Page 28 of Carnal Magic
“I know, my lady.” He kissed me again and then gently set my feet down on something hard and smooth. They surrounded me, keeping their arms around me until I was steady. “Whatever happens, we will tend and care for you afterward. We’ll carry you every step of every day if you allow it. We exist for you.”
Tending and caring made me think I might be injured. I swallowed hard, remembering how sore my throat had been. The bloom of dark purple bruises. From only a dream. How much worse would it be in real life?
“They’re my reward to you.”Hisvoice echoed all around me, a deep rumble from the depths of the earth. “Recompense for the hell I’m about to put you through.”
19
Heart pounding, I tried not to cling to my three men as they slowly backed away. I could do this. I wanted this. I came here for this very reason.
Dripping wet, I started to shiver, the scalding heat of the hot spring forgotten. My beautiful lingerie was gone. I had no idea what had happened to it. Though they’d lifted me from the pool and carried me deeper into the darkened shelter of the cliff, I stood in a puddle of shining moonlight. Illuminating my body forhim.
“Why are you here?”
The ground beneath my feet quaked at the depth of his voice. “To embrace you.”
My chattering teeth sounded ridiculously loud in the silence. Had I offended him? Should I be on my knees? Call him my lord as he called me my lady? I didn’t know what to do. If I angered him, or failed to pass some test that I didn’t even know about, would he just kill me?
A grunt of disgust startled me. “I find it hard to believe you came to me at all with those thoughts rattling around in your pretty little head. At least show me what you’re offering.”
Unsure what he meant, I stood trembling, trying not to let my thoughts whirl around like a tornado, especially if he heard everything anyway.
“Sacrifice, my lady,” he said dryly. “You came to me wanting immense power, yes? What do you offer me in exchange?”
I swallowed a huge lump in my throat. Shaking, I held my arms out stiffly from my sides. Lifted my chin. And slowly turned around in the shining moonlight, letting him drink in his fill.
“Is that all?”
Shame burned my eyes. I dropped my arms to my sides, fighting the urge to cover myself. To cower as I had in the dream. Doubt choked me, making it hard to breathe or think. “I thought you wanted me. I’m a Redwine daughter.”
“Your mother and her mother before her refused to serve me. Did you honestly think I would forgive such betrayal so easily? You know nothing, Arwena Redwine.”
The dark god does not forgive.
Dread churned my stomach. I’d climbed the mountain in the middle of the night, so confident and sure. So stupid. Had the lurid dreams and beautiful mansion and clothes been a part of his revenge all along? A trap? To get me here in front of him, so he could exact his revenge? Punish me for my mother’s and grandmother’s betrayal?
If all he wanted was to punish me, then why not just kill me? I could have crashed my car off the treacherous mountain road on the way home tonight. But that would have been too easy. He didn’t want me to die. He wanted…
Martha’s words flashed through my mind.
He has been waiting.
For centuries.
For you.
Not because he wanted his revenge. He wantedme. He wanted what I could give him, and it wasn’t watching his minions, or shadows, fuck me. It wasn’t my body that he wanted. Or my death. Not at all.
He wanted my pain. My fear.
My darkness.
He wanted me to crack open the deepest, darkest vault inside me and let him revel in my pain and terror. To trust him enough to let him see those horrors and know that I would still walk away, alive and well. He didn’t want my death. He wanted to feast and revel in my fear—and still fuck me. Not because he was a Beast.
But becauseIwanted the Beast.
He’d told me exactly what he wanted in my dream.
He wanted me to fear him—and still come to him. Still desire him.
