She bucked her hips up, but I forcibly pushed them back down, biting her lip and drawing blood in the process. She cursed at me, but I just licked the blood away before biting her neck in turn. She should know hissing at me like a cat only served to make me punish her for her misbehavior.
She hated marks on her skin, so I continued sucking them into her neck and down her collarbone. She squeezed down hard around my cock, making me swear. She chuckled hoarsely, and I thrust in faster, feeling my release creeping up on me.
She began fluttering around my cock, making me groan as I spilled myself inside her. She followed right after me, and I leaned my forearms against the wall to hold myself and her up.
It may not be what it could be, had she been Asteria. But I couldn’t complain. And soon, I’d have them both. Neither one allowed to leave my side or my bed.
And as soon as her father arrived with his forces, I’d be set to make my move.
Chapter Forty-two
Asteria
My hand tightenedaround Calix’s as I stared down the portal at the other end of the room.
He squeezed it back, gently pulling me down the bridge before us. On either side of it, the night waters of the Otherworld floated far below, twinkling in the light of the portal. The bridge was crafted entirely of star opal and arched high over the water, leading directly to the portal.
I looked down at the drop, reminding myself I could fly and had no reason to be concerned now. Calix chuckled, “It will probably take a while before human fears like heights leave you completely.”
“So unfair,” I grumbled.
He smirked at me, but my attention was taken by the immense portal before us. It was tall and circular, stretching to the cavern’s ceiling, and was surrounded by a ring of star opal that shimmered and shined brightly. Stalagmites of star opal surrounded the portal where it loomed at the end of the bridge, while stalactites extended from the ceiling in jagged points.
But inside the star opal, the portal itself swirled in a black mass. It looked like liquid smoke and swirling tar in turn. The thought of stepping into it… I swallowed hard.
“We’re supposed to go throughthat?” I asked shakily, hating the tremor in my voice.
“Hey.” Calix turned to me, lifting my chin up to meet his eyes. “You are Asteria Earendel. Queen of Day. Future queen of Night. The former human who is going to destroy the pompous prince of Dusk. You managed to bring the great King Calix to his knees, my réalta. You can do absolutelyanything.”
I smiled widely, leaning up to kiss him. I mumbled against his lips, “So humble you are, my dorchadas.”
He rumbled a laugh, “I have no need to be humble.”
I shook my head at him with a fond smile. It was true, of course. I wouldn’t be humble if I were him, either.
“You are a force of nature. A flaming comet that crashed into my life and turned it upside down,” Calix said, the colors of the Aurora creeping into his eyes. “You will walk into Tartarus and make it bow toyou. Not the other way around. Understand?”
“And will it bow toyou?” I raised a brow at him, but my shoulders leveled, and I straightened my spine. He was right. I could do this. I wouldn’t let even Tartarus itself scare me.
I’d tried so hard to keep control of my emotions since I was young, letting rage win out to hide the fear that plagued me deep inside. But something told me that walking into the personification of everyone’s worst nightmares would bring that fear to the fore in a way Cyrus only wished he could.
I was stronger than that,right?
But fuck… Tartarus itself!
This wasinsane.
“Of course it will. I’m withyouafter all,” he teased, pulling me toward the portal.
I took a deep breath. Calix looked to me, waiting for me to be ready. I gave him a nod, and together… we both stepped forward, our boots going through the swirling black mist.
Our bodies fell through the mist, and I closed my eyes until a haunting roar reached my ears. I opened my eyes, finding Calix beside me, still gripping me tightly as he looked around with eyes as wide as my own.
We stood on a black stone path, with jagged boulders lining it on either side, leading to a fork in the road just ahead of us. The sky was a dark grey color, rumbling with flashes of lightning. In the distance, a volcano burst with lava and plumes of smoke. Screams and whimpers of pain reached my ears from a distance, along with a maniacal kind of laughter that disturbed me greatly.
We looked at one another and, by mutual agreement, turned to walk in the opposite direction from where that laugh had come from. Since it came from the left, we immediately took the path leading right instead.
We crept along it, trying to stay as quiet as possible. But a sudden growl made me jump, and I looked up to find a deranged version of a mountain cat facing us. Its bright yellow eyes were locked on us as it licked its sharp teeth. Calix growled back at it, and it stood up, its burgundy fur bristling.
