Onyx Eclipse (The Raven Queen's Harem 5)
*
A few members of the underground community are in the room when I enter. Their clothes are shabby but clean. The building itself seems to be a very small clinic. Vials and bottles line the shelves on the wall. Wooden boxes filled with bandages and other supplies are stacked neatly.
The whole place seems surreal, but I have little option other than to trust them and to trust Bunny.
Calling it a hut is generous—it’s basic
ally a cave. How do these people survive down here? All three of my men are sleeping on a pallet of blankets and furs on the floor. Sam, looking weak and frail, is in the middle, flanked on both sides by Damien and Clinton. One healer remains, wiping down Sam’s feet with a towel. Glasses of half-consumed, clear liquid are on the ground.
“Call for us if you need anything.”
“Thank you.” I look down at my men. They’ve been cleaned and their wounds tended to. I choke back a wave of emotion. “For everything.”
The door closes with a click.
I undress as I walk toward the bed, kicking off my boots, lifting my shirt over my head, and dropping my trousers to the floor. I’m bare underneath—the battle upstairs gave me little time to dress. I feel the appraising gaze of eyes on me and look up to find Damien watching my every move. Dropping to my knees, I crawl to him while the others sleep.
He reaches for me with a rough hand. I take it, kissing the raw skin on his knuckles. Lifting the blankets, I slip beneath and snuggle next to his too-skinny body and run my hands up and down the tattoos on his chest. Skin to skin, we connect.
He presses his lips to mine and breathes, “Gods, I missed you.”
Chapter
Damien
At first, I don’t think she’s real. I think it’s another dream. Another fantasy I used to stay sane during the weeks of imprisonment and torture. I only thought of her face. Her eyes. Her body. I dreamed of her bursting through the door and snapping Casteel’s neck. I knew she would come. I knew my Queen would not allow me to fester and die in his rotting cell.
Even so, her voice sounds so far away. Not real. Certainly not of this realm. But she says my name. She touches my skin and the charge of energy that only exists between Morgan and her Raven Guard bolts like lightning through my limbs.
I’m unsure how long ago that was. An hour? A day? But I’m clean and a team of strange healers tended to my wounds. And I’m about to slip into sleep when the door opens and she appears, back in my life like she’d never been gone.
She a goddess, stripping away her clothes and walking to me like a shimmering sun. The heat of her flesh calls to me and all I want is to quench my thirst, to drink from the well of her everlasting soul. I hate the tears that roll down her cheeks.
I will soothe her pain as she heals my wounds.
Once whole, I promise I will lead her down the path to victory, helping guide Morgan to her fullest potential. That is why I’m here—and why the gods chose me eons ago.
I touch her, feel her, and know that I will claim her--no, we will claim her--and triumph over the evil that dared to tear us apart.
Chapter 33
Morgan
“I am so sorry,” I tell him. “I am so sorry it took me this long to get here.”
“Babe, this is not on you. Not one bit.” His fingers stroke down my arm and the energy between us flares, like a smoldering fire being stoked back to life. “I knew you would find us. I had no doubt. I bided my time and saved my energy for when you would arrive.”
“You knew?”
“I knew.”
I kiss his mouth. “Now that I’ve got you, all of you, I’m going to make everything better.”
There’s no coyness behind my statement, no doubt in what I have in mind even though my belly is filled with nerves, and I anxiously glance at the other two men. But Damien, even in a weakened state, is the least judgmental being I’ve ever known. He senses my apprehension and says, “Don’t worry, we’ll figure this out together. We always knew one day it would come to this, didn’t you?”
I nod, feeling heat rise to my cheeks. “I’ve dreamed about it. More than once. I just thought it would be all of us.”
He touches my chin. “It will be. It’s how we’ll take the Morrigan out once and for all, but for now, we need to heal, grow our power so we’re ready to fight. Understand?”