Page 42 of Shadows so Cruel

Maybe to my mate.

I couldn’t let either happen.

In a blast of shadows, Sebian shifted and flew off, his senses oblivious to my presence. Strange, but a welcome opportunity, nevertheless.

Galantia turned and headed back toward the gate, toward me, until her eyes caught mine, widening as her feet froze to a halt. “Why are your eyes pitch-black?”

My breathing flattened further, a rush of dizziness slamming into my mind. Maybe I shouldn’t have sought her out in this state, when my control already balanced on the thinnest of threads, shadows bleeding into my eyes. But that brightness…

Lands. Titles. Crowns. Kingdoms. I would give it all up in exchange for one day of reprieve in its serenity. Fuck… a moment. A minute. A breath.

“Your void is still starved.” I breached the distance between us with a hurried step, desperate to siphon into her, to rid myself of this oppressive darkness. “Let me pour my shadows into your void, and—”

“No.” Galantia shuffled backward on a sharp intake of air. “I don’t want your shadows.”

The bond yanked painfully in my chest at her rejection, myanoaflapping his wings, stirring up my shadows until they poured like liquid tar over my thoughts. Had I not suffered enough, goddess? Had I not sacrificed enough of my feathers, praying, pleading,beggingyou to give me my very own void, only for her to reject me!?

I stepped toward Galantia, following her retreat until her back bumped against the trunk of a tree. Before she managed to slink around it, I lifted my arm and grabbed a low-hanging branch to the right and shifted my hips to the left, caging her in.

I stared down at those trembling lips, and how the thinnest threads of my shadows drifted from my mouth into hers, pleasure spreading across my entire body. “The pain in your chest has to be severe.”

“Still preferable over getting stuck with you for the rest of my life,” she said, her voice breathy, telling me she was no less affected by this… symbiosis between us. “You tried to trick me into bonding.”

I pressed myself against a body I remembered had reddened so nicely beneath my rough hands, only now noticing how hard I was, my cock pulsing. “Surely that cannot surprise you as much as you pretend it did. As we already established, I’m a bastard.”

One who’d botched this so completely, I would never be anything else in her eyes. Why would she ever willingly give me this bond? Because she would take pity on me? Because she would dare to love me? No… I was beyond redemption.

Then why not take it?

Either way, I had her hate. But I’d much rather have it along with that brightness…

“Open up for me, little white dove.” I lowered my face to hers, shrinking the distance between our lips until the air crackled with overwhelming energy. “Take my shadows, swallow them down.”

“Malyr, please… you’re scaring me when your eyes are like that.” She tilted her head ever so slightly, slowing the flow of my shadows into an excruciating trickle as she eyed me up and down. “Your face is bleeding, your clothes are torn. You’re filthy.”

Filthy.

Hot shame washed into my veins, searing into my hands; the heat so unbearable, it erupted as my fingers wrapped around her throat, collaring her to the tree. Yes, I was filthy. Sullied, with no conscience. So why pretend I had one now?

I took a deep breath, filling my lungs and forcing my shadows through the gap between my ribs. They rushed out of me, slamming through whatever feeble barriers she’d erected against me at her core, and straight into her void.

They poured, and poured, and poured, and… Goddess, help me, I needed more of this. Needed this expanding brightness at my core, the lifting of these fucking shadows!

Galantia’s little hand clawed into my side but did not push. “Please, just let me go…”

Never.

My bond yanked toward hers, tugging at my core, straining toward her with the same desperation my shadows poured into her, making me feel lighter, freer than I had in years. Fuck… a lifetime.

How could I give up on that?

How could I deny myself?

I pressed my body against hers until my cock throbbed at the friction, my entire being focused on that pulsing tether between us, so fragile but growing stronger with every shadow I poured into her. The sensation was intoxicating, a torrent of need and yearning crashing through me, drowning out everything else—her writhing, her wiggling, her plea for me to stop nothing but a faraway whisper.

Until she placed her palm onto my chest. “I said stop!”

Something stabbed into my chest, clawed at my shadows, and ripped a lump of them straight from my ribcage. My vision cleared, all sludge melting from my thoughts, leaving nothing behind but clarity.

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