Page 115 of The Edge of Darkness

I groaned with satisfaction, still pulsing deep inside her as I nipped at her bottom lip. Shadows skittered through the air, blowing off my shoulders in waves, timed perfectly to the throbbing of my cock.

She expelled a wave of light with her exhale, and her body relaxed into the sheets.

When I pulled away to look at her, her eyes were glazed, lips swollen and pink. This was a sight I never wanted to forget. Because the smile she wore was one that she saved for me. One that held a particular sentiment to it. It was the smile of a woman who loved me the way I loved her—more than life itself. And I re-committed it to memory each time it graced her face.

It was the only memory I wanted to have left in the end.

It was the last thing I ever wanted to see in this life.

Her smile.

Another rainstorm drenched the mountains. This one didn’t bring any lightning or thunder with it, only rain. Cold, heavy rain.

I stepped out into the onslaught, my shield keeping me perfectly dry. Death’s Whisper was sheathed at my hip, shrouded beneath the long cloak that fell from my shoulders.

The Keep’s patio looked like it stood at the edge of the world, because, beyond its waist-high stone wall, the mountains were obscured by slanted sheets of rain.

Eathril’s lair was tucked into the stone a few hundred steps down the mountainside. He waited within, as did the possible answers I sought to the questions that had been gnawing at my mind since we’d returned from the wraith’s cave.

The first thing the wraith had asked me was if I was kin to Eathril. I thought it was some sort of mistake. How could a wraith, who doesn’t leave her cave, know of Eathril, who rarely leaves The Keep?

The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized there was a lot about Eathril I didn’t know. In fact, I hadn’t really thought to inquire much about him at all when I came into power. He had always been here—a staple feature of this court—as far as I knew. One of the founding brothers had given him a task, and ever since then, the interrogator had performed his duties, keeping to the shadows he inhabited.

Shadows.

Shadows just like me and the wraith. Just like Skadi. Just like Skotos.

There were too many coincidences for my liking.

I paused only a moment to listen to the rain, then descended the steps, using each one to think through my long list of questions and suspicions. When my boots came to a halt before the hollow entryway into the mountain, I took a steadying breath, then crossed the threshold.

It was an effort not to let the darkness bother me. Ever since Ramil had tampered with my mind, every little thing seemed to set my senses on edge. The darkness—the unknown within it—was now itching against my skin like an insect trying to burrow itself beneath. I gripped the pommel of my sword to steady my anxious thoughts, instantly regretting my decision to come here instead of just summoning Eathril to The Keep.

As if he’d detected my anxiety, his voice cut through the silence. “My Lord, is everything all right?”

I cleared my throat, blinking through the darkness. I couldn’t form words. An overwhelming feeling of unrest washed over me, and my power rose to the surface as if to greet the sheer blackness I stood within . . . like it wanted to reach out and soak it into my body.

A shudder racked through me, and chills skittered down my arms as my power rippled along my veins.

I took a deep breath, then another, quicker and quicker.

There were no orbs, no candlelight to counter the dark. I thought I’d be able to handle it⁠—

“Shall we go somewhere a little less unsettling?” Eathril suggested, seeming to know exactly what was happening to me. Before I could form an answer, his presence gripped onto my arm, and we ported.

The next moment, I was heaving in fresh air under a canopy of elms, pines, and birch trees. We were in The Elderwood, and the rain was still falling hard enough that by the time I calmed down and pushed my shield out around me, my hair was dripping wet.

But at least there was daylight. Gray as the sky was, the light settled me, calmed me, quelled the fear of losing control and succumbing to the demands of my power.

Somewhere, in the shadows of the trees, Eathril was watching me.

My heart rate slowed to normal, and I was finally able to speak. “Thank you.” The words came out as a near-silent rasp. So quiet, in fact, that I was afraid the sound of the rain would prevent Eathril from hearing them.

“You are troubled, My Lord.”

I nodded, half-ashamed to admit it, and half-tired of trying to hide it.

“How can I be of service?”