Onyx Eclipse (The Raven Queen's Harem 5)

She lifts up and my cock follows her like a magnet, angled up. She lowers herself quickly and I clench my jaw, feeling the most intense connection between us. I can’t speak, I just listen as she tells me her plans in a breathless rush. “You’re the anchor, Dylan. The rock that keeps us tied to this world.”

I nod, even though my brain knows it’s a fool’s errand. There’s no way she’ll get the gate open any time soon. My research has come to a screeching halt. But she’s got me mesmerized with the rocking of her hips and in her sheath of tight warmth. “You’re the bond,” I tell her, our lips touching as we move together. I will do everything in my power to keep her safe, to protect her role in the future.

Her dark eyes lock with mine, holding as the pleasure builds. There’s no question in her voice as she says, “You’ll follow my command and together we will shut down the Darkness. Shut the bitch down.”

I’m not a weak man. I’m a warrior. I’ve killed and slayed, but as the ecstasy jolts between us, an intensity of magic, lust and power, a different kind of thrill overtakes me. My Queen is here. Commanding. Demanding even as she succumbs, crying loud enough to echo the bottom floors of The Nead. Shockwaves roll through her body. She bites my lip, trembling, and I cling to her like a lifeline from one world to the next.

I spill inside of her, our bodies twitching in kind. Warmth runs through my veins—her cheeks are red. I hold her face between my hands and say, “As you wish,” although I have no idea what the next days will hold.

She smiles, regal and wise, a different look than I’ve seen on her before, and says, “Thank you, Guardian. Soon we will rule the world together.”

Chapter 18

Morgan

He follows me to my room and I ask questions. So many questions.

“Tell me everything about the Otherside. Tell me about the Morrigan. How did you get away? What are her soldiers like? The dungeons. Describe the dungeons.”

Dylan grits his teeth and answers, out of obligation. Hesitation tugs on every word—each answer. It goes on for hours.

“In her realm, the Morrigan looks like a woman. A queen. Her castle is where she spends the majority of her time as the lands around it are desolate and spoiled.”

“Why is it so cold?”

He shrugs. “In general, I think she wishes it to be that way, but I have theories that go back to her relationship with Cu. When she was a young goddess falling in love. There’s a heat to passion and when she shifted and embraced her title as Queen of Ravens, her blood ran cold. She thrives on it.”

“So she’s afraid of heat?”

“She’s afraid of everything.”

“Tell me about the dungeons,” I ask, leaning forward.

“Do you want to know about the dungeons or about the prisoners in them?”

He can’t say their names. I’m not sure I can, either.

“Both.”

The dungeons are under the castle, he tells me. Deep in the belly, under the tower on the north side. There is no daylight. No plumbing or electricity down there. The air is a different sort of cold. “Although we reside in human vessels, we were molded into cold-blooded birds. The cold doesn’t help. The inflicted wounds simply freeze. The blood hardens into ice. Because we can survive the conditions, it just provides more opportunity for torture.”

I ask the question I’ve kept to myself for weeks. “Do you think they’re dead?”

“I believe they pray to the gods that they were dead.”

So no. Just like Anita implied.

“Why would she keep them alive—give us any hope to get them back?”

He reaches for me, taking my hand and resting it on his chest, above the heat of his heart. “We’re bound. Connected. In all the ways we can help one another, we can also hurt each other. She’ll use their power for her own gain. The longer they are away from you, the more damage it does.” He chuckles. “I am a strong and virile man, Morgan, but even I can’t fulfill your ravenous needs.”

“But if I get them back,” I say. “I can heal them, right? I can fix this?”

He gives me a hard look. “It’s not so easy.”

“What makes you believe I think anything will be easy? We don’t even have access to the Otherside yet.”

“If you ever, by a miracle of the gods, got to the Otherside, the Morrigan would capture you in moments. Her guards and soldiers are legendary.”