The scorned, p.10
The Scorned, page 10
I stood and backed up, the panic still thick in my chest as I tried to understand what had just happened. My body had reacted of its own accord, led by something deeper, stronger than my hatred and wrath. Something in my… soul.
“Don’t worry. I won’t tell Daelon,” Lucius said with a smirk. “Though I’m afraid he’ll see what we are to each other soon enough.”
I fought hard to get back to the place of anger, to remember how Lucius had my friends imprisoned and tortured, how he sought to destroy the realm until nothing remained but death and ash. How he’d poisoned my soulmate.
Daelon. Daelon was my soulmate.
“Is this all just a hex?” I pinned my hands at my side, terrified they would betray me again to reach for him.
Lucius’s smirk faded as he assumed a more pensive look. “I wondered the same at first. I still wonder. But if it wasn’t cast by me or you, then by whom?”
“I don’t believe a word out of your mouth,” I said, my voice louder now even as it shook. I stepped closer to him. The wind around us moved at a deadly speed, whipping my copper hair into a mess.
Lucius broke into another sly grin as he watched me. “I have always been honest with you. Since the very beginning, when I told you Daelon would betray you. And he did.”
The wind roared as loud as a raging ocean, transforming into a cyclone now, encasing Lucius and me in its center. There was just crackle and darkness that whirled in circles, and the more I gazed upon it the more it appeared to be a solid wall of night—blackness flecked with luminous galaxies.
“Look at the splendor of our forces when they’re married together,” Lucius said, nearly yelling to be heard over the celestial cyclone. I winced at the word married. “We are death and rebirth, void and creation, dark and light, all that is hidden and all that is illuminated.”
The rushing midnight enveloped us until there was nothing but stillness and starlight amidst the blank canvas of space.
“You get off on torturing and killing people, Lucius. You ordered guards to kill a child’s parents, my mothers.” I lifted my hands, my fingers tight with rage pulsing through my veins.
He watched me, irritation flashing in his eyes. He gestured all around us. We were now standing in the middle of outer space, the solidness under our feet merely an illusion. The storm had dispersed, and we were bathed in stillness. Galaxies twinkled and spread out in iridescent multicolor, and far away, just a dot now, I could see the overlap of Aradia and Earth embracing each other like twin flames.
“Don’t you see, Áine? All of this vastness—there’s so much, so many worlds, so many dimensions—so limitless that it’s all meaningless. Nothingness. The mortal realms come and go, beings live and die, and perhaps they live and die again… but us? We’ve been ascended to deity status. We are the archetypes of everything. We have the power to do anything we desire now. As long as we do it together.”
“You see all of this, and you see nothingness?” I asked, my heart breaking for him. “It’s not nothing. It’s everything. Seeing how vast it all is only adds further meaning to our existence.”
Lucius searched my eyes as if he’d lost something of his own there, and confusion bled through his aura. We were speaking two different languages.
“Because out of all the ways it could’ve gone,” I said, and my voice bled light, a mouthpiece for the intelligence that cradled us, that sang to us in only a hum. “All the ways our Universe could’ve created infinite uninhabitable worlds—Earth and Aradia could’ve been made of fire, they could’ve been barren and deserted, forever—She gave birth to conscious life itself, a means for Her to experience her own creation, to look back up at the stars and remember that it could’ve been nothing and now it is everything, instead.”
At first silence followed my words, and I felt lighter than I’d ever felt, at home up here among the stars where everything made sense again. I’d never expected to feel this way with the mercurial Shadow King an arm’s reach away.
Lucius’s walls went up, his eyes giving away nothing but vague boredom. “Heretic nonsense never accounts for the fact that all this life you so revere has been cruel and relentless since the start. Suffering does not begin and end with me. You lived on Earth—you’ve seen what they do to each other in those endless wars, forcing each other to pay currency just to exist—and if you think Aradia was just a utopia of peace and meadow-frolicking before me, or even before the Order, then you’re brainwashed indeed.” He shook his head. “Mortal life ends, Áine. Those heretics you’re riling up into a so-called revolution will die one day, if not in one of your futile, bloody battles then in their sleep. You are attaching so much more meaning to things than necessary and it's only hurting you, and now it seems, hurting me.”
Brainwashed? That was rich. “I don’t hurt you. You aren’t capable of feeling hurt,” I said, even though I didn’t believe my own words. I’d felt his pain like a heavy squeeze on my own heart.
Lucius nodded, looking down at our feet, and I felt just a trickle of that pain bleed through again, reminding me it was there. He tilted his head back up. “It looks like we are done speaking honestly to each other. So the last thing I will say is that I’ve found the spell and materials to take a peek into the past—at Angelina’s origins. But we won’t be able to glimpse long, and she will hold a grudge against both of us for the intrusion until the day she dies.” Lucius grinned. “Again.”
I felt the pull of Aradia tugging at me, beckoning me back to my physical body. Then I remembered Daelon’s words for the first time since I’d fallen asleep tear stricken.
Don’t choose me.
A third choice. We needed a third choice. And the more information we had, the better. I could brave the discomfort of talking to a cruel nihilist on a power high if it meant I uncovered more about the forking paths that lay ahead.
Though the question remained: Why did Lucius want to see Angelina’s origins so badly? And why was he allowing me to come with him?
All I did was offer a curt nod, keeping my chin up, back straight, and eyes cold as ice. Yet that was all Lucius needed to light up with triumph like I’d just agreed to be his Queen.
He crackled with darkness, the seductive pull of an ultimate release reaching for me, caressing my skin in feathery touches. “I’ll see you soon, Áine darling,” he said with a boyish grin.
Then he vanished. And I nearly gagged.
I had to transition from a strange, emotionally intense encounter with Lucius to normalcy in the span of ten minutes as I lay next to Daelon and went over what had just happened and what it all meant. I started with the fact that I had woken Lucius up with my own nightmares, and then he’d astral projected to save me from them. Then I’d heard one of his thoughts in my mind without even trying. I’d felt primal, soul-deep panic at the sight of him dying. He said he hadn’t been the source of this hex, but that seemed unlikely.
Lucius, somehow, some way had made us soul bonded. I was sure of it.
Or was all of this happening because Daelon had linked my and Lucius’s lives together? No, I quickly answered my own question. That spell was surely severed when Lucius and I died.
But this wasn’t how soul bonds were supposed to work. We were supposed to love each other, right? Before an actual bond could take shape. All I felt for Lucius was anger, disappointment, and sadness. He looked at the world like it was merely an ultra-realistic video game. He didn’t value human or witch life, nor did he see any meaning in our existence. He shunned all the best parts of being alive, of being a witch.
Nor did I think anything he felt resembled love. And possessed by the evilest of shadow magick, I didn’t think he was capable of such a thing, either.
This was majorly fucked.
I was lying next to my true soulmate, the man who’d always protected me, who had never once tried to change me or force me to become someone else. The man who wanted me to let him die so I could save the world—the world that Lucius regarded as just a meaningless colony to harvest for godlike power.
Daelon finally stirred, his eyes widening slightly when he awoke to me staring at him.
“The healers will be here soon,” I said.
“I don’t like this role reversal,” he said. “I’m supposed to be the one to creepily watch you sleep.”
I smiled. “How are you feeling?” I asked while our souls both bled, reaching for each other in mournful shades of blue. It was easier to see underneath his shield now. Whether that was because he was weaker or he was more bonded to me, I could hardly think about. Both explanations were biting.
“I’m honestly feeling fine. I think I just needed more sleep than usual after our hike up the volcano. I’m feeling back to normal now.”
He wasn’t back to normal; there was a slick black film seeping into his aura, multiplying and expanding like poisonous spores.
“Áine,” Daelon said. “Please don’t treat me like I’m dying.”
I opened my mouth to apologize, but he spoke again.
“And all the tiptoeing and apologizing. I can’t handle it,” he said, his voice cracking. “I don’t want anything to change between us, not when we’ve worked hard to build this bond.”
His words made me think of Lucius, and my heart nearly shattered. Not only because of what had just happened in the astrals, but also because I would have to hide it. It was a lose-lose for me. Preserving my relationship with Daelon and Daelon’s health would always be my priority. Even if it made me a liar.
“I’m just more tired than usual. That’s all,” he finished, looking at me through those thick dark lashes and big brown eyes.
I nodded as I ran the back of my hand down his cheek. To Daelon, treating him like he was weak or powerless was his worst nightmare. He’d spent his entire life training and getting stronger, mentally and physically, so that he could protect me until I fulfilled my purpose. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.
“After the healers come and go, we can join the others and train,” I said. “You’ll need to teach the Aurora Aureans and the Sophrosyne witches more about how Lucius’s magick works and how to counter it with my power. Our power, I should say.” Because I was not like him.
I didn’t want to hoard this power until the dimensions shattered and chaos reigned. I wanted to build a cottage by the sea, to practice magick like it was meant to be practiced with grimoires and spells and potions. I wanted to do it all with Daelon by my side. And Taryn next door. She’d like that.
Daelon grinned. Determined orange coloring bled through his aura at the thought of training. It was complimented by the easy pinks and golds of our love. “You’re thinking about sweet things, aren’t you?”
“Maybe,” I said. “Can Taryn be our neighbor?”
He snorted. “She’d love that.”
We stared at each other just a moment longer, reflecting each other’s smiles, before he kissed me. He gripped the back of my neck lightly, his thumb brushing over my throat.
“We’ve gone way too long without me touching you,” he whispered, his tickling breath at my ear. I pressed closer, and his knee pushed in between my legs. “Or me tasting you.”
“Well you have the worst timing to remedy the situation,” I said. “Because the healers could turn up any second.”
“Then you’ll have to be extra quiet and do as you’re told,” he said, his voice low and gravelly, the scorching fire of the soul bond in full swing.
It must’ve been a while, because I was already trembling just from the contact of his leg in between mine. He pressed harder against me, going in for my neck with a kiss that was not at all gentle.
“I don’t think you’re going to last long at all,” he purred. He stared into my eyes. “Do you want me to make you come, little witch?”
“Yes,” I said, and his eyes darkened. “Please.”
He smiled. “I’m going to take from you while I do it,” he said. He climbed over top of me, and this time when he pushed my wrists together above my head, he channeled a spark of magick from my own wells to pin them there as if by invisible bondage.
“Creative,” I whispered, struggling against the magick with my physical strength and finding myself unable to move my arms. I could dissolve the bind in a heartbeat with magick.
But I didn’t want to.
“Well, this is my creative healing outlet isn’t it?” he said, and we both laughed. He dropped his hooded gaze to my nude form. “And I have a sneaking suspicion it’s yours, too.”
Because here, under Daelon’s control, I was safe. All I had to do was listen to his voice and release control, and his power was strong enough to quiet all parts of me, even my shadow. In fact, it might have been my shadow who loved Daelon tying me to the bed the most.
He lifted his fingers to my mouth. “Suck.”
I did as I was told, and I could feel his arousal press against me. He stared into my eyes fiercely now, completing the transformation into his dominant role as the world fell away. There were no shadows here, nothing to fear except for him.
He pulled his fingers from my mouth and pressed them between my thighs where they teased me in slow circles. “When I taste you, you are to keep your legs open for me. If you struggle, move, or make too much noise, I’ll make the sensation of taking from you uncomfortable. Understood?”
My breath hitched. I struggled to focus on the rules of this new game as adrenaline and anticipation had me slipping downward into my submissive role. I was careful not to give in to the pull to syphon any of his own energy, content to merely read it from him as it reached for me through his shield. Feeling the bond alone was enough of a high, reminding me that I was his, and being his was the safest thing to be.
He stopped his teasing and delivered a short, painful bite to my breast. “Answer me, Áine.”
“Sorry, yes, understood,” I said, and all was forgiven, all was right again. He shifted down the length of my body, kissing my navel before his lips traveled further.
When he was finally between my thighs, my legs were already shaking slightly. He began to work me with his tongue, and soon there was a sucking sensation that was two-fold; Daelon was feeding from me, syphoning my energy with his mouth.
I gasped at the intensity of the sensation. I struggled against my bindings as he took and took and wouldn’t let up even as I moaned and writhed and disobeyed. The more I struggled against the pull the harder it came, like Daelon was overpowering all of my defenses and taking whatever he wanted while I lay vulnerable and helpless. And I could feel just how wild I was driving him, how urgent his stealing became as I responded to him in ways I never had before.
When he removed his lips, I nearly screamed. “You are doing every single thing I told you not to do,” he said, his darkened eyes juxtaposing with his soft caress of my inner thigh. He smiled at the state of me, at the no doubt horrified expression on my face from the way he’d abruptly stopped.
“Sorry,” I managed to get out, my voice raspy and foreign to my own ears.
The corners of his mouth tipped up slowly, dangerously. “You are enjoying this far too much.”
“I don’t think that’s something I should have to apologize for,” I mumbled, and he flashed me a warning look.
“True. But I am a man of my word,” he said.
I didn’t know what to expect as I tried my very best to hold still. He went in again, and the pulling sensation was rougher. His scorching heat was all over me now, infiltrating my energy like it all belonged to him and he wouldn’t stop until he’d drained every last drop.
I struggled against the unnatural pull instinctively now, moaning his name until I didn’t know where he ended and I began. It felt wrong to let myself be this open, to let parts of my power slip from my grasp and into his.
“You’re fighting so hard to keep me out,” he whispered against my skin, and I shivered. “And failing. Because it feels so good even when it shouldn’t.” He gripped my thighs, hard. “Isn’t that right, baby?”
All I could do was mumble a yes, anything to make him keep going and never stop.
He chuckled, the sound of it sending its own vibration along the length of my body. When his lips made contact, I couldn’t help but arch my back. He pushed me back down and shoved my thighs apart with equal swiftness and brute strength.
With a near-painful pinch he syphoned, moving further into the core of my power, and at the same time he applied just enough pressure with his tongue and mouth to push me to the edge of release. The discomfort of the taking only shoved me further to the edge, and this time, he didn’t stop. He kept going and going, forcing me to take every ounce of pleasure he wanted me to feel, every ounce of pain—pain so sweet it was delicious.
Come for me, Áine.
I collapsed like a crashing wave. I had never felt a release so powerful, so sinful and divine. And when Daelon looked at me, I couldn’t see or think of anything but him. Nothing else existed. He was so full of my light that I saw it outside of his shield, covering the sludge of poison like it had never been there at all.
I reached for him, and he was quick to scoop me into his arms and let me rest my head on his chest. He whispered praise into my ear to bring me back down to earth, reminding me I was safe, telling me I was so good for him. Everything I wanted to hear in this head space, he fed me.
“I felt your love for me, when I channeled,” he whispered. “And I’ve never felt anything more beautiful. Everything about you, everything about your soul, is so radiant that I forget that there is an entire world outside of us.”
I clutched him tighter, fighting off the sudden urge to cry. I couldn’t do that to him. I couldn’t remind him our time may be cut short, that he might not be here to protect me for much longer. I couldn’t fathom it myself. Not when his commands still sounded like gospel, his soul the only thing anchoring me in a sea of shadows.
