Page 118 of The Unseen Hour

My breath caught.

“Orion.”

The last note from the song continued to echo.

“Wait! The key!” I twisted back around and looked for the last note I’d played, an A. I’d looked at all the keys before, but this time, when I touched the A, I was able to move it. The key slid off, and rolled tightly within was another piece of paper, tied in pink ribbon.

“Orion, do you think?”

“Death said you should carry this one. Can you unroll it and check?”

Carefully, I slid the ribbon off the paper and placed the A key back on the keyboard. I unrolled the paper. There were more musical notes on it, stretched horizontally across what turned out to be a narrow, but long, strip of parchment. Just a single note at a time, in one continuous melody.

“I think … I think it could be sung,” I said, letting my right hand reach out to the keyboard.

I played the first few notes, and then Orion joined in with his voice. There were no words, just smooth, clear tones.

Shade song had pulled me in before, but this intoxicated me. The warmth inside me became a raging fire, and it took all I had to keep playing the melody instead of reaching for Orion to pull him toward me.

Something told me it was important to finish the piece. Just to be sure. To feel that we had the right item.

This time, when I let go of the last note, the music went silent almost immediately.

I turned to look at Orion. He was practically panting, and one of his hands was braced on the edge of the piano.

His pupils were wide.

I licked my lips again, hungry for the Head Shade.

He leaned down, his hand moving to the bench to steady himself as he sat beside me. His other arm wrapped around me, pulling me as close as I could get without climbing onto his lap.

“Celia, Starlight, I—” His voice was tense, desperate. I felt it as well.

His lips found mine, insistent and needy. One of his hands tangled in my hair as I moaned into his mouth, flicking my tongue against his, then pulling back to suck on his bottom lip.

He groaned.

“Ry, should we? Charon?”

“Is gone. Death made sure of that. And if he’s searching for treachery, his eyes are on the other gods. This is the last place he’d look.”

“But Charon⁠—”

“I don’t want his name on your lips again, Starlight. Just mine.”

His hand moved from my hair to my waist, then slipped beneath my borrowed clothes. His fingers swept over the part of me that most longed for his touch. Need tore through me as he continued, building that sweet but unbearable tension inside me.

He leaned back in to kiss me again. His tongue swept across mine, and I was lost.

I could only hope he was right. We’d been promised that this place would be empty, and up to now the location had meant only suffering for Orion. Maybe a better memory would help.

One of my hands twisted in his hair, tugging him even closer, needing more. With Orion, I would never get enough.

When his hand moved away from my clit I groaned in protest, but then he grabbed me around the waist and hauled me into his lap without breaking our kiss.

One of his hands slipped underneath my shirt, trailing up my ribs and then lightly squeezing one breast. Each touch sent bolts of lightning stronger than Death’s through me. When he ran his thumb over one nipple I sucked in a breath at the sensation that rocketed through me.

I moved my legs so I straddled him, rocking my hips against him, driven entirely by the desire to feel every inch of him. When he matched his movements to mine, I felt his cock, hard and rubbing against me. I made a sound in the back of my throat that was involuntary and desperate. I reached between us, tugging at the waistline of his trousers.