Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

Death

Zinnia wriggled her hips, her hot, slick pussy scalding the head of my cock. My arm banded around her tighter, and she whimpered. "You're going to break my spine, Mors, and then no one will be fucking anyone," she said, panting.

I quickly let up my grip, which felt impossible in that moment, but somehow, I did it. I wrapped her wild red hair around my fist and sucked and kissed the skin along her throat, her shoulder. Gods, I wanted to take a fucking bite out of her, that's how deep my hunger went. I wanted to suck and bite and crush her to me. None of it was enough; nothing would bring her close enough to me.

Throughout my life, I'd been tipped into madness of the darkest and most twisted kind, but nothing had ever made me feel as out of control as this moment. I'd waited for her for so long, so long I'd been without my consort, and now I would finally claim her. Gods help anyone who tried to take her from me. Not this time. This time, I would keep her; this time, she would stay.

She squirmed against me, her hips wriggling, working the head of my cock inside her. I gritted my teeth, breathing hard, trying to stop my heart from exploding out of my chest and my hips from slamming up. "That's it, nice and easy," I said, the opposite of everything I was feeling. But my precious consort came first, in everything. My wants and needs, my desires, they all came second to hers. She thought I was the one in control, that I controlled her, but nothing could be further from the truth—I was her servant.

She was my queen, and I would worship at her feet until the end of time. All she had to do was trust me.

Believe in me.

Stay with me.

Want me.

She whimpered again, but this time because she pushed down, taking more of me inside her.

" Oh fuck ," she gasped and rocked her hips, the wet sound of her cunt making me insane as she worked the inch of my cock she'd managed to take, letting it stretch her before taking more. "You're too big," she moaned, then took more, sinking her teeth into my shoulder.

I almost fucking came. Gripping her ass, I barely held on to my sanity. "You were made for me, Zinnia. The fates chose you for me," I growled out. "We will fit together, I promise you." Her pussy, tight and scalding, swallowed more, and I locked my muscles so I didn't thrust upward. "Feel good, little witch?"

She rolled her hips again and took more. "I-I think I'm losing my… my mind," she said with another roll, right there with me. "Oh goddess, you're… it's…" She shuddered. "Fuck," she hissed and started rocking on top of me. Each time she took more, her needy sounds grew, until she had every hard inch buried inside her. "Mors," she groaned my name like a cry for help.

"It's okay, Zinnia. Relax…" She moaned against my throat as she carefully rocked her hips. Fucking hell . My eyes rolled back. "That's it. Now show me how good it feels. Show me," I said, gripping her hips and encouraging her to move again.

She wrapped her arms around my head, and then her mouth came down on mine, feeding me her needy kisses and panted breaths while she started to move. "Yes," she whimpered against my mouth. "So good."

I let the reins slip, just a little, and lifted my hips, desperate to get closer.

"Oh fuck," she said; then my little consort completely lost control. My sweet, feisty witch moved faster, giving me everything she had until she was begging me for more.

Gripping her hips, I gave it to her. I pulled her down as I thrust up, filling her deep. The feel of her wrapped around me, of her holding me so tight, of her wanting me, was so sublime, she had me spinning. Gods, I was back in the night sky because my precious consort had me seeing the stars.

"Mors," she moaned.

My name on her lips had my hips snapping up, meeting hers with force, making her cry out. I'd be worried I'd hurt her, but she was so wet that I was gliding in and out of her with ease, and her moans hadn't stopped and were full of pleasure, not pain.

Then Zinnia sucked my lips one last time and sat up, planted her hands on my chest—right over the stars tattooed there—and swiveled her hips. No, she definitely wasn't in any pain. Her head fell back as she took from me exactly what she needed.

I watched her in awe. "Take what you need," I growled. My wild, willful consort. My beautiful warrior. A female of power and intelligence, of beauty and warmth.

She was everything.

She was mine.

And I would not lose her. I wouldn't survive it, not this time.

She was fierce, lost to her pleasure now, and the sounds she made as she gave in to it sent shivers all through me. She cried out—a raw, wild sound that I would never ever forget—as her pussy clamped down hard on my cock. I had to hold on to her hips as she bucked and cried out, falling against my chest while she rocked mindlessly, lost in her pleasure. Wrapping my arms around her—one arm over her back, and the other on her ass—I locked her to me, and then I fucked her, thrusting my hips up hard to meet hers again, while she trembled and cried out, still coming for me.

There was no more holding back. "Yes, that's it, my precious Stella," I groaned and came hard inside my beautiful little wife, my Stella, my everything.

I thrust into her until I was spent, until we both lay there panting. I gently fisted her soft, warm hair and lifted her head, in need of her kisses badly, but she turned away, then tried to slide off me. I tightened my hold on her.

"Let me go, Death," she said, no longer using my name and making it clear she was not just pulling away physically. She was going to distance herself from me again.

No fucking way. Not after that. She couldn't pretend she didn't feel for me some of what I did for her, not after what we just shared. "Look at me," I growled.

She turned toward me but averted her eyes.

"You're angry with me. Did I hurt you? Did I—"

"I get it, you've had a lot of consorts, and I'm most likely heading toward total annihilation in the very near future. This is… whatever the hell it is, but would it hurt you to get my fucking name right while you're inside me? This Stella, she was obviously your favorite or whatever, but even the dude I had a one-night stand with remembered my fucking name."

I froze. I had said that, hadn't I? Idiot . "I've never had a consort named Stella."

She rolled her eyes. "I literally heard you say it in my visions twice."

I swallowed, my mouth dry, hating that I'd hurt her. "Stella means star," I rushed out. "When I say my Stella, I'm saying my star."

Her gaze dropped to my chest, to the intricate stars tattooed there, then back up. "So you what? Call us all the same term of endearment so you don't fuck up?"

"No. You are my consort, my guide, my light, my sun. That's just what you are. You are my little witch, but you are also my Stella," I said, trying to make her understand. I wanted to explain, to tell her everything, but I couldn't; doing so would mean losing her for certain. So I waited and hoped like hell she accepted my explanation.

She chewed her lip. "So this is another one of those bigger-than-me, dawn-of-time things that I'm never going to understand? Gotcha. Fine, whatever, but I've had visions of you with one, possibly two other females, so I know this isn't some grand love, and we're just fucking to kill time, but in all those visions, you called her… or them Stella, so I'd rather you didn't call me that again, thanks."

We weren't fucking to kill time, and even she couldn't believe that bullshit. And as for grand love? She had no fucking idea, but she would. "I'll try my very best not to call you that again," I said.

She eyed me for a moment, then finally, thank the gods, relaxed back against me. Her warmth instantly put me at ease. I slid my hand down her back, and she shivered. Yes, I liked that.

"You need to do better than try, my guy," she said. "Because if it happens again, it doesn't matter if I'm riding you like a rodeo bull, if you call me that name again, there will be no happy ending for you. I'll leave you to buck it out all on your own."

I stilled. "A rodeo bull?"

"You heard me," she said and wriggled against my side, getting comfortable.

A grin spread across my face, so wide, my cheeks hurt.

She paused in her wriggling and lifted her head. Her breath burst from her lungs. "What the hell are you grinning about?"

"You entertain me, little witch. I haven't been this entertained in a very long time."

"I'm glad I amuse you," she said, trying to be sarcastic, but her lips were twitching.

"I'll be your rodeo bull anytime, by the way."

She snorted. "Like there was ever any doubt."

The laugh burst from me before I knew it was coming. Zinnia startled, and I laughed harder, wrapping my arms around her and holding her to me.

* * *

Zinnia

Gripping my sword, I slashed at the bloated, foul-smelling demon swiping red-tipped claws at me. I shifted my body to protect my back; my leather armor creaked as I slashed again.

They kept coming. I was on my own. There were too many. I stumbled back, closer to the rocky cliff. Oh gods, there was no way out of this.

The demons closed in, one grabbing me by the throat while another snatched something from my back, something I needed to protect, something precious. The demon released my throat, then slammed a fist into my stomach.

I stumbled back, and then I was falling, falling toward the sea and jagged rocks. My screams turned into a roar of fury. This did not end here. They would pay for this—

With a gasp, my eyes flew open a moment before I hit the rocks.

My heart pounded in my chest, the familiar ache more intense than ever before, because instead of making me watch the scene unfold, whoever that was, she'd put me in her shoes. It was as if that were happening to me. Something tickled my cheek, and I reached up to brush it off, my fingers coming away damp. I realized tears were pouring down my face, likely from the lingering feeling of my entire world being ripped from me in that vision. Goddess, it was suffocating. Death was still beside me, breathing slow and steady. I needed air; I needed to shake the vision. I had no idea what his past consorts were trying to tell me, but the more they showed me, the more real they felt.

Easing out of bed, I quickly dressed, grabbed my knife from where Death had put it earlier, and slipped from the room. I wasn't worried about the crew attacking me, not now that Death was here, and even if one of them did, they were lacking in skill and, as I'd proved earlier, not overly hard to kill.

Rushing up the steep stairs and onto the landing, I shoved the door open and stepped out onto the deck. I dragged in a desperate breath, letting the sea air fill my lungs, before I strode to the railing, sucking in another frantic breath.

Her pain, whoever she was, had been like nothing I'd ever experienced. She'd been filled with so much fear and heartbreak and rage. Her world had been snatched from her along with the people she loved with a fierceness that I felt to my soul, that I understood.

The revenge in her heart had been white-hot.

Was that what she wanted, what they all wanted? Revenge?

Against who? At first, I thought they were warning me about Death, but I didn't believe that now. The female in that vision had loved him. Had all of them felt that way?

The thought had me gripping the railing tighter. Had they all fallen in love with him?

Did I truly think I would be the exception? That I'd somehow resist him? I wrapped my arms around myself. Did I really think I could outsmart the fates? That I could prove them wrong? I wasn't better or smarter or stronger or in possession of greater self-restraint than the females who came before me. I knew I wasn't. Death was a god, and I was a mere mortal; there was no resisting this pull I felt between us, not when it grew in strength every day.

Goddess, the way he'd touched me, held me, the things he'd said, the way he'd wanted me—I'd never experienced anything like that in my life.

His laugh when he'd wrapped his arms around me, holding me tight to him, had been heart-stopping—

A rough hand clamped hard over my mouth, and an oddly shaped body slammed into me from behind. I tried to fight, but there was no getting out of the demon's hold. He pulled his hand away, but only long enough to stuff a dirty rag in my mouth.

"Over you go," he said against my ear, then tossed me over the side.

I flailed, bracing, preparing to hit the water.

Instead, I was snatched from the air and shoved into the bottom of a dinghy. The demon who'd tossed me over the side quickly made his way down the rope ladder and got in as well. I didn't recognize either of them; they weren't crew. Someone else had sent them.

One of them started rowing while the other secured my wrists and ankles and tied a gag around my head, trapping the rag in my mouth. I couldn't spell, and I couldn't reach for my blade; I was fucking helpless.

The demon rowed for a while, and I wondered where they were taking me. We were too far from shore, but then I saw it, another ship, black and huge, camouflaged in the darkness.

Someone moved around on the deck, another demon, their misshapen shadow striding to the railing and watching us approach. They kicked down the ladder and stepped back.

Whatever this was, it was bad.

The eerie coo of an owl echoed overhead.

Really fucking bad.