Page 68 of The Cruel Dawn
Hand in hand, we guide our horses through a valley nestled between a silver stream and ash trees. The air smells of wildflowers, but also of apples and lavender, even though neither grow here. As we round a bend, a man comes into view. He leads no horse and carries no sword. Tall and confident, he stands there, unwavering, his gaze fixed on us, his intent unknown.
Fearless, Zephar and I ride our horses over to the man. Once we’re steps away from him, we dismount.
“What are you doing here?” I ask as Zephar takes my hand.
Jadon steps closer to us, his eyes on me.
“Make another move,” Zephar growls at him, “and I’ll break your fucking back.”
Jadon, though, takes another step. He doesn’t care about the man bigger than this realm.
My throat tightens, but not because I’m scared. No, I love Zephar’s type of rowdiness, I love Jadon’s clenching fists, and I can’t stop smiling even though a fight is bubbling beneath this stormy sky.
Jadon finally shifts his gaze to the biggest threat before him. Remembering that he is, at least, a demigod, he presses back his shoulders and lifts his chin. The mark on his right hand glows like the daystar, and his jaw is harder than the earth beneath these lush grasslands.
Yeah, I remember Jadon’s hand clenching on my ass, and I remember tasting me on his fingers and on his soft lips, and… “Can’t we all just get along?” I ask now, my voice a whisper beneath my pounding heart.
“I will never ‘get along’ when it comes to you,” Zephar whispers. His hand rests around my waist, and he bends to nuzzle my neck. His breath is hot on my ears and his cock hard on my back.
I tear my eyes from Jadon’s and look up at my Mera warrior. “I don’t ask for much,” I say, searching Zephar’s rum-colored eyes. I already feel drunk with power, with anticipation as my hands flutter like moths over his muscled chest, as my fingers drift from the destroyed realm of Melki over to the obliterated world of Yoffa and down to my favorite domain, the biggest realm of all…
Jadon and Zephar… I want to destroy them. I want to wear them both all over my skin.
“This monster betrayed you,” Zephar says, his hand over my hand that now strokes and coaxes him.
Jadon doesn’t speak—Zephar isn’t wrong. So he stays quiet but lets his eyes dance over me.
Fuck, I love his eyes.
I step away from Zephar but keep one hand on his magnificent bulge while I peer at the silent prince of Brithellum. “Tell me, Prince Wake: what do you want?”
The sky presses down on us, and I look up again to those rain-heavy clouds.
“You,” Jadon says. “I’ve only ever wanted you. In this realm, in realms beyond, there’s only you.”
I say, “Prove it.”
I don’t stop Jadon from kneeling before me. I don’t stop Jadon as he kisses my belly and follows the inked vine curling higher…higher…until it becomes Mera letters that spell KAI MERA DESTROYER OF WORLDS. The prince of Brithellum pushes away my bandeau, and his tongue travels beneath my breast until his mouth covers my nipple. And then he bites.
I tense and moan.
Zephar’s hand moves from my waist and pushes down my sarong. His fingers slide along my ass, dropping and then dipping into me from behind, and I gasp, and my eyes go wide, and I watch those storm clouds, and I’m amazed at how fat they are with rain, and I wonder who will explode first, those clouds or me, and I reach back and kiss Zephar, then turn to kiss Jadon and—
BAM!
A violent shudder shakes the meadow—
No.I’m not in a meadow. I’m in a roomat the Broken Hammer.
I sit up in bed. “What—?”
BAM! BAM!
The windows rattle.
The banging is coming from the outside.
“Bring Maelstrom out here!” an angry man shouts.
