Courtney glared at me, but she darted out of my path. She knew she’d given us more than just a staircase. Trey smiled. “Thank you kindly.”
He marched up the stairs and flung open the door to his old room. He must’ve taken the keys from Ayaz. He dropped his clothes onto a chair and went to open a window.
“It smells like a Turkish bathhouse in here.”
I thought it smelled amazing. Touches of Ayaz were everywhere – the stack of art and architecture books piled up beside the TV, the boxes of weird spices and strong coffee scent in the kitchen, the heavy metal playlist flicking across the sound system. I picked up a black hoodie draped over the back of a chair and pulled it over my shoulders, breathing in Ayaz’s rich opium scent.
He’s back.My heart did a little dance.He might not remember everything that happened between us, but he remembers how I made him feel.
That’s enough. That will always be enough.
Trey sank down into his expensive sofa and pulled Parris’ skin book across the table toward him. Already, his mind worked over the next phase of our plan. I knew him well enough to see that the showdown with Courtney in the hallway was for the benefit of the whole school. Trey had already started to take back control.
My King. My mirror.
I shoved my hands into my pockets. My eye sockets ached with tiredness, but I needed to get this out. “The god spoke to me while I was asleep.”
BANG.The book slammed on Trey’s knees. He whipped his head around, fixing me with that ice stare. “What’s he got to say for himself?”
“The usual nonsensical gibberish. I asked him what the pillar was and he said, ‘it is a piece.’ A piece of what? He wouldn’t elaborate. He didn’t explain how I was the key or what it unlocked. But he did give me some good news about you guys.” I relayed what the god had told me about taking away his gifts to give to a new brood of children, leaving out the bargain I had struck. If Trey knew what I was planning, he’d try to stop me, and that wasn’t happening.
I’d already agreed – the price of my Kings’ freedom was my own servitude.
It was a price I’d happily pay a hundred times over to give the Kings a second chance at life. What did my life matter? I wasn’t giving up much of value – as soon as the police caught up with me, I’d be going to jail anyway.
I just wish…
Trey’s face remained as impassive as stone. “All this time, the god had a solution, and he was willing to help. I guess no one ever thought to ask him.”
“I don’t think he’s as evil as everyone makes him out to be.” I shuddered as I heard the faintest shadow of the god’s voice screaming between my ears. “I’m mean, heis, but only because his rules of right and wrong are completely different than ours. I guess it’s kind of rude to hold him to our ideals. But at the heart of it, there’s something universal that connects us – otherwise, the god wouldn’t be drawn to me. He’s lonely and he feels guilty about the death of the cosmic deity he loved. And maybe he couldn’t articulate that until the Eldritch Club stuffed him full of human souls, but that doesn’t change the fact hefeels.”
“Mmmm.” Trey patted the cushion next to him. “Sit with me.”
The command in his voice stoked the fire inside me. No one else but Trey could order me around and make me love it so much, make my body bend toward him and my core throb for more.
I plopped down on the couch next to him. Trey wrapped his arms around me. I sank against him, breathing in his scent, so different from Ayaz’s, so utterly not what I’d expect. It always made me smile that a guy who was supposed to a King of the undead smelled of all things fresh and living – of spring herbs and wild-blossoms and cypress wood coated with dew.
“You’re something else, you know that?” Trey murmured against my throat, his lips grazing my skin. “Only you could find somethingrelatableabout that ball of malevolent shadow. But that’s why you’re the first person who I ever truly believed could lift this curse. You’re one-of-a-kind, out-of-this-world…”
A moan escaped me as Trey used his lips on mine to continue his thoughts. My exhaustion fell away under his touch. I tangled my hands in his hair, bringing his cruel lips to mine. Trey pulled me against him. His hard body pressed against mine, all our angles and corners fitting together, smoothing out and softening. I arched toward him, desperate to claim more of him.
“Shouldn’t we…” I nudged the skin book with my foot.
“Not now.” Trey shoved Parris’ book off the couch and pulled me onto his lap. I straddled him, grinding my hips against his hardness as I plunged my tongue inside his mouth, claiming my first taste of him in far, far too long. Trey brushed his hand over my thigh and shuddered with want. “Right now I need you.”
This is a bad idea.
Being close to Trey was like falling over a waterfall – once you jumped, you’d committed yourself to drowning. Sure, the fall was exhilarating, but under the water lurked all the things that would wreck your life forever.
To him, I was the same – a current dragging him under, knocking his carefully-curated world off-balance. But as much as we knew the pain we could cause to each other, we couldn’t help ourselves. The thrill of the fall and the lure of those dark, unexplored waters was too strong.
I pulled back, struggling to catch my breath, to give myself a moment. Trey thought I was changing positions, so he scooped me in his arms, lifting me off the couch and heading for his room.
“Trey… mmmm…” His mouth crushed mine, driving away my protests. My body succumbed to his. I wrapped my legs around his back, grinding myself harder against him, feeling the rush of heat as his hard cock brushed my clit.
Trey threw me down on the bed and climbed up next to me, his hands skimming my body, stoking my nerve endings to life. Fire tore through me – flames to turn the waterfall to steam, to burn away my doubts. I succumbed to it, letting the heat soak me, igniting my body into a torch that burned bright beneath Trey’s fiery kiss.
He tore at my clothes, shedding his own as though they were poison to him. Hot skin met skin, stoking the fire inside me into a raging inferno. Trey cupped a breast, roughly tonguing my nipple until I gasped. My nails raked down his back hard enough to draw blood.
