His cock throbbed as he came inside her, his vision blackening with its intensity. Auraelia’s pussy still pulsed around him as he slowly rocked his hips into hers, drawing out every drop of pleasure.
Only when her muscles relaxed did he ease out of her, a mixture of both their releases seeping out and trailing down her ass.
Daemon carefully unfolded Auraelia’s legs. As he pulled her body against his own, she curved against him, her body nestling perfectly against his. Using his shadows, Daemon gently pulled the sheets over their bodies and pressed a kiss to her shoulder. “I love you, my star.”
A contented sigh slipped through Auraelia’s lips as she snuggled deeper into the covers and him, bringing his arm to runparallel to her chest. She clung to it and kissed the back of his hand. “And I love you.”
As her breathing evened out, the air leaving her lips and tickling the hair on his arm, Daemon pulled her as close as he possibly could, then closed his eyes and let sleep wash over him.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Caius
The trip back to Garnet had taken longer than he had anticipated.
The residual weight of the blood runes that Queen Auraelia had placed around that room was still a heavy blanket over him, slowly draining his strength until that connection had been severed.
He’d underestimated the new queen. Never thought for a moment that she would get entangled in blood magic. It didn’t matter that drawing blood runes was the most basic of skills when learning the art. Her magic wasstrong, and he’d felt the weight of it settle upon his shoulders as soon as he’d manifested in that room.
His body ached. Between the draining effects of using his own magic, coupled with what Auraelia had done, and Davina’s injuries' impact on his own body, he was exhausted.
The frigid air beyond the Onyx mountains kissed his cheeks as his feet finally touched down on familiar territory, and the sound of snow crunched beneath his boots as he walked the rest of the way toward the imposing structure of Bloodstone Castle.
Having been carved straight from the mountainside, its tall walls were pitch black—a stark contrast against the glistening white powder that settled upon its spires and coated the ground around it. Ground into the stone, however, were fragments of garnets. Their color was so rich and deep that they were barely noticeable until the sun’s rays shone down and illuminated the gems, giving the illusion that blood dripped down the castle’s walls.
Caius inhaled the crisp air deep into his lungs. Let it lift the last fragments of magic from Auraelia’s runes from his skin and recharge the flurry of ice and snow that coursed through his veins, then let it carry him the rest of the way into the castle.
Sweltering heat slammed into him as soon as he stepped foot inside, beads of sweat instantly coating his brow.
Heads moved on a swivel around him, servants dipping into low bows before scurrying away to finish whatever task had been handed to them. It hadn’t always been this way. The people in their court used to be happy, laugh, and smile. But that wasn’t the case any longer. And he hated it.
Hated that they feared him just because of whom he was blood-bonded. Hated the fact that Davina had caused everyone in their court to turn against him, againstthem, in her tirade against her cousin. Torturing anyone who dared cross her.
It was madness.
Caius had just turned down the hall toward his room when a strangling grip squeezed around his heart, sucking the air from his lungs and causing his knees to buckle.
“Davina,” he ground out through clenched teeth. He staggered, letting the wall hold him up until his ability to breathe returned and his legs were stable once more. Once the effect had fully subsided, he pushed off and continued toward his room.
She could wait. He needed to change, needed to sleep so that he could regain the strength that she’d taken from him when she’d fallen at the hands of her cousin. He’d warned her not to attack Auraelia’s sleepy little city, but once again, she didn’t listen.
He got all of two steps down the hall when the sensation returned, stronger and more insistent than the previous. “Fuck,” he groaned, clutching where his heart seemed to be trying to burst from his chest. Warm liquid trailed down his upper lip and he hastily swiped it away, his hand painted in the deep crimson that was his blood.
Pulling on his remaining strength, Caius let his magic bring him to the person he had once loved but had come to despise.
Davina was prone in her bed, her eyes heavy with exhaustion, and each of her arms wrapped in bandages from shoulder to fingertip. Snow packs had been settled along the bandages, dripping steadily onto the floor beneath her bed. He just looked at her for a moment, his heart squeezing in his chest for an entirely different reason now than it had mere moments ago.
She looked calm and almost like the girl he remembered from their youth. The one who had pleaded with him to bind their lives together so they would never have to be apart. Whose eyes shone with love and mirth every time she laughed or danced. Who used to sneak out of the castle at night to stand beneath the flurries as they danced through the air and gazed up at the stars with hope in her heart.
But then her eyelids fluttered open, and her crimson gaze landed on him—hard and unmoving—and he remembered exactly why he’d chosen to turn to Auraelia. Why he’d decided that the possibility of death was more bearable than a life standing at Davina’s side.
The girl he once knew was gone.
Her heart had turned colder than the ice surrounding their home, and he wasdone.
“What do you want, Davina?” he asked, trying to keep the rage from his voice and the sneer from his lips.
Ice that didn’t bow to his will seized his heart, filling his veins. “Is that any way to speak to the lady of this court? To the future queen of all of Ixora?”
