21. Callie

Iawoke to a light chill skimming across my skin and pushed myself upright. It took me a moment to realign my brain with where we were, and I frowned into the smouldering fire as I shook off the confusion that was drowning me.

I’d gone to Fabian for answers, but I felt like I’d left with more questions. I didn’t really know anything about the prophecy except that it could be a way for the vampires to end their curse. Magnar hadn’t mentioned much about it though, and I presumed he thought it wasn’t going to be what finished them. I guessed his thirst for vengeance meant he wouldn’t have wanted to accept that alternative anyway. It wouldn’t be enough for him to see the vampires returned to their mortal forms. He hungered for their blood almost as much as they hungered for ours.

I stretched my arms above my head and pushed myself upright so I could lean closer to the fire. Montana and Julius were sleeping soundly beside it, so I guessed that meant Magnar was on watch at the top of the statue. The wards should have been more than enough to keep any vampires from discovering us, but the slayers didn’t want to take chances this close to the city and I couldn’t say I disagreed.

My thoughts kept landing on what Fabian had said about Erik trying to repay his debt by starving himself for two hundred years. I couldn’t begin to imagine such a thing. Had he managed to hold out for so long without succumbing to his primal desires? Or had he chained himself and leapt into the sea so he couldn’t go back on his decision?

And why would he have thought that hunger would pay a debt to right old wrongs? Hunger had never earned me anything other than misery.

I wondered what Dad would have made of the prophecy. He’d always had a mind for solving problems and if there really was some way that Montana and I were caught up in it, then I was sure he would have been able to figure it out.

I raised my hand to the chain he’d given me where it still hung around my neck and held Mom’s wedding ring in my fist. It felt warm. Warmer than a piece of metal should have been simply from lying against my skin. And my heart felt glad as I clung to it.

I started fiddling with it as my mind continued to turn in circles, each answer opening up more questions until I was making myself dizzy with it all.

I pushed the ring onto my finger and suddenly everything fell silent, but not in the usual sense of the word. I could still hear the crackle of the fire and Julius’s soft snores, but it was like everything else was cushioned. Like I could see things more clearly.

I frowned as I tried to figure out what the difference was and sucked in a sharp breath as I realised it was Fabian. I could see him for what he was again. My thoughts of him weren’t clouded with unwanted desires. I was free to hate him with as much venom as I had before the wedding. Although I was loath to admit that that was harder than it should have been now that I knew more about him.

The ring was doing more than that too. I felt light, like a great weight had been lifted from my shoulders and I could suddenly do everything and anything...

I pulled the ring from my finger and the weight of my obligations came crashing back down on me. I gasped in shock and Montana stirred opposite me.

I quickly pulled the chain over my head and held it before my eyes so I could look at the ring more closely. I’d seen it so many times in my life that I wasn’t sure if I’d ever really looked at it.

It was a chunky, golden thing with a green stone in its centre. Mom had always called it an emerald, but I’d been too young to understand what she’d meant by that. I knew it had been her mother’s and her mother’s before that. Back and back for as long as anyone in her family remembered. But I didn’t really know anything else about it.

I unclasped the chain and pulled the ring free of it before slowly pushing it onto my finger again.

The silence found me once more and a smile pulled at my lips which bubbled up into laughter at the back of my throat. I didn’t know how, but I was free. I could sense it. There were no rules, no commands, no deity to push her way into my body...just me. And without my tie to Fabian, everything seemed so much clearer once more.

I pushed myself to my feet and silently crossed the room before heading up the wide stairwell which led to the viewing point in the statue’s crown.

My heart pounded in time with my footsteps as I moved higher and higher.

I didn’t grow tired as I climbed, even though I knew I would have before I’d taken my vow. My gifts were still mine, like they were some intrinsic part of me, but the weight on my soul was completely removed.

I stepped into the viewing area and found Magnar staring out into the night at the illuminated city.

My nerves floundered as I closed in on him and he turned to look at me in surprise. It wasn’t like this undid what he’d done, but at the same time it did put us back on level ground. It took away his power over me and made certain that every action I chose here and now was my own. And I was sick of this anger burning between us.

“Are you having trouble sleeping?” Magnar asked as I drew closer.

I shook my head, unsure how to say what I thought I’d discovered. If I was wrong, I would only disappoint him, but if I was right…

My gaze roamed over his face before dropping lower, taking in the breadth of his powerful shoulders, the span of his muscular chest, his entire body which was really a weapon waiting for a target at all times.

I kept moving until I was barely a foot from him and reached for the edges of the bubble of calm that surrounded me.

The magic, or shield, or whatever it was, felt like an extension of myself and by pushing my will into the ring, I was able to surround him with it too.

Magnar frowned as he felt the energy slipping over him and I took the final step, closing the distance between us.

“Tell me to stop,” I said, a smile pulling at my lips as I looked up at him, my hurt and anger fading as I stood before him with a way around his hold on me.

My fury over the bond Idun had placed upon us was really about how powerless it made me – just as the bond she had given me with Fabian had stolen my control over myself too. But if I was right about this, then I didn’t need to be angry about it anymore.

“Stop what?” Magnar asked me in confusion.

“Just command me to stop and you’ll see,” I teased, waiting for him to wield his power over me, anticipation growing in my gut, coiling like a monster ready to spring free.

Magnar looked into my eyes, a frown tugging his brow low, and I had no idea what he was thinking.

“Stop,” he said firmly.

I felt his command crash into the bubble of safety and fizzle away to nothing. The rush that flooded me felt like I’d just jumped into deep water all over again, except this time I wasn’t sinking, I was floating.

My smile widened as I reached for his chest and gripped his shirt in my hands. I pushed up onto my tiptoes and pulled him towards me, slowly, so achingly slowly as my need for him devoured me whole. My anger had wanted me to deny this, but the truth was that I’d been hopelessly lost when it came to this man for far too long now.

We hung in that breath of space between our lips as I slid my hands further up his chest and his heart pounded beneath my palm, his gaze questioning and cautious, like he didn’t dare believe in what he was seeing.

I kept going, my progress drawn out as I half expected Idun to notice what I was doing and force me to stop at any moment. But she couldn’t touch me here. I wasn’t even certain she could see me anymore.

My fingertips skimmed across his collar bone and danced over his neck, the warmth of his skin making me tremble just a little. I wanted this, him, so badly and for the first time since I had sworn myself into his power, I felt like I could actually claim him if I wanted to.

Magnar’s throat bobbed beneath my thumb, his stubble grazing my skin and his gaze burning through me like I was made of nothing but sawdust, waiting to be consumed by the heat in their depths.

I had no idea how the ring was doing this, but I was finally free. Finally myself again and in charge of my own choices. And I chose him. I would always choose him no matter how many obstacles stood between us, no matter how fucking infuriating I found him or how much he made me want to punch him sometimes. No matter what Idun or any of the other gods tried to throw in our way.

He was meant to be mine and I was meant to be his. It wasn’t fate or divine intervention. It was just real, and it had been staring us in the face since the moment when he had first driven me up against that wall and plucked me from the grasp of the vampires. I wasn’t going to let anything take it from us.

Barely a heartbeat divided us, and I wasn’t sure if I was even breathing as his presence devoured every other thought. I was a moth before a flame, and I danced closer hoping he wouldn’t be my end but somehow not minding if he was. Because he was power and danger and hope and safety and everything I’d never realised I’d needed so desperately.

My lips met his and I was consumed by the fire raging inside me. It burned through my blood, heating every inch of my body and catching light to everything it touched. I knew I was going to fall apart beneath the weight of this desire.

Magnar stilled for a moment as though he was unable to believe this were real, or perhaps he was afraid that if he tried to claim it for himself then it would be stolen away again. But I wasn’t going to let that happen. I’d put up a shield against the outside world and here and now, there was no one and nothing else but us.

His hesitation didn’t last long and his hands found my waist so he could pull me against him, his thumbs skimming over my hips as our bodies pressed to one another. His lips were soft and teasing like he wasn’t sure if he should dare to offer them, but I hadn’t come here for gentle, I’d come for the creature of war who had stood alone for a thousand years in the face of more torment than any man should ever endure.

Magnar pulled back for half of a moment, looking at me as though he had to be sure I was real. I met his wild gaze with my own, promising him that, and so much more.

Then he kissed me again and it was anything but gentle. It was like he had to have me or the world would stop turning, had to devour me because without this he’d been starving.

Oh hell.

I groaned with longing as I fell into his kisses, and he pushed me back against the wall with a sold thump that made my breath expel in one harsh burst. But his mouth never left mine, his grip on me relentless, his need for me so potent that I could taste it on every sweep of his tongue over mine.

It was like he’d lost me to the darkness for a while, but now he’d found me. We were bathing in sunlight together and he would never let me go again.

His hands shifted beneath my shirt and he lifted it higher as I arched my back, feeling his desire as keenly as my own, the solid ridge of his cock driving against my core and making me moan with need.

His fingertips drew a line up my spine as the material was hoisted free and we broke apart just long enough for him to pull it over my head.

I gazed up at him as the moonlight shone in his golden eyes, reflecting a perfect silver crescent back at me.

“I love you, Callie,” he breathed, and my heart bloomed with the words he hadn’t spoken before. I’d felt it in all the things he’d done for me but hearing him say it had me coming apart. “I was afraid to say it in case she took you from me. I was afraid to feel it too because I fear I’m fighting a losing war and I didn’t want to drag you down with me when I fall, but you’re all there is for me now. You’re the reason I want to keep fighting even after seeing how much those monsters achieved in my absence. You’re the reason I have any hope left at all.”

I placed my hand on his cheek, feeling the rough bite of his stubble against my palm and aching to feel it on the rest of my body as well.

“I used to be afraid of so many things,” I replied steadily. “But you make me brave. And if we have to be brave to love each other then that’s what we’ll be. I won’t deny my heart any longer and you shouldn’t hide yours. Let Idun try to tear us apart if she must – I’m done dancing to her tune.”

Magnar held my gaze and anticipation throbbed through my body as I waited for him to take me hostage again. Because that’s what I was with him; a captive to everything he was. Bound to him in ways that had nothing to do with being slayers or fulfilling vows. I was entirely at his mercy because he held my heart in his palm, and I held his in mine too.

“I have been dreaming of all the things I would do to you once I could get my hands on you again, drakaina hjarta. I’ve been aching to get between your thighs and make you scream my name in that breathy, blissful way of yours.”

I sucked in a breath and he smirked that cocky smile which made my toes curl before he grabbed my thighs, hoisting me into his arms as I wrapped my legs around his waist obligingly. He drove me back against the wall again and his mouth slammed into my own as he drove his hips between mine, making sure I felt every solid inch of him.

I moaned as he shifted his attention from my mouth to trail a line of rough kisses down my neck, and a desperate ache began to build inside me.

More, I need more.

My hands fisted in the material at the back of his shirt and I yanked on it, pulling it over his head so I could feel the heat of his skin against mine.

His mouth made it to my collar bone, and I leaned back as he travelled lower, his movements filled with urgency like we were running out of time and forever wouldn’t be long enough. His mouth moved across my skin, finding every inch of bare space and marking it with his lips. His breaths came harder, faster, matching my own as the need in our bodies grew desperate to be sated.

His hand skimmed across my throat before tugging my bra strap from my shoulder and releasing my breast so his mouth could claim that too, his tongue riding over the hardened peak of my nipple. I moaned with longing as a knot tightened in my gut and my nails dug into his broad shoulders as my body begged for more.

Shit, I was out of my depth with him, but I’d just dived in feet first and there was no way I was swimming for the surface yet.

He pinned me against the wall with his hips and his hands moved over my skin, raising goosebumps along my flesh as I ached for more and more of his touch. He was toying with me, keeping me in the moment between then and now where he knew I was falling apart with my need for him.

I pushed him back, using my gifted muscles as he tried to refuse my command and drawing a deep laugh from him as he dropped me to my feet where I kicked my boots off.

He drank in the sight of me as he backed up and the look in his eyes made me want to drown with him.

“You’re so beautiful, Callie,” he breathed, and my skin flamed as I took in the utterly perfect sight of him. “I’m going to enjoy every second of destroying you.”

He dropped to his knees before me, making me suck in a breath in surprise as he gripped my ass and tugged me towards him. His mouth fell on my stomach, his teeth nipping at my skin as he unfastened my pants and drew them down my legs.

I steadied myself by fisting his hair as his fingertips carved lines down the backs of my thighs and he dragged the material off of me inch by inch.

I stepped out of them obligingly, needing there to be nothing at all between me and this beast of a man, needing to finally feel him inside me and claim that final piece of him for my own.

But of course, Magnar wasn’t simply going to give me what I wanted and fuck me. He growled as he dropped his mouth from my stomach, closing his lips over my underwear and sucking on my clit through the thin fabric.

I cursed, my hold on his hair tightening as my knees almost buckled and he laughed against my pussy, the deep timbre of his voice sending a jolt of pleasure through me.

Magnar wove his fingers through the sides of my panties and tugged them down, a groan of longing escaping him as he bared my body for his pleasure.

His gaze rose to meet mine, his tongue wetting his lips like he was desperately hungry for me, and I just stared at him as he tugged my panties off and tossed them aside.

Magnar’s hand coiled around my ankle and he tugged sharply, making me gasp in alarm. I almost lost my balance as he slung my leg over his shoulder.

I had barely begun to curse him out when his hands grasped my ass and he yanked my hips forward, his mouth landing on my core at once and his tongue sinking inside me.

“Oh, fuck,” I panted, gripping his hair tightly as I fought to balance myself like that because his tongue was circling and then withdrawing, licking straight over my clit and I was in fucking heaven already.

Magnar devoured me like a starving man, my curses and moans of pleasure echoing in the cold chamber as I clung to him and tried to keep my balance even though my legs were trembling.

He gripped my ass harder, tilting my hips and lapping at my clit until I came with a cry, ecstasy exploding through my body and my spine arching so I almost toppled to the floor.

He pushed my leg from his shoulder, licking the taste of me from his lips as he got to his feet and stole a brutal kiss from my lips which was thick with the taste of my own lust.

His hands fumbled with the catch on my bra and he tugged at it sharply, almost tearing it from me before I managed to regain my head enough to unclasp it for him and free the last of my skin.

Magnar palmed my breasts, tugging on my nipples and making me whimper with the need which was consuming me as he walked me backwards to the wall again.

I reached for his belt, my fingers ripping at it in my desperation to have him, to feel every glorious inch of him buried within me.

I finally tugged it free, sinking my hand into his pants and moaning as I took his cock into my fist, sliding my palm along his shaft and rolling my thumb through the moisture which crowned his tip.

Magnar let me toy with him for a few moments, his mouth on mine the entire time before he snatched my wrist and tugged my hand away.

He spun me around, ignoring my protests as he pushed me up against the frozen wall, my breasts scraping against the cold metal and my breath catching in my throat.

“Bend over and use the wall to support yourself,” he growled in my ear, and I looked over my shoulder at him in surprise.

His golden eyes blazed with a thousand sin-filled thoughts and any protests I might have been considering fell away as I found myself nodding. His hand pressed to my spine as he stepped back to give me room and I bent over before him, bracing my palms against the wall.

“So you can follow orders?” Magnar taunted.

“Only when the rewards are worth it,” I bit back, and he chuckled.

“Oh, they’re worth it, drakaina hjarta.”

He ran his hand down my spine then over my ass, his fingers sliding lower until he sank two of them into my pussy at once and made me moan for him.

“Tell me that you want to come on my face again, Callie,” he purred, driving his fingers in and out of me. “Tell me you want me to lick your sweet cunt until you’re coming so hard you can’t fucking see.”

“Yes,” I gasped, the rhythm of his fingers making it hard to form words. “That, all of that. But then I want you to fuck me, Magnar. I want all of you this time and no more excuses.”

He chuckled as he dropped to his knees behind me and I moaned as he pumped his hand faster.

“Whatever you desire, drakaina hjarta. I am yours to command tonight.”

I opened my mouth to make some snarky comment in reply to that but he had dropped his mouth to my core again, his tongue pushing between his fingers as he drove them into me and the combination made a sultry moan tumble from me instead.

He was so fucking good at…everything. In that moment I couldn’t even pretend to be able to find fault in him because he was destroying me just as he’d promised he would, and the combination of his mouth and his fingers was driving me utterly wild with need.

Magnar tugged his fingers out of me, and I whimpered at the emptiness left behind.

He pushed my thighs apart, fully exposing me to him and tilting my hips so he could take my clit captive with his mouth once more.

I gasped, my body coiled so tightly that I wasn’t sure I could survive the rush of pleasure that I knew was coming for me.

I panted his name, begging him to stop, begging him to never stop and then his fingers were driving into me again and his tongue was riding my clit and I was coming with a cry that exploded from my lungs and made my entire body fall apart.

But he had me. Of course he had me and I found myself in his arms before the cold, metal floor chilled my skin as he pressed me down onto my back.

The heat of his body made up for the cold, and I panted beneath him as his turned his attention to my breasts, his mouth worshipping one while his hand claimed the other.

He carved a line across my flesh with his mouth, his stubble grazing my sensitised skin as he marked every inch of my body as his own and so far as I was concerned, he could have it.

I surrendered to him as he kissed and stroked my skin, giving me a moment to recover from the cataclysm which had just taken place in my body before his hand dropped between my thighs again.

“You’re so wet,” he groaned, toying with me, slipping his fingers in and out, watching me writhe and whimper beneath him. He was enjoying having me at his mercy, but if all that time that being a slave to his will came with this much reward, I couldn’t summon the energy to complain about it.

“And so fucking tight,” he added, pushing a third finger into me and making my hips buck beneath him.

He smiled down at me and I managed to grip his waistband around the utter perfection of the movements of his fingers inside me. I shoved his pants down and he replied by driving his fingers in deeper and pressing his thumb down on my clit.

The world divided and broke apart as I came so suddenly that my fucking heart missed a beat.

I was moaning his name, melting into a puddle beneath him and unable to focus on anything at all as he withdrew for a moment.

Then the world slammed back together as I realised he wasn’t close to done with me.

Magnar kneeled over me, his pants gone and cock solid in his fist as he looked down at me and stroked it in a lazy, fluid motions, like he just couldn’t help himself while I lay beneath him like that.

I licked my lips as I let my eyes feast on the sight of him, my throat bobbing as I took in just how big he was and wondered what it would feel like to have all of that buried within me.

“I need you,” I panted. “Now Magnar. No more holding back.”

“No more holding back,” he agreed, and his mouth moved back up my body again, starting on the inside of my knee then travelling up my inner thigh.

He swirled his tongue over my clit once more, making me moan his name but he didn’t linger there this time, his mouth trailing up my stomach then taking turns with my peaked nipples.

I gripped his shoulders, tugging to make him move faster, my fingernails biting into his skin.

I arched my back, my fingers twisting in his hair as I pulled him to me, needing to kiss him again and losing myself in the feeling of his mouth against mine. His weight pressed me down onto the cold floor, but it wasn’t enough.

My hands travelled the broad slope of his shoulders and the arching curve of his back before gripping his ass and tugging him closer so I could feel every solid inch of him driving against me.

He made a noise which set my bones trembling as he gave in to my command and kissed me deeply, one hand pushing into my hair while the other ran down the side of my thigh.

Before I could catch my breath, he hooked my knee into his grip and angled me so the tip of his cock drove against my entrance.

I broke our kiss, looking into his eyes as he sank into me, inch by glorious inch, filling and stretching me until I couldn’t breathe, or think, or feel anything at all apart from that sinful fullness.

I cried out as he pushed all the way to the hilt, the size of him so much to handle at once and he breathed my name like a prayer as he lost himself in me.

Magnar silenced me with more kisses as my breathing came in heavy pants and my hands fisted in his hair as he drew his hips back then sank into me again.

His body pressed to mine as I wrapped my legs around him and I realised I’d never felt anything like this. I’d never felt anything as sharply or intensely as I did when I was with him. His touch was electric, lighting me up from the inside out and binding me to him in a way that would never be undone.

I knew the world was still spinning out there, but it was hard to remember that anything existed except him. His blazing eyes, his skin moving against mine and his perfect body which had captivated me mind, flesh and soul. I was his, all his and he was mine too.

“Magnar,” I gasped and his grip on me tightened at the sound of his name on my lips.

I was caught between begging for more and crying out for him to release me from this torment when he finally did. The world shattered around us, and my body dissolved into nothing and everything as he took each piece of me and gave it back renewed.

His weight pressed me down as he drove into me harder, his grip on me bruising and his thrusts punishing as he fucked me like the heathen he was, wringing his pleasure from my flesh and using me for his every desire.

I cried out with every drive of his hips, clawing at his back and rocking my hips in time with his feral movements until he was coming, roaring his release and driving himself deep inside me as he finished with a thrust that destroyed me entirely.

He collapsed over me, his weight crushing me in the most delicious way, and I drew him closer as we both tried to catch our breath, tangled in each other’s arms.

His forehead pressed to mine, the tip of his nose touching my nose and our heavy beathing heating the space between us. I bit my lip on the shit-eating grin which was trying to dominate my face. I’d known it would be good between us but fuck, I never could have predicted that level of annihilation.

“How?” Magnar breathed finally when we were able to think clearly again.

He rolled off of me, propping his head on one hand and I looked up at this savage creature of mine as he brushed my hair out of my face.

“My mother’s ring,” I replied with a shrug.

I had no idea how it had worked; I’d only known what I wanted as soon as it had, and that nothing about this decision could be anyone’s but my own.

Magnar took my hand in his, turning it so the ring caught in the moonlight. He brushed his finger against it and a surge pulsed through the bubble of energy which surrounded us.

“That’s no ordinary ring,” he said, withdrawing his hand as a frown gripped his features, at odds with the way I felt about it. “Where did your mother get it?”

“I just know that it’s been in her family for as far back as anyone can remember. Passed down between daughters to wear as their wedding rings. After she died, Dad hung it from his neck until one of us was ready to inherit it. I’d never put it on until today.”

“That ring was not made by mortals,” Magnar said quietly as though he were afraid we might be overheard. “It has a presence. Like the blades. Or the stones the vampires use. It was created by a god.”

“A god?” I frowned in confusion.

Why would my mother have had a ring created by a god? Where would her family have gotten it?

“Yes. And a powerful one at that. You see how it hides us? I’d wager they cannot see us at all while you wield its power. That’s why their rules can’t hold you.” He moved his hand to my side and began painting soft circles across my skin.

“So if I keep it on, I can be free of them?” I asked hopefully.

“I doubt it is as simple as that. The gods know of your existence; you’re already caught up in their games. If you were to just disappear, they’d know something powerful was being used to hide you. And I’d imagine the god who created that ring is missing it. If they figure out you’ve got it, they’ll do everything in their power to take it back.”

“But if they’re looking for it then why haven’t they found it?” I asked in confusion.

It wasn’t like my mom had tried to hide it. And I couldn’t remember her ever saying anything about it holding any kind of power either. But we knew my dad wasn’t the one who had given us our slayer blood, so that meant it had to have come from her. How long had her family kept this hidden? And where had they gotten it in the first place?

“I doubt the power in it could be awakened by anyone who hadn’t taken their vow. You are touched by the gods; enough so that you’re able to tap into their power and wield their own creation against them.”

“So we can do this any time we want?” I asked, biting my lip as my gaze travelled over his body.

Magnar hesitated before he answered, and I could see a war taking place behind his eyes. “We should be cautious with using this. If the gods were to find out-”

“But, now for example, we’re already hidden...” I grazed my fingertips across his jaw and left the suggestion hanging between us.

His resolve shattered quickly as a wicked smile lit his features, his cock already hard again, making his desire clear enough.

“Well I suppose you’re right about that,” he purred.

He propelled me on top of him, taking my hands in his grasp and pinning them at the base of my spine. I cried out in surprise before falling silent at the ruinous look in his eyes.

“I want to watch you ride me, drakaina hjarta. I want to see the look in your eyes as you take my cock and I make you shatter so many times that you lose all sense of everything beyond the two of us. And when you can’t take it anymore, I want you to beg me to bend you over and fuck you even harder until I’m coming inside that sweet cunt of yours again and you forget your own name.”

“Okay,” I agreed on a breath because honestly, I didn’t even have a snarky retort to any of that, I just wanted him to make good on those demands and stop wasting time on anticipation.

Magnar gave me a dark smile as he moved his free hand to my ass and dug his fingers into my skin before pulling me down onto his cock and delivering on every single one of those promises and several more besides.

Maybe the gods would rage when they discovered the freedom we had snatched from their grasp, but I didn’t really give a shit what they had to say on the subject.