I can barely wrap my mind around it.
There’s still the matter of the male warriors, the men who are still missing. And then there are the female captives, like Aetherial, who are recovering from their ordeal. Captives who have all complained of a darkness that still lingers within them.
Nothing’s solved.
I touch my hand to one of the coffin lids, my claw tips clicking against the glass. “Wake up,” I whisper, glamour slipping into my voice.
If the sleeping women hear, they don’t obey.
I even wait for the sound of wraith-like voices to rise around me, just as they had before.
But all is silent. All is still.
Smoke and shadows wrap around my arms. A moment later, they coalesce into hands.
“Cherub,” Des whispers into my ear, squeezing my arms gently.
At his voice, my wings stir, brushing themselves against his chest.
I shouldn’t be surprised that he found me. He’s the Bargainer, Lord of Secrets, Master of Shadows, and King of the Night.
He touches my jaw, turning my face.
I close my eyes and swallow. It feels good to have the Bargainer touch me like this, despite the fact that Karnon did the same thing, day after day. Because with Des, it’s different. It always has been. It always will be.
“I woke and you were gone,” he says.
I understand what he doesn’t say. That he feared he lost me all over again.
“I had to see them.” The words are barely audible.
I had to see the women that were less fortunate than me. The ones who were unable, even after Karnon’s death, to escape his clutches.
My eyes scan the room, my chest tight at the sight. Had I not been human, I could’ve been among them, my body laid out amongst all the others. My lungs not breathing, my heart not beating, my body not alive.
But not dead either.
Suspended somewhere between the two. Waiting.
He’s coming for you.
Goosebumps break out across my skin.
“It’s not over,” I whisper. I can feel it in my bones. We’d simply fired the first shot.
“Let our enemies come,” Des says, his silky voice lethal. “They have a reckoning waiting at the end of my blade—and my siren’s vengeance to deal with.”
I turn to face Des, his white blond hair swept back beneath his crown. His tattoos and war cuffs are hidden under his fitted fae attire, but even without them showing, he is so obviously a dangerous thing, with his glittering eyes and hulking wings, which have been out almost constantly since the night he killed Karnon.
He cups the side of my face. “Let our enemies come, and I will kill them all. So long as you’re at my side, cherub, I have something to fight for.”
This is perhaps the most amazing mystery of all in the aftermath of Karnon’s death. My physical changes haven’t dimmed what Des feels for me. He actually seems quite … fond of the changes. And every time he looks at my wings, my claws, my scales with adoration, I tolerate them a little more. And I fall for my mate over and over again.
This man who’s saved me so many times, who’s pulled me from my own tormented darkness into his. This man who waited seven years for me. This man who, against all reason and odds, is my mate.
I lean in and brush a kiss along his lips. “I’ll be at your side,” I promise, “till darkness dies.”
There’s still the matter of the male warriors, the men who are still missing. And then there are the female captives, like Aetherial, who are recovering from their ordeal. Captives who have all complained of a darkness that still lingers within them.
Nothing’s solved.
I touch my hand to one of the coffin lids, my claw tips clicking against the glass. “Wake up,” I whisper, glamour slipping into my voice.
If the sleeping women hear, they don’t obey.
I even wait for the sound of wraith-like voices to rise around me, just as they had before.
But all is silent. All is still.
Smoke and shadows wrap around my arms. A moment later, they coalesce into hands.
“Cherub,” Des whispers into my ear, squeezing my arms gently.
At his voice, my wings stir, brushing themselves against his chest.
I shouldn’t be surprised that he found me. He’s the Bargainer, Lord of Secrets, Master of Shadows, and King of the Night.
He touches my jaw, turning my face.
I close my eyes and swallow. It feels good to have the Bargainer touch me like this, despite the fact that Karnon did the same thing, day after day. Because with Des, it’s different. It always has been. It always will be.
“I woke and you were gone,” he says.
I understand what he doesn’t say. That he feared he lost me all over again.
“I had to see them.” The words are barely audible.
I had to see the women that were less fortunate than me. The ones who were unable, even after Karnon’s death, to escape his clutches.
My eyes scan the room, my chest tight at the sight. Had I not been human, I could’ve been among them, my body laid out amongst all the others. My lungs not breathing, my heart not beating, my body not alive.
But not dead either.
Suspended somewhere between the two. Waiting.
He’s coming for you.
Goosebumps break out across my skin.
“It’s not over,” I whisper. I can feel it in my bones. We’d simply fired the first shot.
“Let our enemies come,” Des says, his silky voice lethal. “They have a reckoning waiting at the end of my blade—and my siren’s vengeance to deal with.”
I turn to face Des, his white blond hair swept back beneath his crown. His tattoos and war cuffs are hidden under his fitted fae attire, but even without them showing, he is so obviously a dangerous thing, with his glittering eyes and hulking wings, which have been out almost constantly since the night he killed Karnon.
He cups the side of my face. “Let our enemies come, and I will kill them all. So long as you’re at my side, cherub, I have something to fight for.”
This is perhaps the most amazing mystery of all in the aftermath of Karnon’s death. My physical changes haven’t dimmed what Des feels for me. He actually seems quite … fond of the changes. And every time he looks at my wings, my claws, my scales with adoration, I tolerate them a little more. And I fall for my mate over and over again.
This man who’s saved me so many times, who’s pulled me from my own tormented darkness into his. This man who waited seven years for me. This man who, against all reason and odds, is my mate.
I lean in and brush a kiss along his lips. “I’ll be at your side,” I promise, “till darkness dies.”
