Page 82 of Down from the Tower

I twist my finger inside her,and the shadow joins me. Rapunzel gasps, digging her nails into my skin. I stretch her with my magic, watching her mouth fall open as I push into her, the shadows moving in time with my hand as I add another finger.

She gasps, eyes watering. “Zarev!”

“Oh, what’s wrong?” I taunt, and she bites down into her lip. “I thought you wanted me to back up my words.”

The other hand flexes on her thigh, and then the shadows climb up and curl over the back of her leg, teasing at her ass. She jolts, blue eyes turning desperately up to me.

I lean in, breathing into her ear. Every little thrust from her rubs against my cock, and I’m going to make her pay for that. “Shadows don’t stretch like my cock will, Princess. I can fuck both your holes this way.”

I let the shadows spread her, her legs shaking, and ease the tip of a shadow inside her, spreading the magic to stretch her wide.

She screams, and I lean in to swallow the noise. Easing the shadow out of her pussy, I play at her clit as we kiss, grasping my cock to rub along her lips.

Pulling back as I work deep into her ass, she wraps her arms tightly around my neck. “All at once.”

Before she can ask, I shove into her, letting some of her weight drop to impale her on my cock. My free hand slams over her lips, wrapping the shadows around her face to keep her quiet. Her body pulses against mine as I let the shadows play, fucking into her ass even as she’s pushed to the tree, her head thrown back as she takes everything I give.

“There you are, my little golden mess. Let’s see how many times I can get you to come.”

Her eyes roll, and I snap my hips forward into hers, her back bumping the tree with every move. She doesn’t seem to care, her hair flying free of the braid as we move together.

“Zarev,” she moans, her voice adding fuel to the fire. Fucking her ass dry with the shadows doesn’t cause the same pain my cock might, and I can push the limits with her like this, stretching her ass wider until she gasps, eyes turning glassy at the feel. “More. More of that.”

I chuckle, slamming harder into her as the shadows grip her hips, forcing her to stay in place. “Shh, Princess. I want to see those tears so I can lick them dry. If you make too much noise we might have to pause.”

There’s no argument in her eyes, and I press the shadows tight to her face. When her eyes roll, her hips fighting to meet mine, I drag the shadows lower, bracketing them around her neck.

When they squeeze her throat, and stretch her ass in tandem, she comes undone with a muffled scream.

I grab her hips, slamming my cock deep into her as the feel of her clenching around me makes my head roll back. I can’t paint her full of cum, but she will take every inch of me until she can’t.

“I like playing Life and Death with you,” I grunt, massaging her clit as she comes down from the high. “Because just like this, I can show you what it’s like to be saved by Death.”

I shift the shadows, letting the strain that’s fucking with her ass speed up, banding another shadowy rope around her eyes so she gasps. My hands massage into her hips, pushing her harder in the tree.

Rapunzel’s head lulls, her body giving into me, and a few more strokes sends me over the edge.

I drop her, the shadows carrying her body so she doesn’t fall. They shift her to her hands and knees, her ass still spread wide, and I pump my hand a few times before flexing my fingers, removing the shadows over her mouth and eyes a moment before I color her lips in cum.

She gasps, and I ease up on her rear as she lets me coat her, before reaching out to stroke her face. The shadow slowly eases out of her body, and she collapses forward into me, an utter mess.

I bend down, pressing a kiss to her lips. “And that, Golden Girl, is how Death breathes Life back into your soul.”

21 Rapunzel

We don’t waste time once I’ve regained my balance. Braiding my hair again is a must to shadow hop, and in the time it takes to secure the tie at the end, Zarev’s swept through the clearing, hiding our footprints and checking that no one is nearby before we move. He forces a handful of nuts and the water flask into my hands, and I greedily eat.

The letters echo in my head, a mystery I desperately need to solve, and I don’t think I’m going to rest until I get answers about Lady Tremaine.

Maybe she’s still alive somewhere. Banished, sure, and when she spoke with Zarev, Dahlia made it sound like she last swept through the tavern a number of years ago. If she hasn’t passed, she could be anywhere in Mystica.

She’s Anastasia and Priscilla’s mother. Even if they are cruel to me, they deserve to have her back, don’t they?

“Open your map,” Zarev says, resting the scythe across his back as he shoves a folded bit of parchment at me. I dig around until I locate the one I’ve been making notes on, holding it out to him. He points, showing me how close we are to The Barrens. “ Sherwood is pretty dense through here. But at The Barrens sometimes there’s travelers, or skeletons.”

I nod, eyeing him. “I need the map for this?”

“Most likely, we’re going to see spirits, mad ones who needed to cross long ago.” He twists his neck, popping one side then the other like a nervous habit. “They are probably going to be lost in their thoughts, muttering like mad. They drop random facts in that state, like names of towns or landmarks or royals. Really anything that makes them furious in the afterlife. I know that map by heart. You might want to check things out when you hear them.”

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