It took too long for me to arrive at her side. To pull her close against me, reminding myself that she was alive. Well. Mine.
She breathed me in with the same fierce need.
She let me lead her away, back toward the head table where we’d been sitting when the succubus attacked. But instead of resuming our seats, we stood in front of it. I knew there were hundreds of terrestrial eyes upon us, but I did not care. Not as I lifted her chin and held her blue gaze.
Her eyes had dimmed slightly, the adrenaline of battle ebbing away. But there was the faint ring, the glow of desire that ignited just from being in one another’s presence.
I had to speak to her here, now. If I waited, held the words inside, they would start to gnaw at my soul. I could not have that.I could not have anything between us, not now, after all we’d been through and somehow survived.
“I am meant to stand at your side, to tear down any who might threaten you.” Every muscle in my body ached at what came next. “I failed you. I should have shoved amorite into those males myself. This is my fault.”
My fault.Veyka’s words slid into my mind. I recognized them immediately for what they were—a chant she’d been saying to herself for months.
There is no time for blame. We can only move forward.
But with her mouth, she said, “Was that an apology?”
I growled.
She laughed in my face. “I shall have to ask Maisri to record it in her book.”
I growled again. This time, I buried the sound in her neck. She’d washed away the black bile of the males’ souls, defiled by the succubus. All that remained now was her plum and primrose mixed with the scent of the wine she’d sipped as she tended to our subjects.
Veyka inhaled sharply, her body arching into mine.
Around us, the sounds of the festival had begun in full thrust. Females, being worshipped once again by their males. Females worshipping each other. All determined to declare that they had survived—that they would survive this new threat.
“Should I take you now, in front of your subjects?” I breathed into her ear.
“Our subjects,” she squeaked as I spun her around. The staccato beat of her pulse against my mouth, in time with the rush of her arousal, was all the answer I needed.
“Tonight, they worship you.” Her back pressed to my chest, I was free to explore her breasts. And our subjects watched me. I tugged one breast out of her gown, letting it spill into my palm before I pinched the nipple tight between my fingers. Veykathrew her head back, letting out a delicious moan that drew even more eyes to her.
Good. They should see me worshipping her, this powerful, magnificent female, the way she deserved to be worshipped.
“Their queen,” I moaned against her ear as my other hand parted the folds of her gown, dipping inside to find the folds of her cunt. Dripping, ready for me.
My cock throbbed with demand as I pulled my trousers loose and lifted her skirts, her leg, until my cock nudged at her entrance.
Veyka’s whimper of need shredded the last remnants of my control.
I shoved myself inside of her as I growled the words into her ear—“My queen.”
Queen of the Void. Queen of Annwyn. Queen of every shred of my broken, twisted soul.
As I took her, again and again, words began to echo in my ears.
Your rest has ended, Brutal Prince. She needs you now.
Familiar, but not quite clear. They hovered at the periphery of my understanding, muddled by the haze of need, the intensity of my feelings for Veyka, the feeling of being inside of her. Of what this claiming meant—me, claiming her as my mate. But also the terrestrials of Eilean Gayl, claiming and worshipping their queen.
The High Queen of Annwyn.
Veyka screamed the pleasure of her climax, the walls of her pussy gripping my cock hard. I was a second away from spilling, right there with her, tumbling over the cliff. I threw my head back and howled, beast and male, as that final ecstasy roared through me and I came inside of her.
As the words solidified. A voice I recognized. That spoke with perfect clarity.
The forgotten line of the prophecy.
