I knelt between her parted knees and caressed her thighs, savoring the yielding heat of her skin. Moving over her, I captured her mouth in a hungry, desperate kiss. The rush of her desire roared in my ears, through my veins, mingling with the bitter currents of death energy.
“Aion,” she breathed out against my lips, burying her fingers in my hair.
Unable to resist her, I cupped the soft weight of her breast. I squeezed gently, feeling her breath hitch as her peak beaded against my palm. Sliding my hand away, I used my mouth to draw the sensitive flesh in.
As I swirled my tongue over her, Medea let out a soft moan. She arched her back, pressing herself eagerly into my face. “I have you,” I murmured against her skin.
I moved my other hand lower, tracing her stomach until I found the damp curls between her legs. She was already slick, the wetness coating her thighs and welcoming my touch.
I slid a single finger inside her.
Medea cried out sharply. Her legs fell wider apart, her hips tilting upward, demanding more. I moved slowly, feeling the tight, wet grip of her muscles clenching around the metal.
“Please,” she sobbed, her head falling back against the stone slab. Her eyes squeezed shut as she breathed my name in a frantic chant. “I need you.”
I pulled my hand away. Medea shivered and a frustrated whine escaped her throat as she protested my absence.
I shifted my weight, moving my massive frame over her. The sound of our harsh breathing filled the quiet hall, echoing in the vast space.
“I am yours,” I whispered, the words vibrating against her lips. “Every beat of this heart.”
I adjusted my stance and dropped my hips. The blunt, living metal of my body met the tight, scalding heat of her entrance. Medea let out a ragged, trembling gasp, clutching my shoulders in a desperate hold.
Magic was already buzzing at her fingertips. It was the same death-touch that had almost killed me. But I didn’t fear it. My mind, like my body, belonged to her.
Holding her tear-filled gaze, I slowly and deliberately pushed forward. The tight grip of her muscles gave way, taking me in completely. I buried myself deep inside the woman who had just conquered death, determined to overwrite every nightmare she had ever lived.
After today, she would never again be alone. She’d never again have to fight her battles without me. She was my mate, and nothing would stop me from proving that.
Aion rested motionless above me, giving me the precious seconds I needed to accommodate his immense size.
The freezing marble of the slab faded from my mind, swallowed by the furnace heat radiating from his broad chest. He felt impossibly solid, a massive titan anchored by the pulse hammering against my own breastbone. I wrapped my legs tighter around his waist, looking up into the clear, blue-white glow of his eyes.
When he slowly began to move, the deep friction sent a rush of breathless pleasure straight into my blood. I arched into his downward thrusts, my nails dragging across his back.
But right on the edge of that pleasure, a suffocating knot of terror closed my throat.
As the physical connection deepened, the lethal magic I had carried my whole life began to pool low in my belly. It was boiling up, preparing to release. I remembered his sickening, dead weight collapsing lifelessly on the bed in the sphinx’s den. I remembered his eyes going blank because my climax had overloaded his core, forcing his soul to retreat into the dark.
Panic seized my lungs. I locked my hips, desperately trying to pull away. “Stop,” I gasped out.“Aion, wait. Stop.”
He froze instantly. Hovering just an inch above me, he tensed. “Medea?”
“I can’t,” I choked out. I tried to yank my powers backward, but once again, I found myself losing control. “The magic is pooling. If I let go, it’s going to flood you again. I killed you last time. I watched you die.”
He saw the raw, frantic terror in my face. He didn’t pull out. Instead, a soft warmth underneath his skin, the death energy flaring through his forged veins. He reached up and cupped my jaw, his thumb brushing over my lower lip.
“That was before,” he rumbled, his voice vibrating deep into my skin.
“It’s too hungry,” I sobbed, rigid with the agonizing effort of containing the death surge. “If the anchor isn’t strong enough—if it breaks your mind again—I won’t survive losing you a second time.”
He caught my wrist. He pressed my bare palm flat against his chest, right over the sealed plates hiding the mortal tissue. He held my hand there, forcing me to feel the relentless, heavy thud driving against the metal.
“You put this here,” he said fiercely, his gaze burning deep and clear, refusing to let me look away. “You gave me a thread. I am not an empty vessel anymore, Medea. I am tied to this world, and I am tied to you. It will not break me.”
“Aion—”
“Let it feed,” he commanded softly, lowering his head until his forehead rested heavily against mine. “Do not hold your power inside you. You don’t have to carry it alone anymore. Pour it into me. Give me everything.”
