Page 53 of An Oath and a Promise

“Mat,” pleaded Ren, his voice raw and vulnerable. “Get out of here. I’mbeggingyou.”

I ignored his pleas as he had mine, because there was no way in a thousand hells I was leaving him to Kolya’s less than tender mercies. Even if looking at the northern prince’s pleased, expectant expression made my insides roil.

I drifted towards Kolya and caught his hands, knotting my fingers with his. “Let’s go back to the watermill,” I murmured, tugging at him, but he didn’t move.

“Here’s fine,” he said.

“No, I’m not-”

He freed a hand and pressed a sparking fingertip to my lips. “Shush,” he coaxed. “You’re always so uptight, Natty. I want to see you loosen up.”

The strength sapped from my limbs in an instant, my knees buckling and my head lolling forward as if suddenly unable to bear its own weight. I slumped against Kolya with a gasp, my cheek nudging at his shoulder, and he wrapped his arms tightly around me.

“I’ve got you,” he murmured.

I tried to fight but my own arms wouldn’t respond, as heavy and useless as if they’d been weighed down with boulders. I could do nothing to stop him as he lowered me down onto my knees and moved my head so my face was resting against his thigh. Fingers stroked gently through my hair while his other hand pressed to my cheek.

And then more colour flickered in the darkness and I glared at the sparks that burst from his fingertips, inhaling sharply as life surged to my cock with blistering speed.

“Nyet,”I slurred at him, beyond pissed off. I was fucking livid.

Because it feltgood. So Blessed good, distractingly intense, and I needed reliefnow.My hands weren’t cooperating when I tried to lift them to stroke myself to completion, and I gave a frustrated whine, rubbing myself against Kolya’s boot with the acute need to bring myself release.

“What the fuck did you do to him?” Ren’s voice was laced in fear and anger, cutting through the pleasure I was drowning in and giving me something real to anchor myself to.

“Just something to get him in the mood,” Kolya answered as he tugged open the top of his trousers to free himself, and his tone was comforting, soothing,nice.I cast it away, rejecting his false gentleness for the raw, violent edge of my own prince as he snarled out threats and pleas.

“Open your mouth, Nathanael,” said Kolya.

I tried to shake my head.

And then my jaw was pried apart and something hot and heavy slid along my tongue and to the back of my throat, forcing my lips wide. I choked, trying to pull away, but the hand that had been stroking my hair turned to steel and his magic continued to hold my body as weak as a kitten and fucking aroused to boot.

If only the dullness in my limbs had taken my consciousness as well. Waves of nausea surged with the unfamiliar weight and taste, screaming in wrongness.

This was actually fucking happening?

“Stop gagging,” he said irritably. “From the way Aratorre brags, you’ve clearly done this before.”

“Panarin!” Ren roared. “I’ll fucking kill you!”

Kolya pushed himself deeper and hummed, settled once more. “That’s it, Natty, like that.”

Clarity hit my mind then; a fierce, ruthless burst of determination that clawed its way through the blissful state he’d put me in. Did the prick think because he had me on my knees, he hadme? That I would give in without fighting to my last damn breath?

It seemed despite the years we’d spent together, he didn’t know me at all.

And while the rest of my body had been rendered useless by Kolya’s Touch, my mouth was still my own. Was it a lack of control over his magic? Or was he really delusional enough to believe that I was going to enjoy what he was doing enough to actively participate?

I brought my teeth down savagely into the flesh that invaded my mouth, Kolya’s high-pitched scream slicing through my ears as the hot, iron tang of his blood filled my throat and his hands scratched frantically at my face. I was shoved away from him, winded as I fell hard onto my back without the ability to catch myself, and watched with an odd kind of detachment as he loomed over me with his hands pressed to his groin and his teeth bared in feral, animalistic rage.

And then there was more blood. A spray of it cascading through the air to land on the churned-up ground beside us, accompanied by the sound of metal hitting bone; an arc of crimson amid the slushy grey of the snow and dirt. A beautiful, burning hot line of life…ofdeath,signifying Kolya’s final mark on this continent.

The northerner slumped gracelessly to his knees, his head tipping from his shoulders where his neck was severed, but not quite fully detached. It fell to an unnatural angle, a sight absurd in its terrifying impossibility.

Blue eyes bore into mine, but there was no longer any life behind them.

Ren, unbound and wild andpissed,tugged at the blade that he’d hacked into Kolya’s neck. When it didn’t budge, he settled for kicking the corpse aside, the man’s own sword permanently lodged in his spine. A death so quick Kolya hadn’t seen it coming, and one he would never be able to heal from.

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