Blue light gushed through her veins.
He was coming.
And this time, she’d be ready…
CHAPTER 14
Eye all but vacant, Kore walked.
Feet stumbling. Hands limp at her sides. Nudity peaking through tattered rags, her flesh jiggled as she trudged through wet sand.
“I… I am… the chalice,” she murmured, her tone flat, despite the rasp in her voice where she’d been fucked raw.
Her feet splashed into the surf.
“I am Kore Dionari, of the divine flame, and I am the chalice,” she said again, stronger now, as she went to her knees. Skin throbbing where she’d been burned by the wrath of a sun god, cooled by the embrace of the sea. Chasing relief, Kore lay on damp sand and sighed as her thighs fell apart. The scorched skin of her back was soothed by the cool sand, scoured clean by the salt, no matter the burn.
Bathed in moonlight and seafoam, she exposed all that was swollen to the fathomless, ancient gaze of the deep. Fingers wandering as she stared up at the moon, she cupped taut breasts and twisted pebbled nipples, gasping when a wave slapped her mound with a shock of cold.
“I am the chalice,” she droned, shuddering at the way the water trickled over heated flesh. Washing away the remnants ofhis possession—she felt it seep from her body with a liquid gush. A viscous testament to all that had been done to her. All that would be done. “My body the altar.”
She was swollen. Aching with a need that surpassed mortal endurance.
But this was not surrender.
One hand tracing skin painted silver and blue, she framed her offer in prayer. Scant curves on full, lewd display. Legs splayed, knees parted as she found herself already slick and wanting. Her pussy heated, despite the chill of the ocean’s kiss.
Sinking two fingers inside, she set the trap with the sweetest lure. Poisoned the surf with sacred feminine water and strummed that needy pearl exactly as he had done. Thumbing her clit, seeking relief from that relentless throb his venom had inspired.
“I am the chalice.”
Above her, the stars shimmered in their celestial, endless dance. Indifferent to her plight, to the struggle raging within her.
“My body the altar.”
Her fingers squelched. Twisted. Tormenting beaded flesh.
“My blood the sacrifice no god wants.”
Heat bubbled through her skin, winding tighter as she worked.
“But you”—her breath hitched—“son of Poseidon… I feel you in my veins.” Digging her heels in, she flexed, tipping her sex to meet the next crashing wave.
And so she didn’t hear it when the water shifted.
She felt it.
A subtle change in the rhythm. The slap of cold seafoam lashed across her mound. And the rumble of something ancient rising from the deep. A song sung in her bones, it vibrated through every fiber of her being. Shook the sand beneath heruntil a solid went liquid and sucked her into a furious, possessive embrace.
Trapping her in place.
Her breath hitched, heart fluttering, but she persisted. Peeling gooey petals apart, she whispered, “I feel you in my marrow, beast. Staining my womb.”
Abandoning her nipple, she reached to hold herself open with two hands. Showing him what he’d done to that sacred sheath.
“You are the tide,” she said, back arching in the glove of sand when the sea splashed inside her. Cleansing her as the sand threatened to swallow her whole. But open, she remained. Inviting him to inspect what he’d defiled.
Nerves strung taut, teetering on the edge of a delirious fall, Kore spread her legs wider still. Her eyes fixed to the merciless glitter of indifferent stars above, her every spare ounce of attention ensnared by the ancient thing drifting closer. His impossible bulk shielding her from the crash of waves breaking and foaming across sleek, iridescent scales glimmering in her peripherals.
