Blood of Two Crowns (Hallowed Fates #2)

Chapter 56

Chapter

Fifty-Six

MAREINA

T he scent of burning ambers and sea salt filled my nose, jolting me awake. Malekai. My eyes burst open to find Nakoa pulling his clothes off before climbing back into bed.

“You visited him.”

Nakoa gave me a silent nod, as he lifted the covers and slid in beside me and tugged me against his chest. Love, relief, and comfort washed over me as I buried my face between the twin boulders of his pectorals. And fuck if it wasn’t one of the most beautiful things I’d ever experienced.

All that was missing was Malekai… and Ataraxus.

I inhaled, drawing in Nakoa and Malekai’s scents as deeply as I could, sending a flare of arousal through me.

“How was he?”

Nakoa chuckled against me, drawing my gaze to his.

“Hallucinating.”

“What?”

“Lathrimos showed up. Gave him something called dendrata zou pollen.”

My consciousness, tied to this realm and everything within it, helpfully provided an explanation. Realization and hope blossomed within my mind. “He’s trying to help him shift back.”

“He mentioned something about karmic clearing and reincarnating.”

Pain lanced through my heart at the idea. Selfishly.

If Malekai reincarnated…

“It could be… Hundreds of years, potentially thousands before he returns if he chose to reincarnate.”

An even more painful and selfish realization hit me like a fucking boulder.

“And he might meet his soulbound.”

My hands trembled as I gripped Nakoa’s arms, and he squeezed me tighter against him.

“I don’t know that he has a soulbound outside of you. And me. And Ataraxus.”

I drew in a deep breath, trying to calm myself as I lifted my eyes to Nakoa’s.“What do you mean?”

Nakoa’s hand came up to caress my cheek. The action effectively soothed my tremors.

“Lathrimos said that I’m bound to him as well now. Since we fulfilled our bond... He wasn’t able to explain it, but he said he saw a tether connecting me to Malekai.”

My shock must have been blatant because another chuckle rumbled beneath my hands from his chest. A thousand questions rose in my mind, and I had no idea where to begin.

Nakoa’s thumb coasted over my parted lips.

“I love you, lohane thili. In this life and every life to come.”

A wellspring of emotion swelled in my breast. Again, he’d spoken the exact words that Malekai used to tell me. My brows drew together in confusion as my emotion swelled, and fuck, if I wasn’t exhausted from weeping.

“ Malekai and I used to say that to each other.”

Nakoa leaned in and kissed the saline from my cheeks, murmuring against them. “I suppose it’s all Kismet then.”

His breath stole my words as my mind harkened back to Ataraxus’ words. “This is Kismet, Mareina…”

My love for Nakoa swelled in my chest even as a part of me longed for both Malekai and Ataraxus. I slotted my mouth against his, tongue seeking. His cock was already hard, pinned between us. I curled one of my legs over his hips and thrust towards him, aligning his length with my entrance, dripping with need. Nakoa groaned against my mouth, carding his fingers through my hair, fisting a handful of it at the back of my head. “Fuck, maha loha. You’re soaked.”

My pussy clenched as I took him in shallow, teasing thrusts that squeezed against him. Nakoa allowed this for all of a few seconds before he pushed me onto my back, gripping my thighs and spreading them wide beneath him as he slowly thrust into me in deep, steady strokes. Sucking on his cheeks, he allowed a ball of spit to drop from his mouth to my clit, circling it with his thumb.

I was already so primed for him that it was the work of a moment before my pussy began to spasm around him. His name was a breathless moan on my lips.

“That’s it, lohane thili.”

My back arched, and my eyes squeezed shut with overwhelm. “Gods, Nakoa, yes.”

“Eyes on me, Mareina.”

My orgasm reached its peak as my gaze returned to his. The tightness in my body slackened as waves of tingling energy washed through me like a cleansing tide. My heart, and our tether, pulsing as if with aftershock.

Nakoa’s strokes turned hard and demanding as he fisted my hair to bare my neck to him. He inhaled deeply, and I felt his cock harden further. “Look how your body sings for me, lohane thili. There’s no part of you that doesn’t belong to me.”

The wet heat of his tongue licked a stripe up the column of my neck before his fangs sank in. Time seemed to slow as something passed between our tether, and that sensation of being unable to discern where I ended and he began returned. It seemed impossible for our souls to twine further together than they already had, but the feeling was unmistakable.

When my orgasm receded, Nakoa’s fangs withdrew, and he sat back on his heels. His gaze passing over me as he continued to thrust inside of me was a tangible heat through which I felt his reverence and love.

Nakoa bit into the flesh of his forearm and held the trickling wound over where we were joined. “There is nothing more perfect than the sight of you taking my cock and my blood.”

His words, as deranged as some may find them, had my love and arousal soaring for him. My fangs lengthened, and without needing to be told, he braced arms beneath me—no fucks given for the blood staining our white sheets—and pulled me against his chest.

I titled my hips to counter his thrusts. My words were little more than a breathless whisper. “Akash, you’re so perfect for me…”

His strokes slowed as he bared his throat to me the moment his cock began to pulse, filling me in hot spurts. I whispered against his throat before sliding my fangs into the corded muscle at the top of his shoulder.

“I love you in this life and every life to come.”

“In this life and every life to come, lohane thili.”