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Chapter 42

I dropped my forehead into the mud, near naked and still shaking through an unfamiliar mix of pain and pleasure and a full body high that shook through my spine, This orgasm was completely different than anything I'd ever felt, and I couldn't say if it was due to our shared feelings, or if it was that otherworldly way his prince albert piercing skated through my ass. The heat of his come warmed me from the inside out, and I was about to beg for him to stay inside me, even as Rai's cock softened while we were still connected. The feel of his release, paired with my own, left my mind more calm and quiet than it had been in years.

He lingered with his hands still resting on my hips, no longer gripping me harshly, but with the clear sense that neither one of us was ready to cease contact just yet.

His piercing dragged along every pleasure point as he very slowly started to pull out, and if I'd been able to vocalize my needs, I might have begged him to just stay there until he was hard again. Maybe these were my thoughts, or maybe they were his, but all I could think about at the moment was what it would be like for him to take me in every hole he could until we were both blacked out and sated.

Insane.

Rai wasn't safe. He'd kidnapped me to kill me, right?

That's what he'd said, despite the fact that he'd saved my life and murdered everyone who hurt me with a permanent stake through the heart.

He let me believe he wanted me dead while he proceeded to pick me up and carry me, princess style, back to a safer and less bloody clearing in the woods. And I told myself he meant it, even when he stopped by a flowing waterfall and spent half an hour cleaning us both from head to toe, until no trace of the goblins lingered on our skin.

He hated me and wanted to humiliate me, which was also why he'd taken off his own leather vest so I could cover myself, clearly out of disgust for my fragile human body. That's what he'd said, even if a deep and undeniable feeling in my gut told me he was as confused as I was.

The Minotaur's red slitted eyes were distant. The soft sheen of melancholy sunk into my heart, but he didn't speak as we left the ruined village behind.

When at long last he came to a stop, he set me down gingerly and took his seat back on his large rock. Without his leather vest, every perfectly defined muscle on his body was visible, only accentuated by the beautifully painted tattoos, and the glints of silver from the piercings through his nipples, and the dermal piercings that followed the deep V of his abs, disappearing beneath his belt .

Still wordless, Rai sank into his seat, with the expression of a man who was contemplating his entire life.

"Are you okay?" He broke the silence with a simple question, while looking anywhere but at me with his complicated expression.

"I'm okay." I confirmed. I contemplated asking him if he was still planning to kill me, but it seemed like it would sour the mood even further, and I wasn't in the business of reminding people to violently gore me. So instead, I brilliantly asked a different insensitive question. "Are you going to be allowed to return to the castle after slaughtering the entire race of those cannibals?" The ridiculous thought that I'd made life harder for him shouldn't have ever been allowed in my head.

"Probably not." He laughed in a way that was noticeably accidental. "I wanted the Cronus dead regardless of anything regarding you, but I don't have any acceptable way to justify my actions to the king." Rai threaded his fingers through his lush black hair. "Though if I'm being honest, mass genocide wasn't the event in this sector that condemned me." His cheeks reddened and so did mine, in clear and mutual understanding. "This wasn't how this was supposed to go at all." He stared into the orange ferns.

I almost straight up giggled at that. "Considering we both felt that on both sides, I think that was the better of the two options." The small confidence was nice for once. I'd been in a constant state of terror since I got here, and this rare moment of calm was like crashing on the couch after a marathon. I stood up and sat down on the rock beside him. I let my forehead fall on his bare shoulder, and he didn't even bother to move. "So if our feelings are linked, does that mean you've felt everything I've felt up until now?" I asked. "Not just between us but…"

"I…" He laced his hands together. Nerves reflected in those scarlet eyes. "Yeah…"

"In the Yellow Sector—"

"Yes." He interrupted before I could finish that thought. "Yes to all of it. Including the drug." His Adam's apple bobbed, and he kept his gaze downturned. "Maybe that was why I was so… frustrated when I finally found you."

"And in the Blue Sector?"

Rai placed his hand on mine, and he gently raked his fingers up the marks on my forearm, skating over Theron's dots. "I could feel both of you." He admitted. "This whole debacle has been forcing me to feel things I didn't think I was capable of feeling, and I don't know what I'm supposed to do with it all." With that, somehow, the Minotaur had lost all of his bite. He seemed as lost as I was. As hurt as I was.

As human as I was.

I slid my hand back into his, and I squeezed his knuckles. A spike of relief, calm, and happiness sparked in my chest, and I was content with that notion belonging to either one of us.

"I'll help you get to the castle. I'll even get you your cat back." He said with uncharacteristic trepidation. "But maybe after that, you should stay. In Tartarus, I mean."

Stay? "Why would you want me to?"

"Because I've never felt anything like that, and I'm not prepared for it to be the last time." He squeezed me back. "But also because your cat's been really nice to me, and I like having him around. "

Goddamn it. If I'd ever experienced true emotional whiplash, it came in the form of a man who was planning to cut my head off confessing that he loved my fluff pumpkin.

"I don't know if I can survive the kinks of Tartarus men." I said it with the vague tone of a joke, but seriously, keeping up with devils would be a daily trip to a hardware store and a blood bank.

Rai sighed then stroked his horn. He drifted his fingertips to the top, then he skewered his thumb on the tip. Without explanation, he took hold of my chin and pressed his punctured thumb to my lips. He forced his way inside my mouth, and he pressed down on my tongue.

"Suck." He commanded, and I obeyed. "You hold the blood of three species, and I'll assure you do for the rest of time. I'm the only one who can kill you, and anyone else who tries will answer to my horns."

Was that sweet? My heartbeat and stomach were both fluttering like it was, but the way it made my pussy wet could only mean it was the reddest of flags. I guess that's what worked for me though, so who was I to complain. We all had our own fucked up cocktails we liked to order, no matter how many regrettable decisions they led to. It was going to take a lot of therapy to convince me to put down this Bloody Mary for a Shirley Temple.

"It's a nice sentiment, but I have a job and responsibilities back in my world. And… and I don't live forever like you guys do." I recalled Theron's speech about the brevity of my existence, that somehow justified him renaming me to Butterfly, and what was once comical and mildly annoying now left a deep pit in my stomach. "Humans barely live as long as a single blink on the cosmic scale. Cats live even shorter. I don't think that plan is going to work out how you think it will. "

He stifled a smile like I was the one being ridiculous. "All souls are immortal. If you were to pass of some human deficiency, your soul would just ascend or descend to another realm where you would be prepared for rebirth. If that happens, I'll just find you and bring you back before they're able to perform the reset."

I blinked, as there was a tremendous amount to process there, not the least of which in how casual and normal he made that sound. Why was it that these realms of gods got to know everything about the universe, while the realm of humans was full of blind guess work? I was a bit envious of how oddly simple that made life. To have confirmation and perfect knowledge of everything that happens in birth and death had to be freeing in a way. Maybe it was even more terrifying in others, since you had to go through life wondering how many things your soul has forgotten. Theron said he and Jericho had existed since the dawn of time, but Rai, who was born of Jericho's ex-wife, must have existed as something else at least once before.

"Have you ever wondered what happened to your parents' souls after they were murdered?" I don't know how I'd come to be so comfortable and candid with Rai, but he easily facilitated it. Something snapped into place when we'd been together, and I didn't mind it.

Rai laughed, and his smile was genuine in its amusement. "Their souls are imprisoned in their graves. The king made sure of it."

"Does that bother you?"

"No." He shook his head. "Both of my parents were alive for long enough for me to know them. Too long for me to think they're worth missing." He tugged idly at his collar. "Not everyone deserves a place in your existence."

What was the collar about?

I wanted to ask, but before I managed to get out the words, every tree and every bush that surrounded us went up in flames.

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