Page 39 of A Crown of Darkness

Wren bent forward, her lips brushing his softly for a moment. Finn groaned, a deep and endless sound of submission, and she kissed him.

What could he do but kiss her back?

CHAPTER 22

WREN

His kiss robbed Wren of all rational thought. Apart from one.

Finn…it was really Finn…

Finn who loved her, who had always come to her rescue, who had been there for her, Finn who she loved in return, beyond reason, beyond everything.

He was still tied up, his wrists bound together with a coarse rope, and then lashed to his ankles, a demeaning and uncomfortable position. He couldn’t touch her or caress her but that didn’t seem to matter. He kissed her, his mouth capturing hers and casting that spell it always did, lips moving as if he was trying to speak but couldn’t form words, his tongue dancing against hers. She whimpered in recognition but couldn’t do anything more but kiss him back. Slowly, she lifted her hands to frame his face, almost collapsing on top of him with relief.

His poor bruised and beaten face. What had they done to him? Light, was she hurting him?

There was no doubt in her mind now that this was Finn and not the shadow of him that had tormented her since they had arrived here. No trace of Leander remained in him, none of that cruel arrogance.

Just Finn. It was just Finn.

Her blood surged in recognition of the light in him and she felt it fill her veins. Darkness and shadows might coil around her but that didn’t matter now. Her hair wrapped itself around his body, pulling him closer, binding him to her, and he gasped in raw pleasure, a desperate gleam in his dark blue eyes, hungry and ready for her.

His body was naked and there was no disguising his need for her, the ache in his flesh. His cock was a hard length, like iron wrapped in velvet, displayed like an offering. Wren longed to drop to her knees and take him in her mouth, or to push him down and wrap her legs around him, taking him deep inside her, letting him fill her. But there wasn’t time. There couldn’t be.

Common sense didn’t matter. She couldn’t tear herself away from him. Couldn’t stop touching him and feeling him respond. Her Finn, her love, her everything.

‘We have to get out of here,’ she told him, her lips fumbling against his.

He jerked on the ropes, but couldn’t free himself. ‘This is a trap,’ he said. ‘You know it is. Leave me here. I’ll work something out.’

‘I’m not leaving you anywhere,’ she replied. ‘Not again. Not ever.’

‘I’m nothing but bait to bring you here. That was what Leander said. I’m her sacrifice. They want you to give in to your power, to becomeher. And this is her place. He thinks once the Nox is in control, he can control her.’

The thought was laughable. And the laughter ringing around the back of her mind was not Wren’s own. Even the Nox found Leander’s machinations mockable. He knew nothing. Not about magic, not about her, and certainly not about the goddess he claimed to serve but desired to control.

This was the Nox’s place of power, Wren knew that. She could feel it. Blood had soaked so deeply into the stone allaround them, ancient and ageless, so many deaths for her. Wren should have been helpless here. But at the same time…she had made it this far, faced the other caves and come through them. She was still herself.

And also she wasn’t. She was something more. Darkness swirled along her veins and threaded through her hair.

I was their queen once, and they stole that from me. They stole my blood and made it their own. They bound me when they crowned me.

Wren released Finn as the voice rang through her mind, plaintive and still so angry. But there was loss and longing tangled in it. The Nox was remembering something, something old and heartbreaking. Just by dint of Wren being here.

Finn slumped down before her, confusion and resolve warring with the desire in his face, and she tried to smile for him, to reassure him.

This was her place.Hers.

‘Don’t be afraid,’ she told him and her voice hardly sounded like her own anymore. Perhaps it wasn’t.

The colour fled from him and his eyes glistened, but he still stared up at her in a combination of adoration and trepidation.

Leander would have kept Finn from her if he thought that would serve him better. And he might have been right. But now Finn was here and she was never letting him go again. The light in him drew her and she was like a moth attracted to that flame. Not just her. The Nox as well.

The Nox might hate the Aurum, but it needed it as well.

Balance, she thought, remembering what Hestia had told her, what Elodie had said. It’s all about balance.

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