:I cannot.:He gnashed his teeth, struggling beneath me, trying to toss me aside.:Refuse. To risk you.:He softened his voice, his bond aching with sadness.:You have more Blood now. Feed on me as you will. I love everything you do to me. It will be enough.:
Enough. For me to use him when I hungered. But not to love him. Not to embrace his true form out of fear.
That’s not the kind of queen I want to be.
My jaw clenched with determination.:I’m not afraid of you.:
:You should be.:He paused, a trickle of what I could only call malice slipping into his bond.:Youwillfear me.:
I closed my eyes for a moment, allowing my chin to tip down against my chest. I sank into myself, listening for the goddess. A whisper. A word of direction.
Deeper, past rocky earth tangled with roots into pure darkness, untouched by the sun. Waters rippled, welling up out of the eternal spring at the base of Yggdrasil. Watering not just the world tree but all the realms and dimensions touched by our goddesses’ magic. Even in the darkness, I could see the thick arching roots were wet and healthy, not dry and barren. The waters flowed once more because of my sacrifice.
I shifted my focus to Svar. A similar blockage clogged his chest. Hindering him from all I could share with him. He would linger for eternity, slowly withering away, his roots as dry and brittle as Yggdrasil’s had been.
Unless I freed him. By embracing his entire being with such love he had never known.
SVAR
It would be betterif she feared me. Then there would be no chance I might harm her. She would be safe if I returned to Niflhel. I could sleep, like we’d been doing before we heard her Call.
I didn’t have to go back to the pit.
Though I couldn’t lie even to myself. I would go. Eventually.
Especially since I’d tasted my queen’s blood and felt her pleasure. Nothing would ever be able to compare to such bliss again. I didn’t think I’d be strong enough to sleep for eternity. Not without Dörr’s and Myrk’s solid comfort on either side of me.
The absence of all sensation would drive me insane. Need would consume even my dreams until sleep eluded me. The need to feel. Something. Anything. Even pain and disgust at my own dark urges.
Her head hung low, her shoulders slumped. If I had a heart at all, it would break at seeing my proud, courageous queen so distraught because of me. I stared at her slim back, tracing the delicate ridges of her spine with my eyes. Black sludge smeared her skin from wallowing in Dörr’s essence. I hadn’t even known he carried so much Darkness it would leak out all over the bed. Let alone that she might?—
She shifted her weight forward, which lifted her buttocks off my stomach enough for me to stare at the soft flesh of her pussy. She glistened with an oily sheen, a volatile mix of semen and Darkness and her own desire.
She still wanted. She still needed.
Transfixed by that realization, it took me a moment for my mind to register sensation. To make the connections.
Her fingers gripped my barbed tip in a surprisingly firm squeeze, making my eyes flare wide and my breath still.
“You’re my Blood,” she said in a light, agreeable tone of voice that rattled me more than her touch on the deadliest part of my anatomy. “So this is mine too, is it not?”
I had no response. I couldn’t even think. Frozen. With dread. Anticipation. Afraid she might try to fuck me, and then…
“I want an answer, Svar.”
She didn’t look back at me over her shoulder, but her tone lowered. The shadowed power she’d bound me with tightened with her will. The part in my mouth thickened and swelled, gagging me from speaking despite her words.
Because she wanted me to use the bond she’d forged in her blood.
I could feel each drop she’d given me burn against the Darkness I carried. Glittering rubies against an infinite night.
:Every drop of foulness I carry inside me is yours, my queen.:
Evidently she didn’t like my words, because the shadow in my mouth shoved deeper, forcing my jaws open wider. Though her voice lightened back to pleasant lightness. “That’s what I thought.”
Her buttocks lifted more as she dipped forward. Tormenting me with what I could not touch. Did not dare to touch. Not in this form. The thought of sliding into her delicate, tight channel made me shudder. Harder. Because her fingers danced along the flared ridges of my cock. I strained against her bonds, desperate to escape. Before I harmed her. One accidental touch on those edges would slice her open, causing irreparable damage.
Her moist, warm breath ghosted over my flesh, and I started to babble.:Please, don’t, I can’t allow you to do this. I’ll never forgive myself. Dörr should’ve left me in the pits. He should have tossed me back into the Slough himself.:
