Page 97 of Redeeming the Angel

“That’s wonderful!”Kerainne clasped her hands together, then froze and shook her head, blushing bright pink.“I mean, not that you were exiled from your home.That’s horrible.But you being a necromancer is wonderful.That’s why we didn’t destroy this corpse walker that was sent after me—”

Xochitl’s shout cut her off.“Holy shit, Mom!Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”Kerainne’s voice was sweet, but her eyes promised her daughter a lecture in the near future.She turned back to Maeve.“Anyway.We were hoping King Zareth could find a necromancer on our side who could learn as much as possible about this thing.Someone dug up Lucian’s most recent corpse and used it to try to lure me to a portal to Qua’ al-fán.”

Everyone gasped.Xochitl opened her mouth, thought the better of it, and waited to hear the rest.

“Also, this is the second of Lucian’s corpses that the necromancer took.Because this one is wearing the clothes Lucian had on before his previous departure to Luminista.”

Maeve nodded.“They wanted to practice with one before deploying a fresh one.”

“And that mean,” Zareth added forebodingly, “we have one or more of Mephistopheles’s acolytes watching us.”

“The necromancer went back to Qua’ al-fán before we sealed the portal,” Kerainne walked around in a zig-gagging pattern as the corpse continued to follow her.“Else my locator spell would have found them.But for now, Maeve, can you interrogate it?”

The faelin woman nodded.She approached the corpse, closed her eyes, and began a light chant.The corpse walker turned toward her and stopped in its tracks.When Maeve opened her eyes, they glowed white-hot.“Ok, it’s under my thrall now.Put its head back on so it can speak.”

I took the head from Kerainne and tried not to gag as I replaced its head.At least it stood still instead of trying to grab Kerainne.

The thing’s speech was garbled from the damage I did with my sword, but it was still intelligible.Its master’s name was Ivess, and it had been raised from the grave only hours after we buried it.The rest of its answers confirmed what we already knew.That the goal was to convince Kerainne it was me and bring her through the portal so she could be delivered to the Evil One.

“Revered One?”I addressed Del by his title.“Was this your vision of the captured luminite?”

Del shook his head.“Unfortunately not.That will still come to pass, and I’m losing confidence that we can stop it.”

“Damn it.”I turned to Kerainne.“That means I’m not going to be letting you out of my sight.”

“Ditto.”She turned back to everyone else.“If you don’t mind, I’d really like to shower and get the mud and corpse-stink off me.We’ll be back later.”

I bit back a chuckle at Kerainne’s ability to tell a monarch what she wanted to do and leaving them no room to contradict her.Yes, one of said monarchs was her daughter, but I had a feeling that she’d behave the same even if that weren’t the case.

“I will have some good news when we return.”I scooped up Phantom, who’d been weaving around my feet for the past twenty minutes.“We’ll also be keeping this cat.But if someone could trouble to feed him?He was a very good cat.”

Xochitl grinned at me.“I was hoping you were a cat person!”

After handing over the cat, I transported Kerainne to my chambers.Then, a horrible thought came to mind.Kerainne mentioned hugging the corpse-walker when she’d thought it was me.How much had it done to fool her?How far had it gone?

“Kerainne?”I asked as I got the shower running.“If that thing traumatized you from believing it was me, I won’t be hurt if you go back to your room to shower and—”

“Traumatized?No!”She chuckled, then shrugged.“Maybe a little.But I’d rather like to celebrate being with the real you.”

She slowly undressed, making me almost fall over as I tried to watch each of her many layers come off while trying to remove my boots at the same time.Then I noticed her fumbling with her own clothes because she was watching me.

“Fates, I love you.”I strode forward and swept her naked body into my arms.

“I love you too.”She rose up on her toes, and lifted her chin in that adorable way when she silently asked for a kiss.

I was only happy to oblige.As I claimed her sweet mouth, I lifted her and she wrapped her legs around my waist, not breaking the kiss until we were both under the hot spray of water.I wanted to take her right then and there, but knew she wanted to wash the stink of the corpse-walker from her skin.I set her down, grabbed the soap and washcloth, and bathed every inch of her, biting back a snarl of rage when I saw the bruises on her knees and shin.Her moans of pleasure as I massaged the shampoo into her hair made me rock hard.

Which made it absolute torment while she washed me.Especially when she sank down on her knees and took my cock into her mouth.Struggling to function in the face of such pleasure, my hands massaged her shoulders, knowing they must be sore from that thing dragging her through the woods.Her moans made a vibration over my sensitive flesh, and I groaned in bliss.

“Fates, Kerainne…”

Not wanting to subject her bruised knees to the hard ceramic floor, I guided her back to her feet and summoned the storage crystal before lifting her again.She was already wet and swollen as I slowly impaled her.Our magic sparked and mingled around us, feeling soright.Her nails sank into my shoulders as she rode me in tantalizing undulating motions.The sight of Kerainne Leonine in my arms, her pale gold hair wet and flowing down her back, cheeks flushed pink, perfect lips parted, and eyes closed in rapture, made me rabid with elation that this sublime creature was my mate and would finally be my wife.

When her tight sheathe began to clench around me, ecstasy roared through my being and I grasped her round, tight ass and deepened my thrusts.Our magic expanded and spiraled, despite my efforts to contain it all.The damn crystal was already full from last time.The climax hit me with such raw power that white spots flashed in front of my eyes, killing all rational thought.Our excess magic flared outward.The floor rumbled beneath our feet, making me cling to her tighter so I didn’t drop her.

By the time Kerainne collapsed against me, resting her head on my shoulder, those perfect lips panting little gusts of air against my neck, I was convinced I’d reached that heaven-place some Earthfolk spoke of.

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