Hearing my maker call memy childmade me want to weep all over again.
I took another deep breath, holding his words in my heart as I slid the lid of the coffin to the side. It would be snug, but I arranged Adrienne’s still form easily in my embrace. I gazed up to the sky where the first of dawn’s rays blazed across the dark. The promise of a new day, of a new beginning, and a light that could fight any shadow.
“Nasicya, may your mercy shine upon us in our daytime sleep. Amayah…” I took a deep breath. “Amayah, please, bring her back to me.”
At first waking,Adrienne was heavy in my arms, limbs rigid with daytime paralysis—or at least, I prayed to Amayah that was what it was. I contented myself with stroking Adrienne’s face, her hair, pressing kisses to her brow.
“You are safe,” I murmured against her skin. “You are safe and you are with me now.”
I repeated the words again and again like a mantra until the sun dipped below the horizon. Though fear still had its claws in me, I knew Seth would not lie, and I tried not to succumb to the weakness I felt as minutes passed and she did not wake.
I love you. You are safe. You are with me now. I love you.
Her breathing changed first, from shallow sips to slow, deep drags. The faint beating of her heart strengthened, deepened, until the metronome of my existence rang through my ears. I reached up and slid off the lid in case the darkness startled her, allowing the light of the moon to pour in from the broken skylight to illuminate her features.
All the bruises were gone, along with the yellowish tinge of sickness. Her lips were rosebud pink and pursed as she shifted, the lavender tint of her lids crinkling along with her nose. I stroked her cheek, a sob wrenching up my throat as she blinked, and those crystalline blue eyes now lit with immortality pierced mine.
“Eamon,” she sighed.
“I am here, my heart,” I rasped. And though I should have been the one to console her, she shushed me, running her hands through my hair and wiping the blood tears from my cheeks.
“Eamon,” she repeated, drawing back enough to look me fully in the face. I feared what her next words would be, but I locked my muscles tight, resolving to give her whatever she asked. “Kiss me.”
Without hesitation my mouth crashed over hers, all gentleness forgotten. My hands tangled in her hair, tilting her head back to allow me better access as I swept my tongue into her mouth. She moaned, one knee sliding over my hip, her touch exploring the planes of my chest, the curve of my shoulders, as I nipped and sucked and fucked into her mouth.
There was nothing but this moment. Nothing but my mate, alive and whole, in my arms. I reached for her dress andripped it until the tattered remains fell to the bottom of the coffin. Her body was smooth beneath my touch, warm and pliant as it had been when she was human, but now it radiated with a strength that sang of my blood in her veins, my magic in her heart.
“I will make you mine in all ways,” I murmured against her lips. “You are mine, Adrienne Valois, and I cannot survive another moment without you being so.”
She stroked back my hair, pulling her knee higher until her exposed and dripping cunt pressed against my trousers. Though her body offered itself to me, I bracketed her chin in my hand, drawing back to look into her eyes. “Tell me what you want, Adrienne.”
The softest flush crept across her cheeks and her tongue darted out to wet her lower lip. “I want you to bond me and make me yours.”
In the next breath she was tearing at my tunic, drawing it up and over my head while I rolled her beneath me. Her hands went to my trousers next, pushing them down my thighs until I kicked them off to the bottom of the coffin. Her pale skin glowed in the moonlight, almost silver in its radiance, and I bent, pressing a kiss to one rosy nipple, sucking it into my mouth. She moaned, bending one knee up to offer herself to me. “Please, Eamon.”
I gripped myself tightly, sliding the head of my cock through her dizzying wetness. Her hips tilted, greedy cunt working to swallow me bit by bit. I braced one hand on the lid of the coffin, kneeling up so I could watch myself disappear into her tight heat. A furrow formed between her brows, one pitiful whimper dripping from her lips.
“I always take care of you, don’t I, little bird?” Slowly, I began to pump my hips, shallowly thrusting into her.
“Yes,” she breathed.
I lifted my wrist to my mouth, sliced open the vein, andallowed it to drip across her lips. Her lids fluttered as the blood hit her tongue, her nipples hardening into peaks while her cunt contracted around me. I lowered myself to my forearm, protectively cradling the back of her head so it did not hit the wood as I thrust harder, pulling sharp cries and moans from her.
The mating bond that had been for so long unfulfilled brightened inside my chest—that shining golden link that connected me to her. It was relief beyond understanding as it strengthened until her pleasure was mine and mine was hers. We were beyond words as my lips found hers, her release pulling me over the edge until we were crying out in each other’s arms.
Bonded,finally,forever.
Chapter Forty
Epilogue
Adrenaline hummed through my veins as I stood in front of the large mirror in our dressing room.
I was not as different as I feared. My skin was a bit smoother, my hair a little more luminescent, but I still looked likeme. The dress I wore was beautiful but understated with its deep blue velvet and tapered sleeves—the kind of garment I’d dreamed of wearing as a young girl and feared as a grown woman.
Hands slid around my waist as Eamon moved into view. His hair was free and waving around his face. One lock slipped over my bare shoulder as he pressed a kiss to my throat.
“Tell me why you are nervous, my heart,” he murmured into my skin, palms smoothing against the bodice of the gown.
