All the Sacrifice of Shadows (Starstorm #2)

Chapter 27

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

C reslyn ran, and the shadows moved with her.

Never before in her life had she been more grateful for choosing to wear boots over ridiculous heels. Puddles splashed at her feet, drenching the hem of her gown, weighting the heavy fabric as she tried to navigate her way back to Castle Brackroth. Her heart hammered as she darted down a series of winding streets, retracing her steps. The cold drizzle of rain had turned into a steady downpour now, making it nearly impossible to see through the curtains of mist, and she was certain she’d lost her way more than once. Darkness flooded her vision in smears of gray with each step, Drake’s power disguising her fleeing form from the naked eye. The hood of her cloak slipped and in seconds her hair was soaked, plastered against her face as icy rain drops slid down her neck and shoulders, chilling her. But she did not stop running.

She’d been exceedingly careful, but Drake had caught her spying upon him.

And he was most displeased.

Her muscles spasmed, her lungs screamed for her to stop, to catch her breath, but she only pushed herself harder.

Before Creslyn, the road lined with closed shops and storefronts split, and neither path looked as though it would guide her back to the castle. It wouldn’t matter which direction she took, Drake would follow the tug of the bond.

He would find her.

She shoved her wet hair back from her face and sprinted toward an alley laced in shadows and murky light from a low-hanging lantern.

She didn’t know why she’d so foolishly decided to follow him.

The lie haunted her.

Creslyn had followed him because she knew there was good in him. A shred of light. And she’d seen it, right before he’d killed that poor, unsuspecting merchant. Drake had hesitated. She’d seen the mask of guilt he’d worn, the way regret harbored in the lines of his handsome face. He had not wanted to take that man’s life, but he’d been bound to do so. By Marius.

Pressing her back against the rough stone of a building, Creslyn sucked in a greedy gulp of air.

She would ensure the king paid dearly for binding Drake to that damning Shadowblade.

Creslyn blew out a breath, gathered the hem of her soiled skirts, and rushed out of the alley, only to barrel headfirst into a wall that hadn’t been there before.

Not a wall, a chest.

The familiar scent of frigid mountains, frosted pine, and the promise of snow slammed into her, surrounding her.

Drake.

She peered up at him through damp lashes, his predatory frame towering over her. Beads of rainwater slid from the tips of dark hair slashing across his face. His full mouth was set in a firm line, and she found herself unable to look away from the deep green of his menacing gaze. Those forbidden forest eyes of his drew her in, entranced her, and the look on his face—cruel and wicked yet eerily calm—caused even her bones to shiver. He rolled his neck, his leathers glinting like liquid obsidian in the faint light, and then he cracked each of his knuckles. One at a time.

“Creslyn.” He stepped forward, crowding her, and she instantly stepped away from him. “You are not where I left you.”

“No, I am not.” She locked her spine into place, willing herself to stand her ground against his threatening demeanor. Jerking her chin upward in a show of obstinance, she rolled her shoulders back, refusing to cower. “But I stayed in the shadows, exactly as I promised. I just…I followed you.”

He clicked his tongue. “Apparently.”

Creslyn searched his face, but it was impossible to read his emotions. He was too controlled, too collected. She could not discern if it was anger he felt toward her, or disappointment, or something else altogether. But the way he moved with casual indifference and the way he spoke with measured composure left her unsettled. Her nerves frayed. The beating of her heart spiked. And her throat ran dry.

She took another small step backward, but he matched it easily, closing the distance between them once more.

“ Why are you not where I left you?” he asked, the rumble of his voice like that of a storm brewing on the horizon.

She swallowed, her boots sloshing through puddles as she gradually retreated from him, until the cold press of stone met her backside and the icy fingers of fear played along her neck. “I followed you.”

Drake moved closer, until he took up every breath of space. There was no warmth in his gaze, no humor in his expression. “You said that already.”

Creslyn’s chest tightened, and she fisted her hands by her sides. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Like what?” he mused, scraping his teeth along his bottom lip. His hand was around her throat in the next moment, his grip loose yet firm, one thumb gliding back and forth across her skittering pulse. “Like I want to kill you?”

“Drake, that is quite enough.” Anger clouded her vision, and she glared up at him. She grabbed his solid forearm with both hands, attempting to pry him off of her, but he was granite and her touch was sand. “You are frightening me.”

“Good,” he purred, intimidation dripping from his tone. “Maybe then you will listen.”

“Enough!” Creslyn shouted, releasing him and throwing her arms out wide. “Stop this at once.”

Her magic flared, and beams of sunlight and fractured rainbows sparked from the tips of her fingers, sizzling against the heavy fall of rain. It welled inside of her, flowed through her veins, churning in preparation.

His shadows emerged in response, streaks of impenetrable darkness tangled with the glowing shafts of light, each one trying to devour the other.

“I warned you, solysa .” Drake’s chest heaved and he expelled a harsh breath. His jaw popped. “I told you that if I caught you, then you would regret it.”

She steeled her spine, the uneven stone biting into her back. “I am growing rather tired of your threats.”

“I do not make threats.” His voice was low, pulsing with untethered violence. “I merely keep promises.”

“Then prove it,” she snapped, grabbing a fistful of his leather vest, so the power pouring from her singed the supple fabric. “Cut out my tongue, just as you promised. Make me regret following you tonight. If indeed this is how it’s to be between us, then show me now what I am to deal with for the rest of my life. Show me the man who finds it amusing to terrorize his wife.”

Drake flinched against her verbal assault. His shadows magnified, swallowing the iridescent prisms splintering around them. “You broke your word.”

By the stars, for being absolutely brilliant, he was exceptionally dense and intolerable.

Creslyn grit her teeth. “I was worried about you.”

He tilted his head, cocking a brow in feigned amusement. “I fail to see why.”

“Because I love you!” The words fell from her in a burst of frustration, and that singular emotion, the one she tried to ignore for so long, swelled inside of her heart.

Drake stared at her. He did not move, nor did he speak. His grip around her throat tightened, not enough to hurt, but the tension in his touch revealed his bewilderment. He flexed his hand once and his hold on her eased.

“When I am with you, I feel safe. When I look in your eyes, I find strength. You are my anchor in the turbulent sea of my own fear, the rock which keeps me grounded when I am too high in the clouds. And I know you will never say those words back to me, just as I know in time I will make peace with that, but I…” Her whisper fell softly into the space between them. “I love you.”

Slowly, Drake’s hand slid from her neck to her shoulder, setting her skin on fire beneath her drenched gown and cape. He grabbed her hips with both hands, his fingers digging into her as he jerked her forward, ensuring she felt the hard press of his growing erection.

“What I feel for you goes beyond the depths of love.” His voice was a scrape against her cheek. Harsh and grating. “You are correct, I will never say those words, because they will never in the span of eternity describe my feelings for you. I will burn worlds for you, I will shroud them in darkness and leave them in a rubble of despair. I will strike down every one of your enemies and defend you until my dying breath. I will sacrifice all of my shadows, my soul, all of it, for you. My sjellhert. ”

Then his voice wrapped around her mind like a scrap of velvet. “Soul heart.”

“Love,” Drake spat the word out, dragging her against him so the warmth of his breath fanned her mouth, “will never be enough for us.”

He hoisted her up, and she locked her arms around his neck, wrapping her legs around his waist, practically climbing up the length of his hard body like a tree. Their lips met in a messy, angry, rain-soaked kiss. Tongues clashed, a swirl of heat and tempered frustration as teeth scraped and bit and tugged. She twisted her fingers through his slick hair, tearing her mouth away to glide her tongue along his neck, catching raindrops as they slid down his skin. He tasted of midnight trysts during a thunderstorm, bodies tangled in cold silk, every illicit desire imaginable.

Creslyn licked a trail up to his ear, the steam of her breath mixing with the frozen, pelting rain.

Drake pitched forward, crushing her between the wall and the broad expanse of his chest. His nose grazed the side of her cheek, and he whispered, “I’ve decided I’m rather fond of your tongue.”

“Good.” She arched her hips forward, grinding against him. “Because I would very much like to keep it.”

His shadows thickened, swirling like spires of inky smoke. They coiled around her like tendrils of the night, pinning her to the crumbling stone as Drake shoved her sodden skirts up her legs for better access.

“So many layers,” he muttered. “Why are there so many?—”

His mouth parted slightly, and he cupped her calves with both hands, running his palms up and down the supple leather of her boots.

She’d chosen them to stay warm and dry, not caring if they did not match the velvet gown she wore. The black leather was soft, and the boots rose all the way to the middle of her thighs and were studded with tiny gold beads along the back seams.

“These boots are…quite the statement.” He nudged her skirts higher, following the rise of leather until the flesh of her thighs and more was exposed to him.

“Are they?” She squirmed beneath his intent assessment, watching as his dark eyes shifted from brewing anger to feral hunger. His shadows tightened their grip, anchoring her. They snatched her arms, lifting them over her head, and she linked her ankles together, digging her heels into Drake’s lower back. “I hadn’t noticed.”

He traced the top cuff of her boots with his fingers, gradually inching them higher toward her center, and when his knuckles brushed against her most sensitive flesh, she almost came undone.

“You’re looking a little wet, solysa .” Drake reached between them, and her teeth sank into her bottom lip as he slowly unbuttoned his pants. “Is there something you require?”

Creslyn arched against the wall, pleading with him to take her.

He chuckled, a low rumble that speared her with desire. His rough palms settled beneath her bottom, gripping her firmly as he aligned the tip of his shaft to her core, teasing her.

“So wanton,” he murmured. “So needy.”

She bared her teeth. “I swear to the stars, if you don’t?—”

Drake lifted his chin with a devastating smirk and shoved deep inside of her, filling her, the shadows encircling him sending bursts of pleasure from her toes to the tips of her fingers. Her head fell back against the stone wall as he speared her slick heat.

“If I don’t, what ?”

Creslyn gasped, clawing at only air as the shadows binding her wrists held her tight, and Drake drove into her, each thrust fierce and punishing.

“Don’t,” she panted, her head falling back. “Stop.”

“That’s what I thought.” His palms molded to her bottom, squeezing so there would be bruises left in their wake.

He kissed her again, roughly, and she welcomed the aggression, snagging his bottom lip with her teeth. He groaned into her mouth and her tongue darted out, swiping at the bead of blood she’d drawn. Icy rain pelted her, but it wasn’t enough to cool the smoldering heat between them. The bond throbbed, pounding in time to the erratic beating of their hearts. Swaths of shadows consumed the radiant beams of sunlight, and vibrant shards of rainbows pierced the all-encompassing night as their magic tore at one another in a display of wicked power.

Creslyn ignored the vicious sting of coarse stone against her shoulders, focusing instead on the delicious feel of Drake’s length, how the ribs of darkness pulsed inside of her, causing her to clench and him to swell until she forgot her own name.

“Ever since the first moment I saw you,” Drake growled, his voice hoarse. “I have wanted this. I have wanted to ruin you. To watch you come undone in my arms. Over and over.”

“Drake,” she pleaded, her breath hitching as he edged her closer to release.

“Shatter for me, Creslyn.” He surged into her, covering her cries of pleasure with his mouth, only pulling away for a second to whisper, “Shatter.”

And Creslyn came apart in his arms.