn’t?” I was not marrying Jarrick. I didn’t care what I had to do. Run away again. Throw myself into the sea—I happened to be a very strong swimmer. Figure out how to use my magic and burn the entire Spire to the ground. I didn’t want a Death Mage to begin with. Devin? Something about him felt right. That did not mean I would accept any other Death Mage.
“He will.”
“So, we get married? Then what?” I wanted him to tell me all the wicked, naughty things he was going to do to me. His hard thighs pressed to the back of mine. His bulging cock pushed against my ass, rocking into me with every step the horsetook. At this rate, I’d lose my sanity by midday. How was he able to speak as if completely unaffected? Was my ass not soft enough? My breasts not heavy enough where they rested over his forearm? Did my odor offend?
“I will take you to the heart of The Spire. Show you the Rift. It’s where the Veil is thinnest. Where the shadows press hardest. It’s also where the wards were first cast—when the last Starborn mated to a Death Mage and used sex magic to power the runes.”
I turned my head slightly, enough to catch his profile. “Sex magic?” Holy hells. My pussy clenched at what that implied. Would we actually burn with magic when he claimed me?
He looked at me, his silver eyes unreadable.
“Yes,” he said simply. “The bond between us—if it’s real—it’s more than magic. It’s soul deep. Powerful. The bond will change both of us.”
Change me? Change him? I didn’t like that. Not even a little.
I faced forward again; arms crossed tightly over my chest. “What if I don’t want it?”
“Then we break it. If we can.”
“You’re not sure.”
“No,” he admitted. “Starborn bonds aren’t like other magic. They’re rare. Sacred. You’re the first in over five hundred years.”
We rode in silence for a while, the rhythm of the horse beneath us lulling me into a strange, restless calm. The sun was warm on my skin. The trees rustled softly above us, whispering secrets I didn’t understand as my awareness of Devin shifted from the heat of his body to the shadows
“When are you going to tell me the truth?” I asked finally.
“About Jarrik?” His voice darkened.
“No. Aboutyou.”
His grip on the reins tightened slightly. “What about me?”
“I can feel it,” I whispered. “The darkness in you.” I didn’t know how to describe what I sensed inside him. “You’re unraveling.”
He said nothing. Denied nothing. I wasn’t sure what the coiled shadows inside him meant, or where they would lead us. I didn’t know if they were new or something that always existed inside a Death Mage. I didn’t even know what to ask. The silence stretched long and thin between us. The tense muscles in his arm that he’d wrapped around my waist didn’t make the storm inside me any easier to weather. His body heat made me want to melt into him. Everything about him called to me on an elemental level I couldn’t resist or explain.
The truth was, every moment I spent with him, I was spiraling—falling into a fire I didn’t ask for. My identity, my newly awakened magic, mysoul—all burning brighter and hotter because he was near. I’d vowed never to accept my betrothal to Jarrick because he was a Death Mage. So why was I suddenly unable to resist another of his kind? Nothing made sense.
