Dark, page 23
The shriek that left his lips remained in this world long after he did, the acoustics of the room giving it life as it bounced from stone to stone and out the mouth of the cave, wrenched away by the night wind. His listless body crumpled to the ground as Ruslan released his hair, and the eleven living males sobbed, shook, and shouted as we coordinated our next target. The first victim of my back painting was looking paler by the moment as his blood mixed with that of the others on the floor, and I jerked my head in his direction, signaling Ruslan to drag him to his feet.
He barely had the strength or awareness to fight back as I clamped and ripped, and his death was much less satisfying than the previous one. When he crumpled into a lifeless heap at my feet, I saw just how deep the river of ruby had gotten. “I think I’ll need some new shoes after this,” I sighed as if my greatest concern was my fashion choices and these predatory males were nothing more than toys for me.
“I am, in fact, King of the Iron Realm, so I think I can make that happen.” Ruslan smirked, snatching my wrist and yanking me to him. His tunic was soaked in blood, as was mine, and yet I couldn’t help the wave of desire that rose within me. I tipped my head back, exposing my throat to Ruslan, and he growled, diving in for that place on my neck where I loved to be kissed.
The groan that escaped me resounded around the cave, drowning out the whimpering in the background. “Perhaps we should leave our clothes here on our way out.”
His teeth skimmed the sensitive place just below my ear. “I think that is a good plan.”
“Then we’d better get to work,” I breathed, and he nipped my ear.
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to take these last kills for myself. After all, what kind of male would I be if I didn’t deliver the utmost pain to someone who dared lay a hand on my mate?”
“Not the kind I would want,” I murmured, yanking his mouth to mine for a biting kiss before pushing him toward the waiting guards. “Now show me how much you love me, Ruslan.”
Those smoky eyes turned animalistic and rapacious as he was granted an opportunity to unleash the darkest parts of himself. The most fucked up parts of him were not so different than my own, and that was what I loved most about him, about us – that we understood one another in a way others could not.
Pain was the way he expressed himself when words failed him. Choice was the way I controlled my life. Fate was what bound us together, with an unbreakable thread that kept me in his orbit despite my immediate hatred of him. Love was born from our understanding of each other’s darkness, what we needed to move through this world in a way that made us feel safe and in control.
Ruslan selected a cleaving knife from the roll of metal instruments, chopping off fingers and ears and toes, sometimes ripping away a gag before a particularly nasty blow, dragging out the deaths of those who hurt me while amping up the psychological torture. All the while, I watched him work, watched his brutality, and I did not flinch. He finished each of them off by ripping away their cocks and balls, just as I had, and cursing them as they died for touching his mate.
The silence was deafening when the last one fell.
But in that silence was a peace I didn't know I could find; the sessions I’d completed with Zuriel could not compare to the heady feeling coursing through my veins. My body hummed from head to toe, buzzing with an electric energy that begged to be freed.
Never again would those males harm me; I had retaken every ounce of power they stripped from me, and I felt fucking amazing.
Ruslan broke the silence when he dropped his tools, the metal hitting stone with a satisfying ring that sang of finality. In three strides, he wrapped me in his arms, blood smearing all around us as we raced to rip our clothes off.
“That was the hottest fucking thing I’ve ever seen you do, sprite, and I need to be inside you. Now,” he growled as he ripped my tunic away with one hard yank.
“Fuck me hard, Ruslan. I want to come all over your cock to thank you for what you did for me.” The words came out breathy, wanton, and I didn’t care how needy I sounded, I just wanted him.
“Fuck…” he groaned, burying his lips in my neck and grinding his hips into me. Backing us out of the pool of blood, Ruslan steered us until we were among the hundreds of candles he’d placed in the cave prior to my arrival. Using only my feet, I kicked one boot off, then the other, Ruslan mimicking my actions and then stripping us both of our pants. Half the white flames surrounding us changed to black as he laid back on the bare floor, pulling me on top of him, flush with his hardness. “Ride me,” he commanded, and I gripped his dick with one hand and positioned myself over him, sinking down with a delightful hiss as he stretched out my inner walls.
I was so fucking full of his cock, and looking down on him, I felt like a fucking queen. His pupils were nearly black from lust, and his hands gripped my hips and dragged me down deeper, eliciting a moan. The tattoos on his chest blended with the blood still coating us, making his already sinister-looking torso that much wickeder. I ran my hands across the hard planes of his shoulders and arms as I began to ride him, finding a rhythm that dragged me all the way off before dropping down again, and he cursed low as I worked him harder and faster.
Within moments, I was close to coming, my thighs soaked from watching him work and our earlier encounter in the lift. Ruslan would do anything for me – torture, kill, burn. There was nothing I could ask of him that he wouldn’t do or wouldn’t give, and instead of binding me to him through force, he had given me the space I needed to work out my feelings, even though it sent his anxiety over the edge to do so.
And Kazimir could barely go five minutes without insisting I owed him in some way or insinuating that he owned me.
The cacophony of our heavy breathing and slapping skin filled the cave where I had been chained, and as my walls began to flutter, I ground myself deeper onto Ruslan’s cock. “That’s it, sprite, come for me.”
The most intense orgasm of my life speared through me, shattering everything I thought I knew and replacing it with a high that rivaled the peak of Vasvain. “I love you, Ruslan. You are my mate. My one and only. I choose you.”
The roar that Ruslan released shook the cave with its ferocity, sending stones skittering and the firelights flickering. His hips pistoned into mine, and his hot cum filled me as he snarled. “I love you, Izidora. You are my mate. The fire in our souls belongs together, in this life and in all the rest.”
And with those spoken words, we were joined in every way. Pain seared the skin between my shoulder blades, causing my back to arch forward. A strangled cry ripped from me, and then I was coming again, the pleasure of Ruslan throbbing inside me mixing with the sharp sting on my back. I panted through the wave of release, sweat dripping from me and onto my mate as our bond settled into place.
It was unlike anything I’d ever imagined, anything I’d experienced before. I thought I loved Ruslan five minutes before, but compared to what I felt as the bond settled in place, it was infinitesimally small. This feeling was infinite, pure, true, unconditional, and I radiated for the depths of it. No words could accurately paint the picture of this blissful feeling, but I found none were necessary between Ruslan and me – not anymore. Not when his heart beat for me, and mine for him.
“You have given me the greatest gift of all. This feeling… it is indescribable. I imagined what it would be like countless times, but this, this is more than I could have dreamed. You are my angel, my sprite, and now my life.”
Tears pricked my eyes as I felt the truth of his words. “Will your mark be covered by your tattoos?”
“No. I left a special place free just for this moment,” he smirked. The moment he pushed my hips off of him, I ached for his closeness, not wanting to be separated, not yet anyway. I was still relishing this incredible feeling of boundless certainty and contentment.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“How did you know?”
“There are no barriers between us anymore. We are one.”
His eyes glittered as he turned around to show me his back. There, just between his shoulder blades, was the outline of a perfect circle. I touched it with the devotion such a powerful mark deserved, and the one on my back tingled in tune.
The smile over his shoulder was devastating. “Let me see yours.”
We switched positions, and I bared my back to him. His fingers traced the outline, sending another shudder through my body. Then his lips brushed the very center of the circle, the touch sending heat straight to my core. “You are exquisite, my mate,” he purred. “I can’t wait to make you my wife.” He pulled me onto his lap, holding me against his chest like I was the most precious of gemstones. “I love you.”
“And I love you,” I whispered back. We remained locked in that embrace until the air became too cold to bear, and a body-wide shiver from me finally caused Ruslan to stir.
“I need to fuck you again, but this time I want to be clean while doing it.” He scooped me in his arms, leaving the bloodied tools and bodies behind, along with our clothes, and carried me toward the lift that had been hidden deep in the Agrenak Mountains the entire time I’d been chained in that cave.
I swung my feet in time with his steps, a wide smile plastered on my face as I walked my fingers across my mate’s muscled torso. “I don’t think we’ll stay clean for long, not with the way I want you to take me.”
Ruslan groaned, the sound slipping from low in his chest. “Fuck, sprite, when you say things like that…”
“What?” I teased, my fingers stopping just above his pounding heart. “I didn’t even tell you how my pussy clenched when you killed them for me.”
“Izidora,” he growled, a warning in his tone, and his whole body went tense beneath me.
It made my blood sing in the best way. I wasn’t quite ready to step out of the dark, not when it felt so damn good to slip into it with Ruslan.
“Take me home,” I said, breathless, and our fresh mating bond hummed with excitement.
Ruslan wasted no time, beginning to chant under his breath, the words foreign yet familiar, and I knew he meant to take us to Roc Palace – the home he built for us, where no other female had set foot. The cart, our clothes, all was forgotten when getting as close as possible to one another was an all-consuming thought. Within moments, we were standing in the center of our suite’s bathroom, the giant shower flowing with natural hot spring water from the mountains beckoning us to wash away the gore and grime.
“How did that not drain all of your magic?” I asked, blinking up at him.
A secretive smirk pulled up the corners of his mouth. “Because I am the most powerful Félvér in all of Északi.”
“You were holding out on me,” I protested with a wry grin.
“You are not the only one with hidden thorns, sprite,” he teased, carrying me toward the waiting shower. Ruslan could scarcely stand to put me down, and the entire time he spun the handles to release the flow of natural thermal water, his intense gaze pinned me in place. The moment steam rolled in our direction, he snatched my waist and directed me under the spray, sending a cascade of giggles from my chest. The world fell away with each brush of skin on skin, with each swipe of tongue against tongue, until we were infinite in that moment.
Nothing and no one would separate us now that we were one.
Now that Ruslan was my mate.
24
Béke Day Six
Iawoke with my mate in my arms.
She had accepted the bond.
I still could not believe it, but there it was, a solidified thread that was so potent I could feel its each and every shift between us as we dozed in our bed at Roc Palace, hidden away from the world. The first hints of light peeked through the heavy black curtains, and an idea formed in my head – one that I could not wait to carry out. Even though we had only gone to bed an hour before, I had to wake Izidora.
“Sprite,” I murmured in her ear, planting a gentle kiss on her still-damp hair.
She grumbled incoherently for a moment before releasing a long sigh.
“I have somewhere I want to take you.”
A yawn nearly unhinged her jaw, and she blinked blearily at me through the fog of sleep. “Where?” Her voice was thick and hoarse from how I’d made her scream my name over and over the night before.
“You’ll see. Get dressed, and we can take a nap when we get back,” I promised, running a finger along her bare shoulder.
“Ugh,” she moaned, reaching her arms overhead and stretching like a lazy cat before bringing her balled-up fists to her eyes and rubbing.
I stroked her long locks one last time before throwing the covers back, earning my usual string of curses as I exposed her to the cold. Rushing to the closet, I threw clothes her way, and she dutifully pulled them on beneath the righted covers before slipping from the pile of blankets.
Before she got far, I wrapped her in my arms and uttered the spell that would bend space to move us to the shop of my favorite jeweler. He sourced the purest stones from the mines buried deep in the mountains of the Iron Realm, and no one could match his skill in crafting the finest jewelry from them.
The shop was among dozens of others in the lavish part of Radence, where the richest of Iron Fae and Félvér lived and purchased their necessities. Each storefront gleamed as if it had been recently polished, and not a hint of ice coated the stone beneath our feet, already cleared for the patrons that would not arrive for hours.
“I never got you another ring after the one–” My teeth clenched around the words, as guilt and shame rendered me voiceless and unable to finish the sentence.
But my mate was more than aware, and I felt her concern and forgiveness down our bond. She spun in my arms, chestnut hair spilling down her back as she tipped her head up to look at me. Our gazes collided with the force of an avalanche, and I saw the truth of the words she whispered in my mind in her shining eyes.
“I am so glad you allowed me the space to make my decision. That was what ultimately led me back to you. You have never truly trapped me, not since the first day.”
“You are too fiery to trap. I could never have broken your spirit. It would have killed me to do so.” My words held as much truth as hers, for I didn’t know the meaning of love before she burst into my life with the ferocity of a wildfire, sucking all the oxygen from my lungs in her inferno. After seeing her shine so bright as she fought with me, still wearing that glamorous gold dress, I knew, deep down, that there was nothing that would please me more than watching her help me burn the world down and rebuild it anew.
I guided her to the lacquered red door of the shop, then rapped sharply on it, waiting patiently for my jeweler to appear. The male, still dressed for sleep, opened it with a huff.
“Ah, King Ruslan, please come in,” the male bowed, his irritation melting away as he held the door wide for us to enter.
“Thank you for waking so early, Ambros,” I greeted him, gesturing for Izidora to walk in front of me. Her jewel-like eyes went wide as we entered the male’s cave of glittering gems.
“Anything for my best customer,” he chuckled. “Now, what can I get you today?”
“Another ring for my mate.” A smile tugged at my lips as she wandered to a shelf filled with deep red rubies. The entire shop was a veritable mine, with rough-hewn stone walls, wooden shelves holding gems of all colors, shapes, and sizes nestled in finely crafted settings. Ambros’s work was not gaudy and over the top, as many jewelers defaulted to with gems of these sizes; he preferred a more delicate touch that allowed the stones to shine through.
Ambros winked at me. “Are you certain she does not have Dragon blood?”
“I must be rubbing off on her.” I couldn’t contain the joy that sparked through me, and my usual ruthless, cold countenance was nowhere to be found as I leaned casually against the counter, crossing my arms and waiting.
Ambros joined my mate in perusing the shelves of wares until she held a small fortune’s worth in her hands. Watching her eyes light up as he explained the properties of each stone was worth every piece of gold it would cost me. I was lost in my adoration of her, and it wasn’t until she nudged my mind that I focused on the words she spoke.
“I can’t decide which one I like best. Can I have them all?” Her laugh shone brighter than all the stones in this shop.
I feigned chest pains as I gaped at the pile in front of her, but then I grinned, “Anything for my sprite.”
On tiptoes, she kissed my cheek, and Ambros set to work, Izidora watching in fascination as he manipulated stones and metal with magic, weaving and binding and bracing them together until seven rings lay on a purple velvet cloth in front of him.
I selected a rectangular ruby surrounded by a halo of pointed diamonds and slid it onto my mate’s finger. “This is my favorite.”
“Then I will always wear this one.” She beamed up at me and I captured her mouth with mine, inhaling her rosy scent, laced with a hint of plum. Her lips were soft and pliant against mine, and we melted together like it was more natural than breathing.
There was no way I could love anyone else as I loved her.
Ambros cleared his throat, interrupting our moment. Glancing up from my mate’s flushed cheeks, I fished out a bag of gold for my favorite jeweler, and then he handed me a velvet-lined case holding all of Izidora’s new rings. “Come back soon with your mate, King Ruslan. She has good taste.”
“Expensive taste, too.” I winked at her, and she rolled her aquamarine eyes, though she didn’t bother denying it.
“See you soon, Ambros,” Izidora threw over her shoulder as I tugged her along behind me. His chuckles followed us into the frigid morning air, and once we’d cleared the door, I pulled her flush, my hands all over her body, needing more of her, needing her closer. The fresh mating bond called for me to fuck her into oblivion, to erase every other male from her mind.
