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Our mouths collide, tongues licking, tasting, and I can’t get enough of him. I will never have enough of him. A frenzy of grinding and thrusting follows slow lovemaking, our hands exploring each other. I have never been so lost in anything or anyone, and I want to live in us forever. But our bodies grow impatient, and passion consumes us. Need drives us. And when he thrusts into me over and over, pulling me down against him even as I grind against him, I’m all but there. He cups my breast and leans in and suckles my nipple, and that’s the end for me. I shatter, spasming around his cock, and dragging him with me. He pumps into me, a guttural groan escaping as his body shudders beneath mine. Time fades as we collapse into each other and just lie there, our naked bodies one, until finally, it’s Micah who breaks the spell.
“Ember, sweetheart,” he murmurs gently.
I press myself upward, and he kisses me, a deep slide of his tongue before he says, “You’re going to beat the darkness. I’m not letting you go. We aren’t letting this go, Ember.” He cups my face and drags my gaze to his. “Understand?”
My heart squeezes with the fierceness of his proclamation that echoes in every part of me. “We aren’t letting this go,” I repeat. “Now, can we go kill him already?”
Hours later, we finally dress and sit down by the fire for a delicious basket of breakfast pastries and coffee. We’ve been naked a long time, and we decide we’ll at least make an effort to keep our clothes on, just in case we hear from Zeke. I’m about to sip my coffee when an alarming thought hits me. “Can I get pregnant?”
“You have to petition the kingdom to become pregnant.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“No. It’s got to do with the way humans and angels mingled long before our time and broke rules that should never have been broken. There’s a binding spell that’s released upon approval.”
“That’s weird.”
“It’s better than demons and humans somehow mating, which is the fear.”
My eyes go wide. “I didn’t feel the serpent when we were together. I didn’t feel him close to me or you.”
“I didn’t, either, but then, I wasn’t thinking about the serpent. I was thinking about you.”
My cheeks flush with the memories of all the things he has done to me and with me the past few hours. “Me, too. I never even thought about it, not once you started kissing me. But this is good, right?” My brows dip. “But wait. Is this place Elysium? And does that mean I didn’t fight off the demon at all?”
“There’s an abnormality in the two worlds’ barriers that bleed into this location. We’re not there, but we’re there. It’s hard to explain.”
“Oh,” I say, shoving my plate aside. “I see. So, you didn’t have to trust that I could hold him back at all?”
“Don’t do that. Don’t undermine what just happened between us. You know he can’t get to you underground or in Elysium. You were afraid that the serpent could somehow bypass those things and infect me. Now you know, now we know, he can’t. And if he could have, he can’t now. You’re too strong to let it happen.”
“Right. You’re right. I am. I faced him. I drove him away. I almost killed him.” I’m not sure if I’m trying to convince him or me. “This is a good thing.”
“Everything about what just happened is fucking amazing.”
“Yes. Yes, it was. It is.”
“And we’re getting rid of that damn serpent anyway. That’s why we’re going to the Diviner. That’s why we’re going to the Judgement Tree.”
“When?”
“As soon as we hear from Zeke.”
Which will not be soon enough for me, I think, and I bet it’s secretly the same for Micah.
The Sacred Book of Nephilim
Wings are not just for angels.
Chapter fifty-one
At dawn, two days later, we leave for Italy, where the Diviner of Amherst resides, with Zeke along to play bodyguard. We’re all on edge with a mutual agreement that Jeremy is an Archdemon, a detail Micah had already surmised as fact from his research. He’d kept it to himself out of caution, not wanting to scare the rest of us. Apparently, Archdemons are just what the title implies, the equal and opposite of the most powerful of angels, the Archangel.
The idea that I have a link to both him and Micah is terrifying, but I can only hope that being the Aza means I have the power to defeat him.
Travel doesn’t turn out to be as fast as a wish and a little magic. We can only rift so far without needing to recharge, I discover, and once we arrive in Italy, we cannot rift to the island of Capri, where we will find the Diviner. There’s spellcasting in place to prevent entry by way of magic. We arrive in Naples, and the stunning beauty is breathtaking. I’d always wanted to travel when I was a young girl, but my “parents,” or kidnappers at this point, sheltered me from the outer world. They traveled extensively but never took me with them, but I’m here now with Micah. And the city is everything I dreamed, filled with ancient history, amazing food, mountains, and an ocean that rivals that of Elysium, with blues and greens and glistening water. But we are not here to sightsee, and apparently, we’re not welcome in Lucius’ territory anyway.
Once we’re on the ferry, I ask about that history. “Lucius is an arrogant ass who made me golf with him while he made his decision on your entry,” Zeke mutters. “I hate golf, and he knows it.”
