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In one smooth motion, Coen had me up against the wall again, his hands gripping my thighs at a new angle. He slid me up, up, and up, until my legs were parted right in front of his face, and his eyes raked hungrily over the part of me that throbbed and ached for him all over again.

A whine built in my throat. Especially when he leaned forward just enough for his sharpened teeth to scrape over my sensitive flesh, shredding through the fabric of my underwear until it hung in pieces around me.

“Oops,” he said, smirking.

Then he slid me back down to the perfect height, where we would fit together. He knew I didn’t want it slow, didn’t want to waste time on any kind of adjustment, so he slammed his full force into me in a single thrust.

“By the moonbeam…” I got out, gasping.

Stars flashed beneath my eyelids. A delicious burn swelled within me, filling any emptiness that Coen’s absence had left behind.

This. This was what no mental interaction could give us—the solidness of the wall behind me as he drew out and back in again, thumping me against it; the sweat beginning to glitter on our skin; the groan ripping from his chest and the moans that slid from my throat over and over. Our minds stayed tangled, too, pleasures mixing, our love made tangible fifty feet above the sea.

“I—I’m going to lose control,” I cried, suddenly terrified of the climax building in my core.

My magics crashed and tumbled in my veins, the song of the banyans growing louder, Coen’s mind buzzing in my head. All around us, the treehouse had begun to rattle once more, my Object Summoning grasping onto every surface as if to find purchase in a world that was on the verge of explosion.

“Coen!” I screamed.

And with him still pumping into me, his darkness swept us both away.

CHAPTER

26

COEN

I’d made love to Rayna among the stars before.

That had been on a boat projected by my own mind, though, nothing but an illusion. And this was more than just first-time love. It was all my pent-up yearning for this woman. All the hope I harbored for a potential future with her. All the rage and terror that I’d lose her anyway.

All the wonder that cascaded through me when she smiled or blushed or moaned my name—like she was doing now.

As my darkness tumbled around us in the space between worlds, I roared her name back. My release poured into her, and she clamped tight around me with a scream that reverberated among the far-off stars. A scream so loud that I wondered if everyone in the world might hear the faint echo of it, emanating from everywhere and nowhere all at once.

Then she rocked her hips one more time, squeezing every last ounce of pleasure from me and milking an actual whimper from my goddamned throat. I might have been embarrassed with anyone else, but this was Rayna and nothing had ever felt so right.

Panting into the crook of her neck, I kissed the soft skin there, breathing in her scent that reminded me so much of the wild garden in her mind. We were floating in the middle of nowhere, me still buried inside her as she clung to me.

And fuck if I didn’t want to move. Just wanted to stay here for the rest of time, basking in her sweet heat.

“That was…” Rayna started, slowly retracting her fingernails from my shoulders. I hadn’t even realized she’d been digging them into my skin, and satisfaction swelled in my chest when I glanced down and realized they would leave marks. “That was…”

She couldn’t even form the words. But I sensed them in the satiated hum of her mind and said for her, “That was everything.”

The most adorable flush brightened her cheeks as I finally pulled myself out of her and just held her the way I’d wanted to for so long. “Thank you.” She cleared her throat. “For pulling us away before I destroyed everything.”

My heart clamped at the sight of the fear seeping back into her eyes. I’d never known of anyone with three injected magics who’d kept their sanity like she had, but there was no doubt it was taking its toll on her mind. No doubt that she couldn’t control Object Summoning like she could Wild Whispering and Mind Manipulating.

Maybe my first kill for Mydusia’s altered command should be Mr. Gleekle for what he’d inflicted upon her…

“Coen.” Rayna’s attention had narrowed down on my shoulders again. From her position still wrapped around me, she could see down the back of my neck. “Your tattoo’s moving.”

I squeezed my eyes shut for a sliver of a breath. I knew the tattoo was moving. I had been feeling it writhe along my skin for the last several hours. With every passing minute, it only increased in vigor, urging me toward what I had to do before midnight.

My words to Rayna came out hoarse. “The queen… she altered her command this morning.”

Rayna’s eyes flared, something deadly and vicious alighting within the swirl of jade-green. “Altered it? What do you mean?”