Chapter Twenty-Seven
Morgan
Nevis is stunned silent when Casteel reveals he is aware of her underground community.
“How long?” she asks.
“Since it began.” He leads the way down to the dungeons, to the tunnel that will take us back to her people, to a safe place for the rest of the day. “There are few secrets in the castle.”
“Does she know?”
“If she pressed it she would, but Anand is obsessively focused on her mission. She’s just happy to have the castle run efficiently and to have the elixir from your water source to keep her healthy and strong.”
The news rocks my friend and as we reach the dark end of the dungeon she stops and whispers to me, “If you stop all of this, what happens to us?”
It’s an honest question—one I had not considered when agreeing to Casteel’s plan. If we close the gate and contain the Darkness to this world, Nevis’ people will never gain their freedom.
“I will not allow your people to suffer any longer.”
“But how? How can you promise that?”
My list of challenges is growing. I pull her close and grip her hands. “Do you trust me?”
“I want to.”
“I understand and if that’s all you can give, I’ll take it.” I step into the tunnel, pulling her with me.
*
The confusion I feel doesn’t lessen as I travel beneath the castle. It does intensify when I exit the small door and stand at my full height. Bunny is already there.
“Did you…” I start to ask Nevis, but she shakes her head.
“We’re short on time,” she says, looking between the two of us. “Follow me.”
I’ve learned a lot about my sexuality over the past few months. I’ve learned its power and the control I have over my mates. I’ve learned about energy and electricity. Love and compassion. Force and passion. I glance at the man walking next to me on the smooth, dirt path through the village. He’s the only one that has truly hurt me. But then I wonder, as he slips his glasses up his nose with his one good hand and the other lies limp by his side, maybe he’s also the one that has sacrificed the most.
Nevis takes us to the far reaches of the community, to a small but sturdy hut. The walls are made of red clay and the roof thatched from hay. She stops at the door and says, “This is our wedding house. Newlyweds come here to celebrate and consummate their relationships. You’ll have the quiet and peace to figure out your next step together.”
“Thank you,” Bunny says, as though he’s not the least bit surprised. Did he know it would come to this?
“I’ll sound the gathering bell when time is close. It’s important we’re back in the castle and ready when the Queen sends for you.”
I nod. “Yes. We’ll be ready.”
She gives me a tight, understanding smile. “Good luck and may the gods bless you.”
She turns and walks down the path. I watch her go and then spin to face Bunny. He’s already opened the door and holding it wide for me. With a knot in my belly and a grim set to my jaw, I step past him and enter the house.
The cottage is sparsely decorated. A queen-sized bed is the focal point, a white, hand-stitched quilt covering the mattress. There’s a small kitchen with a table and a stove. A claw foot tub sits in the corner.
“I never thought our relationship would end like this,” I say to him. “Forced. A cog in a wheel bigger than both of us.” He smiles wistfully at my description. “Actually, the weird thing is I thought you’d be my first.”
“In a different life I probably would have been.”
We stand before one another, neither dressed in our finest as we were just the night before. At the banquet there had been at least a sense of danger. Of desire. Definitely desperation as the Darkness surged in me and needed quenching. If we’d been pushed together at one of those times I easily would have succumbed, but now I’m cleansed. Clean from that dark energy—primed for the Morrigan’s binding.
Now I just feel helpless. Hopeless, despite what Casteel told me in my room upstairs. There are too many balls in the air; my guardians, the warriors they bring with them, Nevis and her people and the whole gods-damned world back home that doesn’t even realize they’re on the edge of a knife. There are too many people counting on me, relying on me, and I’m nothing but a girl.
“I don’t know what to do,” I say to him in a whisper.
He lifts his hand and tucks my hair behind my ear. Instinctively my body reacts to his touch; butterflies flutter in my stomach, my knees tremble, and my nipples tighten in anticipation. His pupils dilate, the dark center spreading over his copper iris. I feel his fingers clench in my hair and I lean into his palm.
“Do you trust me?” he asks.
“No.” I shake my head. “I don’t.”
He tilts his head and his hair falls into his eyes. His tongue darts out and my traitorous lips quiver, thinking about kissing him. “You don’t have to. It’s okay if you don’t. But we’ve got to do this, okay?”
I nod. “Okay.”
He grazes my neck with his hand, the pads of his fingertips rough from use. A chill runs down my spine—the good kind—and he brushes his warm lips against mine. There’s no hesitation, there’s no time for that. I’m thankful because it’s time to turn off my gods-forsaken brain for just. One. Fucking. Minute.
My body responds to his like a flower to sunlight. I lean into him, tasting his mouth, sucking his tongue. The layers of conflict fall between us, like the shedding of our clothes. I unbutton his shirt, slipping the wide metal buttons through the slits one after the other. The solid curves and planes of his bare chest peek out at me along with the taut ladder of his abs. His body is unfamiliar to me, I haven’t had the pleasure of spending time exploring him and today would be no different.
He bunches my dress in his hand, lifting it up my body, his knuckles grazing my stomach. My belly clenches and there’s no denying the warmth between my legs. Our mouths part but our breath mingles as we remove the final barriers between us.
Bunny nudges me toward the bed and I fall back, knees dangling over the edge. He stands before me, hard. Ready. Big.
His eyes drink me in. I brace myself for him, half eager, half feeling a pit of hollowness deep inside. It shouldn’t be like this—out of our control. My fingers clench the bedding and I close my eyes.
I feel nothing but a flutter by my legs, knees brushing knees. I blink and find him over me. His mouth is inches from mine and he whispers, “I can never take back the pain of what I did, but I can redeem myself in the eyes of the gods and my brothers and you.”
His length is between us; pressing and solid. My legs part and his hand ghosts down my inner thigh. I shift, welcoming him, my core slick.
The energy between us ebbs, the Darkness beaten back inch by inch, and something different rises, something I’ve only grasped in my fingers like the wind. I cling to the feeling, the power, and lasso it around us like a bond. I touch his chest, feel the pebble of his nipples beneath my fingers. With my mind—my body—I pull, bringing him closer. To my mouth, to my body, and with one hand I guide him toward me. The goddess flares the instant we meet. I roar against his lips and he pushes in, slowly, achingly.
Finally.
He enters me and it’s like a link in the chain. A piece of the puzzle clicks into place. A rush washes over me. Everything makes sense. Feels right.
And it’s not enough.
It’s like a trigger, those pieces clicking together, link by link and the swirling energy kicks me to life.
“Oh,” I say to him, to the world. “Oh, Bunny. I…”
I push Bunny off and on his back, his expression shock and regret. I feel the loss of our connection but that is short-lived. The entity inside me understands. She knows the path we’re on and is no longer allowing the weaker side of me—the human part of both of us--to fuck this up.
His head presses into the pillows and I straddle his hips. His cock is slick with my heat and I don’t hesitate before sinking down, guiding him to the depths of my core.
“Uhhhh,” I cry, followed by prayers to the gods. The flip switches in Bunny’s eye and once he understands how this is truly greater than the two of us, he reacts with force.
His hips buck against me and I ride him hard, feeling every inch of him, from tip to the base of his cock when he slams into me. Sweat pools between us, I feel it on his fingertips when he pinches my nipples and on his face when I suck his jaw. The walls fade, the bed disappears and we’re just two, bonding, binding, and mating.
We close the circle, the one that started with Clinton and forged with Sam and Damien. Strengthened by Dylan but left incomplete. On purpose. I see that now. He was waiting. I was forced back. Now is the right moment for us to complete the bond of the five. Our eyes meet and for the first time I know the path ahead.