All those bodies.
All that ash.
“You think you can take it?” I shouted, my voice ragged with fury. “You think you can make it disappear, just like that?”
I didn’t wait for an answer. I caught her by the hips and turned her, pressing her forward so she’d bend over Henrich’s tomb.
I’d use her to choke the storm, by fucking her the way the wolves did.
I gathered the folds of her pink gown, keeping her pinned to the cold stone with one hand. She squealed and wriggled as if she weren’t comfortable. I wasn’t there to be kind. She wanted this, then she’d have it on my terms. And we would see if she still wanted me after that, after she saw the monster.
The storm demanded release, and she’d made herself the perfect vessel for its wrath. And I, the perfect monster to wield it.
She deserved this. I deserved this. We all did.
I unbuttoned my breeches and freed my cock, still hard. I pushed her undergarments aside and entered her.
She was tight in all the wrong places.
My cock wasn’t even halfway in when she started squealing like a pig. A drunk sow.
I seized her by the nape of her neck and pressed, hard, her face digging into the cold stone.
I knew what I was doing, and shame didn’t even try to reach me. I was far beyond its grasp.
“Is that what you want?” I snarled, thunder coiling beneath each word. “To be fucked like the world wouldn’t care if you died?”
She didn’t respond. Her squeals turned to moans.
“Do you truly think you can take it away? Still deluding yourself that you can change me?”
I thrust into her, harder and faster. She clenched, shudders rippling through her, unable to take my full length.
I leaned over, caught her hair and yanked her head back up. My movements stilled. I thrust deeply, pressed close enough to whisper against her ear, “There’s no saving me, Selena. That’s another failure you’ll have to live with.”
She yelped. Tears spilled over her face. And in that moment, I understood. Selena hadn’t come to me for comfort or affection. She’d come seeking punishment.
Atonement for the things we’d done.
For the sins we called salvation.
I straightened, still digging her face into Henrich’s grave. The speed of my thrusts increased to a rhythm I reserved for hunts. Henrich’s name glared up at me like judgment itself.
Selena moaned. Loud, ragged, and broken. She was going to come apart all over my cock, screaming my name.
I thrust harder and harder, pounding Selena’s flesh in sinful slaps and clacks. If I tore her apart, maybe it would quiet the storm. Maybe it would drown the sound of Evie’s scream.
“Oh, Kael!”
The scent of roses suddenly threaded the air. Evie’s face appeared between my thoughts.
I saw her mouth.
I heard her voice.
I slowed my thrusts, feeling nothing but hate coursing through me. Anger. Rage. At first, I did not notice how Selena writhed beneath me, her body hungry for more.
All I saw was Evie.
