Page 46 of Song of Night

Zara gives me a look so deadly it would likely kill any other man. “Okay, then. Take off your clothes. Let’s save the city so you don’t ever have to look at me again.”

When I stand there, staring at her, she stands and slowly strips off her tunic.

“Zara,” I say softly. “I don’t want any bad blood between us. You know I care for you…”

She responds by closing the distance between us and undoing my belt. She yanks it off with a snap of the leather. “Don’t talk, Asher.”

I pull off my tunic and toss it on the floor next to hers. “So, we’re back to you hating me. Like the first time.”

“I won’t use my dagger this time.” She unbuttons my pants.

“Maybe I liked your dagger,” I whisper, dropping to my knees.

I take off her boots and carefully roll her breeches down, peeling the blood-soaked area off her stab wound. She winces slightly, looking up at the ceiling to avoid my gaze. When I have them off, I look up at the length of her, bare and glorious, her raven hair cascading down her back. She’s smeared in blood and covered in dirt, and she couldn’t be more beautiful.

My lips kiss up the inside of the thigh opposite her injury, and when I reach the soft swirl of hair between her legs, I dart my tongue into her. A small gasp escapes her lips, and she grabs my head with one hand, twisting her fingers into my hair. I pull back and slowly run my tongue up the length of her opening, then swirl it over her clit. Zara gasps and her legs tremble.

I don’t feast on her as I had in the forest. I am slow, teasing, tantalizing, tasting every bit of her until she lets out a little whimper. Her fingernails are practically crushing my skull, but I don’t move any faster. I take my time, even though the world is burning down around us. Because the world is burning down around us.

When she cries out, I grab her ass with both hands and press her hard into my face, thrusting my tongue inside of her and sucking as she bucks against me. Magic surges between us, and a glow envelopes Zara as her climax takes her. After several long moments she falls limp against me.

I stand, picking her up as I do and carrying her over to the fur rug by the fire. I set her down carefully and examine her injured leg. As I’d hoped, the magic has healed it, the skin smooth and flawless except for the dried blood. Her eyes glow with a buzz of magic as I draw my gaze back to hers. I stand and pull my pants off, releasing the trapped length of me which had been straining against my clothes. Zara watches me as I drop to my knees, straddling her.

“Do you still hate me?” I bend down and kiss the side of her neck, my cock sliding along her belly.

“Yes,” she says, but it comes out breathy, more of a purr than a growl.

I position myself so that just the tip of me enters her, no more than an inch. I rotate my hips, teasing right at her opening. In and out, the tiniest bit deeper each time, then pulling back. “Even now?” I bend and flick my tongue over one of her nipples.

She gasps and arches off the floor, but then she rolls me, flipping herself on top. “Especially now,” she growls, and she slides the length of me into her.

A groan escapes my lips as she rolls her hips, grinding along my cock.

“And I told you to stop talking.”

She places two fingers in my mouth and picks up her pace atop me, rocking back and forth. I suck on her fingers as she rides me, and I grab her ass with both hands, squeezing the firm flesh in my palms. Magic begins to spark between us, and for the first time in days, I feel the force that is Night beneath the city, feel not just the wild magic, but the source of all that magic.

Maybe I’m right after all…

I sit up abruptly, folding myself up to meet Zara so we’re chest to chest. I need her closer to me…goddess, I always need her closer to me. To feel her heartbeat against mine, feel her breath on my face. Breath which is coming faster now as she gyrates, a fine trembling beginning in her limbs again as she rides me. I wrap my arms around her back and kiss the side of her neck, smelling her skin and the sheen of sweat forming between us.

A storm of the best kind is unleashing within my body, and the glow of our magic fills the room, putting the fire burning beside us to shame. Night stirs beneath us, a rumble as if acknowledging that we’ve returned, that we’re together as it always seems to desire that we are. Zara was fated for me from the moment she entered my life, and I for her. Maybe I’m a fool to fight it, to obsess over the past.

“Zara!” I groan as she moves even faster, sending wave after wave of ecstasy rolling through my body.

She responds with her own cry as she begins to convulse against me, and I pull her even tighter, letting go of the force building within me, surrendering to the torrent of power and pleasure. Magic pulses across the room as our yells fill the air, and the palace shakes slightly as Night rumbles again beneath us.

As our movements subside, Zara looks down at me, her eyes swimming with emotion. “Asher—”

But she doesn’t finish her sentence. Because her head rolls back, her body goes rigid, and she stares straight up at the ceiling, eyes fixated on something I can’t see.

Chapter Thirty-Three

ZARA

This time, the vision moves along more quickly. There is the blinding violet light, the path and the voices leading me, the rush of wings and darkness. My pounding heart and the unexplainable terror of the ancient evil behind me. I can’t even see it, but I know it is the end of me.

The strange images begin to flicker rapidly before my eyes, but this time they repeat long enough so that I get a sense of what they are. Three images, over and over and over…

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