Page 763 of Hell Hath No Fury
My heels dug into the dirt as I bucked against the pressure of his tongue, his name gasping from my parted lips as his tongue moved in this sinful, unknown way which had me burning from the inside out with a heat I had never known before.
“Marcel,” I begged as my body began to tighten, pleasure building in every piece of me so fiercely that I feared the release of it, the fall which had to come from such a precipice.
His tongue continued to move, hands grasping my ass as he feasted, refusing me even the slightest respite as he devoured me, and I moaned and panted his name.
My release came so suddenly that it stole my breath, a cascade of pleasure spilling through every inch of my being in an unstoppable wave which had me crying out so loudly that birds were startled from their roosts high above us.
Marcel reared back, my hooded eyes taking in the flex and strain of his muscles as he unbuckled his pants, my throat bobbing as he unsheathed the thick length of his cock and stood to drop the last of his clothes from his flesh.
He was stunning, his body seeming carved from stone in the firelight that flickered across his flesh, a god come to ruin a mortal and I was nothing but an eager sacrifice to his destruction.
He dropped to his knees once more, moving over my body and capturing my mouth with his as I felt the solid press of his cock at my opening.
“Please,” I begged again, aching to feel the fullness of him taking me with a desperation that made my entire body tremble with it.
I tipped my head back, kissing him deeply and releasing a low moan which was echoed by his masculine growl as he sank into me, inch by inch, stretching and claiming me. No man had had me before him, he was my first, and I was his last.
For one night I was his creature. One night in his arms before fate came for him. One night to take him and give myself up to him and create a life which was more important than any I had everseenbefore.
So despite my fear for the dawn and my knowledge of the fate that awaited him, I gave myself up to him entirely. Losing myself in the arms of the man who had found me in this jungle hell, walking the path of destiny, allowing him to wring both pleasure and sorrow from my flesh in equal measures.
And bring about a fate which I knew would change the path of the stars themselves.
CHAPTER TWO
Hail
One Year Later
The throne was as cold as my heart today.
A heaviness was weighing me down since yesterday’s battle, the scent of burning Fae still seeming to cling to me despite the scalding shower I’d taken upon my return to the palace.
Blood had washed down my naked body and swirled around my feet before disappearing into the belly of the drain as if it had never been.
The screams rang in my ears even now, and I felt…nothing.
A shadow wrapped around my mind, and I was fairly certain that my heart was turning to stone bit by bit. It hadn’t always been like this, though I couldn’t quite pinpoint the moment when things had shifted within me. When I had become this monster that struck a chord of fear in the heart of every Fae who heard my name. Hail Vega; the Savage King. That was what they called me now. I had claimed the throne after my mother’s death, and I had sworn to protect and serve my kingdom. Those pledges had festered and withered, each battle I fought justified by those vows, but they did not ring true with me anymore. My battles may have been won because I wished to safeguard Solaria, but sometimes it felt like I killed because Ineededto kill, blackouts where I fell into a ravenous need for death that defied everything I thought I knew of myself.
I’d had such plans once, plans which surfaced in me from time to time and reminded me of the man I had once been. How quickly that had changed. The power had corrupted me, I supposed, though sometimes I woke in a state of dread and terror, a feeling of powerlessness surrounding me and a desperation to know why I was the way I was. As if there were two halves of me, torn down the middle, but it seemed day by day the savage part grew bigger, consuming the other with sharp teeth.
The throne curved up at my back, my fingers curling tightly over the giant Hydra heads which weaved together, hewn from blackest stone. This monster was me, the throne a representation of my Hydra Order form. It had been a gift from a faraway prince who lived in a land divided by factions of Elementals; earth, air, water, fire, all at war with one another. The old throne had been moved to the vault where the treasures of the royals lay deep within the palace, accessible only by Vega blood.
That old, fragmented piece of my soul awoke as I thought of the burning bodies and the city which had been reduced to ash beneath the might of my fire yesterday. My fingers tightened on the stone, biting into it as my muscles bunched and my confusion turned to a bitter, vitriolic hate towards myself.
What have you done?
“Sire?”
My head snapped up at the deep tenor of my friend’s familiar voice. Azriel Orion had a frown set into his brow, his handsome features skewed by concern as he approached me. He bowed his head respectfully, causing his dark hair to fall forward into his eyes and he swept a hand through it to push it back, looking like that schoolboy again for a moment, the one I’d studied with at Zodiac Academy.
His gifts in academia and his knowledge of dark magic were invaluable to me, and beyond that, he was one of The Guild members, a protector of the royals and the Imperial Star. Though only I was privy to that information, a secret that ran so deep it would shake the foundations of the kingdom, for the star would be sought by every ruler in the world, and every Fae powerful enough to try and seize it from me if they knew of its existence. The Imperial Star was my most prized possession, passed down from generation to generation through the Vega line, and it remained hidden within the sceptre. It had the power to do almost anything I asked of it, its magic unimaginable, both destructive and capable of doing great things.
“Azriel,” I said, my voice an empty, dark thing.
He came to stand before me, that crease between his eyes only deepening. “You’re not yourself.”
“And who am I?” I bit out, anger sharpening my words to blades, my voice ringing around the expansive hall of the throne room. I could stand in this cavernous space in my fully shifted Order form if I wished it, a beast who ruled with cruelty and no mercy. I was feared to every corner of this earth, but Azriel did not flinch at my booming tone. Instead, he stepped closer, his nearly black eyes like two galaxies staring into the depths of my soul and seeing the truth of me. Though what that truth was, I didn’t truly know anymore.
