SEBASTIAN
Three days of travel and all I could think about the whole fucking time was Maeve and how much I missed being buried inside of her.
I probably shouldn’t have asked her about Sawyer before I left. But when I walked intoourroom and saw her head resting on his lap in that chair, it took me back to Caelestis—the way she had laid onmy lapafter I fucked her bent over the armchair inmyroom.
Needless to say, the sight left me fucking fuming.
Much like I’d expected, she wasn’t thrilled when I told her there was another journal. But I'd rather her pissed at me over the alternative—which was her pretending like I didn’t even exist. I’d take what I could get, although her choice of words after I told her definitely caused a crack in my heart.
And gods, if I had told her that her mother was going to die, I think it would have broken us both. It was hard enough to see her struggle so much with the prophecy and everything else, I hadn’t had the heart to break hers even further.
She wouldn't get out of my head. Every waking thought was about her. Hell, even my dreams were about her. I replayed ourmemories constantly, recalling every detail of her skin, from the color of her lips to the birth mark in the dimple of her back.
That woman was as stubborn as they came, but I absolutely loved her for it. She wasn’t one to back down from a challenge, and she also respected herself enough to know what she deserved—which wasn’t me at the moment. Understandably so.
She had to forgive me eventually—I couldn’t handle it if she didn’t.
She had every right to be angry, and not gonna lie, I wasn’t too happy with her at the moment, either. But I could easily move on if it meant I had her back.
Ineededher back.
“Hawthorne?”
My heart craved nothing more than to grip her cheeks in my hands and kiss her like she was the blood I needed flowing through my veins. Slip my tongue across hers. Trail my lips down her stomach, teasing her skin until she was wet and whimpering with my fingers inside her tight?—
“Hawthorne!”
The sound of Lyrise yelling forced my brain to dart out of my fantasy world. I adjusted my hard cock as subtly as possible, then called over my horse's mane. “What?”
“You daydreaming back there?” he taunted with a snide grin.
I offered him an eye roll, to which he responded, “You ready for this? We’re almost there.”
“Ready? I’meagerto kill this bastard.”
“That’s the spirit,” Sawyer cheered with a fist punch to the air.
“Let’s go over the plan one more time,” Kade advised, looking at Kohen. “Sharpe, your job is getting cozy with the townsfolk. Get chatty, preferably to someone who knows their way around the castle and can get us inside. Sinclair, you’re going to scope out the grounds and see if you can catch a glimpse of Beaumont.If you do, keep a close eye on him. If you see him entering the castle or heading somewhere alone, you let us know.”
I had to fight my eye roll at Kade’s bossiness, but honestly, it was kind of nice to not be the one in charge of things 24/7.
He looked over his shoulder at me and purred with a crafty smile, “You and I will have the pleasure of killing the fucker.”
“Can’t wait,” I sneered.
At the outskirts of the castle grounds, we tied our steeds to a tree by their reins then tugged on our Draemornian armor—contraband, rather. I secured my sword at my waist, tightened the laces of my boots, then strolled all too casually into Draemor.
We hung back by the main gates for a bit, giving Kohen a head start. Though soft-spoken by nature, he was charismatic as all hell when he needed to be, and his good looks were an added bonus.
Maybe ten minutes later, he returned, a stupid grin splayed on his face.
“That was too easy,” he sang, whipping his helmet off and immediately reconstructing his rustled hair.
“You better have good news or I’ll wipe that smile right off your face.” Sawyer held up a slapping hand.
“I met a girl?—”
“Dude, Pia is gonna bepissed,” Sawyer interrupted, hand dropping and eyes bulging
