Page 65 of A Queen Of Broken Realms
“No fucking clue.” I smile as Ashen lets out a long sigh. “Yeah. There’s more.”
“Of course there’s more.”
“The book says there will be an insurrection of beings from where the gods trapped them, between the realms. The abyss.Salamu. They will be allowed into the Living Realm and will attempt to take the stones during a period of imbalance among the three realms.”
“The Nephilim.”
“Looks like it. In order to save the fates, the keys must be returned toAlahalsuand the gate destroyed.” I flip a few pages ahead to another bookmark I’ve left between the pages. “And look at this.”
“The Scepter of Ereshkigal,” Ashen whispers as I spin the book to face him. There’s an image of the same scepter on my chest in faded ink on the page. Below it, the Mace of Nergal, just the same as it appears on Ashen’s mated mark. A third symbol is drawn at the bottom of the page, a four-pointed star bordered by a circle, wavy lines fanning out between the points from the center of the star to the perimeter of the sphere. “The Sun Disc of Shamash.”
I nod, laying my index finger to the Scepter of Ereshkigal. “Light and Shadow.” My finger trails down to the Mace of Nergal next. “Peace and War.” My touch halts on the Sun Disc of Shamash. “Hope and Surrender.”
“If our mated marks are represented here, it’s reasonable to assume that someone else has a tattoo similar to ours, and they too have a role to play with the fates, somehow.” Ashen’s finger traces over the symbol before he flips the page, but the page is empty.
“Yeah. Frustrating, isn’t it. I haven’t found anything in the Sumerian or Latin entries yet that seems to relate to that page, but there’s still a lot to wade through,” I say before pulling the thick book from Ashen’s fingers to close it, leaving it on the nightstand. When I turn back to Ashen, my diabolical smile has his eyes narrowing with suspicion. I carefully back away, getting ready to run. “Do you think that third symbol means we’re jointly mated to another person? Is this a ‘why choose situation’? You know Tessa’s in one, right? I bet that’s it, yeah. And I have a good guess, Reaper. It’s gotta be Duman. Did you see any suspicious tattoos on him when you were ripping his limbs off?”
I manage to touch one foot to the floor in my bid to leap from the bed in a fit of devious giggles when the hot band of Ashen’s arm wraps across my middle, hauling me back onto the mattress beneath a spray of embers and smoke. My laugh burns away into a gasp as Ashen spreads my legs wide and descends to press decadent kisses to my clit, swirling his tongue across the bundle of nerves that are still so sensitized to his touch from our hours of pleasure. He drags his caress down until he thrusts his tongue into my pussy, his thumb replacing its absence on my bud with gentle circles as he devours me. His free hand strokes my inner thigh, painting my skin with our combined arousal.
“What are you doing, demon?” I ask in a breathless whisper as I fist the sheets.
Our eyes meet down the length of my body as Ashen releases me from his mouth just long enough to answer. “Reminding you that you need no other beast in your bed.”
“There’s not room for another anyway,” I say. My teasing smile fades as a sliver of worry slices through Ashen’s eyes. “You take up every crevice in my heart.”
I smile, and a different kind of darkness takes over Ashen’s features.
“I will show you all the same,” he says, and feasts on my flesh until all I see are stars.
CHAPTER25
“You’ve gotta tell him to stop,” Ediye whispers as she sits next to me on the couch in the suite I share with Ashen. She passes me one of Cole’s homemade churros with spicy chocolate sauce, the sounds of laughter and the smell of cooking drifting from the kitchen to warm the apartment.
“Huh?”
“Yourhusband,” she hisses. “Tell him to stop.”
“Stop what? I have no idea what you’re talking about, babe.”
Ediye rolls her eyes and tears off a piece of a churro, scowling at me as she chews with more force than is necessary for the sweet dough. “The gifts.”
“Say what? What gifts?”
“He didn’t tell you?”
“Obviously not, no,” I reply, a hot lick of blush curling up my neck. I dart a glance to Ashen as he and Roman look through the collection of whiskey lining a shelf near the dining room, opening a few of the older bottles to sniff the contents as they chat in hushed tones.
“First, my room was filled with flowers. Like,filled, Lu.”
“Aww, that sounds sweet—”
“Sweet? It looked like the botanist’s version of a hoarder’s house. And it took me an hour to find my herbs so I could stop Cole’s sneezing.” Ediye’s face crinkles with disgust. “He had a line of snot, Lu. He sneezed it onto the roses.”
“Gross. But also, you’re a Healer. It’s not like you haven’t seen worse,” I say, taking a bite of the doughy goodness as I sink further into the couch with a contented moan. “Remember the time my arm got stuck to my side with all that goo when I was healing from burning at the stake? That was pretty gross.”
“Yeah, but I also don’t suck your dick. I’d have felt different about that if I regularly had your cock in my mouth. Snotty is not sexy.”
“I guess when you put it that way…”
