Out of everything I’d expected him to say, that wasn’t even on the list. “What do you mean?” I angled my body toward his. “Because when I saw you at my lake, you acted surprised to see me there.”
“I was surprised to see you there.” He looked down at me. “Out of the many times that I had been there, you never came.”
“But you knew it was my lake before that night?” “I did.”
My brows raised. “I’m going to need a little bit more explanation here.”
He was quiet for a moment. “Before my father died, he told me about the deal he made with your ancestor. He didn’t tell me why, but I think I would’ve known even if he hadn’t told me.”
“Because of how the Shadowlands changed?”
Nyktos shook his head. “That’s what I thought it was until I learned about the embers. I felt you—or at least the ember that belonged to me.” He tilted his head as he dragged his fangs over his lower lip. “I had Lathan and Ector watching over you after your seventeenth birthday, and as you grew older, but I…I checked in on you before that. I was curious about you.” His eyes met mine. “I’d seen you go through the woods. Saw you sit by the lake. I never lingered too long, so I didn’t ever see you do more than put your feet in the water, but I knew you went there.”
“I had no idea,” I murmured, surprised. “I really need to be more observant.”
Nyktos shot me a wry grin.
“Why didn’t you talk to me?” I asked.
“Why?” He laughed roughly, running a hand over his head. “Because even though I may be the youngest Primal—younger than even most gods
—you were a child, and I was a fully grown man by mortal standards. You have to know that you would’ve likely been disturbed by a random male approaching you in the woods.”
I thought about that. “Actually, yeah, that would’ve been really creepy.” “Exactly.”
“But watching me walk through the woods is somehow not creepy?” I crossed my arms.
His attention shifted back to the pool. “I think it was borderline creepy.”
A quiet laugh left me. “I’m messing with you. If I were you, I would’ve been curious, too. Except I probably would’ve been creepy and spoken to you.”
Nyktos smiled at that.
“But that doesn’t really answer why it being my lake mattered when you had this.” I nodded at the pool. “Coming here has to be far easier than entering the mortal realm, even if you can do the shadowstepping thing.”
“I don’t know. The lake is different, and I…” He frowned, scratching his jaw. “I just felt drawn to it. Drawn to you.”
“Because of the ember?”
“Maybe.” He cleared his throat. “Anyway, I’d been meaning to show you this because I know you like water, but if I’d shown you this earlier, then I would have had to…”
He’d have had to explain why he’d created such a thing. His visits to my lake. Seeing me. And he hadn’t been ready. I glanced back at the pool. Plus, I had a feeling that this place was a sanctuary for him, even if others used it. Just as my lake had been for me. Sharing this was something else he hadn’t been ready to do.
Until now.
I inhaled deeply, awed and…moved.
Nyktos faced me. “Showing you this pool wasn’t the only reason I brought you here. Remember when I said there were ways we could draw the eather out of you again?”
Every part of me zeroed in on that as I filed what he’d shared away to think about later. “Yes.”
“I figured we could try that this morning. And this is a place very few other than I will venture. So, there should be no risk of anyone else seeing exactly what you’re capable of or inadvertently getting caught in the crossfire.”
Excitement buzzed through me, as did a small bit of trepidation. “Are you sure I can’t hurt you?”
He nodded. “It takes a bit more than a blast of eather to hurt a Primal.” “But I did.”
“It was just a sting.”
“It turned your skin cold again.”
“It was an icy sting,” he amended. “You’re not going to hurt me, Sera. We don’t even know if you will have such an outburst again.” His eyes glimmered. “But if you behave yourself, then maybe you can go for a swim.”
“If I behave myself?” My brows shot up as I ignored the happy thrill I felt at the prospect. “Like some sort of child you’ve creepily watched walking through the woods?”
“Yes.” His lips twitched. “Did that make you feel like you could call on the essence?”
“No, but it made me feel like I should punch you.” My eyes narrowed on him. “Did you just try to goad me into using the eather?”
“I did.”
I laughed. “Oh, you’re going to have to do better than that. It takes a lot to anger me.”
“I want you to repeat what you just said and ask yourself if that’s the truth,” he replied.
My lips pursed. “Let me rephrase. It takes a lot to make me that angry. I have way more control than you realize.”
I’d expected some kind of—rightfully—sarcastic response, but there was none. Nyktos eyed me for a few moments. “Let me see your dagger.”
“How do you know I have it?”
“You always have it, Sera. Hand it over.” He paused, extending his hand. “Please.”
“I hate it when you say please,” I grumbled, bending over and reaching inside the shaft of my boot. I slid the dagger out, straightening.
“What a strange thing to hate.”
I placed it, hilt first, onto his palm. “Yeah, you’d think.” “Thank you.” Nyktos turned sharply, throwing the dagger.
My mouth dropped open as it flew through the air, striking the wall above the table with such force that the handle vibrated. “What the hell?” My head whipped toward him. “Now, you’re just annoying me.”
Nyktos smiled, and that, too, was annoying. “Right now, the essence is tied to extreme emotions. It’ll be different once you Ascend, but before
then, it can manifest when you’re very angry or frustrated. Extreme grief. Pain.” He began to circle me as he’d done in the courtyard. “I have a feeling if I best you in fighting, you’ll get pretty frustrated.”
“And that’s why you threw my dagger into a wall?”
“I threw the dagger into the wall because I don’t want to get stabbed again, nor do I want you cutting off more of my hair.”
I opened my mouth.
“And don’t even tell me you wouldn’t stab me,” he said. “You would.” “You’re such a know-it-all,” I muttered, tracking him.
Nyktos smirked. “If we’re able to draw it out of you again, then we can move on to more controlled uses.”
“So, what are we going to do?” I crept closer to him. “Fight hand-to- hand until I get frustrated and use the embers?”
“I have a feeling we’re just going to tire you out before then, but that’s the plan.”
I lifted my right hand and extended my middle finger even as adrenaline surged through me. He was probably right, but I missed training. Fighting. “In case you don’t know what that means, go fuck yourself.”
Nyktos chuckled. “If you behave, maybe I’ll fuck you instead.”
A wholly inappropriate flush of heat went through me as I saw red. I went at him, swinging my arm—
Into nothing.
I stumbled into the empty space where he’d once stood, catching myself. I looked up.
He was several feet away. “You’re going to need to be quicker than that.”
Blowing out an already aggravated breath, I launched myself at him, kicking, but I hit nothing but air. I started to turn when I felt a faint brush across the center of my back. I spun, jabbing my elbow back. He’d shadowstepped several feet from me again.
“One day, I’m going to shadowstep my fist into your face,” I warned.
Nyktos laughed. “Does that mean you don’t actually plan to throw your life away then?”
Gritting my jaw, I stalked forward. I knew he was taunting me on purpose. He wanted me mad, and it was beginning to work. “You know what I think?”
it.
“Hmm?” Nyktos glanced down at his shirt, flicking a piece of lint from
“I think you keep shadowstepping because you know I will land a hit if
you stop doing it.”
“I know.” He winked. “But this is more fun.”
Nyktos blinked out of existence just as I swung, reappearing behind me. He continued that way for quite some time, and I started to sweat. I didn’t move when I felt him behind me, knowing he would shadowstep before I could respond.
“Tiring out already?” Nyktos asked. “A little,” I whispered.
There was a beat of silence. “It could be the Culling—”
I twisted, kicking out. I made contact this time, landing my boot in his stomach. Nyktos grunted as he staggered back. Bright eyes met mine. “Pure trickery.”
Grinning, I started for him, and this time when he disappeared, I knew where he was headed. I swung around, bringing my knee up. Nyktos blocked me.
He tsked under his breath. “You’ll never be fast enough.” He moved, ending up behind me. An arm came around my waist, spinning me out. “No matter how much you try.”
I caught myself, pushing the braid over my shoulder as my heart rate started to pick up. He shadowstepped in front of me instead of behind me as I’d expected—and caught my chin. The grip wasn’t painful at all. “I’m a Primal.”
“Congratulations,” I spat, the words sparking a memory that made the embers in my chest hum as I reached for him, but this time, he was near the pool’s edge.
This was what Taric had been doing, I realized. When I fought him in the throne room. Being reminded of that did piss me off. Because I’d been utterly helpless then. Fighting him had been pointless. I hadn’t been fast enough. Just like I wasn’t here. The crack in my chest hummed, the feeling becoming stronger and stronger as we continued, Nyktos taunting, and me being too slow. It happened over and over until my chest and skin felt like a fire.
Nyktos shadowstepped once more. Then he was behind me, his arms trapping mine before I could even take a breath.
“Godsdamn it,” I growled.
His chuckle was rough as he hauled me back against his hard chest. “Now, how would you get free from me? You can’t reach that dagger or any other weapon, even if you had them. What would you do?”
I strained against his hold, only succeeding in having him draw me closer. “Scream loudly?”
“No.”
“Beg?” I suggested, tensing as I felt his breath on the side of my neck. “There are very few things I would be interested in hearing you beg for,
and your life is not one of them,” he said. “I can feel the essence in you ramping up. It’s there. Charging the air. You can summon the eather. Will it to manifest into energy that can break my hold. You won’t hurt me.”
I had been able to feel it, too. Keyword being had. “I’m not worried about hurting you.”
His cool breath grazed the shell of my ear. “Then what’s stopping you?”
“Those few things you’re interested in hearing me beg for.” Nyktos went still behind me.
I grinned as I pressed my head back against his chest. I knew I should be focusing, but I couldn’t draw upon those embers even if I did feel their power. And now I was feeling impulsive.
And more than a little reckless.
“I bet I can guess at least one of those things,” I said.
There was a beat of silence. “And what would that be?”
“I don’t know if I should speak it.” I turned my head toward his. “It may be too bold.”
“There is not a single part of me that believes you’re worried about being too bold.”
“But you may find me speaking it to be…distracting.”
Nyktos’s hold on me shifted. He drew me onto the tips of my toes and over, just a few inches, and I felt hardness against my lower back. “I’m already distracted.”
I bit down on my lower lip as heat flooded my blood. “You may be
more distracted.”
“Tell me what you think I’d like to hear you beg for,” he ordered, his voice full of silk and shadows. “Or is it you who has become nothing more than talk?”
I laughed, the sound deep and throaty as I stretched as far as I could, bringing my mouth close to his. “Your cock,” I whispered, then I brought my foot down on his. Hard.
Nyktos grunted, likely more from surprise than pain, but his grip on me loosened. I broke free, twisting out of his embrace. Facing him, I backed across the packed soil and stone. “That’s how I’ll get free.”
Eather seeped into his eyes as that lush, full mouth tilted up at the corners. “Is that your grand battle plan when you have no access to weapons? Speak of cocks?”
“If it works, why not?” I eyed the thick ridge clearly visible in his leathers. “And it most definitely worked.”
“Perhaps a little too well.” “Is that so?”
Nyktos said nothing as he stalked toward me. The thrill of anticipation pumped hotly through me, mingling with the adrenaline. I waited until he was no more than a foot from me, and then I darted to my left, dipping under his arm. He spun, catching me, no longer shadowstepping.
He hauled me against him once more, my back to his front, one arm folded over my upper chest. “That was far too easy, Sera.” His other hand landed on my lower stomach, causing me to jump. “I don’t think you’re seriously trying to evade me.”
My breath caught as his hand slid down, over the laces running along the front of the leggings. “What do you think?”
I couldn’t think.
“I’d say it’s obvious.” His hand continued its downward path, slipping between my thighs. A sharp pulse of desire whipped through me. “You wanted to be caught.”
A ragged gasp left me as his fingers pressed against my center. “I don’t like being caught.” My hips twitched as his fingers began to move in tight circles. “Ever.”
He chuckled. “Liar.”
I was totally lying. I was also beginning to pant, and that had nothing to do with training. Shuddering, I gripped the forearm across my upper chest as his fingers continued rubbing me through my leggings. “Though being caught this way isn’t all that bad.” I swallowed a moan as his fingers pressed against the sensitive bundle of nerves. “Do all Primals fight this way?”
The sound Nyktos made against my back shouldn’t have excited me, but it did, and I grinned. I yanked on his forearm as I threw my leg back, curling it around his. I twisted hard, attempting to throw him off.
“Wrong move,” he growled, lifting me clear off my feet. He turned us toward the old stone table. “But I don’t think you tried very hard then, either.”
I gasped as he pressed me down until my stomach was flush with the table. My feet barely scraped the floor as I started to flip over, but he was suddenly on me, his chest against my back, and his legs twined with mine. He lodged his right forearm between my cheek and the stone, and all I could see was his bleached-white knuckles and my dagger, where it was still embedded in the wall above me.
I was trapped.
My fingers curled against the rough stone as I waited for the panic to hit me and for my chest to tighten. But when I dragged in a breath, all I could taste was citrus. All I could feel was Nyktos behind me, his chest rising and falling against my back, his breath teasing my cheek, and his hips pushed against my ass. Panic didn’t find me at all. A hot, shocking flood of desire did.
Nyktos’s chest rose sharply against my back. “You like it,” he said, sounding a bit awed—maybe shocked. But he also sounded very interested as he drew a hand to my hip. “You like it like this.”
I was trapped. Dominated. Vulnerable to his whims. And I…I more than just liked it. I felt damp desire hitting me, because it was his whims I was open to. It was he who was taking control.
“I can taste your desire.” Nyktos’s lips brushed my cheek. “Spicy. Smoky.” He growled as he pushed in with his hips. I shuddered at the feel of him. “I don’t even have to try to read you.”
My fingers trembled against the stone as that damn hand of his found its way between my thighs once more. I closed my eyes, jerking against his fingers. “I…I do.”
“Why?” There was curiosity in his tone, momentarily softening the granite-hard edge of lust in his voice. “Tell me.”
The breath I took was hard to get into my lungs, and it had everything to do with the way he touched me. “I…” I moaned as he teased. “I don’t know.”
“I think you do know.” His hand went to the laces of my leggings, finding the knot. There were a few short tugs, then the waist loosened—as did all of my muscles. “Or maybe I’m wrong, and you don’t know.” He slid his hand between the flaps of the leggings and beneath the undergarment. Then his fingers were pressing through the dampness, pressing into me. “But I am not wrong about you liking it like this.”
He most definitely wasn’t.
I whimpered as he eased his finger in. Then another. The way his legs were nestled between mine, I was open to him, and there was very little I could do with the weight of him holding me down. Another pulse of desire rolled through me.
“I like…” I moaned as his weight settled more fully against my back.
My legs squeezed his as I grasped the fisted hand resting on the table.
“Like what?” His voice was a heated whisper against my ear. “Being dominated?”
I gave a full-body shudder as tension curled wickedly in the pit of my stomach. “I like…submitting to you.”
“Fuck.” His body jerked with a ragged exhale. “You never submit to me.”
Turning my cheek, I opened my eyes, and his gaze immediately captured mine. “I’m submitting now.”
Eather bled into the veins in his cheeks as his fingers stilled inside me. “Is that what you want? Now? Like this?”
My cheeks warmed. “I think you can feel that it is.”
His fingers curled slightly inside me, dragging a sharp cry of pleasure from me. “I can.”
I swallowed. “I know I can let this happen,” I whispered, and I wasn’t even sure if he understood what I was saying. What I meant.
Nyktos stilled, then he thrust once, twice with his fingers, and then slipped them from me. “I think I understand.”
Did he? Did he understand that I wanted—no, that I needed control in my life? In the decisions I made, no matter how big or small? That I wouldn’t be dominated in conversation, nor would I submit to authority or in battle. But with him, with this? I could. I could let go and be taken if I wanted because I knew I was safe with him. Because I…I trusted him. His gaze held mine as he shoved the leggings and undergarment down to my knees, as far as they would go. He didn’t look away as he undid his leathers,
pushing them down just far enough that he now held his cock in his hand. I didn’t even blink as I felt the head against my ass and then pushing into me.
I knew then, without a doubt, that he understood.
He leaned over me, his chest kissing my back as his cock spread me, filled me.
And this was nothing like the last time. Or the times before that.
Nyktos came up behind me, his powerful body enclosing mine as each thrust drove deeper, delivering pleasure that felt almost punishing. Trapped between him and the cold stone, I couldn’t move an inch. And I relished the absolute control he wielded, the raw force of his movements that intensified the pleasure, sending wild pulses through me. His breath came in ragged grunts against my cheek as my nails dug into his hand.
Maybe it was the mounting ecstasy that made me bolder, or perhaps it was the isolation of the chamber deep underground, the soft murmur of the water from the pool, and the release that came from surrendering control. Whatever it was, it loosened my tongue, and I found myself whispering brazen demands in the shared space between us. Words I’d never dared to utter to anyone before.
Harder. Take me. Fuck me.
And he did. He pushed deeper and faster, fulfilling every word. His hand, beneath mine, opened, and his fingers intertwined with mine. He held my hand tightly as his hips moved relentlessly against mine, his breath moving away from my cheek. The only warning was the brush of his nose, and then I felt a scrape against the side of my neck. He didn’t break the skin or draw blood, but the feel of his fangs, poised and ready at my vein, sent me over the edge. The release was overwhelming, almost painful in its intensity, and I shattered under it as he did the same, pressing his body so close to mine that no space remained between us. Nothing.
Nyktos’s body continued to tremble as he slowed, the pressure of his fangs easing against my unbroken skin as he murmured softly, “You are always safe with me, liessa.”
