Page 81 of The Song of Sunrise
“What’s this?” Selene asks skeptically as we approach.
“Your challenge.” Damaris smiles with a little too much of their teeth. “Using only these three ladders, you have to climb the boulder, then cross this ledge to the other boulder.” They point to the other side of the cavern where an equally large boulder sits.
“Without touching the ground,” Lord Cadex chimes in, equally amused by our bewildered faces.
Atlys steps forward. “With our experience in past Summits, if there has been a team task, it’s usually part physical, part riddle.”
I tilt my head up at the boulder in front of us. The ladders barely reach the halfway mark, so we will need to stack them to reach the top, then there is the task of somehow getting across to the other boulder with the other ladders… while not touching the ground?
This is going to be challenging.
We work for what feels like hours before we make it across, only to be met with another strange challenge.
And another.
And another.
Eventually, General Damaris dismisses Selene, and Lord Cadex, Gryphon.
Leaving just Atlys and me. Standing only paces apart. Breathing heavily. Sweating.
The way Atlys’s eyes skim along my body make me hyper aware of the two beads of sweat now trailing down the front of my unbuttoned shirt, dipping between my cleavage.
My intuition screams at me to put space between us, to run, knowing that he is the predator and I his prey. Yet I keep my feet planted firmly, not daring to move a muscle as he prowls forward. The silver around his pupils becomes almost wholly swallowed by darkness, and he darts forward, so fast I barely register he’s moved, and pushes me so hard I fall onto my ass.
“Ouch! What the fuck was that for?” I yell, shuffling back, ignoring the white hot pain in my tail bone.I hate him.
He growls and steps forward, looking like death incarnate.
“Atlys?” I wince as I stand, rubbing the pain out of my ass.
“Try not to move.” His voice is nothing but gravel and smoke.
I stand rigid as he approaches, eyes raking up from the curve of my hips to the swell of my breasts. My breath goes nowhere as he slowly circles. He stops directly behind me. Fear pulses in my veins, freezing me in place while his sweet and salty scent of smoke and ocean breeze tantalizes me. Why are my instincts calling me to bend into him?Moldmy body to his, yet dart out of this chamber and get as far away as possible at the same time?
This is infuriating and I definitely hate it.
“Tell me something, my Sunrise. Why is it that even the brightest stars are surrounded by so much darkness?” He steps closer, trailing a feather light touch along my clavicle. Wrapping around me, surrounding me.
A spark of energy surges between us, charging the air with anticipation. I arch into his touch on instinct, nipples hardening against my shirt.
He pulls me into him, pressing our bodies together, the evidence of his attraction hard between us. His lips nibble the edge of my ear.
A moan I’ve never made before escapes me as I slowly stretch my neck to the side, careful not to move too quickly, giving Atlys full access.
Small tremors course through the cave as he glides his tongue along my neck. His other hand cups my breast, and I explode with sensations. On fire and ice cold at the same time.
I’m utterly unwound by him.
“Hmm?” he prompts, and I spiral to remember his question.
“Maybe it is the darkness that makes them shine,” I rasp. It’s amazing how quickly fear and hate can turn to recklessness and lust, because stars above, I actually like this right now. I grind my hips, and he releases a deep, guttural sound that has my legs pressing together. “Kiss me.”
Atlys guides my shoulders, turning me until we face one another. His eyes are back to mostly silver. He smiles broadly, sharp canines prominent, then cups my chin and kisses me.
It is not sweet and soft like the kiss from Castor.
It is ravenous, hard, desperate, like we are starved for one another. His hands travel along the side of my body, as if searching for more skin to claim. To devour.
