Page 192 of May: Bloom & Bane

“You have no idea how long I’ve waited for you to say that,” I rasp, my thumb tracing the gold dripping from the corner of her mouth. “To have you look at me like I’m all you crave. You have claimed my soul, ash’kaela—now let me show you what you’ve done to my body.”

The shadow at her hips hauls her down as I drive up, the first thrust seating my vék fully inside her. The shadows inside my shaft writhe against her molten heat. She lets out a choked sob as her body stretches to take all of me. And then my shadow swallows her whole. It pours over every inch of her, sealing her inside me where nothing in any realm can reach her: no light, no Sage, no phantom future clawing her away. And through every tendril, I feel her: the pebbled skin of her breasts, the give of her waist, the frantic flutter of her pulse. There is no inch of her I am not drowning in—she is wearing me like a second skin.

“There it is,” I whisper while my hands clamp around her hips. “That’s all of me, ash’kaela.” I pull back achingly slow, every ridge of my skal massaging her inner walls. “Your dark prince is finally where he belongs.”

Down the bond, my darkness floods her soul, anchoring deep into her thoughts, while a tendril of my purest shadow wraps around our daughter’s tiny spark. I have them both back. And I intend to make up for every second I spent without them.

“Look at me, mí’maru,” I breathe, brushing my mouth along her temple as I thrust slow and deep. “I spent two days as a ghost you couldn’t see. Now I need your eyes on me so I know you feel exactly who’s inside you.”

Her glassy eyes lock onto mine, pupils swallowed by black—whether from the venya or the sight of me, I can’t tell, and I don’t care—she sees me.

The slow, savoring strokes give way to something harder. Every deep thrust pulls whimpers from her throat. My shadow holds her open so I can watch the slick length of myself disappear into her over and over.

“Every inch of this cock belongs to the monster you summoned back from the void,” I purr, pulling back until only the tip of me remains, then slamming back in hard enough to make her sob. “The dark will never let you go now.”

“Ash… nnggh—mmm,” she babbles deliriously, her hips fighting the shadow’s grip to chase more of me.

I bring one hand between us, and she stills, watching the sharp points rest over the most vulnerable part of her.

“I would carve out my own void before I ever let these hurt you.” I drag the flat edge of a single skelva over her kísh, featherlight and infinitely careful, the tip circling her sweet, swollen clit.

“Ohh,” she moans, her thighs trembling around my waist.

“Look at you,” I breathe, my rhythm never faltering, skelva circling in perfect time. “Taking my cock, my claws, and trusting me with all of it. My brave girl. My perfect ash’kaela.”

Her walls flutter at the praise. I drag her right up to the edge, my speed building until she’s gasping for air—and then I stop.

“No!” She screams, her hips bucking uselessly against the shadow’s grip. “Ash, please. You never make me wait.”

“I know.” I force myself to stay still inside her, my fingertips motionless against her swollen clit. For once, I’m not on my knees for her. She’s the one unraveling at my mercy, and the starving thing inside of me is drunk on it. “Ten days in the dark changes a male, ash’kaela. Tonight you’re going to beg me for it.”

“That’s not—nghh—fair,” she sobs, trembling on the edge.

“No, it isn’t. Is it?” I agree, dragging my skelva in a slow, cruel circle. My heart aches to give in. “But I want you to beg anyway.”

She stares up at me, disbelief warring with the venya crawling through her veins.

“I need you.” Her nails drag down my vorí, her hips straining against my shadow. “I missed you every single night. Please, don’t make me wait any longer than I already have, rahnové.”

Rahnové—the name her soul gave me. I am pitiful. Even Sage would have held out longer.

“How am I supposed to say no to that?”

Frost thickens across the meadow, crystals racing across the flowers in a beautiful, silver death.

My shadow pulls her up just enough for my tip to tease her entrance, and then I slam her back down onto me. My vék buries itself as far as it can go, my hips bucking up to meet her as the shadows drive her down.

“Just like that, Ash,” she moans.

My skelva returns to their rightful place, circling faster until the only thing she can do is hold on. I drag her up the edge again, my vék hitting the little spot inside her that makes her sob my name.

“Almost, r-rahnové,” she slurs, going slack against me. I lean down and seal my mouth over the níva leaking from her nipple; the first pull of the sweet gold across my tongue nearly sends me into bloodlust. I groan against her skin, taking greedy mouthfuls. This is what I clawed back toward. This exact taste. This exact woman.

“Harder, Ash,” she whimpers. “So close⁠—”

A snarl vibrates against her breast as I give her exactly what she asks for, my hips driving up brutally, burying myself so deep the tip of me kisses her cervix. Her body arches off my arm, fingers wrapping around the curved bone where Sage’s soft green crests used to be. Shock ripples across her face for half a second before her grip tightens and she pulls, hauling my mouth back to her breast.

“Ravenous little thing.” I chuckle against her chest. “Let’s see if I can satisfy that hunger.”