“She can go play in the woods if she wants,” I said. I had to have Koryn now. I just… had to. Nothing either of us could do would fill the void created by— “I need you.”
The words came out raw and honest.
Koryn wasted no time. She shifted herself up so that she could pull her gown out of the way. I stopped kneading her breasts long enough to free my rigid cock from my trousers. In the next second, she was pressing down on me. I guided the head of my cock through her layers of warmth until her pussy sucked it in with a satisfying pop of wetness. I almost came inside of her right then.
Hands on her hips, I lowered her down on my cock. The fit was even tighter than usual in this position. Thank the Dark God I’d worked her so hard climbing the mountains between the Seven Gates, or she never would have been able to match my pace. The position was different but perfect. I tugged the neckline of her dress down, freeing one breast from her corset and rolling the nipple between my thumb and forefinger.
“Garrick,” Koryn moaned. “Please.”
I kept one hand on her hip, supporting her rocking back and forth on my cock. As much as I worshiped her breasts, I would never deny her what she needed. I slid my fingers past the velvet folds of her gown to find her clit. But Koryn stopped me short, covering my hand with her much smaller one.
Her fingers guided me not to her pulsing center, but to the tattoo on the inside of her thigh. The intimacy of it undid me.
My cock twitched inside of her and, on the next thrust, began to fill her with ropes of thick, hot release. Any other day, any other time, I would have massaged her clit until she joined me. But instead, I pressed my thumb into the tattoo that marked her connection to Syleris and made it ours.
Koryn threw her head back as her climax overtook her. I cradled her against my shoulder, pressing wet kisses to her cheek as we both rode out wave after wave of pleasure. We sat there in silence for a long time, the only sound our breaths slowly evening out.
The fire was low when Koryn turned in my arms and buried her face in my shoulder. I laid her down with her back to the banked embers and held her all night. I could not see her tears, but I felt them against my chest. I only let one fall for myself.
CHAPTER 54
KORYN
My thighs burnedas we trudged up the last stretch of the sloped mountain. I’d thought the never-ending spiral in Balar Shan had kept me in shape, but it took only two days of trekking through the mountains to relieve me of that delusion. It was a damn good thing my control of my power had grown, because I was still not going to outrun anyone.
Who knew what the Unknown Gate would ask of us. We did not even get a hint. Mercy, Justice, Sacrifice, Devotion, Memory, and Peace. They had all taken a different form than I’d expected. But the darkness took many shapes.
Knowing Syleris as we did should have made predicting the trial awaiting us easier… except I did not know him. Not after what had happened with Alize. He’d let Maura resurrect her, even when I begged him.
The light I thought I’d seen in him? A dream. Just because I was coming to terms with the duality within myself did not mean that it even existed within him.
Hungry, Isanara invaded my mind with a high-pitched whine.
Too hungry to use full sentences?
Yes, that hungry,she sassed back.
A low humming sound started in the back of my head. The first sign of a headache, maybe. Despite Garrick’s arguments, we had not stopped to eat today. A hot meal in the temple around the blood fountain sounded inordinately appealing.
You can gnaw on the Dark God’s altar when we get to the temple, I said.
The humming got louder. My hand dropped away from my temple. It wasn’t inside my head, but around us. Over the rise where the temple waited.
Garrick had already stopped walking. I’d assumed it was to let me catch up. But he frowned up the incline.
“What is that sound?” I asked.
Garrick’s silvery brows notched together.
“Stay here,” Garrick said. Was he talking to Isanara or to me? “I will shift and scout from above.”
I reached for his arm before it could transform into a mass of blue-black feathers.
“Tomin?”
The familiar emerald-clad acolyte sheltered beneath a tree a few yards short of the ridgeline. Soft snow began to fall a few hours ago, but none of it had accumulated on his emerald robes. He’d been standing beneath that tree for a while.
He stamped his feet to fend off the cold, but his normally warm brown skin was ashen and mottled with purple across his cheeks. When he spotted us, he waved and hurried through the snow in our direction.
