She watched as her god made a new monster and rejoiced, knowing the world trembled in fear.
Elissa was rather quiet after all that. Elric knew what he’d asked her to do wasn’t easy. Let alone the sudden power that now flowed through her veins or the fact that she had a wide-open crack down the center of her chest. Such changes were a lot to get used to.
He hated that he even worried about her. He shouldn’t care what a witch was feeling or thinking. He was their god. She had asked him to do something, and now she had to live with the consequences.
And yet, he worried when she took them behind the cottage, where there were a few outbuildings. Like tiny cottages, they must serve as guest quarters for anyone the witch allowed to stay. Three miniature versions of her cottage, and she didn’t even explain what they were. She just stood there, staring blankly at her feet for a few moments before she seemed to shake herself out of a daze.
“You can stay here,” she said, her voice a little rough. “My mother made these before she died. They are perfectly protected.”
“Where are you going to stay?” Jessamine asked.
“I’ll stay with Sarah. I want to be there when she wakes up so she can… Well, so she doesn’t feel so alone.”
“Right.”
They all watched the new witch turn toward her home before pausing. “Each room should be tailored to what you need. There are few spells remaining around this house, ever since the crown started making it known that magic wasn’t welcome here. But that one is still very much alive and well.”
And with that, she disappeared back into the main house.
Sybil quickly entered the cottage at the very end, leaving the middle one for Elric and Jessamine in the next. He stood there, a bit unsure of where to go until he looked over at Jessamine’s soft smile.
She looked right at him and said, “Good night, Elric.”
She always called him by his name. Not Deathless One, no honorary title or even referring to him as a god. To her, he was just Elric.
And that made up his mind. After everything they had done today, he didn’t want to be alone. And if he was reading her expression correctly, neither did she.
The door to his own cottage forgotten, he followed her to the farthest cottage. Jessamine hadn’t closed the door behind her, as though she knew he would follow her like a moth to a flame. And why wouldn’t he? When there was so much comfort in each other, there was no way he was going to let her wander too far from his side.
The room within had indeed changed to reflect Jessamine’s desires. He recognized the soft creature comforts from her memories. A four-poster feather bed with a blanket of the lightest blue filled most of the space, and a warm fire already crackled in the hearth made of pristine white stone. And then there was the mirror. A massive, well-over-seven-foot-tall mirror took up a good portion of the back wall right beside a warm wooden vanity.
She sat down at the vanity, already pulling her hair over her shoulder. She looked so prim and proper sitting there like that. All he wanted was to run his fingers through those strands and muss it all over again.
He much preferred his little hellion. The witch who had come to life under his touch and burned with need just as she burned with power was far more intriguing than the princess who expected him to bend a knee to her desires. But, he supposed, he did quite like the princess as well.
She opened the drawer, a curious expression on her face as she drew out a silver-handled brush. “Would you mind?”
He was a god. He had brought kingdoms to the ground and forced kings to bow on their hands and knees before him. Elric had seen countlesspeople die, begging him to save them, and he had not done a single thing to help.
But if this woman asked him to brush her hair, then he would damn well brush her hair.
He lulled her into relaxation as he brought the brush through the very ends first, making sure that he didn’t tug too hard on any of the knots that were there from days of travel. But he watched her in the mirror, keeping his gaze on the beauty of her expression as she tilted her head back into him. Her eyes drifted shut, that long neck with its silver scar bared to his rapturous gaze. She made a little hum in the back of her throat, and everything in him tensed.
What was it about this woman? She barely even had to exist, and he was hard as stone. He wanted her every moment of the day. From the first morning look, when she teased him with those long lashes, to the end of the day, when she was bone tired and yet still trusted him to take care of her.
Elric had never experienced this heady emotion in his many lifetimes. Everything about her was a siren song he didn’t know how to escape.
“You look beautiful,” he murmured, leaning down to press his lips to her neck. “Absolutely delicious, princess.”
“Delicious?”
“I would like nothing more than to feast upon you.”
He looked into the mirror to see her smiling. She lifted her hand, reaching up to place those delicate fingers on the back of his head. Together, they were a picture of wanton desire. Her cheeks burnished with a red stain, the deep hollows of her collarbone calling out for him to taste.
Dragging his hand down her raised arm, he held her gaze as his fingers met the buttons that dotted down the front of her bodice. The red on her cheeks became more pronounced as he popped one button, then the next, dancing down the entire line until her bodice sagged open. He slowly slid his hand underneath the fabric.
They both sighed at the first touch of skin on skin. He hadn’t seen her in such a long time. They’d been busy, yes, but he would have taken her every single day, multiple times, if she’d let him.
