Page 1 of House of Mages and Raven

1

Barbie

Aswirl of dust motes in the golden morning light chased our entwined bodies as Killian’s cousin knocked urgently from the other side of the door. Runes glowed on the walls before fading. Killian warded every inch of his master bedroom.

I heaved up and down his massive length, arching my back and gasping at the wild pleasure as he drove into my molten core.

Shit!This felt good.

A few more rapid thrusts from him, and I’d be in heaven.

“Mine!” he growled.

“But are youminetoo?” I challenged him, slamming my bare bottom into his heavy balls.

He said I was the first woman who’d ever slept in his bed. Not even his betrothed had spent a night here. I was special, at least according to him. It didn’t cancel out the fact that he was taken, tied to another woman.

Technically, Iwasthe other woman, who had no right to him, but it couldn’t stop me from wanting to taste him again, especially after we fucked for real outside his dream walk. I was conflicted when it came to the chaos prince. This primal need in me demanded I stake my claim on him, making him my man for good, yet the practical part of me told me to let him go.

I had baggage. Not just heavy, but dangerous, the kind that could bring death to everyone around me once my god father caught up with me.

I ran my bottom lip between my teeth. There was no better time than now to lay my darkest secrets bare in front of Killian—if he offered me an honest answer, told me that we belonged together.

“Queen Lilith is waiting downstairs, Your Highness,” Cami called from outside the door. “You’ll want to take care of it to prevent any inconvenience.”

Killian snarled in displeasure, and I ignored the change in mood and rode him harder. His dark gaze slid to me from the closed door.

It had come to this. It would always circle back to this plight.

I dug my fingernails into his shoulders, my body humming with lust and primal power. I didn’t want this to end, didn’t want to give him up, but I knew that it was coming to an end, like all good things.

“You want to know if I’m yours too?” he asked roughly, yet an amused smile tugged up his carnal lips at my display of viciousness and possessiveness. “I’ll tell you when I’m back.”

He lifted me off him reluctantly and kissed my lips. “Everything will be fine, I promise.”

I wanted to believe him, but it felt like the end of whatever this was between us.

Then Cami spoke cautiously against the door, driving the last nail into the coffin. “Queen Lilith brought an oracle, whohas been searching for the lost princess, daughter of the God of Ruin.”

My pulse froze. My blood iced over.

2

Barbie

My heartbeat went wild, like the fluttering wings of a hummingbird, while ice coursed through my veins.

My father, the God of Ruin, had found me.

He’d sent his ace acolyte to do his dirty work and pave the path for him. How had he found an oracle in his employment? But who would dare to disobey him? Who didn’t fear a terrible original god?

We haven’t seen Daddy for a long time, have we?Sy chimed in while I was still paralyzed with icy dread on top of Killian.Maybe we should catch up with him. Aren’t you curious what he’s been up to?

She was aiming for humor, but she was bad at it, even with her vicious tone. Yet her words rang with some truth. We were lacking intel from Ruin, our ultimate enemy. We’d been running and hiding from him for eight years now, looking over our shoulders all the time, terrified of his finding us.

In the end, in Mist of Cinder, where we could settle down and stop running, he’d located us, his claws stretching toward us, ready to rip away our dreams and hope and home.

It was time for us to change our strategy. Instead of being passive and having Pucker do most of the patrols so we could enjoy the perks the realm brought, like eating well and reading smutty books, we should train our eyes on Ruin and aggressively gather intelligence on him so we could anticipate his next moves.

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