Her hands reach into my pants, fingers tightening around me.Don’t do it, Zarreth. She’s the one in control.But then she wets her lips, and the thought shreds in an instant.
“Tell me this is mine,” she breathes, never looking away.
My hips jerk. I’m so fucking turned on. “My cock has always been yours, little mate.”
“Yeah.” I hear a scoff. “Along with your balls.”
“Oh my God!” Frankie yells, releasing me and hiding her face between my legs.
Fucking Kara! This is the second time she’s snuck up on me. I button my pants and help Frankie to her feet. “What the fuck do you want?” I seethe, my teeth clenched so hard they nearly break.
“Oh no, the big, bad firefly is mad. Maybe he’ll sic his mate on us,” she laughs, and it’s all I can do to remind myself she’s not Ronin. If she were, he’d already be on his back by now.
Brynn smacks her arm. “We’re not here to watch. We need him.Now.”
Frankie’s face is bright red, but her voice carries the smallest hint of laughter. “You realize you have the absolute worst timing ever, right?”
Kara raises an eyebrow. “I don’t know. Seems like perfect timing to me.”
I narrow my eyes at her, then shift my attention to Brynn. “Need me forwhat?”
“More creatures have been spotted near the portal. We can kill them, but they don’t stay dead. Your fire seems to be the only thing that works.”
More creatures? Where do they keep coming from? “I’ll help. But only if you stop calling me firefly.”
Kara crosses her arms, pouting like a child instead of a thousand-year-old falkyrie. “Why? You have badass fire skills and you can fly. It’s perfect.”
Brynn rolls her eyes. “Fine. We’ll call you what the stories call you.”
I arch a brow, but Frankie is the one to ask. “Stories?”
“Yes,Emberlord,” she says. “We’ve heard the tales. A creature of wing and flames, said to be the last of the demons born of dragon blood. They say the Emberlord can sweep across the skies, burning forests and fortresses in a single breath.”
I’m surprised the legend made it to the Light Realm. I haven’t heard anyone mention the dragon-blooded demons in years. “You could always just call me by my name.”
“Why would we do that? It’s so much fun getting under your skin,” Kara says.
I shake my head, not bothering to respond.
“Anyway, we have to report to the Queen. The guards posted at the portal can answer any questions you might have.
Frankie finishes tying her boots and stands up straight. “I’ll go with you. I want to check on Jess.”
After they leave, I shoot into the sky. The realm spreads out under me in a wash of color. Peaks of blue and purple crystals reflect the sun’s rays into the valleys. Rivers thread between them like silver glowing veins. Even the air tastes clean, radiating with the kind of magic that never existed in the Dark Realm.
The farther I fly, the more it changes. The ridges lose their shine and turn to rough gray stone. The rivers blacken and slow like they’re made from tar. By the time the portal’s mountain comes into view, the ground is nothing but jagged, dark rock split by cracks of dry earth.
The portal, itself, looks like a wound torn into the base of the mountain. Streaks of red pulse through the obsidian oval, almost like it’s bleeding. Even from here, I can see more creatures spilling out, some dragging themselves, others crawling on too many legs.
Falkyrie guards hold the line at the base. Their spears flash with light as they cut down whatever gets close. A winged guard dives past another’s shoulder, driving her spear through a creature’s chest. The thing folds, then jerks back to life until she drives the blade deeper and twists.
Another one gets past them. How the fuck are they so fast? I drop out of the sky, catching it mid-leap with a burst of fire. It hits the ground, already burning.
The scent of scorched rot and sulfur hits me when I near the guards. The falkyrie I land beside doesn’t glance at me as she swings her spear, shoving another creature back toward the portal’s edge.
I burn it, looking around to make sure we got them all. “Do you think the portal’s twisting the wildlife, too, or are these things crossing through?”
She shrugs, breathing hard, her clothing splattered with blood. “A bit of both. Some of these beauties were born here. The rest we caught crawling straight out of that thing.” She tilts her head toward the portal. “It slowed down for a week. I was almost getting bored. Then they came back again a few days ago.”
