Page 66 of The Surrender

But it was love, my angel...all along."

A pause.

A soft kiss as I start to fade away.

“If the darkness is the only place I may hide, then I will hide in yours, my Queen. You are not only strong enough for my storm. You are the storm. You are the wind carrying me. You are my wings. You raised me up from the first moment we met in the Court of Ash.

“Now, it’s time for me to fall...for you. Because I love you. I will love you long after I leave this world.”

“Kyan?” I whisper.

“You rode the storm beautifully, Quinny!”

With no other choice, I surrender to the darkness taking over me.

* * *

A rough, wet tongue licks at my cheek, jolting me awake.

“Jinx!” I gasp above the sound of my little fox’s yips.

Thundering, rushed boots practically shake the cavern from the outside. Familiar voices resonate from the walls. Jinx must have led them here!

I whip my head around, but there are no wings, no trace of Kyan’s...of Shadow’s presence anywhere. Except for the wetness oozing down my thighs. I must have been out for less than minutes.

I don’t bother to cover myself when the three Kings emerge, Merikh first, Drago following, then Mayce. The vampire’s dark, predatory energy devours the cavern and breeds gooseflesh all over me.

“Where is he?” Merikh demands, flaring his nostrils while Drago helps my shuddering body up, but my legs are on the verge of buckling. “If he’s not dead, he’d better pray for death because I’ll torture and murder him for disappearing.”

Mayce removes his outer robe and drapes it around me. The fresh aroma of herbs and wine drifts into the air, but I take one step and fall against Merikh. At first, he stiffens, growling low. But it doesn’t take long for him to sigh and sweep me into his arms. His gaze congeals my blood, but I stare at him regardless.

“Do I need to feed you my magic cross to unlock your lips, little dove?” he threatens as I curl in his arms, pressing my cheek to his chest.

“He went with...the demon. Nuriel. He sacrificed himself for me. He just came in and he-”

“I know,” snarls Merikh, shivering my nerves while gripping me harder and carrying me out of the cavern. “I smell his damned seed all over you.”

Once we’re beyond the inner cavern, my three monsters quicken their pace. Drago bristles next to us.

“We know of Erya. Who the fuck is Nuriel?” my dragon bellows, and I whimper, my hand inching toward his familiar masculinity and heat of protection.

Merikh growls a possessive warning as Drago cups the side of my face in reassurance.

“Nuriel was Erya’s mate,” explains Merikh. His words blur as he gives the brief history Nuriel shared.

The ache inside me throbs violently, reminding me of the words I never reciprocated after Kyan professed them. How they’ve loved me at first sight. Even Merikh in his own sick and twisted, dark and disturbing way. How I have only loved the feel of them. I longed so much for Kyan and Shadow. And when he shared with me his past, his scars, I felt nothing but horror. I treated him like a monster instead of loving him. I ran from him. I hid from him.

And fell into the hands of an even greater and darker monster.

But Shadow surrendered himself to that monster. What will I surrender?

“Merikh...” I moan once the shadow of the cavern disappears.

Cold raindrops slash my skin. The darkness of the storm thrashes all around us, sinking deep into my veins, tunneling sheer ice into my blood.

“Where will he take him? What can I do?”

I look up. The rain has drenched his dark hair. Just like on another night, another storm, his soaked hair falls over his face like scrawls of thin ink. He is my death god. But through the eyes vowing violence and punishment for Kyan, for me—because I’m responsible for his partner surrendering and breaking—the deeper meaning sheds itself in his eyes. The vulnerability behind his sadism.

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