“Don’t drink the water,” Death says quickly, holding out a palm to stop me.
Oops.
Chapter 15
Death
“The Crystal Caves”
There’s a lot of things that you need to worry about when you’re ruling over the land of the dead, but the one thing I haven’t worried about for centuries is my wife. I haven’t had a damn wife to be concerned over.
But now I do, and fuck if that’s not a total shame that she’s starting to occupy my thoughts at all hours of the day.
I was visiting my Shadow Self in the eastern wing of the library. I don’t know how long I’d been in there with it, getting to know the ropes again. It takes time to fully infiltrate the Shadow Self and learn how to operate it. It’s about splitting yourself in half, learning how to be two people instead of one, and there’s some trial and error along with the magic. It’s why my Shadow Self is bound to that wing for now, kept in place by wards, because I still don’t have perfect control over it yet.
Apparently I’d been in there all day, though, because I’d suddenly remembered Hanna, and when I left my Shadow Self and went to find Sarvi, the unicorn told me that Hanna hadn’t returned from Vipunen yet.
It’s not that unusual. Lovia would train all day, so did Tuonen. But I’m paranoid about Hanna and I couldn’t help but conjure up two scenarios.
One was that she’d done something stupid, like take off her mask, and Vipunen killed her. The other was that she somehow bested Vipunen or Lovia and took off again.
Sarvi immediately took flight at my command, scouring the land on the way to the cave entrance, but only found Lovia waiting outside with the horses. Apparently Hanna was still inside.
So I decided to go by the other entrance to the cavern, the tunnels that lead from Shadow’s End and follow the water way deep into the land underground until they reached the Crystal Caves. The further in you go, the harder it is to walk, until the most natural thing to do is swim.
For me, swimming is second nature. I spent as much of my youth as possible in the Great Inland Sea, swimming among the mermaids and sea monsters and with my brother Ahto, as he learned to be the God of the Oceans and Seas. For someone whose touch was considered so lethal that I was always sheathed in layers in the event that any part of my skin could kill, swimming afforded me freedom I couldn’t have on land. To be naked, to feel the water over every part of me, including my hands, it made me feel something close to happiness.
So I took off my clothes—keeping my gauntlets on, leather wrapped to my elbow—and jumped into the cold sea water. I swim faster than I can walk, and I followed the underground waterway until it came to a close in a warm, wide-open glittering pool surrounded by glowing crystals.
That’s where I found Hanna.
Naked.
On her knees.
A most spectacular sight.
Unfortunately, I realized too late that she had already had some of the water to drink. The white and amethyst crystal mica sparkled on her mouth, smeared across her chin.
“What happens if I drink the water?” she asks, only sounding mildly concerned. The lids on her eyes are heavy, her breasts seem to be getting larger, nipples hard as flint and pink as snowberries.
“You lose your inhibitions,” I say, walking slowly through the water toward her. “It’s not a bad thing.”
From the way her eyes are locked on my now very hard, very potent dick, it’s definitely not a bad thing.
“But you told me to not to drink it,” she says with a coy smile. She wets her lips with her pink tongue and my balls ache with a stab of feverish need. “Like I made the wrong choice.”
“You made a choice, but it doesn’t have to be the wrong one,” I tell her.
She gives me that sweet smile again, a game in her eyes. I’m not about to stop playing it with her.
“So I take it that your session with Vipunen was a success if you’re here,” I note. She starts shuffling toward me on her knees, deeper into the water. “He finds the caves a reward of sorts.” But from the way she’s eying my cock, I think I’m the one who will be getting the reward.
Hanna stops right below my dick, staring up at me, her big brown eyes holding a faux innocence. There is nothing innocent about her right now. The lust that’s wafting off her is building with each second.
“Can I lick it?” she asks sweetly, wetting her lips again.
Fuck me.
I am speechless. I am rarely speechless.
I make a noise that gets stuck in my throat.
“Can I suck it?” she asks, reaching for me with her small, delicate hands. I tense as she wraps her fingers around me. I’m so thick, so hard, so long that she can’t even hold me properly, and yet she handles me with ease, like she does this all the time.