I walk to the edge of the bed and sit. “It’s designed to confuse. The Devil isn’t stupid. He knows his victims, you know that, right?”
“I do, but I just…I didn’t know if I’d ever see you alive again.” His fingers twist in my hair. “The last time I saw you, the real you, Agis was carrying you away. There was so much blood, Hildi.”
“I know, but he got me to safety. Healed me.” He sits up, stomach muscles tensing, and he touches my cheek. I kiss his palm. “I’m okay.”
“Are we?” He grimaces. “We’ve got to get to this City of Dis, which is five circles of hell away, and our allies consist of a traitor, the half-breed son of Lucifer himself, and a fairy.”
“Hey!” I say with afront. “Leave the fairy out of this, but speaking of allies, do you know where the rest of the Legion is?”
“We all got to the temple at different times and were given instructions to get to the City of Dis. I figured we’d meet up on the battlefield. I had no idea I was going to get caught up in a trap I couldn’t get out of.” He leans forward until our faces are inches apart. “We’ll find them.”
“I know we will.”
“I should have known my version of hell would be losing you.” His hand moves behind my neck, pulling me close. A rush of heat warms my body and his lips brush mine.
“I thought of you every minute, every second that I was caught in that place. The emotions I felt when you walked into that arena at the Academy flooded me over and over. Absolute terror and fear that I’d lose you. I watched you die, Hildi, or almost. I watched the God of Death carry you away. I watched Victorine and Roland open the temple and then, just when I planned to get my revenge, I got caught in the loop of living that terrible day over and over again.”
His lips blaze across my cheek, my jaw and then my neck. I feel the power of his want—his affection. His hands cinch around my waist and he lifts me up, dragging me over his waist until I’m straddling his hips. Running my fingers down his chest, they roam over the hard muscle to the soft hair of his lower belly. Like everything else about Armin, he’s a mixture of steel and velvet. Powerful, yet loving. Determined, but loyal. I knew that he would have stayed in that circle of hell for the rest of his life, fighting for me over and over, refusing to stop until he got me back.
I take his hand and kiss the ring.
“You proved yourself today. Proved your love and loyalty to the gods, to the kings of the Lowerworld.”
“I don’t care what they think.”
“You proved yourself to me too—that’s why I put on the ring—that’s why it snapped you out of that place. You belong to me.”
“And I to you, Valkyrie. From the moment our paths crossed.” His fingers tug at the laces on the front of my vest.
“Take me,” I whisper. “Claim me.”
He rolls me over, the sheet falling to the side. He’s bare, hard, as if he’d just been waiting for me to ask. This is a man who would slay a dragon to protect me, yet seeks my permission to touch me. It’s not out of fear but respect. I love this man, through and through. Ring or no ring.
The sides of my vest fall, exposing my skin to the cool air of the room. He kisses my chest, between my beasts, down my belly. With extreme patience, he unties the laces of my leather pants, fingers grazing the sensitive flesh of my lower stomach, before peeling them down my legs and over my feet. He stands at the end of the bed, eyeing me with such wonder, such desire, that my skin prickles.
Armin is the steadiest of my Immortal lovers, the one I saved from isolation and loneliness. But he saved me too, giving me someone to love and care for during my grief. He wasn’t just a plaything like Marshal—he’s always been real. I value his love, his friendship, his brain and his brawn. He gathers my foot, kissing the top, then my ankles. He travels up my body, sucking skin, creating warm ripples of want. The closer he gets, the more every nerve in my body, my mind, my soul, my heart, pound in unison.
“Please,” I beg, writhing on the bed. I needed to feel him inside. The instant he put on the ring, the cord between us tightened. Damien managed to harness the feelings we had for one another, for the energy created from the Gods, fate and destiny, in one tiny band of silver. But there’s something more—a seal that needs to be stamped. I feel it like fire licking at my neck.
His mouth covers mine and I breathe him in, tasting his tongue and running my nails down the curve of his arms. Energy hums between us, and I wrap my legs around his body, wanting him close, wanting him in me. Armin, a man used to waiting, wants me panting, begging. His knuckles graze my nipple, and his fingers dips between my legs. I’m already weak and shuddering, halfway over the edge when he finally, finally, pushes my knees apart and teases me with the tip of his cock. His tightening jaw is a signal just before he drives in, forcing the air from my chest.
Armin’s eyes hold mine as he moves in me, and I rake my nails down his back. The cord pulls taut, and I hold on as the bed rattles and shakes under the tremendous force of his movements.
We’d done this before—many times. Armin had been my solace—my steady place—while surviving in the Academy, while dealing with the grief and loss of Andi. This was different. This was two lovers bonded for real, soul to soul, body to body.
“Never, ever leave me again,” he says, mouth hovering over mine. “We’ll get through this, Hildi, and find our happiness on the other side. Build a house like the Nead. Create our own family, our own destiny.”
The words are mesmerizing, enchanting, and as he winds me closer to release, I can see all the things he wants, things I never knew I wanted. The house. The family. The future. I don’t know if it’s the magic of the bond or just the desire for something normal—our normal—that I let myself embrace the idea as tightly as my body embraces him with the shudder of my orgasm.
“I won’t,” I say, the words caught in my throat. “Promise me the same.” His jaw tightens and his face pinches, and he groans, slamming into me one final time. Our bodies are sticky with sweat, keeping us glued together as I hold his eye. “Promise me, Armin.”
“I promise.”
He seals it with a kiss and I curl into him. I know it may be a long time before we get a chance to be alone again like this, and I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts.
10
Hildi