Tears pricked in my eyes. “Please.”
Just as he had the first night I met him, and many times since then, he opened the connection between us. I’d become accustomed to the feeling I had when it was open, but this time, the dominance of it was hypnotic.
“I have something for you. Something that might help.”
He leaned back, fumbling with a piece of cloth, and pulled out my horn. The relic I thought I lost when Mama kicked it off the balcony.
“Where did you get this?”
“Natalia found it. She had it cleaned and blessed by Chastity’s witches.”
After everything that had happened with Gorrath, I thought seeing it again would bring up other emotions. But it didn’t. The horn was separate from him. And having it back in my hands felt right. I gave Bastien a wary glance. “We don’t have to use it.”
“If it will help, I want to use it.”
The horn’s power switched on, vibrating insistently, as if it knew what I needed. He slid it between us, pressing it to the most sensitive part of me. My head tipped back. The force of the vibrations and our open bond pushed every thought from my mind.While he held the horn against me, I found a slow, steady rhythm. He kissed my neck. My breasts. Watching me intently as I chased the release only he could give.
His breath matched mine, jagged as the pleasure built inside me. Each whispered word sent me spiraling closer to release.
“Bastien,” I moaned, not bothering to use our bond. Whatever came next, I would carry this with me. The way his name felt on my lips, the way my heart beat in time with the bloodstone around his neck.
And for the first time in what felt like forever, I let go of everything I was carrying and came hard around his thick length, moaning his name as stars burst behind my eyes.
He lowered me onto the furs as waves of pleasure crested over me, picking up his pace. I could tell by the strangled look in his eyes that he was close. So very close to coming all the way undone.
Then I saw the change. The blackness that crept into his eyes as his fangs lengthened. Unafraid, I tilted my head to the side, bearing my neck for him. He was everything, all at once. And I only wanted more.
Bastien pressed his delicious lips to my heated skin, drinking me in body and soul as he continued to fuck me like the world was on fire.
Like he was a god. My god. The only one worthy of worship.
I dug my nails into his skin as his bite stretched out my pleasure. Deepening it. Transforming it into something I could taste.
He groaned, the sound vibrating against my skin as my name escaped him. “This is for you,” he said. My blood traced the line of his mouth as he came. Hard. Thewarmth filling me.
Our eyes met, and the blackness receded. Sweat dotted his brow. Blood stained his lips. But he didn’t look any less beautiful.
“I love you,” I whispered, taking his face between my hands. “I love you more than the sky could ever hold.”
He licked his lips. Cleaning what he could of the stain away. Then he offered me a smile. A genuine one I didn’t see very often, but when I did, it was just for me. “I love you, too.”
Chapter 47
Veillée
CLAIRE
Two weeks later
Today was the day of Tyson’s Investiture. The castle had been a flurry of planning and decorating. We’d hoped the short notice would have deterred The High Prince from attending, as a host of guards and coaches moved much more slowly through the hills. But Marius, along with Tyson’s mother and father, had arrived just this afternoon.
We were both nervous about what Marius’s arrival would bring, but neither of us was talking about it. Pushing thoughts of what could happen aside, I smiled at the adorable little girl who was sitting cross-legged on my bed, playing with my jewelry box. She was one of Mellie’s little sisters, who couldn’t have been older than five.
Tansy lay beside her, giggling along.
Her tiny fingers rifled through the collection of necklaces and rings Bastien had given me. Every so often, she’d pick something up, inspect it, then either hand it to Tansy or slip it on her small fingers. Part of me wondered if she even understood what had happened. Or why she was here now.
I watched her with tears prickling in the corners of my eyes. I knew better than most that children weren’t immune to trauma. They weren’t more resilient. If this was what she needed to feel safe and normal, then she could play with my jewelry for as long as she wanted.
