Page 31 of Song of Night

“The stronger the release, the stronger the magic,” I whisper in her ear. Then I sink my teeth into her neck at the same moment I plunge my finger deep inside her.

Zara cries out as I enter her in two places simultaneously, her knees buckling as she sags against the bars. I hold her tightly in place, both with my hand that’s penetrating hard and fast between her legs, and with the other that’s around her neck. She’s eliciting moans that are driving me wild. Her blood flows into my mouth like liquid gold, like stardust and sunshine mixed.

I pull out my teeth and take my hand from her neck just long enough to unbutton my own pants, not pausing in my onslaught with the other hand. Zara is already so slick, so ready, I can barely see straight. The need to be inside her has reached an animalistic level of desire. When the length of my cock emerges from my pants, I position myself between the bars, pulling Zara even closer, her ass pressing into me. She lets out a small whimper.

I plunge into her from behind, growling as we crash together. Zara shudders again and cries out. My hand that had been inside her moves slightly north, circling over her clit as I thrust into her, and my other hand wraps around her neck again. We’re shaking the bars of the cell, the cold metal heating up as our bodies press into it.

Wild magic begins to spark between us, a surge of violet light that wraps from Zara to me and back again. With every thrust it brightens, glowing across the subterranean room and filling me with power. Our cries drown out the crashing of the waves above, and all I know for an unknown span of time is Zara’s skin, the heady scent of our sex, and the feel of her pulse against my fingers.

When she starts to shake and cry out, I let myself go along with her. The pleasure and the magic that had been building between us shoots outward, a storm within the stone walls of this place, a violent release born of desperation and longing. I crush Zara against me as we dissolve into each other, as the magic claims us and saves us both. In this moment, I don’t ever want to let her go. Not for anything.

But the moment passes, and the light subsides, and reality rushes back in.

Zara calls to her magic, a swell of power I can feel as if it’s in my own body, and she bends shadows, pulling me through the bars of the cell.

I know I shouldn’t kiss her, because we don’t have time, and I don’t know where things stand between us, and it’s intimate in a way that the sex was not. But I do kiss her, a tangle of heat and tongues and wishes that can never be fulfilled…pasts that can’t be erased and a present that couldn’t be more fraught with peril if we tried.

Zara pulls back first. “Are you ready?” she asks.

I palm a ball of magic in my hand, a glowing violet flame. I’m still not back to full power, to the level of strength I had back in Night, but it’s a substantial increase from what we generated a few hours before.

“Let’s go.”

I lead the way as we make our escape.

Chapter Twenty-Two

ZARA

We climb the stone steps from the lowest level of the dungeon cells. This is the second time I’ve escaped a prison in the last two days. I hope it will be the last.

There aren’t any other prisoners down here. I’m not sure if that means there’s another prison block somewhere, or if it means that Vyrin doesn’t usually take prisoners at all. There had only been two guards at the main entrance three floors above, guards I’d disabled on my way down. But when we reach the door leading out into the castle, they aren’t there.

“The guards must have woken up,” I say, pointing to the corner where I’d dragged their bodies a few minutes before.

“Then they’ll have gone for reinforcements,” Asher says. “Let’s get out of here before they’re back.”

He looks left and right down the hall, seeming unsure which way to go, so I take the lead. I’d found my way down here following the connection of magic that runs between us, and I’d made sure to note my path for the journey back. Though I don’t want to head back toward Vyrin’s quarters.

When we reach the juncture in our path that leads toward that part of the castle, I turn the opposite direction. “I’m not sure the quickest way from here,” I admit.

Voices ring out in the hall behind us, and we plunge ahead. I call on my shadows, feeling a rush of warmth, a feeling like coming home. It feels so amazing to have my magic back, even if it’s just a fraction of what it used to be. We actually have a fighting chance now.

Guards burst through a door a few yards ahead of us, and I have no choice but to dart into a hall on the right. Is Vyrin recovered, or did someone just find his body and raise the alarm? I wish with everything inside of me that he’s good and truly dead, but I know it can’t be that easy. Not someone as old as he claims to be, the maker of all fae.

We run into a wide hallway that I recognize from the day before, and Asher and I look at each other and nod. He clearly recognizes it, too. A left turn leads us toward the front gates of the castle. Which, of course, is guarded by two dozen warriors. But now we have magic, and the taste of freedom, and hell on our heels.

Screams ring out as we approach the gate and the warriors flank out to block our path, weapons drawn. Behind us comes a chorus of yells as well, echoing down the stone halls. I call on my magic and my shadows and I wrap them around me and Asher both. We vanish from sight as we charge the front gate.

Confusion and panic bloom on the faces of the guards as we approach. Asher begins to rip souls from bodies as we move closer. The first body falls like a puppet with its strings cut, falling limp to the ground, along with a swell of energy as the life force of the guard moves into Asher’s body. Another falls, then another, then another. Asher bellows as he absorbs their energy, and the faces of the remaining warriors contort in fear.

When we’re a dozen feet away, I send a surge of magic outward, a blast like storm winds. It knocks the remaining guards to their feet and we fly past them. I hit the lever managing the portcullis with another blast of magic, and the gate groans and slowly begins to rise. We don’t wait for it to get all the way to its apex. Diving underneath, we roll to freedom and then send a blast of magic into the gate mechanism, sending the thing crashing down behind us to block our pursuers. The lever shatters, wood flying everywhere.

It's not over yet, though.

From the direction of the rift, a battalion of cavalry on those massive bronze horses comes galloping over the hill. They must have heard the destruction of the portcullis or seen us break out of the entrance. Whatever the case, we’re now facing two dozen mounted horsemen, and they’re blocking the path between us and the way back home.

“The Thorn Forest!” Asher cries, grabbing my arm and turning me around. “It’s our best chance.”

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