Tethys’s lips parted as a whisper of a moan escaped her lips. The sound was so foreign to her.
She’d experienced pleasure, of course, but holy gods the way he moved his thumb in excruciatingly slow circles. Or the way he looked at her through heavy lashes, his eyes flashing in the moonlight. She was at his mercy entirely.
Her fingertips begged to feel his skin, to trace the chiseled outline of his body.
“Let me touch you,” she moaned, reaching for him again. Before she could kneel beside him, however, he slid a finger inside, sending a sharp gasp up her throat.
“If you touch me, Tethys, there will be no going back to how things were. How theyshouldbe. So let me have you in other ways. Let me taste my name when you cum for me.”
Araes stroked his fingers inside her, driving her pleasure higher and higher until she felt close to complete and total combustion. Her muscles clenched around him as she dangled over the precipice. Her legs trembled as he gripped her hip with his other hand. Through clouds of pleasure, she watched those blazing amber eyes as he bore witness to her undoing.
He pressed his lips to her sex, brushing his tongue against her most sensitive of places. Her legs jellied forhim, and she threw her head back, going rigid beneath his hungry lips. Release stacked higher and higher as he licked and sucked andfeastedupon her.
“Say my name,” he growled.
The words sent shockwaves of electric current through her and as she let go, spiraling down into the depths of raw, primal pleasure.
His name on her lips was the only sound in the silence of the night.
Chapter 37
The following morning, Tethys ascended the temple steps before the new dawn’s light. Lord Ophis and Araes trailed behind her, like wraiths in the dim morning air. The temple exterior had been adorned with daffodils and crocuses in celebration of the approaching spring equinox festival.
During Ostara, the entire city would gather upon these temple steps and offer secrets scribbled on small pieces of parchment to a blazing pyre central in the temple’s courtyard. Of the many old Venian traditions written into history, Ostara was the most sacred. The entire eastern realm, both high and low born, came together to celebrate the equinox with dancing, drinking, and worship. In the beginning, these secrets were offered to the lost primordial lovers, Astraeus and Eos. But like every history, with time, the true intent of these old traditions were erased.
As a child, Tethys would steal glimpses of each offering as they fell into flames. As she grew older, however, she learned of the casual cruelty concealed in those words, soshe looked away. It was better to be ignorant of truths that crept in the shadows like vermin.
Now, she climbed the steps, wondering what secrets Araes would offer to the fire. Would he recount the night they shared when all lights were long since blown out? Maybe he’d write of their exchanged whispers, laying beneath the heavy down comforter, safely tucked away from the world. Or perhaps he’d tell of the trail of kisses he left that still burned on her skin.
Tethys locked the thought down before it could blossom as she reached the final temple steps. The large double doors were now draped in chains of wildflowers with pink and violet petals.
The two city guards standing watch, bribed for their discretion, dipped their heads and pulled open the heavy doors by the gleaming, golden handles. Entering the smoky haze of burning herbs and candle wax, Tethys shut herself down and forced her features into cold, hardened indifference.
Sitting in the first row of mahogany pews was a greying man with unkempt, greased black hair. The plain cotton tunic on his back was littered with mismatched patches and the hemline of his worn trousers, muddied with grime, suggested he hadn’t the means to replace his old clothing.
“Wait here, please,” Tethys said over her shoulder to her companions. The train of her golden gown dragged behind her as she started down the aisle, keeping her eyes focused on the ancient floorboards. Tethys felt the iron grip she kept on memories of her wedding day, and the night proceeding, slip as she inhaled the familiar scent of burning sage lingering from last night’s prayers.
“Randall Maximus, I assume,” she said, joining the man on the pew. He croaked his neck toward her and dipped his chin slightly.
“Thank you for meeting with me, my queen. I must admit, I was skeptical you’d agree.” Randall laced his longskeletal fingers, adorned with tarnished silver rings, in his lap.
“I’ve read your histories. I don’t normally involve myself with the likes of criminals, but if you have information regarding the lowborn disappearances that may aid in the city guard’s investigation, then I had no choice but to oblige.” The chill in the air sent a shiver through the shield she’d prepared around herself.
“You flatter me,” Randall said, his crackled lips spreading into a wide grin. Tethys fought the urge to slide further down the pew as she looked upon the yellowed, broken teeth making up his smile.
“What is it you think so significant that it requires a meeting such as this?” she asked, her throat tightening around the words.
“Well, like the good merchant I am, that’ll cost you. A royal pardon for the information I possess,” he said.
Tethys’s lip curled with a rising disgust. “You’d trade a boy’s life just for your own self-preservation?”
“Let’s be clear, Goddess. I’m not trading alife.Just information.” His lips thinned and the friendly facade faded.
“Information that ultimately impacts the life of a child, sir,” she growled. A bubbling rage began its familiar ascent through her chest, and she clenched the folds of her skirts to keep it at bay. This was a dangerous snake of a man. She couldn’t afford to lose her wits. Not when the path forward was one that demanded to be tread so lightly.
“Semantics.” He shrugged, leaning back in his seat.
“I will submit a pardon request, with terms decided once your information is deemed relevant,” she stated.
