Page 36 of The Salvation

“Ahh, Quinny darling,” he says warmly, curling one wing around the side of my body, embracing me until I’m surrounded by his heat. Especially when he’s a head taller than me and slabbed with more muscle than normal due to his rebirthed wings.

I lean against him, grateful he gives me the space to process, to feel the emotions, to happy/ugly cry. Most would hate it, should hate it. Justifiably hate the idea of being bound to that altar—naked apart from the bloody tattoos—and a claw deeply scrawling flesh with such a mark of possession. Not me.

Merikh is everything dark and dangerous with a past full of torment and suffering to rival the underworld. So, knowing what he did for me, how I was there to witness it, to experience it, it’s the greatest form of love I have felt from him. Depraved? Predatory? Carnal? Yes, but love, nonetheless. At the very least, it’s need and want.

When Aislynn makes a sucking motion with her plump heart-shaped mouth, I caress the top of her head while Kyan strokes along my back.

“Quinny, all of this must be overwhelming for you...” he trails off, moving his hand to press a light knuckle to my chin. Hiswing doesn’t stop stroking my back. “The Court of Hollows is more...intense than any other.”

I chew on my lower lip and nod.

“I have morepersonalexperience with Merikh’s Court.” He raises Aislynn in a subtle request to see if I want to hold her. I accept with a thankful smile.

“You don’t have to share if you don’t want to, Kyan,” I say and gaze down at my baby, sinking my fingers into the warmth of her little gold wings, and touching my others to the glimmering scales upon her chest. They’re so small, no bigger than my pinky tip. But I can’t help but wonder if she will have the ability to shift into a dragon when she’s older, like her alpha father. Considering she has Kyan’s wings, it would be a surprise.

“What a wonder you are.”

At Kyan’s statement, I glance up, my brows pulling in. I smile to one side with a teasing but silent question on my lips. The angel plays with the ends of my ghostly silver-white hair, his wing tips curling toward me.

“Always prepared to surrender and embrace anything that comes her way, but you never press or push.”

Blushing, I bite my lower lip around a smirk. “No, just sass and brat.”

“Naturally. And you do enjoy breaking the rules at times. But we have quickly learned of your rather unquenchable appetite, which includes your boundless curiosity.” He leans in and brushes his lips across mine in a tender kiss. Heat flutters in my belly, but I resist the urge to pounce on my angel.

“Speaking of which...” I pick up on the curiosity part and give Aislynn back to him. “Where is everyone? Drago and Mayce were with me last night, but?—”

“They are with Merikh, discussing some important Court dealings.” He rocks her gently again, lowering his head to kissher brow. “I’m partially here to look after you until they’re finished, partially to say goodbye. To you both.”

I tense. “Goodbye?”

He smiles wryly. “Just for a few days, Quinny. Some business Merikh needs me for, as I’m the fastest bastard in the known world in his words. See? He can be sweet at times.”

I muster a smile, but my chest squeezes at the idea of him leaving. As if reading my thoughts, Kyan chuffs a laugh and turns, sweeping to the other side of the room, where he lays Aislynn in the coffin, closing the lid to secure her protection and the quietude.

“Now, now, Quinny...” He turns to me while twitching his wingtips in a show of playfulness. “I won’t have you fussing over me. You’ll have three capable gods to appease you while I’m gone. Not to mention any time spent with Aislynn. Or how you’ll familiarize yourself with Merikh’s Court. But...” My heart skips a beat when he closes the distance between us and slides a firm hand around my shoulders until he’s palming his mark. He tilts my jaw with his other, prompting my neck to an arch with his dark, wavy tresses flirting with my cheeks. “When I return, I fully expect you to share anything you have learned regarding my partner. Or anything he does to you.”

His breath reminds me of the wintry wind around the Court of Storms—now, the Court of Air. My cheeks redden, pulse quickening as he lowers his hand to untie the sashes at my waist.

“Do you know?—”

“Yes.” He nods firmly. “Took some effort, but Merikh shared everything with me. Rest assured, he owes you an explanation.”

“No, he doesn’t. You never gave me one.” I shrug as he parts the robe, then smile sweetly as his pupils dilate.

He pauses, blinking once. And I watch the serene indigo of his eyes transform into that familiar darkness I love so much. “I did, my little spirit moth.”

“Shadow,” I whisper, all of me melting before him.

Without another word, he slides the robe off my shoulders, baring me to his eyes. “Gods divine, you’re stunning!”

The subtle vibration of his wings, the low growling purr in his throat, surge heated tendrils to unfurl in my core. They grow from tendrils to a fat swirling vortex—Kyan’s specialty, Shadow’s specialty—when he claims my lower back to press me against him and digs his fingers into the back of my shoulder, where his mark etches my flesh. There’s something more intimate about how he’s fully clothed in his midnight-blue angel robes with sleek metallic gauntlets on his arms and leather boots. But I can still feel the throbbing bulge beyond his breeches.

“I shared my past with you as a means of torment, sweet Quinny,” Shadow reminds me before leaning in to touch his lips to my jaw. One light kiss, light as a feather brush, but it sends a host of tingles to parade along my skin. One by one, he kisses along my jawline, murmuring as he goes. “When I was jealous, territorial, and possessive of my control over Kyan and saw you only as a dangerous invasion who would ruin him as his past lover did. I shared with you before I intended to wreck you.

“The difference, sweet girl...” he says while tracing my lips with his finger. My nipples have pebbled to hard painful points, desiring his touch. “Merikh would seek to ruin you, to break you, with no explanation. Not so much as a glimpse of his past. But he owes you more. We all do.”

“No, you do?—”

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