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9. Alana

NINE

Alana

E ldrion tears open my tunic with a force that takes my breath away. It hangs open, exposing my breasts, falling off my shoulder.

He doesn't move, just stares at me and releases a low growl.

I lean back, deliberately allowing him a better view. He lifts a purposeful finger. It is wet, and when it makes contact with my nipple, a low whimper escapes my lips.

For a long moment, Eldrion simply stares at me and uses his fingers to tease me. He makes circles around my nipple, then wider, not touching it at all, then he squeezes gently. Then, drawing a gasp from my lips, he slaps me with a firm, open palm.

The shock of pain on my breast makes me groan.

I want more.

His eyes flash.

He dips his head to my other breast and draws my nipple into his mouth. He bites a little, causing the same shudder of pain to shake my entire body. I dig my nails into his shoulders. My legs are around his waist and I can feel him stiffening beneath me. I grind my pelvis down onto him and he pulls me closer, growling as if he cannot physically have me close enough.

Below the surface, my pants are soaked and clinging to my skin. There is no way I'll be able to pull them down over my hips, and the thought that I can't enter him right now makes me cry out with frustration.

Eldrion's eyes flash again. He knows what I want.

He dips his arms below the surface and finds the catch on my waist. He unfastens it. His shoulders ripple. He holds my gaze as he pulls, forcing the water to bend to his bidding through pure brute strength.

It occurs to me that I could help him. I have water magic; Kayan's magic. But watching him do it this way, and feeling his strength without his power is sending waves of arousal through my entire body.

When my pants are gone, he pushes his own down over his hips, grabs me, and enters me without hesitation.

My legs tighten around him, gripping him with my thighs.

His warmth merges with the coolness of the water, deep inside me, making me grab onto him and tip my head back.

As his lips trail down my throat, I whimper and pull him closer. I need him deeper, fuller, faster.

And he knows it.

He fucks me the way I need to be fucked.

Hands, and teeth, and lips, and skin, and water slapping between us.

He teases my breasts, alternating between softness and hardness. Each time he draws gasps of pain from my lips, he smirks. And it makes me want to throttle him and fuck him harder at the same time.

His hand moves to my throat. His fingers tease me, threatening to close around my neck, but then dropping down to the small of my back to hold me against him.

When he next returns his mouth to my breasts, I know I'm going to come.

I whisper to him and, in that moment, a flicker of tenderness flashes through in his touch. He meets my eyes and nods at me. "You can do it, Alana. Let it all go."

I hold the sides of his face, staring into his eyes as the pleasure builds.

He bites his lower lip. He wants to come, too. He needs to come, but he's waiting. He wants me to tip over the edge.

When my body finally does implode on itself, fireworks shaking my thighs and skittering down my spine, Eldrion lets go, too. I feel him swell and release inside me, and it intensifies my pleasure even without me having to reach out and search for it.

I am panting, clinging on to him, soaking wet and starting to shiver, when I see a blue shimmering light on the shore. It moves quickly, but I know what it is.

Kayan. He was watching.

And he saw me fucking the man who killed him.

Eldrion attempts to carry me to the shore, but I push him away. I unfurl my legs from around his waist and stride awkwardly through the water towards solid ground.

When I reach the beach, I'm already pulling my completely sodden pants up to my waist. I hold on to them tightly, and exhale slowly, sending the water particles merging and trickling back into the lake, leaving my clothes dry.

As Eldrion steps up beside me, he raises an eyebrow as if he thinks I might do the same for him.

I will not.

I am searching for Kayan, scanning the trees for the blue light that told me he'd seen the most despicable betrayal.

I thought he had gone, that I would never see him again. So, to know he came back for me and was greeted by the sight of me and Eldrion – the man who ended his life – is almost too much to bear.

Perhaps Maura was right about me.

Perhaps it really would be better for everyone if I wasn't here anymore.

I try to breathe out slowly, focus on anything but the tingle that still rests between my thighs, and the way Eldrion felt inside me, and the sounds he made as he fucked me.

He flutters his wings.

They are different. Faded. But he is somehow still so powerful. I don't understand it, and I don't understand why my body responds to him the way it does.

I wish it didn't.

With my entire being, I wish I could stop feeling this way.

But when I look at him now, dripping wet, his shirt open, his pants low on his hips exposing his flat, sculpted stomach and the line of hair that leads down to his...

I shake my head and turn away.

Get a grip, Alana.

Get a grip.

As if he knows exactly what I'm thinking, Eldrion's lip curls into a smile. He puts his hand on my shoulder. It is not kind, but it is not too firm either.

"We can talk about what just happened if you want to, but it doesn't have to mean anything." He raises an eyebrow at me. "Just like all the other times don't have to mean anything either."

"You gave me a release I needed." I tip my chin up and stare at him. "That's all."

"Indeed." He adjusts his shirt as if there's anything he can do to make himself look less dishevelled when he's still soaking wet. But then he tilts his head and looks towards the trees. "Do you hear that? I think our backup has arrived."

I follow him to the edge of the treeline. We have almost reached it when four large black horses arrive. On one of them sits a Shadowkind guard I do not recognise. He looks pale and clammy, and when he nods back towards the forest and opens his mouth to speak, no sound comes out.

"I will explain, but not now," Eldrion barks, jumping up onto the largest horse. "There are no more survivors. We return to Luminael."

The guard purses his lips. He looks as though he's trying not to vomit. His nose wrinkles with the memory of charred flesh, and the gesture brings back my own memory.

To shift it, I jump quickly onto my own horse, tap its sides, and gallop away.

I race as fast as I can.

Through the forest, not looking at the bodies or the debris, barely breathing until I have escaped the fog and the death.

Then across the meadows towards Luminael. Through the streets towards the castle.

I could leave. Right now, I could take a new direction and race away from here and never have to see Eldrion or this place or Finn ever again.

Except, I can't. Because I caused this, so I have to try to undo it.

And because I know, deep down, that even if I did run... Finn would find me.

He would not let me go that easily.

When I reach the castle, there is more movement than I have seen in a long time. Briony greets me, reaches up and helps me down from the horse.

"How are they?" I ask, hurrying along beside her. "Where are they?"

"The healer came, and she's helping them."

"Raine's baby?"

Briony blinks at me, presses her lips together, and swallows forcefully. "The healer is trying to save them both."

I stop, gripping Briony's hand tightly. "I'm so sorry."

"So am I," she says. "We both believed Finn was something different."

I pull her towards me and breathe her in. I have never had a true friend before. Not until now. She is the one constant in everything that is happening. "Thank you," I whisper.

Briony pulls back, still holding on to my upper arms. "Promise me we'll stick together," she says. "Promise we have each other, Alana, because if we don't..."

"You don't want to go with him and the others?" The question leaves my mouth before I've really thought it through, and causes Briony to frown at me and shake her head.

"Of course I don't want to go with him," she says. "I don't want to see him again. Ever. And I certainly don't want any part of what he's planning."

"I'm sorry." I inhale slowly and hold the breath in my lungs. "I know. I'm sorry."

Briony squeezes my hand. "You should go clean up. Take a minute. Then come and see Raine."

I am about to head back inside when I realise I don't really know where I should be going. Are my chambers still my own?

I am still trying to decide when Eldrion clatters into the courtyard, his horse's hooves heavy and urgent. He swings down while she is still in motion, and spins around quickly.

Behind him, a group of Sunborne fae enter the courtyard.

"My lord." A woman at the front of the group dips into a curtsey, then looks up at the sky. She is polite, but the expression on her face says she will not be dismissed without answers. "What exactly is happening here?"

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