Page 61 of Crown of Wrath

I look her over again, and this time, instead of seeing what she’s lost, I see what she still has. Her muscles have atrophied an incredible amount, but she’s not past the point of coming back from this. It’s just going to take hard work and a lot of food.

“You need to eat more,” I say. “If you’re going to work harder than you have in the past, you’re going to need a lot more food.”

She gives me a beaming smile and says, “That’s one thing that I knew I could count on. Cole Cyrus will never turn down training or anything associated with it.” Then the smile fades into something darker as she raises a hand into the air. Shadows extend from her fingertips and crawl across the floor. They run over my body, and every touch of them against my skin teases me.

Then they tighten over my wrists, and I’m pulled into the air, suspended until stone climbs up my feet and calves, holding me in place. I’m caught just like I was in the ecstatic springs when Sia saved me from Maeve.

Except this time, I don’t want to get away. Her shadows cover every inch of my skin below my neck, and then they expand, shredding my clothes. They fall away, and I’m left suspended and naked in front of her.

“We can talk about training later,” she says, her eyes on my body. “Right now, I have a very different hunger.”

Chapter 31

Never make a magical oath. Once, when I was young, the only magical oath that could hold a human was a deal with the Shade. Now… Now, everyone’s oaths are bound in blood. Damn Draeven, and damn his chains.

~Sir Alistair Hawking, Magical Combat for Humans

Maeve

I’ve spent a lifetime of memories trying to get back to Cole. His touch drove me to confront the hardest parts of my life and survive them when everything in me wanted to give up.

He stands stretched out by my shadows, so similar to the way he’d taught me to wield my powers. His naked body is ondisplay, and I could do anything to him. I could play with his body in ways I never even imagined.

Cole’s eyes follow me, and I can sense the lust in them. I know he wants me regardless of the ruin I’ve brought my body as I’ve healed my mind and soul. I stand in front of him, shadows pouring from my fingertips, and I smile up at him. Darkness hardens over my nails, becoming just as black and just as sharp as the Shade’s, and I rake them over his cheek.

His breath comes out slowly, and his chest quivers when my nails run down his neck just as his have moved over mine so many times. Down to his bare chest, my nails leave thin white lines in their wake.

He groans, and his hands strain at the shadows pulling his arms taut over his head. “You’re beautiful,” I whisper. I walk around him to his back, and I trace the scars along his shoulder, long striations that are physical reminders of the pain he endured. My hands move further down, and they grip his ass.

I stand on my toes to whisper in his ear, “I let you do what you wanted when we were in that cave. I begged you to let go, to forget any restraint. I asked you to show me what hid behind your masks. Today, I want something different.”

My shadows snake around his body to find his cock, and they tighten around him. Cole’s body shakes and tries to pull back again. I can feel him throbbing under my shadows, desperate for me to be there instead of that inky darkness.

“Today, Cole Cyrus, you’re going to follow through with a promise that you made me. You’re going to give me all the pleasure that you teased me with. You’ll follow through on all the times you made me beg.”

I squeeze him harder with my shadows, and he groans. I know he could burn away all that darkness if he wanted. He could break the rock that holds him in place if he tried hard enough. Instead, he’s letting me hold him.

“I want you to take me the way you promised me,” I whisper to him. “Can you do that, Cole?”

He turns his head to face me, and his eyes have lit up with orange flames. “I’ll need the Shadowed Cloak. And I’ll need a promise from you.”

A promise? “What kind?”

He smiles at me, more than a little sadism in those eyes. “Not a magical one. Just a simple promise that you won’t take my shadows from me, my Queen. When I tempted you like that, you were not quite so capable as you are now.”

A magical oath isn’t necessary. “I promise not to take command of your shadows, Prince Cole.”

I raise a hand, and his body is released from its bondage, the shadows dissipating and the stone melting away into the floor. The only things still holding him are the shadows wrapped around his cock, slowly sliding over him like the softest silk cloth, and I can’t help but imagine what he’ll do now that he’s free.

Now that I’m letting him be in charge, everything is different. My shadows release him, and he stands up straighter while a slow smile crosses his face. I wonder if that’s what he looks like under the black hood of the Shadowed Cloak, but then the thought passes as he walks away from me, leaving me all alone.

My eyes follow him as he walks into the bedroom, and my body quivers just the tiniest bit. I’ve spent what feels like years hidden in my mind on that island, and when I rested, this is what I fantasized about. I’ve played this out so many times in my mind.

Until this point.

From here, I don’t know what will happen. I don’t know what the Shade will do to me to give me agonizing pleasure. Then I feel the shadows swirling behind me, and the Shade is right there. His shadows wrap around me frighteningly quickly. Themidnight dress I’d worn disappears in an instant as he rips control of my shadows away.

I’m left naked, my arms bound above my head just as his were a moment ago. More shadows spread my legs, and several wrap around my torso, caressing me continuously, teasing me and reminding me of just how much experience he has.

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