Page 55 of Crown of Darkness
“Don’t stop! Don’t—”
I come with a soft cry as he gives one last thrust, and he shivers over me, grinding with slow intent before he pulls free at the last minute. Hot seed gushes on my leg, and the second I feel it, my heart stutters a bit.
This was the deal we both made.
The price of my bargain with the Mother of Night.
Bitter nettle tea notwithstanding, we cannot risk allowing his seed to take root.
We both collapse on the grass, breathing hard.
Thiago curls over me, his teeth skimming up my throat. “No one else, Vi. There will never be anyone else for me. You and I were born to fall in love. And we will chase the stars together, or we will drown in darkness. Together. There is no other option.”
I trail my fingers down his sweat-slicked chest, fussing with one of his missing buttons. He was right. Everyone is going to know. It’s written all over our skin and faces.
And I want to laugh with joy, because he’s finally mine and now I get to share that with the world. No more hiding.
“Together,” I whisper. “Forever.”
Thiago kisses the tips of my fingers, and then he sets about cleaning me up, grumbling under his breath at the fact I’m not wearing any underwear and he has to use the hem of his cloak.
“Poor little princeling,” I tease, my gaze dipping over the generous vee of his chest that his shirt reveals. “All mussed and torn. You’ll have to find a new shirt.”
And I watch his face as he props himself on his knuckles, giving me a satisfied little smile. “Fuck the shirt. We’ll just say I fell into a thicket of thorns. Repeatedly.”
OceanofPDF.com
Chapter Eleven
Ravenal’s library is what I’m here for, and the following morning I slip away to find it.
The lock is easy to pick and I slip inside, summoning a tiny faelight to brighten the gloom. Heavy drapes spill to the floor, but the tower that houses the library is silent. Cold.
Empty.
Perfect.
Thiago rode out with Lucere, Corvin and Kyrian while I pleaded a light headache.
He gets to enjoy the company of the Ravenal siblings and the Prince of Stormlight, while I can go play in the library. I don’t envy him.
If I were an ancient book about dangerous crowns, where would I hide?
I spend the first half hour investigating the shelves to the south of the room, but there’s nothing of interest.
I tugAge of Immortalsby Galen the Great down from a shelf.
Hmm.
I flip through the gilt-lined pages. When the Mother of Night tasked me with finding the Crown of Shadows, she told me it was lost to mortal memory. But words mean a thousand things in the fae courts.
And there are still a handful of true immortals remaining in Arcaedia.
“What are you doing in here?” a voice demands.
I nearly drop the book on my foot. The faelight winks out with a thought, but there’s nowhere to run. A trio of faelights bob toward me, one hovering right in my face so I can barely see the woman stalking toward me.
“Reading?” I suggest.
