Chapter 23

Béke Day Five

When Ruslan had told me on our first day together that he would avenge me, I didn't believe him. I had thought his words were all a ploy to manipulate me into becoming a weapon for his use, but during our time together, Ruslan had shown me over and over that when he said he would do something for me, he meant it. I wholeheartedly believed him when he said that he'd die without me and burn the whole world down if that was what I desired.

Ruslan's love for me was the wildfire he wanted to bring out of me – all-consuming, never-ending, and filled with heat. His smoky eyes danced with black flame, and the darkest parts of him hummed just beneath the surface of his skin, ready to play.

"I love you, sprite. Step into the darkness with me."

And for once, I let go of my light and did just that. I grasped his outstretched hand and stepped into the lift with him. "I love you, Ruslan. You are the dark to my light, but tonight I want to be consumed with darkness – with you."

A tug on my arm pulled me into him, and he captured my lips in a bruising kiss as the iron door closed on us and the lift began to move. Ruslan's power was mighty, and it never ceased to amaze me how he could use so much of it while being wrapped up in me. His teeth nipped my lower lip, and I whimpered as he drew blood. His tongue lapped it away a moment later, the metallic taste coating both our mouths as he deepened our kiss. Fire pooled between my thighs, and I forgot all about us hurtling upward as his hands gripped my ass and pulled me off the ground. Wrapping my legs around his waist, I allowed him to hold me tighter, and a hand yanked my long braid back, tilting my head up and exposing my neck.

A trail of kisses left shivers in their wake as he made his way from my jaw to my ear and down to my exposed collarbone, stopping to suck on my pulse point along the way. "When we're finished killing them, I will fuck you senseless," Ruslan growled at my neck, and my thighs clenched together around him at the promise in his words. I rolled my hips against the hard planes of his stomach, and his large hands lowered me so I was flush against his hardness. "You get me so fucking hard, especially when I see that spark of fire in your eyes. You are so fucking perfect for me, hand-crafted by the Goddess herself."

The words went straight to my core, and it throbbed with need. Ruslan dragged me up and down his length, and the friction through our clothes barely eased the desperation vibrating in our bond to be closer. His forehead touched mine, and the corner of his mouth twitched up as he continued to grind against me, eliciting whimpers and a flush across my face.

"We should ride the lift like this every time," I managed to say, and his grin widened, eyes flashing with wicked desire.

"That can be arranged," he replied, his tone leaving no doubt that he meant it.

We slowed our ascent as we approached another iron door, and I was suddenly breathless and dizzy. Ruslan seemed to sense this, and a strong arm wrapped around my back and held me in place as he turned to open it. Trepidation clenched my stomach as the door slid open with a heavy groan. We emerged into a domed room, the center occupied by a large hearth with tables surrounding it, some laden with dishes and cookware and others with blankets and other supplies.

"We can sit here until you regain your breath. The change in altitude was fast, and the air is much thinner up here." Ruslan carried me to a table with blankets, pulling out two chairs and placing me in one before wrapping me in the thick wool and rubbing my arms to bring some warmth into them.

But his touch couldn't chase the chill that settled over me, as if my body knew exactly where we were, despite never having laid eyes on the space.

"Is this…" I trailed off, mind still trying to process what I was seeing.

"Where you were kept? Yes."

The walls were lined with more of the same strange flames from the tunnels beneath the mountains, giving light to a space that was antithetical to the darkness where I had been chained. Down a hall, wood doors stood ajar, and in the closest room there was a bed and a small dresser, presumably where the guards had slept.

"I want to know everything that happened to you here. I want these bastards to feel the full force of my fury, and I want to make them pay for every last thing they did to you," Ruslan growled, placing his hands on my knees and leveling me with the most violent, serious expression he had ever offered.

Though it had only been months since I'd last been in this cave, it felt like a lifetime. So much had happened since the day Kazimir and the Nighthounds appeared in the darkness like Goddess-sent saviors. The female who came of age that night was fearful, untrusting, ignorant, and powerless.

But my time with them had not been as true as I had once thought.

Kazimir had lied to me, manipulated me, and after seeing him again in the Iron Realm, I understood there were parts of him that had been kept hidden away – purposefully. I had trusted him, trusted all of the Nighthounds, thinking that anyone who claimed to have spent so long searching for me only had my best interests at heart. While the other Nighthounds may have, Kazimir did not. Kazimir had thought of only himself, and what I thought was infatuation was only obsession – and not of the type that made me feel safe and secure any longer. Mates may have had an extraordinary connection that made them closer than any two who naturally chose each other, but Ruslan had proven that there could still be a healthy balance to it, one that Kazimir did not offer, or know how to offer.

Kazimir may have helped me trust again, he may have shown me how to be powerful, but it was I who claimed that power for myself, who worked so hard every fucking day to rise above what had happened to me, and who chose to live instead of survive.

I was no longer a victim; I was an insidious bloom, thorns hidden beneath a pretty exterior, with a wildfire inside, ready to be loosed upon anyone who dared hurt me again.

I was a powerful Félvér, and I would bring the whole continent to its knees before me.

But first, some males needed reminding that they could not fuck with me and live to tell the tale.

So I opened my mouth and spoke every vile action and cruel comment into existence, unburdening myself to my mate. I recounted the faint memories of a kind caretaker who gave her life for me. I gritted my teeth and forced out the memories of my subsequent keepers and their visits, during which they forced me to recite poetry, to become elegant, eloquent, and intelligent in preparation for my noble role. I told him how I never believed them, because the moment they left and banished the light they'd brought with them, the worst of the guards would slink into my cave and whisper the opposite words into my ear, and then whip me if I fought them in any way. Then days later, the nicer ones would appear with treats, fresh clothes, and apologies on their lips. The cycle repeated itself, and I marked the endless passage of time by the arrival and departure of the females and the few hours of sound sleep I managed.

While I spoke, the air around us simultaneously chilled and heated with Ruslan's unbridled fury. He had to remove his hands from my knees, and by the way they gripped his own, I knew he would leave deep, purple imprints there. The way he vibrated with barely restrained anger would have once frightened me; now it made me burn for him in the best way, and I knew without a doubt he would go to the ends of the earth to avenge me.

Despite his own rage, he knew and understood this was something I needed to do.

Shucking off the blanket, I pushed to my feet and looked at my mate. "Where are they?"

I was ready to take my revenge.

"Chained to the wall they kept you on," he replied, rising smoothly to his feet. "Though there will be light while we kill them. I want to see the looks on their faces as they die."

From my time chained there, I knew they could hear every word that cut through the deathly silence of the cave. "Then we'll have to blind them one by one so they know what it is like to be kept in the dark."

Ruslan's expression turned feral, a darkness flashing in his eyes that made my toes curl. "So wicked, sprite. Who knew something so pretty could be so deadly." He placed his hand on the small of my back, guiding me away from the large living chamber and down a hall lined with torches. After a minute, the first place I ever saw beyond my wall appeared up to my right, the natural opening of the cave revealing the black of night beyond. The walls glittered in the firelight just like I remembered, the black stone creating a rough arch that disappeared into the darkness above. I paused mid-step and turned toward the mouth of the cave, faint childhood memories drifting into those of the night of my rescue.

Endre unlocking my chains. Kazimir scooping me into his arms. The free fall as we flew away from the cave. The smell of amber that filled my nostrils as I clung to him. The brilliance of the stars overhead, and the jagged, snow-capped peaks all around me.

A gust of cold air slapped my face as I reached the entrance, the overhang stopping only steps before a lip of jagged rock. The moon was full and at this altitude, it looked close enough to touch if I reached out my hand. A million twinkling stars gazed upon me, caressing me with their light among the endless dark around us. The view was breathtaking, and when Ruslan joined me, he wrapped his arms around me protectively.

"The day I arrived to take you home, I stood in this very spot, gazing over the peaks and wondering where you had gone. I thought I knew then what love was, and what a mate bond should feel like, but I was irrevocably mistaken. We haven't even accepted the bond yet, and I know that my heart would shatter if we parted. My life is yours, my heart is yours, my soul is yours, and without you, I am nothing. You are everything to me, sprite, and there are not enough words to express the depths of what I feel for you."

I tried to picture Ruslan standing here on his own, looking down at the world below. The male who came to Este Castle to take me to the Iron Realm was so different from the one safeguarding me now. Ruslan still held his cocky attitude and ruthlessness, but somehow he had softened, especially with me. I loved when he grabbed me like he'd never let me go, kissed me like I was the air he needed to breathe, and caged me beneath him while we moved together. He made me feel safe enough to let go and trust that he would take care of me; he never made me feel trapped and powerless.

"We're both so different than we were that night," I murmured, taking one last look at the star-dusted sky.

Ruslan kissed the top of my head. "And better for it."

I slid my hand into his, and we retraced our steps, entering a hall with fewer torches, the end of it disappearing into an endless black. Tingles raced across my body as we stepped beyond the firelight, from both anxiety and adrenaline. I was returning to the place where I had been endlessly abused for countless years, and my every nerve was alight with anticipation.

And I was not alone.

Ruslan's hand tightened around mine as if he could sense the direction of my thoughts, and with his free hand he called black flame to his palm to light the way. A serrated breath passed my lips, and I called white bubbles of light to my hand, then threw them into the air around us, lighting the path to the males who had abused me.

As we crept along the hall, muffled whimpers and the smell of urine reached my senses, along with the occasional scrape of iron against rock – a sound that would always be familiar to me. A chamber opened on our left, and I froze on the spot, heart hammering wildly as my magic was swallowed in the void only a few feet ahead.

This was it.

I took a tentative step forward, and then another, pushing myself through my fear of returning to this spot.

What if this had all been a ruse, and I was about to be chained again?

The thought stopped me in my tracks, and Ruslan hesitated only a moment before folding me into his chest and stroking my hair and back. "Shh, sprite, I've got you." I didn't realize I was crying until the fabric of Ruslan's tunic became wet beneath my face, and I forced myself to breathe. "You are so brave."

He continued to stroke and whisper words of encouragement to me until I felt calm enough to break from his embrace. I swiped at my eyes, then opened them to the sight of a hundred candles and lanterns scattered around the space, casting light around the cave where I had been chained, raped, and abused. Ruslan's black fire was intimidating, but I wanted to leave my own mark on the minds of these males, so I swapped each black flame for ones of brilliant white, so bright they were nearly blinding.

Thirteen males were chained and gagged, lined up side by side against the rough-hewn wall that was more familiar than my own face. Most were covered in dirt or blood or both, with scraggly hair and beards on some, while others lacked the layers of grime.

"How long did this take you?" I asked Ruslan as I stalked along the line of males, examining each of them closely as I passed, finally looking upon the faces of those who had hurt me.

"Too long," Ruslan hissed, squatting next to a leather wrap and unfurling it to reveal an array of gleaming metal objects. They glinted in the white light cast by my flames, nearly as bright as Ruslan's iron eyes as he plucked a wicked-looking knife from the leather. The male closest to him whimpered at the sight of the serrated blade, his eyes going wide with fear as Ruslan stalked toward him, flipping the blade over and over in his hand. The slice of the knife through the air sounded more like a death knell.

"You want them to know what it"s like to live in darkness, like what they did to you?" His raspy voice held all the wickedness he showed to everyone but me, and the heat that pooled low in my belly was nearly shameful.

Ruslan stopped in front of the first male in chains and caressed his cheek with the sharp blade. With a few tentative steps, I joined them, gazing down on my former captor trembling with fear, a tear tracking down his cheek and ghosting over Ruslan's blade. The smell of the unwashed males hid most of their scents, but the musky odor of the males who'd raped me was a scar on my mind just like the scars on my back from their iron-tipped whips. The blade paused just below his eye, and the one beside him widened his eyes as he waited to see what would befall his comrade. Down the line, the pathetic bastards trembled, and some even began pleading with us through the thick gags that robbed them of words.

"I do."

My words were the permission Ruslan needed to carry out his task, and without warning, he sank the blade into the male's dark eye. He screamed through his gag, muscles of his neck straining as he fought through the pain of Ruslan twisting the knife around in his eye socket, sending blood cascading down his cheek. As quickly as he entered, he yanked the blade back and plunged it into the other eye, permanently blinding him.

My stomach churned at the sight, but I held firm, needing to see this vengeance carried out. The male slumped forward, chest heaving, once Ruslan had finished with him, and the river of ruby running from his eyes began carving its path into the stone floor. One by one, Ruslan repeated the process, blood coating the faces of these males who had raped and abused me while chaining me in darkness. The metallic scent was nearly overwhelming when mixed with the smell of excrement, and I had to breathe through my mouth as my former prison filled with the noxious fumes.

Their screams were nothing compared to the ones I'd made, ones that left my throat raw until I learned to hold them back and float my mind anywhere else. Ruslan had not even breached the surface with what he planned to do to them, of that I was certain, and I hadn't yet gotten a turn of my own.

Locking down my empath magic, I steeled myself against their anguish, not allowing their emotions to become my own, not when exacting pain in kind for what they had given me was so high on my priority list.

They had no mercy for me, and I would have no mercy for them.

Stalking to the roll of instruments, I selected a thin knife that looked like it would draw shallow cuts without killing them. These males would die, but I wanted to drag it out like they had so often done to me when they split open my back. "Strip them," I ordered, glancing up from my weapon to Ruslan, whose sinful smirk held no objection.

"What my mate wants, she gets," he crooned, crossing the length of chains that bound my former captors to the wall of this prison and selecting one of them at random. The guards around him all jumped, sending a tinkle echoing through the chamber as their irons shifted. Ruslan moved up and down the line, never giving them a chance to figure out who his next target was as he stripped them bare, leaving as much skin as possible exposed for me to carve.

The whimpers and pleas from the blinded males fell on deaf ears as I followed Ruslan's game of psychological torture and selected one simply because he smelled like one who had raped me until I nearly fainted from blood loss. Carefully stepping over his bindings, I raised the knife a breath from his back, watching as the hairs stood on end and goosebumps broke out across his flesh like a plague. He knew I was there, and he trembled with anticipation, ignorant to what pain I planned to inflict upon him.

And that was the sweetest revenge of all.

A slash drew a shallow cut across his shoulder that bled immediately, hitting at just the right angle to draw the most blood. His back arched, much like mine had when they'd whipped me, desperately trying to move out of the reach of my blade as I carved him like a roast.

Pathetic.

My former guards held none of my inner strength, for even I knew when their actions were inevitable and that lying down and biting my tongue were my best options for survival. Yet they still pleaded through their gags, veins in their necks popping from the effort, sweat rolling off of them as I not-so-accidentally caused their chains to clang while I navigated the space around them, delivering a shallow slice here and there.

The blood that spilled down their backs was not enough to atone for everything they had done to me.

I stopped at random among the males, carefully picking my way among the iron until I could lean down and whisper in his ear. "What would you do to stop the pain?" I asked, barely recognizing the sound of my voice when it was filled with teasing malice.

"An-an-anything," he whimpered around the gag, garnet tears tracking over his jowls.

I threw my head back and laughed, the manic sound echoing off the domed ceiling of the hewn cave. Every one of them jumped, sending a sick satisfaction up my spine.

"It's funny that you say that," I purred, resting the sharp tip of the blade on his shoulder and lightly tracing it across his chest as I rounded to his front. "Because no matter how many times I begged, you never did." The tip rested between two of his ribs, and I shoved it through the muscle. A cry ripped from his throat, short-lived as the air fled his lungs. He wheezed, thrashing against his bindings as he slowly began to suffocate.

Ruslan's face glowed among the white firelight, watching me with a dark heat as I worked my way down the line again, enjoying every moment of torture I delivered to the guards. "You're so fucking good at this, sprite. I want to see more of your darkness."

He held out what looked like clawed prongs, and I accepted them, threading my fingers through the holes and snapping them open and shut with a sharp click. "What are these for?"

"Take a wild guess," he drawled, as if we didn't hold thirteen – now twelve lives in our hands.

A slow smile spread across my face as I realized what they were meant to do. "Well, then, I'll definitely be needing an assistant."

Ruslan kept his steps light, hiding his approach from the male on the far end, the one I hadn't carved up quite as much as the others. Shock turned into a muffled scream as Ruslan dragged him to his feet, his empty eye sockets looking toward the endless ceiling above as his head was yanked back. Snapping the clawed instrument open and shut, I descended on the standing male, soaking in the pleasure of knowing the others were on edge, unable to see what was happening around them.

I circled to the male's ear, standing on my tiptoes so I could whisper in it. "I killed one of your comrades that came after me by cutting off his dick and balls. I wonder how long you'll last before you bleed out?" I ripped his gag away as I stepped back, wanting the full effect of his scream as I clamped the sharp ridges around his balls and ripped.

The shriek that left his lips remained in this world long after he did, the acoustics of the room giving it life as it bounced from stone to stone and out the mouth of the cave, wrenched away by the night wind. His listless body crumpled to the ground as Ruslan released his hair, and the eleven living males sobbed, shook, and shouted as we coordinated our next target. The first victim of my back painting was looking paler by the moment as his blood mixed with that of the others on the floor, and I jerked my head in his direction, signaling Ruslan to drag him to his feet.

He barely had the strength or awareness to fight back as I clamped and ripped, and his death was much less satisfying than the previous one. When he crumpled into a lifeless heap at my feet, I saw just how deep the river of ruby had gotten. "I think I'll need some new shoes after this," I sighed as if my greatest concern was my fashion choices and these predatory males were nothing more than toys for me.

"I am, in fact, King of the Iron Realm, so I think I can make that happen." Ruslan smirked, snatching my wrist and yanking me to him. His tunic was soaked in blood, as was mine, and yet I couldn't help the wave of desire that rose within me. I tipped my head back, exposing my throat to Ruslan, and he growled, diving in for that place on my neck where I loved to be kissed.

The groan that escaped me resounded around the cave, drowning out the whimpering in the background. "Perhaps we should leave our clothes here on our way out."

His teeth skimmed the sensitive place just below my ear. "I think that is a good plan."

"Then we'd better get to work," I breathed, and he nipped my ear.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to take these last kills for myself. After all, what kind of male would I be if I didn't deliver the utmost pain to someone who dared lay a hand on my mate?"

"Not the kind I would want," I murmured, yanking his mouth to mine for a biting kiss before pushing him toward the waiting guards. "Now show me how much you love me, Ruslan."

Those smoky eyes turned animalistic and rapacious as he was granted an opportunity to unleash the darkest parts of himself. The most fucked up parts of him were not so different than my own, and that was what I loved most about him, about us – that we understood one another in a way others could not.

Pain was the way he expressed himself when words failed him. Choice was the way I controlled my life. Fate was what bound us together, with an unbreakable thread that kept me in his orbit despite my immediate hatred of him. Love was born from our understanding of each other's darkness, what we needed to move through this world in a way that made us feel safe and in control.

Ruslan selected a cleaving knife from the roll of metal instruments, chopping off fingers and ears and toes, sometimes ripping away a gag before a particularly nasty blow, dragging out the deaths of those who hurt me while amping up the psychological torture. All the while, I watched him work, watched his brutality, and I did not flinch. He finished each of them off by ripping away their cocks and balls, just as I had, and cursing them as they died for touching his mate.

The silence was deafening when the last one fell.

But in that silence was a peace I didn"t know I could find; the sessions I'd completed with Zuriel could not compare to the heady feeling coursing through my veins. My body hummed from head to toe, buzzing with an electric energy that begged to be freed.

Never again would those males harm me; I had retaken every ounce of power they stripped from me, and I felt fucking amazing.

Ruslan broke the silence when he dropped his tools, the metal hitting stone with a satisfying ring that sang of finality. In three strides, he wrapped me in his arms, blood smearing all around us as we raced to rip our clothes off.

"That was the hottest fucking thing I've ever seen you do, sprite, and I need to be inside you. Now," he growled as he ripped my tunic away with one hard yank.

"Fuck me hard, Ruslan. I want to come all over your cock to thank you for what you did for me." The words came out breathy, wanton, and I didn't care how needy I sounded, I just wanted him.

"Fuck…" he groaned, burying his lips in my neck and grinding his hips into me. Backing us out of the pool of blood, Ruslan steered us until we were among the hundreds of candles he'd placed in the cave prior to my arrival. Using only my feet, I kicked one boot off, then the other, Ruslan mimicking my actions and then stripping us both of our pants. Half the white flames surrounding us changed to black as he laid back on the bare floor, pulling me on top of him, flush with his hardness. "Ride me," he commanded, and I gripped his dick with one hand and positioned myself over him, sinking down with a delightful hiss as he stretched out my inner walls.

I was so fucking full of his cock, and looking down on him, I felt like a fucking queen. His pupils were nearly black from lust, and his hands gripped my hips and dragged me down deeper, eliciting a moan. The tattoos on his chest blended with the blood still coating us, making his already sinister-looking torso that much wickeder. I ran my hands across the hard planes of his shoulders and arms as I began to ride him, finding a rhythm that dragged me all the way off before dropping down again, and he cursed low as I worked him harder and faster.

Within moments, I was close to coming, my thighs soaked from watching him work and our earlier encounter in the lift. Ruslan would do anything for me – torture, kill, burn. There was nothing I could ask of him that he wouldn't do or wouldn't give, and instead of binding me to him through force, he had given me the space I needed to work out my feelings, even though it sent his anxiety over the edge to do so.

And Kazimir could barely go five minutes without insisting I owed him in some way or insinuating that he owned me.

The cacophony of our heavy breathing and slapping skin filled the cave where I had been chained, and as my walls began to flutter, I ground myself deeper onto Ruslan's cock. "That's it, sprite, come for me."

The most intense orgasm of my life speared through me, shattering everything I thought I knew and replacing it with a high that rivaled the peak of Vasvain. "I love you, Ruslan. You are my mate. My one and only. I choose you."

The roar that Ruslan released shook the cave with its ferocity, sending stones skittering and the firelights flickering. His hips pistoned into mine, and his hot cum filled me as he snarled. "I love you, Izidora. You are my mate. The fire in our souls belongs together, in this life and in all the rest."

And with those spoken words, we were joined in every way. Pain seared the skin between my shoulder blades, causing my back to arch forward. A strangled cry ripped from me, and then I was coming again, the pleasure of Ruslan throbbing inside me mixing with the sharp sting on my back. I panted through the wave of release, sweat dripping from me and onto my mate as our bond settled into place.

It was unlike anything I'd ever imagined, anything I'd experienced before. I thought I loved Ruslan five minutes before, but compared to what I felt as the bond settled in place, it was infinitesimally small. This feeling was infinite, pure, true, unconditional, and I radiated for the depths of it. No words could accurately paint the picture of this blissful feeling, but I found none were necessary between Ruslan and me – not anymore. Not when his heart beat for me, and mine for him.

"You have given me the greatest gift of all. This feeling… it is indescribable. I imagined what it would be like countless times, but this, this is more than I could have dreamed. You are my angel, my sprite, and now my life."

Tears pricked my eyes as I felt the truth of his words. "Will your mark be covered by your tattoos?"

"No. I left a special place free just for this moment," he smirked. The moment he pushed my hips off of him, I ached for his closeness, not wanting to be separated, not yet anyway. I was still relishing this incredible feeling of boundless certainty and contentment.

"I'm not going anywhere."

"How did you know?"

"There are no barriers between us anymore. We are one."

His eyes glittered as he turned around to show me his back. There, just between his shoulder blades, was the outline of a perfect circle. I touched it with the devotion such a powerful mark deserved, and the one on my back tingled in tune.

The smile over his shoulder was devastating. "Let me see yours."

We switched positions, and I bared my back to him. His fingers traced the outline, sending another shudder through my body. Then his lips brushed the very center of the circle, the touch sending heat straight to my core. "You are exquisite, my mate," he purred. "I can't wait to make you my wife." He pulled me onto his lap, holding me against his chest like I was the most precious of gemstones. "I love you."

"And I love you," I whispered back. We remained locked in that embrace until the air became too cold to bear, and a body-wide shiver from me finally caused Ruslan to stir.

"I need to fuck you again, but this time I want to be clean while doing it." He scooped me in his arms, leaving the bloodied tools and bodies behind, along with our clothes, and carried me toward the lift that had been hidden deep in the Agrenak Mountains the entire time I'd been chained in that cave.

I swung my feet in time with his steps, a wide smile plastered on my face as I walked my fingers across my mate's muscled torso. "I don't think we'll stay clean for long, not with the way I want you to take me."

Ruslan groaned, the sound slipping from low in his chest. "Fuck, sprite, when you say things like that…"

"What?" I teased, my fingers stopping just above his pounding heart. "I didn't even tell you how my pussy clenched when you killed them for me."

"Izidora," he growled, a warning in his tone, and his whole body went tense beneath me.

It made my blood sing in the best way. I wasn't quite ready to step out of the dark, not when it felt so damn good to slip into it with Ruslan.

"Take me home," I said, breathless, and our fresh mating bond hummed with excitement.

Ruslan wasted no time, beginning to chant under his breath, the words foreign yet familiar, and I knew he meant to take us to Roc Palace – the home he built for us, where no other female had set foot. The cart, our clothes, all was forgotten when getting as close as possible to one another was an all-consuming thought. Within moments, we were standing in the center of our suite's bathroom, the giant shower flowing with natural hot spring water from the mountains beckoning us to wash away the gore and grime.

"How did that not drain all of your magic?" I asked, blinking up at him.

A secretive smirk pulled up the corners of his mouth. "Because I am the most powerful Félvér in all of északi."

"You were holding out on me," I protested with a wry grin.

"You are not the only one with hidden thorns, sprite," he teased, carrying me toward the waiting shower. Ruslan could scarcely stand to put me down, and the entire time he spun the handles to release the flow of natural thermal water, his intense gaze pinned me in place. The moment steam rolled in our direction, he snatched my waist and directed me under the spray, sending a cascade of giggles from my chest. The world fell away with each brush of skin on skin, with each swipe of tongue against tongue, until we were infinite in that moment.

Nothing and no one would separate us now that we were one.

Now that Ruslan was my mate.