Page 70 of Crown of Chaos

I shook off the awkwardness and then dug a bag of crystals out of my pack. When I set it in her waiting palm, her eyes widened, and she smiled wickedly at the mere weight of the stones. She withdrew several, studying them before her wide, excited eyes locked with mine.

“You know that these are of the highest quality, right?” I nodded. “Where did you find these? I’ve not seen this level of purity since the last fighting for supremacy ravaged the lands. Hecate seized control of the mines and used the weaker races to mine them.” I turned her words over in my head and glanced at Esme.

I’d met her in a town where the slumlord had used children and women to mine materials. It was the same location where Knox had attacked me in the dream I’d infiltrated.

“They’re not from the mines. I got them in an old dusty library,” I informed, watching the wheels turning in her mind. “I expect the information you give to be of the same quality as the stones. Are we to stand here all night, or do you have somewhere spelled with protection we can move to?” I was just being polite by asking since I’d felt the wards the moment I stepped over the threshold. Witches were untrusting by nature, and my revealing knowledge of her hidden chamber would be folly.

“Come, please. I forgot my manners in my excitement. You are looking for someone?”

“I’m looking for a man.” I’d already informed her of what I sought, and I wasn’t inclined to give more information beyond that.

“Aren’t we all? Is he your mate?”

“No.” I shook my head and didn’t offer further explanation. We walked through spelled hallways, which stretched much, much farther than the outside of the building exposed. As we moved, it seemed to spiral deeper, opening to a basement that smelled of earth and moisture.

“I don’t mind this at all,”Ember stated, her comforting tone washing through me.

“Is that because there was penis offered here?”I questioned, smiling as she grunted from within me.

“I do not think she can go as deeply as Lennox. Personally, I think we should see the difference at least once. I mean, if you’re going to ignore Lennox and Knox, eventually, we’ll need to find someone compatible to use. I personally prefer our mate, but if you’re going to ignore the current state of our body, we can ride this creature for research purposes, right? I don’t think he’s breeding quality, but a girl has needs. Am I right? My poor, neglected pussy’s totally wasted on you, woman. I think anything would be better than nothing at this point. You should ask her to stick it in, and we could measure depths for comparison’s sake,”she tittered.

I sent warmth washing through my mind to her.“Why is it that when I need you, you can’t be bothered to speak or even acknowledge me? But when I don’t need, or want, your help, you pop up like a fucking dandelion? I’m seriously offended by your idea of when I need your help.”

“I’m offended by the lack of dick we’re getting. He’s been saying the right things, and now you’re aloof to them. Plus, he’s hurting, and we could both feel good if we fucked, right? I’m a fucking genius. We both get off, we’re happy and sated, and then we leave. I’m not suggesting we get clingy—that’s your issue. I just need dick, and I get that when he’s fucking us. And, of course, I like the biting. The biting is almost as good as the dick. But we need the dick to stop the ache because it’s coming.”We’d been moving through the tunnel for too long, which told me we were in a network of tunnels.

“How long have you been within the Nine Realms, Aria?” Jasmine asked, holding the curtain open for us to enter a large, beautifully decorated room.

“Not long,” I answered absently, sending my magic out to ensure we weren’t walking into a trap. I was jaded, and my trust issues were huge lately.

“How long before it gets too hard to ignore and I end up becoming a mindless, violent ball of tension that rips whoever my unlucky partner is apart?”I asked. She’d been silent a lot lately, and even though I’d felt her peering through me, she hadn’t talked or complained much.

“Now,”she snickered.

“Liar, I need an actual answer. I have to find someone to ease that ache, right? I need time to do that. Knox may want us, but I have no intention of getting that close to him yet. I’ll not be mounted on his wall and used when he wants me. Okay? So, again, how much more time before we cannot ignore it,”I demanded, hearing her deeply sated sigh.

“Are we talking to the point of licking people or where we blindly fuck anything that offers us dick?”she asked carefully.“There’s a vast difference between the three stages. Last time, you were pleading with him to fuck you as the first stage began, which was rather pathetic. The next stage we spent days inside the room with him, riding the dick like it was a pogo stick and your pussy was enjoying being pounded. That was the cute licking stage that we nested in. And then we hit the third and final stage when you went insane. That was when you and Knox had psychotic, mindless, send-my-ass-to-counseling-barebones-holy-fucking-dick-for-days sex! That was the conclusion of our cycle. So there’s an enormous difference. Which one felt out of control to you? Because let me tell you, that last stage was so violent that it scared me. Had you opened to him before we landed in savage-fuck-for-days-stage, we wouldn’t have been mindless and so brutal when we fucked him. Not that I’m complaining because I’m rather certain he sprained my vagina with that cock of his,”she muttered as a tremor rushed through me.

“I don’t think you can actually sprain a vagina, Ember.”I grunted inwardly, rolling my eyes hard heavenward before picking up another item to examine.

“Are you cold, Aria?” Jasmine enquired. I looked over and found her staring at me as if she couldn’t look away.

“No, just thinking,” I muttered, waving off her concern.

“You’re the idiot whisperer. It’s sort of amazing the power you hold over these creatures. Now, back to the hard issue at hand that you really only have yourself to blame for. You don’t listen, and I warned you we’d regularly need to ease the ache to establish longer periods of dormancy between cycles. That means we’re going into heat in the next few days, maybe a week, if you can make it that long. Flick the bean where he can see and be enthralled by that precarious nub instead of hiding it and pretending no one else is the wiser. Trust me, I know when you’re groaning and touching that thing. It frustrates the hell out of me, but hey, you do you, right? Here’s an idea, teasehimbecause it will slow down the heat cycle.”I scoffed, but she kept talking.

“I’m serious. The more of him you can smell, the better. I’m not saying that you have to fuck him. I’m not saying not to, either. Just so you’re aware of my opinion. But it can prevent it from coming too quickly if you trick the vagina with pleasure and we inhale enough of Knox’s scent.”

“Why doeshehave toseeit?”I demanded, swallowing hard at the idea of what she was saying. I picked up a stick that someone had whittled into a wand and absently examined it.

“Because Lennox will know what you’re doing. He’ll release the scent to help us trick our body and cycle from unleashing too soon. He isn’t trying to force us yet, which I think means he knows you need time. It’s hard to figure out what either of those arrogant, sexy pricks are thinking, though. It may be because you’ve kept your distance and refused to acknowledge that they exist anymore. Eventually, though, he won’t remain hidden within Knox. If you don’t go to him, he’ll come for us. I don’t think you should let it get to that point. I’m strong, but he’smuchstronger. If Lennox demands it, I won’t be able to fight him or prevent what happens. If you try to go to Aden for breeding, Lennox will fuck us on his corpse because he’s bigger and way more aggressive. I’m personally not turned off by that, but you may not enjoy it so much. Unless you would, in which case . . . game on! You go girl!”

“Oh my god, Ember.”I groaned at the excitement in her tone.“I’m not opposed to bloody sex, obviously, but I draw the line at being banged on corpses. It’s a hard pass.”

“And that’s why I’m a platinum card vagina member.”

“On that note, I say we wait until we hit the terrifyingly amazing sex stage and you’re screaming like a bitch when the blood flows and you’re stuck riding shotgun. What do you say, Ember? You down for another taste of hate sex with Knox?”Realistically, I didn’t want to fuck Knox or Lennox. I also didn’t want to end up fucking strange dick in the woods because my body went into heat and I couldn’t control myself. I couldn’t even remember half of the shit that had gone down inside the tent, but I’d been plagued by images of Killian, Brander, and Lore watching us while I’d screamed for Knox, begging for him to feed me his—yeah, that thought haunted me.

Knox had hurt me deeply, and I hadn’t spoken more than a few words to him since the day my world had shattered. So, begging him to help me now was the last thing I wanted to do. How I felt about Knox at the moment really didn’t matter when it came to this, though, because no matter how badly it grated, he was the lesser of two evils. I’d have to swallow my pride, deflate my ego, and get on my knees to beg the arrogant prick to lend me his long enough to trick my womb, and make it think we had sated it. The thought alone sent embarrassment and uneasiness rushing through me, heating my cheeks pink with the visual of me pleading, begging, and touching myself while he observed.

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