Page 106 of Of Vows and War: Special Edition
And then his head was between my legs, his mouth sucking roughly on my clit before I could answer him. I arched up, the sin in the air heady. Magic stirred inside of me, itching to break free. Demanding more of him would be so easy. Natural, even. It was what I did. But there was something about this one that stopped me from freeing the cloud of pink that raged beneath my skin.
I felt…too much.
“You, Spice, taste like sin,” he groaned out against my dripping cunt just before biting down. I screamed, unbothered by anyone else hearing as I relished the feeling of his mouth against me. Seconds turned into minutes, and soon I was near tears from the pleasure. He lifted his arm so I could see it, touching two fingers to his still-bleeding wound before driving the same digits into me.
Words could not explain the way it felt as he worked me into a frenzy, my hips bucking and my toes curling. All the while, beneath the sin that he remained drenched in, resided a dark aura of agony.
Sterling was in indescribable pain. I felt my mind acknowledge it just as I finally fell off the edge of ecstasy, my release barreling into me and likely wetting his face. I watched him suck and lap it up, his eyes scrunched in pleasure. And when he lifted his face, it was the sight of his dark red blood on his cheeks that altered something in me. Something that I was not sure if I could come back from.
My hands shook as I reached up and grabbed his neck, pulling his mouth to mine. Lips met and worlds collided. Perhaps the universe itself could’ve fallen apart in that moment and I wouldn’t have noticed. All I could think or feel oracknowledge was Sterling and his unbearably heavy pain as he lined himself up. When he shoved into me, I thought I felt a tear hit my cheek. Was it mine? His? I didn’t know. I couldn’t remember the last time I cried. Not truly.
His thrusts grew frantic, hard and fast. Desperate in a way. Normally, it would be everything I wanted. Why was this not normal? What was happening to me?
An undeniable urge to soothe him washed over me, and suddenly, I was grabbing his wound, shoving my magic into him and willing the skin to stitch back together. I wasn’t nearly as good as Padon, my magic not as perfect or seamless, but I still felt the blood slow. Then all at once, it stopped, and his wound was healed.
“I have you, my creature,” I whispered against his lips. Hips stuttering, he opened his eyes and looked at me. The whites around his brown eyes were red, the green flecks in his irises clashing with the new color. I had never seen someone look so broken, so shattered beyond repair. It hit me abruptly, the reality of what must have been happening to him.
He had his memories restored after being forcibly taken. He had been tortured, then told lies. He had been tormented and then tricked. To top it all off, he had the memories given back, and it all came back to him like a tidal wave.
“You’re not alone. Feel it all. Feelme.Give me your fear, your hatred, your hopelessness. Turn it into sin. Feed it to me and let it go.” Never had I been so kind or considerate, not since Sol and Asta were still around. But it was second nature to kiss him again, feeling as he shoved every bit of his pain at me. His body sunk, pressing into mine as his cock continued to barrel into me. He fucked me like it was his last chance—as if there might not be a future in which he lived to do so again. “Yes, just like that. Feel me, Sterling. I’m here.
When the mortal came inside of me, I wondered if he had broken me too.
Chapter Forty-Five
Asher
“No, our only option is to lure the fae out. We need to be the ones to dictate when and where this happens,” I demanded. All around me, the members of the war council looked to be in various phases of shock.
“We also need to consider that Mia Mounbetton will be as strategic as we will, not to mention that she has a demon on her side,” Bellamy added, letting his fingers trail scandalous images on my leather-clad thigh beneath the table. I swatted his hand away, but he just chuckled and put it back.
“We might be better off simply burning Betovere to the ground,” Adbeel huffed, staring daggers at the five islands to theEast of Eoforhild. “We have seen what they will do to not only our innocents, but the mortals as well.”
Across from me, Shah seethed. The Queen of Behman had come this morning, her body healed and her rage at an all-time high. She was ready for this war. Eager even. Genevieve was at her side, finally back from Maliha.
Sterling had been forced to leave with her, much to Stassi’s complaints and death threats. The only thing that had soothed her was what had to have been one of the most scandalous kisses I had ever witnessed. Sterling was a poor fighter, but he was clearly great at other things. Enough so that, when he whispered into Stassi’s ear, she had crossed her arms and nodded curtly before storming away.
Now, only Genevieve was at the table, Sterling likely off keeping promises.
“Speaking of that, I think we have more than one traitor working against us,” Bellamy added, not addressing the fact that Adbeel wanted to slaughter innocents in retribution for other innocents being killed.
“I agree. The attack on Behman and every attack before then felt too perfectly strategic. Someone was feeding information to the fae. I can look into it.” Noe often spoke up in these meetings, but this was one of the first times I felt the war council members agree with her. “Speaking of which, I found these in Betovere this morning.”
With that, she unceremoniously slapped down a stack of thick parchments upon the model of Alemthian. They scattered about the table, some falling into laps. I caught one and turned it over, gasping at what was there.
A depiction of…me.
Above the—rather flattering, honestly—outline of myself was the word “wanted” and below was a single, damning line. “For the murder of King Xavier Mounbetton.”
“Well?” Noe asked, her hazel eyes on mine. Nicola was silent where she sat on my right, Bellamy’s gaze burning a hole into me from my left.
“At least I look pretty.”
At that, Trint and Mordicai burst into laughter, the two allies always banding together. Today, only Lian, Damon, and Henry were here, Bellamy’s other six captains having been stationed in a separate territory with small forces each. Elrial, Nrista, and Onyx had all been relieved of their position as war council members by Adbeel when they had declared themselves vehemently against my being in these meetings. And when they spewed hate at me, Bellamy relieved them of their lives and threatened to do the same to anyone else.
It was a dramatic and bloody start to the meeting. Nyla, the queen of the mortal kingdom Yrassa, had yelled at Bellamy for two straight minutes for ruining her white dress. Marjorie, the last surviving member of the war council, had simply rolled her eyes and sent a burst of shadows at the prince. Bellamy’s head flung back slightly from the hit, like someone being bopped upside the head.
But at least we had moved onto more pressing matters. Like how stunning I looked on these wanted posters. My hand darted out, grabbing onto one that had Bellamy’s face instead. His said the same thing, and he had also been depicted fairly well.
