Page 10 of Court of Dragons and Twilight

“I am. It’s good that Lysander passed the first test, but tomorrow’s fire, and Elle’s going with him. That can’t be a good thing.”

Jinks looks away at the sky. “King Arden won’t let anything happen to his mate, but I know how much you care about her and this court. I don’t know if a demon praying is worth anything, but I will pray for your queen to win this all with her kings.”

“Did I ever tell you that I became slightly obsessed with how incredible she is?” I mutter. “Jealous, maybe.”

“You’ve got no reason to be jealous. You are incredible,” Jinks firmly finishes. “Livia, I?—”

“Ah…there you both are,” Elle’s grandmother interrupts without a care in the world that I desperately want to know what Jinks was going to say. Hera is wearing only a white dressing gown, with a sunflower snap claw holding her hair up in a mess. I don’t even want to know what she just finished with her creepy god mate she brought here. “I need a bit of your blood, Jinks and Livia. Let in the god I’m about to summon.”

“Why?” Jinks questions, cocking their head to the side. I almost forgot that these two have lived together for a long time. She kind of treats them like a wayward teenager she had custody of for a time. It’s cute.

“We need Phobos here. It turns out a bit of blood from hell’s creatures and Cronus’s special touch can make a potion to summon any god to this world through the barriers. These are the rest of the ingredients.” She shakes a vial of red liquid. “Chop chop, kitty cat. I have a mate to return to and plans to set in motion.”

Gross.

I clear my throat. “Does Elle know he is coming?”

“No, it’s a surprise. Don’t ruin it.” Hera waves me off. “And for heaven’s sake, stop worrying in that mind of yours. Yes, he is the god of horror, but he can behave. He has a new mate now, who’s human. So he knows what it’s like to have someone to lose, plus he’s very fond of Elle, and she is his niece. He’s brought her up with me, and we need all the family here now for what’s coming.”

Jinks doesn’t hesitate before offering her their hand, and Hera cuts their fingertip quickly with a sharp spike of one of the many rings on her hand, before plopping a drop of their blood in the vial, which glows a burning red before she smashes it on the ground. The vial sends red smoke soaring until a portal appears, and a flutter in my chest warns me someone is coming through the barrier. It’s easy to stop him if I wanted, just to connect to the magic and will it to snap shut.

When the ward fell, so did I. It felt like someone tore a hole in my chest and I couldn’t breathe. It was a spell, and it didn’t last long once Aphrodite left. I put the ward right back up and thanked the good gods in the sky for being lucky enough not to die.

The smoky portal clears with the wind, and on the other side is a stunning, dangerous-looking man sitting on a pumpkin in a forest. Dark hair, long legs, and all in black, with something terrifying in his dark eyes that makes me shiver. Jinks moves closer and I’m thankful for them.

At his side is a young woman who looks like she lives in a Halloween shop. She has a checkered skirt that stops at her thighs, fishnet tights, a dark black crop top that matches the colour of her dark hair, all curled up at her back of the neck. His hand is possessively around her waist as he looks through and sighs, rising to whisper in her ear. They kiss passionately for a minute, and I look away. When I look back, he’s walking through the portal alone. It snaps shut behind him. “I gather there’s a way I go back soon?”

The world feels darker, more sinister, the second he is here.

“Go back whenever you want, after you’ve killed people for your niece.” Hera grins and it makes her look young. “Darling, it is always a pleasure to see you. Thank you for coming.”

He crosses his bulky arms. “I trained Ellelin to kill a fuck ton of people on her own. Why can’t she do that and I go back to my mate?”

“Phobos.”

“Mother.”

They glare at each other before she hugs him, and he clearly gives in, even when he doesn’t hug her back. Hera pats his arm before she steps away. Phobos drags his eyes to Jinks. “Are you behaving, cat?”

They bow their head. “Always.”

The god of nightmares looks at me, and I feel like my blood freezes in fear. I can barely move under his gaze. “Is this the mate you came through for?”

The shock of that statement makes me force myself to look at Jinks with a will power that apparently can defy the gods. What the fuck? “Mate?”

CHAPTER 7

The dream appears like any other, except for everything’s different. It feels like Emrys, like he’s right there in front of me and all around me at the same time. It’s because he is. We’re standing on a boat, a creaky, wide, wooden boat, in what looks like a foggy lake. The fog’s slowly moving around like small waves, but the boat doesn’t move. Emrys is on the other side of the boat, just standing there, and he looks so real it breaks me. He’s wearing a white shirt tucked into tight black trousers. His hands are resting in his pockets, and when he smiles at me, warmness flows through my body. I smile back at him. I want this not to be a dream, but to be real. When I wake up, Emrys is still going to be trapped in his body with Ares ruling.

“It’s really me. You need to go into the darkness and I’ll be there.” He walks across the boat. The darkness? How could he be down there? The boat doesn’t move; it doesn’t tip or rock in the water like a normal boat would do when someone moves. There’s nothing around us, just more fog. Endless, endless fog. Why this place? His hands sink into my hair, and his touch feels right. Just so right. He pulls me to him; his lips are on mine within a second, a mixture of a soft pressure but a little morethan that and everything Emrys. Just everything. I moan as he pushes us down, only to turn us so he is sitting on the bench and I spread my legs around him, my white dress pooling at my thighs. I never wear dresses like this. “How are you here? Is this real?”

“I’m always real to you,” he promises, running his teeth across my bottom lip. “We don’t have much time,” he whispers, kissing down my neck. “I just, I need you to remember this. Remember me here. It’s not just a dream and you need to remember.”

He keeps kissing me like it’s our last kiss, like he needs every moment, and I breathe in his scent, how he smells so normal. I miss him so much. How is this possible? “What are you talking about?”

Emrys’s hands drift slowly down my body before pushing up the white dress that I’m wearing. His hand slides my underwear to the side, and I gasp as he slips his finger into my folds, finding my clit and stroking it as I moan. “You need to remember this, and I won’t let you forget.” The pleasure is intense, and I moan again, which he captures with his mouth. He rips the underwear off, undoing his trousers and pulling me to him. I slowly sink onto his cock, inch by inch, my cheeks flushing. He grabs my ass, pulling me up and down on him, and I’m so close. “You need to remember.” He groans against my lips. “Fuck, don’t forget me. This.”

“Never,” I cry out as I orgasm and he crashes with me, just as the dream fades.

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