Chapter 24

Chapter

Twenty-Four

RANE

T he next time I opened my eyes, I lay on my side with the bed’s coverlet over my hips. The fire had burned to almost nothing, and Mirella was tucked against me.

Light splashing sounds from the bathing chamber told me Andrin was washing up. He’d been to the windows first, though, because the drapes were open, allowing a twilight sky to paint the chamber in shades of purple.

Mirella stirred, then rolled to her back. Blood rushed to my dick at the sight of one rosy nipple peeking through her hair. She blinked her eyes open, her brow furrowing as she gazed at the ceiling.

“Hello,” I said, lifting onto my elbow.

Her forehead smoothed, and pink dusted her cheeks. The last of the sunlight fell over her, highlighting the tiny freckles on the bridge of her nose.

“Hello,” she said, her blush spreading down her neck.

Needing to see more of her, I tugged her hair away from her breasts. “You’re going to get me into trouble.”

“How?” Her breath hitched as I brushed one of her nipples.

“Because we should get up and plan for tomorrow, but all I want to do is fuck you again.”

“You do?” She grabbed at the coverlet like she meant to tug it to her chest.

“Yes,” I said, snatching the fabric from her fingers. “Don’t cover these up, my lady.” I cupped one full breast, my balls tightening. Cursing under my breath, I traced one ghostly blue vein that ran under creamy skin. Her nipples were the same lush pink as her mouth, the little tips puckering under my attention.

The temptation was too much. Leaning down, I closed my lips around one charming peak, sucking and tugging while her sweet little gasps lifted around the bed. She squirmed against me, one hand coming up to flutter against my hair.

I sucked for another long moment before releasing her nipple with a pop and moving to the other one. When Andrin’s footsteps approached, I released my prize and turned in time to see him enter with a towel slung low on his hips.

Mirella sat up, tugging the sheet to her chest. I stayed put as Andrin stopped at the foot of the bed.

He studied us, heat flickering in his eyes. Then he sighed as he smoothed a hand over his beard. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to plan a secret mission to Purecliff with you two naked and wet in my bed.”

Fresh color spread down Mirella’s neck. It was probably going to take her a while to grow accustomed to Andrin’s filthy mouth. Although, like most redheads, she appeared to blush easily. Unlike most redheads, Andrin was immune to that particular phenomenon.

It helped that he was utterly shameless.

He sobered as he rounded Mirella’s side of the bed and stroked her hair back from her face. “Are you still certain about the shadowbond?”

She looked at me with resolve in her eyes. When she turned back to Andrin, her voice was steady. “Yes.”

Relief spread over his features as he captured one of her hands and bent over it. “I’ll make sure you don’t regret it, my lady. And I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you safe. Whatever happens, you have a home in Autumn.”

My gut clenched, disquiet moving through me. Finding the Kree was our biggest obstacle. But it wasn’t the only one. Mirella was mortal. Nothing would change that. Even if she left Andulum behind and chose to stay bound to me, she would die eventually. It was Walto’s dilemma all over again. For whatever reason, the gods denied the gift of immortality to humans. Mirella and I could find the Kree and restore it to the Edeloak, and it still wouldn’t change the frustrating, bleak, and irrefutable fact that one day, Andrin and I would be forced to bury her.

She squared her shoulders, somehow managing to look as regal as a queen even with her hair tangled down her back and a sheet pressed to her breasts. “Thank you, Andrin. I might take you up on that.”

I bit my tongue before I could demand to know how she could even think of returning to Eftar. So many things were new between the three of us. The situation was delicate, and Andrin and I had already pushed her enough.

Besides, talk only went so far. I didn’t have Andrin’s pedigree or Othor’s thorough, careful education. But I knew that actions often spoke more forcefully than words. Maybe I couldn’t convince Mirella it was better for her to stay in the Embervale. But I could show her.

Moving closer, I rested my hand palm up on her thigh. “My sigils will appear on your throat. And…your eyes might change color.”

“They’ll become like yours,” she said, her own widening.

My throat tightened, long-buried memories stirring. My purple eyes had commanded a lofty price on the auctioneer’s stage.

“It’s not permanent,” I said. “You, um, don’t have to worry about that. You won’t look like a— Like me. Not unless?—”

“I like it.” Mirella took my hand and squeezed it. “Your eyes are beautiful, Rane.” Her smile was soft—and sad enough to let me know she understood the source of my hesitation.

“Thank you, my lady,” I said, my voice raspy.

She looked at our joined hands. “Will it hurt?”

“No, my lady.” Gripping her fingers more tightly, I summoned my magic. Shadows swirled in my mind, the shifting, black shapes so vivid I could almost see them. I let them build, my heart beating faster as restless energy swelled.

Drawing a deep breath, I closed my eyes—and then I did see it. Dark as night, it glittered in my mind, its center studded with something blacker than black. Hard to describe to anyone other than a Shadow Eater. The darkness was absolute. Beautiful.

I pushed it, letting it stream down my body and into my arm. The darkness flowed, carrying my magic with it. Funneling it into my hand, I pushed again, envisioning it leaving through my fingers and wrapping around and around Mirella’s hand.

Heat built between our clasped palms. When I opened my eyes, shadowy feathers swirled up her arm. They climbed to her throat and settled into her skin, fading to a light gray. Her eyes didn’t change, but the bond was new. The purple might come with time. Something tugged in my chest. When she gasped, I knew she’d felt it too.

She was shadow-touched, bound to me with the lightest ties possible. For as long as our bond endured, I could cross into Andulum without losing my magic. And for as long as Mirella remained in Ishulum, she was subject to my commands.

“I won’t order you to obey me,” I said. “I would never?—”

“I know,” she said quickly. “I trust you.” Something fierce moved through her eyes. “Don’t make me regret it.”

The hair on my nape lifted, a shiver shooting down my spine. Arousal followed swiftly, and I lifted her hand and kissed the inside of her wrist. “One of these days, Mirella,” I murmured, “you’ll learn that threatening me just makes me hard.”

She narrowed her eyes, but I got the impression she was trying hard not to smile. “What about when I stabbed you? Were you struggling not to orgasm?”

“You really want me to answer that?”

She lost the battle with her smile. “You’re terrible.”

Andrin tipped her chin up with gentle fingers, his blue eyes moving over the feathers and faint vines on her neck. “I like seeing Rane’s sigils on you.” He met her gaze, and his voice slid lower. “Almost as much as I like knowing his come is still inside you.”

She made a soft sound, that disarming blush making another appearance.

Andrin tugged the sheet from her fingers, baring her breasts. He pinched one of her puckered nipples. “Remember what I told you?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

Blue eyes flicked to me. “Come here.”

I obeyed, my blood pumping faster as I let him maneuver me onto my back with my body horizontal across the bed and my head almost hanging off the edge of the mattress. At first, I didn’t know what he wanted. Then he grabbed Mirella around the waist and settled her over my face with her ass facing him.

She whimpered, her hands on my stomach as she straddled me. “Andrin, I don’t think—” Her protest ended on a moan as I grabbed her thighs, pulled her fully onto my face, and thrust my tongue against her clit.

We moaned at the same time. I tightened my arms around her legs as I lapped at her pussy, tasting what I’d given her. Andrin let me go for a moment before pushing her chest to my abdomen. Then he stood over my face, his stance wide, and entered her in one smooth thrust.

Mirella cried out, her pussy spasming against my tongue. Andrin’s sack brushed my nose, and I licked at the heavy globes.

“Yeah,” he grunted. Reaching back and gripping my hair, he held my face against his sack. “More.”

I complied, lifting my head and running my tongue over his balls and the underside of his shaft. When he began to thrust, I licked at his cock as he plunged inside Mirella, tasting myself and her sweet arousal.

Wet, warm heat enveloped my cock. I groaned long and loud, my thighs trembling as Mirella took me deep into her mouth and began to suck.

“Fuck, yes,” I said against her pussy. Andrin kept fucking her, his dick pumping into her directly over my face. Pleasure swarmed me as I clung to her thighs and licked wherever I could reach, fluttering my tongue around her clit and her plump lips spread around his dick. He cursed as he seized her hips and thrust faster.

She moaned around my dick, sending vibrations down my shaft to my balls. Her breasts mashed against my stomach, and her thighs tightened around my head. She sucked me harder, little sobs spilling from her as Andrin and I pushed her closer to release.

Our moans and sighs joined the slick, heavy sounds of our bodies moving together. I fastened my mouth around her clit and sucked hard. Immediately, she pulled off my dick, her breath coasting over my damp tip.

“I’m coming! Oh… ” She shook, her pussy soaking my tongue.

Andrin groaned, stiffening above me before burying himself inside her. His shout echoed through the room as his thighs trembled on either side of my head. I lapped at his come seeping around the seal of their bodies, and the three of us groaned together.

“That’s dirty, Rane,” he rasped, reaching back and stroking my hair. “Keep doing it.”

He let me go for another moment, his ragged breaths accompanying Mirella’s quieter moans. Then he stepped back, pulling from her body and lifting her off me. With another round of maneuvering, the three of us ended up in the center of the bed, Mirella at my side and Andrin kneeling between my spread thighs.

Wrapping one hand around the base of my dick, he sucked me straight to the back of his throat.

“Fuck,” I grunted my eyes rolling back in my head. “This is going to take two seconds.” Because he was so damn good at it, one hand cupping my balls as he sucked and sucked and sucked. He was all over me, his fist pumping in tandem with his mouth. He grazed me with his teeth. Swirled his tongue over my slit. Jerked me faster as he slipped two fingers under my sack and stroked my rim. As he’d noted, I still leaked him from earlier, and he slipped a finger inside me, gliding through the proof of his possession. Andrin didn’t own me anymore, but I was still his, and every part of me knew it.

I clenched around him, my heart doing its best to pound from my chest. A soft hand slid over my chest, and I opened my eyes to find Mirella gazing down at me, her lip between her teeth and lust in her eyes. Snagging her nape, I dragged her down and kissed her just as Andrin pushed his finger deeper. He stroked my spot, and I came hard, my orgasm clawing its way out of me. I panted against Mirella’s lips as I jerked helplessly, pumping into Andrin’s mouth.

He swallowed around me, loosening his grip on my shaft as I continued to thrash and gasp. When I softened, he gave me a final suck and flopped heavily beside me.

When I caught my breath, the sky outside was black, and the moon shimmered near the top of the window. A leaf spun past the glass, its shadow dancing over the rumpled bed.

The three of us watched it fade from sight.

“Tomorrow,” Andrin said quietly, “we’re going to find the Kree.”

Tomorrow. At certain points in my life, I’d questioned whether I wanted to see another one. But that was before, when I didn’t have hope. I sat up and faced the two people who’d given it to me.

“Here’s what I think we should do.”