Page 67 of What Sleeps Within the Cove

I lingered in the background even when I wanted to go to her, allowing her the moment of joy and watching. A smile curved my lips, witnessing a moment of pure, uninterrupted joy in a life that had not offered many.

Estrella gathered threads, making them appear from the darkness. I could not see them until the moment she touched them, whether that was because she created them or a limitation of our bond, but the shimmer of magic was breathtaking as she gathered them between her hands. She waved her hands slowly, her movements dance-like as she swayed to music that only she could hear—the music of the Fates.

When she finished, the loosely tied knot of threads floated before her without her touch, and she tilted her head as she watched it. The mannerism was so similar to the night in Blackwater, to the animalistic part of her that had risen to the surface. But where that had felt like something dark and dangerous, this felt like the lightness on the other side.

She touched the threads, grasping them between her hands and studying the woven web of power. Her smile widened impossibly as she raised her arms suddenly, tossing the ball into the darkness above her.

I gasped as the ball exploded into hundreds of pieces, filling the Void with burning embers of light.

The stars shimmered in the pure darkness, illuminating me finally as Estrella’s golden eyes met mine. They were the perfect echo of the gold in the stars as she took her first step toward me, the blue of her dress trailing along the surface of the water behind her. I met her step for step, approaching the woman I was certain thrummed through me just as much as I did myself. Her consciousness tickled at the edges of my mind, her eyes glowing as she smiled at me.

She swept her hand along the water beneath her feet as she moved, a line of golden thread appearing as she walked. She tugged at it, pulling me off my balance as I made my way toward her. A bright laugh bubbled up from her throat, lighting up her face in the way that made everything in my chest clench. It seemed so much stronger in the absence of the snake, as if the beating flesh itself swelled underher attention. She used it to pull me toward her, making my feet slip along the surface of the water until I stood just in front of her.

The gold faded from her gaze, shifting to the dark of the night sky with the twinkle of a galaxy contained there as she raised her hand and cupped my cheek in her palm. Her skin was warm, as if she herself burned with the fires of the stars she’d crafted from nothing.

“I’ve been looking for you,” she said, tilting her head back to allow me to slide my hand beneath the curtain of her hair and cup her neck in my hand. My thumb grazed over her jawline, reveling in the shiver she loosed and the way her eyes drifted closed.

“And I’ve beenwaitingfor you, min asteren,” I said, leaning down and rubbing my nose against hers. Our bond was tremulous, pulsating between us as it begged to be completed. The moment we came together would be the moment it snapped into place, the thread becoming indestructible.

Unbreakable.

“I’m sorry I made you wait so long,” she said, her voice tinged with laughter.

I sighed, lingering with my lips just off hers as I held her gaze. “You were worth every Gods-damned second,” I said, leaning forward and closing the distance. My mouth touched hers, the heat of her spreading through me. Light tickled at my eyelids, the warm golden glow of it threatening to pull me from the moment. I shoved it away, letting my other hand fall to Estrella’s waist and pulling her in tightly. She molded to me perfectly, as if her body had been carved from mine. The perfect fit, all of her hills and valleys nestled into mine to create a single being.

Two bodies. One soul.

She slid her hands around my waist, her nails digging into my spine and feeling like a claim on my physical being in the same way she’d already taken my soul for herself. I’d give her anything she needed, anything she wanted to take, if it meant that I would never have to leave this moment or this feeling. I slid my hands down over her hips, parting her dress at the slit in the thigh so that I could touch her bare skin. Her shiver in response pulsed through me, drawing a ragged groan from my mouth. She swallowed it, devouring it as she angled her head and deepened the kiss. I lifted her into my arms, reveling in the instinctive way she spread her legs and wrapped them around my hips.

“Everyone out,” Medusa said, her voice breaking through the haze. Estrella pulled back from my mouth suddenly, her nails digginginto my shoulders as her eyes flew wide. I smirked up at her as her cheeks turned pink, her gaze bouncing from person to person as they grinned at her and backed toward the doorway they would take to leave the cove. Estrella squirmed in my grip, but I refused to release her as her mother made her way to the door last. “The water is waiting for you, daughter. Make sure you enter it as you were always meant to be.”

Her cryptic words seemed to strike something in Estrella, her eyes pulsing with golden light in acknowledgment. Medusa nodded thoughtfully; her face full of pride in spite of her daughter’s incriminating position. She closed the rough, wooden door behind her as she disappeared, her voice trailing off as she spoke to those who had accompanied her to our handfasting.

“Well, that was awkward,” Estrella said, her cheeks pinking all over again. I raised a single hand, keeping my other beneath her ass and using it to hold her steady, to brush my knuckles over the deep rose flesh.

“I believe you’re the only one who was bothered by it, wife,” I said, watching her eyes flare. I guided her over to the rock face that waited beside the lagoon, setting her upon it and standing before her.

“Say it again,” she said, her fingers skimming over the skin of my shoulder as if she couldn’t stop touching me. I understood the need, the itch that existed within us. We’d been separated for far too long, suffered in one another’s absence for far too long.

I leaned forward, touching my mouth to hers with gentle ease and kissing my way over her jaw. I peppered every inch of flesh I passed with affection, spreading my love through her body as I made my way to the side of her neck. She bent back for me, her hair draping down behind her to scrape the stone. Grasping the knot at the base of her braid, I slowly worked the ribbon that had been tied there until it fell to the stone beneath her. My fingers speared through her hair, spreading it and allowing it to drape freely as my mouth found the hollow in her collarbone.

She let out the slightest gasp, the sound of her pleasure all the more satisfying after all the time we’d been forced to spend apart. I wanted nothing more than to feel her skin wrapped around me, to drag her into the waters of the lagoon and make her mine permanently. The final piece of our bond was so close I could taste it, the press of her mind on my own just the tiniest bit distant.

I could hear her; I could feel her, but it reminded me of someone speaking to me through a wall, one last barrier between us that needed to be demolished.

My fingers found the laces at the back of her deep blue dress, untying them as she ran her hands down the front of my chest. She scraped her nails over my abdomen, tormenting the flesh and leaving tiny pink trails in her wake. Those deft, cruel little fingers found the laces at the front of my trousers, tugging them open with fervor. I finished with her dress, moving my hand around her body to still her hand as it parted the fabric to slide into my pants.

“I want to take my time with you,” I said, pulling out of her embrace. She cocked her head to the side as she looked me up and down, leaning back onto her hands so that she looked like a siren waiting on the rocks to bring me to my demise. Raising a single hand at the same moment she curled her legs up to point her knees toward the ceiling and cross her ankles delicately, she raised her dress to her thighs, revealing the expanse of her legs as she swept the fabric to the side and let it drape over the rock.

The dress slid down her left breast, the flesh puckering in spite of the warm, balmy air as she stared at me from beneath her lashes. I swallowed, shaking off the desire. The mating bond pulsed between us, her arousal meeting mine in the clash of a storm that felt tumultuous and chaotic.

“Are you sure about that?” Estrella asked, the smirk that played at her lips the only indication that she was aware of how she affected me. There was no question in that expression, no uncertainty in her gaze.

This woman knew she owned me, body and soul, and that she would retain possession of me for all eternity.

“My star…” I said, my voice trailing off with a groan as I closed the distance between us. I wrapped my hands around the backs of her calves, fingers splaying over the flesh and kneading it as I tugged on them until she lowered to lay herself flat over the rock. She spread her legs as I crawled over her, leaning into her space as she smiled up at me triumphantly. “What do you have against letting me take my time with you?” I dragged my nose up over the column of her throat as she arched beneath me, giving me better access to the most vulnerable part of her throat. Her other breast slid free of her dress and it bunched at her waist, revealing more of her smooth skin than I thought I could handle.

“We have an eternity to take our time,” she whispered, reachingbetween our bodies to touch her fingers to the hollow of muscle at my hip. She slid them in a line over the curve there, moving slowly to the center until she found the fabric of my pants all over again. “For now, I just want you to fuck me.”

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