He wrapped one arm under my ass as he went back to kissing me, but I could feel his hands at the waistband of his pants, pushing them down. He slid me back down his body, and I felt the fat head of his cock press against my entrance.
“Are you sure about this, Avalon?”
I growled my answer, wriggling against him like I could get him inside me without his participation. He curled down until he could bury his face in my throat, before thrusting up into me, stretching me to accommodate his cock. Our combined groans were like a masterpiece of pleasure, along with the wet, slapping sound as he buried himself to the hilt inside me.
“Goddess, Avalon, you feel like a dream,” he grunted against my throat, pulling back out and sliding home again. “I don’t ever want to wake.”
Then he fucked me with the abandon of a man who knew this was just tonight. I didn’t even try to be quiet. I screamed until the barn owls would make noise complaints. I moaned as he screwed me into the wall, until I was coming around him in a shaking, shuddering mess of begging and pleasure.
He pressed me entirely into the wall, not an ounce of space between us, as he came deep inside me. Marking his territory, or this moment, or something inherently macho. Pulling back, he looked down at me like he was cataloguing my features. I tilted my face up to his, straining for a kiss, which he gave me freely.
“Tonight, you’re mine, Avalon Halhed. I’m going to fuck my seed back into you over and over again.”
I shuddered at his words, pleasure racing along my skin. If all we had was tonight, we would make it something to remember.
Zier was beautiful,but in his own way. He had the body of someone who’d used it as a tool every day of his life. Strong and broad, with a smattering of hair across his chest as the perfect contrast. He snored softly, and I leaned over, kissing his shoulder.
Climbing quietly from the bed, I crept toward his discarded clothes. Pulling on his pants, I rolled them over at the waist several times, though they were still too long. I slipped on his shirt, the long sleeves going past my hands. Finally, I pulled on his jacket. My own soft slippers would have to do. Picking up his dagger last, I sent Zier a silent apology.
Creeping from his room, I prayed to the Goddess that the door didn’t make a noise. She granted this last wish, and I padded down the hallways of the quiet keep. I had to avoid the soldiers, and my guys, and anyone else who might expose my midnight machinations. Hopefully, all the animal companions would be sleeping beside their masters.
I crept out the back, toward the courtyard, then moved through the shadows over to the back wall, climbing the tall tree that I’d seen earlier. I hadn’t packed anything; I didn’t have time. It didn’t matter. It wasn’t a long journey, and either I’d be successful and back here before lunch tomorrow, or I’d be dead and gone.
A small noise sounded behind me, and I was almost unsurprised to see Epsy. “You need to stay here,” I murmured to him. He cocked his head, then climbed up the leg of Zier’s pants. I didn’t have time to take them off and shake him out, andI huffed out an aggravated breath. “Fine, but I swear, if it gets dangerous, you need to leave.”
I’d hate to see what the little stolt would consider dangerous, considering he was best friends with the hounds, who’d usually eat his kind. He wasn’t the brightest little creature. But I was suddenly happy not to be doing this alone. It felt right that Epsy was with me.
“I’m glad you’re here,” I whispered, as I slipped onto my stomach and tried to climb down the other side of the wall, badly. Landing with a heavy thud on my ass, I bit back a groan. That was the hard part done.
I walked quietly through the empty streets of Hamor, to a road I’d walked in a different life. I didn’t know why I could suddenly remember my last life, but I had a guess or two. The power of thetalmay have infused with my magic, making it more potent. I wasn’t sure I liked this new level-up, though. I didn’t want to remember the way Lierick’s brain had splattered across my cheeks.
I choked back vomit, swallowing it down. I didn’t have time to stop and throw up. Taking a deep breath, I focused my thoughts on what I needed to do. I was going to try and sneak in through the sewers again. It might be guarded, but so would the gates of the city and the doors of the Hall of Ebrus.
I was almost used to the night noises by the time I’d made it to the drains where Fortaare’s waste emptied out into the ocean. However, a sound in the shadows had me pulling my dagger. I could see a dark shape moving silently through the open space around the pit. A guard?
But as they lowered themself into the sewerage reservoir, I realized it was someone else trying to sneak into Fortaare. When they lifted their head toward the moon, I recognized the profile of his face.
Malak Trenton. The guy we’d rescued from Yaron Vylan’s party boat.
“Malak?” I called softly, and watched him freeze. “Malak, it’s Avalon,” I hissed, and his face whipped toward where I was hiding.
I hesitated, but he’d pledged himself to Vox. I didn’t think he’d murder me and put me in a ditch. It was odd that he was here, though, at this very place, at this very moment.
“Avalon?” he called back quietly, and I moved toward him. “What are you doing out here? Is Vox here too? Hayle and the other ones?”
I shook my head as I walked toward the edge of the pit, keeping my hand on my dagger, because I wasn’t an idiot. “What are you doing out here?”
He shrugged. “I assume the same thing you’re doing. Sneaking into Fortaare, so I can slit Feodore Vylan’s throat while he sleeps.”
I laughed softly. “Not exactly what I’m doing.” I hesitated. “That sounds dangerous.”
“I don’t want to live in a world that Feodore Vylan inhabits. So I’m going to go out in a way that will better Ebrus for those who remain.”
I wanted to talk him out of it, but was that not what I was doing too?
Sitting on the edge of the reservoir, I looked down at him. “I think you’ll find there’s a guard at the end of this shit tube. We kind of burned this way in the other day, when we rescued your father from the cells.”
He reared back. “My father was in the dungeon?”
