Page 158 of The Star's Sword

“Just let me feed a little and then hold you,” he said. “Consider it the wish of a man who almost died and never knew if he could do this again.”

I wasn’t going to complain, as pleasure washed over me, and it became truly real that he was mine forever.

For the rest of our lives.

His hand knew what to do so easily that I was gasping and close in seconds, but he went on for minutes, watching my reactions with pleasure, kissing me everywhere, making love to me with his hand so gently I could have cried at the pure wonderfulness of it.

When I came, he growled in pleasure and held me close, uttering ‘mine’ over and over.

“I love you, Samael.”

“I love you, Cleo. Mine forever now.”

When I’d come, and reached to do the same for him, he shook his head and nestled down in the covers with me, his incubus practically glowing.

“You know how I feed,” he said. “My own release would only be exhausting right now. All I wanted was to see you come again, Morningstar. And I did, so now just let me rest with you, because I could never be any happier in this world than I am at this moment.” He ran his hand through my hair as we cuddled beneath the covers, my body warm and enervated.

My heart utterly content.

We fell asleep like that, holding each other, the world seeming too bright and wonderful and at peace to be real.

We only woke to a knock on the door, and Simon’s voice calling, “hello, little demons? We have a few updates if you’re in there.”

50

Ipushed up, realizing it was dark, as Samael pulled on a robe and went to open the door as I grabbed my clothing and quickly pulled it on under the covers.

Simon was standing there, wearing gray sweats of all things. Past him, in the cathedral hall, I could hear other voices. It sounded like almost everyone was back now.

“Just wanted to see how the regeneration was faring,” Simon said, moving through the door and grabbing Sam by the arms to look him over. Then he jerked him in suddenly, burying him in a quick hug before letting him go. “I’m so glad to see you’re okay.”

Cayne barreled in next, grabbing Sam in a hug so tight Sam let out a grunt of discomfort, which Cayne paid no attention to at all.

Simon held up his left hand, which was a glittering shade of gold. “Betty was able to give us temporary prosthetics until we can get better tech. The Drorren have tech that makes the limb basically feel exactly the same, but it takes time to source and make.”

“It was worth it,” Zadis said, stepping into the room. His leg was clothed, but a shiny bit of gold showed between his pants and his shoes on his left leg. He clapped me in a hug, and then Samael once Cayne had released him.

Mor and Griffin and Os came in next. They explained that Ara had stayed behind to organize things, and had already found celestials willing to help for tonight.

So we had the evening together.

“All right, it’s getting a bit crowded in my bedroom,” Sam said, waving his hands for us all to go out into the main hall. When they were outside, Sam shut the door so we could finish getting dressed before going out to join them.

It smelled amazing, and Griffin waved for all of us to come to the dining room with him. “Orpheus already set up for us.”

Orpheus was waiting inside the kitchen for us, a chef’s apron on. His blue eyes sparkled as he turned to watch us. As always, he was calm and composed, but even he seemed to feel some excitement. “It’s good to see you back, Samael. Cleo.” In his eyes, I swore I could see the gratitude he felt for bringing Sam back safe.

Orpheus had always been a bit of a mystery to me. I knew he liked to sometimes perform thrall duties around the cathedral, but he also spent a lot of time at the keep or gambling in the demon realms.

But he was one of Sam’s adopted father figures, so he had every right to be here now, with us, celebrating the fact that he was alive and all was well with the world.

Orpheus had made a kind of soup for everyone, and we ate while laughing about the different sky realms, telling each other how the parts others had missed went, and generally discussing plans for the future.

It was odd to no longer have ascension as a goal.

What did a Morningstar do when they weren’t a Morningstar anymore?

Cayne was hogging Sam’s attention and I couldn’t blame him, so once dinner was over and Simon touched my arm, asking to speak with me privately, I instantly agreed, telling Sam I would be back in a minute.

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