His mouth found my nipple, tongue circling the tender and swollen flesh as he worked it over. I felt my exhaustion in every muscle, in every place where our bodies came together over and over again without reprieve. Every time I thought Etan’s cock couldn’t continue to give, I found him hard and ready, seeking the heat between my thighs as soon as I caught my breath.
“Etan,” I gasped, another orgasm threatening to consume me. It had long since become too much, my body so oversensitive that I couldn’t really tell where one orgasm ended or the next began. My thighs quaked as I pressed my hands into Etan’s chest, not caring what the pressure might have done to his back where he lay uncomfortablysplayed over the steps. Rolling my hips over him and lost to the movements that were somehow both mine and not, I rubbed my clit against his body as he bucked his hips and dragged his cock through my swollen flesh.
As my orgasm crested, his fingers tightened on my ass, bruising in intensity as he too was lost to the magic of the sanctuary. My eyes closed as I tossed my head back in pleasure. His cock seemed to swell within me, growing even harder in the absence of his own orgasm—when mine usually dragged him over the edge with me.
A warm, balmy breeze blew through the clearing, bringing with it the scent of summer in a rush of sand and salt. My eyes opened slowly, finding Etan staring up at me in awe as the breeze caught my hair and blew it back from my face. Bright orange and coral petals from the nearby dahlia plants spread with the wind. They swirled around us like a cyclone, surrounding me as the wind picked up stronger.
Reality crept back in, chasing away some of the magic that made my hips continue to move in spite of the summer storm surging around us. The branches of the trees creaked as they angled in the wind, but Etan released my ass to grab my hands in his and draw my attention back to him.
“With me, Sunfire. Don’t you dare fucking stop,” he said, thrusting up so sharply that a pinch of pain speared through me as he struck the end of me. He adjusted his position, releasing only my right hand to sit and using his hand to support his weight so that he brought us face-to-face. His mouth came down on mine all over again, his tongue surging into my mouth and stoking the flames of desire all over again.
The breeze kissed my breasts, the warmth of it gliding down the valley between them and over my stomach, teasing the place where Etan and I were joined. I gasped into his mouth, pulling back at the unfamiliar feeling.
“What—” I started to ask, but Etan shook his head and guided my hand to his shoulder. Once I gripped him, he moved his hand back to my ass and guided me up and down, moving me on his cock.
“Don’t stop. Let the magic take what it needs,” he said, his voice gentle and reassuring even though I knew hehadto feel it. Soft, teasing touches of the wind explored us as we moved, barely a tickle like a feather, but present no less. It surrounded us, wrapping us in an embrace as Etan groaned beneath me.
His brow furrowed as he crashed his mouth onto mine, thisorgasm that came barreling toward us feeling different from all the rest. I tossed my head back as I rolled my hips, bringing both of us closer to it. His mouth sealed over my nipple, teeth gently pinching the flesh and tongue working it over as I stared up at the sky.
The sun seemed to brighten as I watched, my body heating from within. Suddenly too warm, I wished Etan and I had been farther into the water so it could cool my skin.
He shoved his hand between us, brushing two fingers over my clit twice before I shattered, shaking as the orgasm consumed me. I was vaguely aware of his groan that matched my cry, his warmth filling me to the brim.
I hadn’t even caught my breath in the aftershocks of pleasure when the sun flashed, the brightness of it blinding me as I closed my eyes to protect them. All-consuming pain spread through me, barreling down my throat and burning me from the inside out. The side of my neck felt like I’d been burned alive, the fire trailing down my arm. I peeked out from sunblind eyes to stare at the once black Fae Marks as they bled into red.
I knew the moment Imelda’s wards failed within me, the magic of the Summer Court filling me in a way it had never done before. This was different, this wasmore,and Etan retracted his hands from my skin with a gasp as if I’d burned him.
“Sunfire,” he said, his voice gentle. I tried to stand, releasing his cock from my body, only to find that the parts of me that were within the water could not move. Locked together, I had to hope that the fire would not consume him, too. He risked the burn to cup my face in his hands, seemingly unbothered when light pulsed off my skin and crept along his forearms. “You’re okay. It’s just Rheaghan’s magic, the magic of the Summer Court, choosing its new host. Stop fighting it.”
“It was supposed to choose you. I’m just your Queen,” I snapped, my teeth gritted together to fight the pain.
Etan smiled softly, touching his mouth to mine so gently it felt like he hugged my heart itself. “It was never going to be me,min solios,” he said, offering me his term of endearment in the old tongue.
My sun.
I drew in a deep breath, grimacing when the summer air around us poured itself down my throat, sinking into me in a way that made it feel as if I would never be cold again. My skin seemed to reflect the light of sunshine, shimmering lightly as I settled and accepted the magic that would not leave me be.
Accepted it as mine.
I sighed, the pain fading as soon as the magic had taken root within me. I shoved it down deep to the place where I could feel the incredibly faint remnants of what had been Imelda’s wards, their edges frayed and burned. But it clung to the wisps of them that remained, as if Rheaghan’s magic had simply strode through a door she left open.
I would not become a monster. I would not become like the woman who had made me.
Etan stood with me in his arms, bringing me deeper into the water and allowing it to cool my overheated skin. The gold was gone from his eyes now, leaving only Etan as the Primordials of this place fled, fed and satiated from all we’d given.
But that did not stop his cock from stirring all over again. Where we had previously been frenzied and passionate, seeking pleasure in each other’s bodies, we now moved in slow glides as he pressed my back against the edge of the pool and spread me wide.
Before, our passion had been forthem.
This one was forus.
TWENTY-FOURETAN
Fallon was quiet as she caught her breath, her face tucked into the crook of my neck. I had no desire to leave her, but also didn’t want to crush her with my weight unnecessarily. Every one of my limbs trembled, not from exertion but the crash of adrenaline as the last dredges of magic fled.
The choice had been made, and while I’d long suspected that Fallon would be the one who was chosen as the true heir, it didn’t ease the tiny sting I felt. It meant shehadto have magic of her own, that it was the Summer Court she truly called home, and even when she’d started to open up to me, that was one secret she’d kept for herself.
The Summer Court wouldn’t have chosen her to lead otherwise.
