Chapter 41

Azran

The rest of my life disintegrates, its horrors long forgotten, for there’s only her. No one has ever said those words to me, not a single soul. My mother never could, and my father chose not to. But the only person I truly care to hear them from is her, my mate, the one I was destined for and the only soul I would sacrifice everything for.

My eyes snap open when her distress resonates down the bond.

Her face hovers over mine, her hair cascading around my ears. A slight tremble crosses her lips.

“I love you,” I whisper back, my voice shaking with emotion.

My chest tightens as her unsteady fingers caress my face. I should have said that ages ago. That she would even consider I didn’t reciprocate her feelings hadn’t crossed my mind. I was trying not to scare her off again, when I should have told her over and over, any chance I got.

I deposit a kiss on her swollen lips as her relief floods the bond.

“I love you,” I repeat.

I move on to her reddened cheek, and the corners of her lips lift into a smile.

“I love you.”

I grab her hand and bring it to my lips as tears well in her beautiful eyes.

“I love you.”

I can’t stop the words from leaving my mouth, and her widening smile does little to slow me down. After keeping the words so tightly bound for months, they tear through my throat in an attempt to catch up on lost time.

A pressing need takes hold of me, the need to say it to her over and over again so she’ll never forget. These words have to be etched into my heart and hers.

“I love you,” I say, as I kiss a path from her collarbone to her neck.

“Good,” she lowers herself to whisper in my ear before claiming my mouth as hers.

Her tongue teases mine and I tighten my grip on her thighs.

She chuckles against my mouth, grinding against me, her arousal dripping all over my erection.

A groan dies in my throat as her soaked pussy teases me.

“I need you,” I let out.

Each caress of her body sets a fire ablaze inside me.

“Please,” I whisper as she pushes against my chest for support and hovers over me.

She undoes the last of my restraint and I’m ready to beg.

A growl coils past my lips as she impales herself on me.

Ever so slowly, she begins moving on top of me, leaving me bare before letting me fill her up again, and I can’t look away.

The hair framing her face bounces with her movements. And as she leans closer, strands whisper across her reddened cheeks.

I claim her mouth to dull her moans, grunting against her lips as my body tenses under her touch.

Pushing on my chest to sit up, her nails dig into my skin until my ribs catch fire, but none of it matters. I’m touch-starved and she’s the only remedy.

One of my hands goes to the tense bud of nerves between her thighs, rubbing as she grinds on me, while the other goes to her beautiful face.

I trace her cheek with my fingers, brushing her parted lips as she rides me slowly.

Her tongue wets the tips of my fingers until she claims them in her warm mouth. Biting back a growl, I keep caressing the apex of her thighs. She rolls her hips, pulling me deeper inside her.

Her breathing accelerates each time I sink into her, and she takes my fingers deeper in her throat.

Arching her back, her mouth parts and I withdraw my hand to cover her lips as a muffled moan escapes her throat.

Her inner walls clench around me until she nears her edge and topples over. I find my release inside of her while she collapses on top of me.

I brush over her hair. We’re both left panting. With Ela curled up in my arms, our bodies a tangle of limbs, the pieces of my soul reassemble. Torn apart by life, but finding peace in each other, I’m hers as she is mine—Death and her monster.

Eternity lays at our feet, and for the first time, I allow myself to indulge in its promise. I can picture it; I can picture us together in Averion. Ela storming through my office to pull me away from my duties, me feigning indignation and letting her. Ela doing as she pleases in our realm, wreaking havoc wherever she goes, with me in tow, unable to refuse her demands.

I can’t help smiling, until fear sinks its teeth inside my heart and the image of hellfire takes over my mind. I screw my eyes shut as dark flames rage around us, threatening to tear us apart.

“Don’t leave me,” I say as the nightmarish visions take root in my soul. I tighten my hold on Ela’s body.

She tenses under my hands before tilting her head up.

“They would have to rip my dead body from your arms.”

Only when she voices the fear shaking both our hearts, only when we finally face it together, do I find comfort in a simple realization.

“Do you think my love for you so frail that something as elemental as Death could keep me from you?”

Her smile stretches from ear to ear, lighting her flushed face with joy.

I’m still lying in bed fifteen minutes later while Ela leaves to get us food, her words echoing in my mind.

The rest of the world goes on, with no idea how much has changed in the span of a few seconds. My life was black and white until she brought the color to it, and there’s no going back.

“Until Death do us part, and even then,” I whisper to the empty cabin.

Forty minutes later, I head out of the room in search of Ela, who hasn’t returned.

Stepping into the narrow corridor, I bump into Calen and Vesta. Cal crushes himself to the wall to let me pass as Vesta’s eyes dart away from his face so she can stare at the floor boards.

I stifle a smile until they’re behind me. A lot has changed in my absence, and not all for the worse.

A few doors down, dishes clatter in the galley, followed by a series of profanities.

I lean against the doorway and find Ela trying to save the meal she just made as the ship rocks with the waves.

“Fucking hell.”

Despite my best efforts, a burst of laughter sneaks past my lips when Ela adds a variation, having dropped another utensil.

She spins around, her brows furrowed, and rests a hand on her hip. She eyes me with a serious air before her features soften into a smile.

“You should do that more,” she says.

I cock a brow in response, unsure what she means.

“Laugh,” she adds.

I shrug off her comment. “Being myself has never been something I could often indulge.”

“Then you should try it.”

“Try what?” I ask, amused.

“Swearing.”

I shake my head.

“That’s not for me.”

“Why the hell not? You’re the High Lord, after all. You can do whatever you want.”

“No.” I quell my emerging grin, since she doesn’t need more encouragement. “I’ll help you.”

As I offer, she extends a hand, but I stop dead in my tracks when her face changes color.

“Damn it,” she lets out, swallowing with difficulty.

“What is it?”

“I forgot to tell you. I don’t do well on boats.”

She runs out of the galley, a hand over her mouth, and I can’t contain my laughter any longer.

After everything she’s been through, I would think sea sickness would grant her mercy, but she spends the last days of our trip back to Lóna bent overboard, proving me wrong.

I stay by her side the whole time, holding her hair despite her colorful protests, and trying to find something that will settle her stomach.

When we finally reach the shores of Sun Fae territory, she’s the first off of the ship and onto a horse, eager to leave the boat’s constant pitching behind.

“I’m never setting foot on one of those monstrosities ever again,” she huffs, tapping her horse’s side with her heels.