LOGINEvander
Water pours down the walls in steady, frigid streams. My head aches, and the smell of blood hangs thick in the air as I try to open my eyes for the fourth time in the last five minutes.
I think my skull might be cracked. I reach up to rub my throbbing temples but wince when I flex my hands.
My fingers are shattered.
“Syd?” I croak into the darkness.
“I’m still alive,” he replies groggily.
I open my eyes to slits. Faint light fills my vision. It’s enough to cause a searing pain to ripple through my brain. “Where do you think we are?”
“One-hundred-percent underground,” he answers shortly somewhere beside me.
I reach for him, unsure how far away he is, but the manacles binding each wrist to heavy chains only allow me to stretch my arms so far.
We’ve been here for a day at least. No food or drink
PoseySnow coats the ancient cobblestone in wet streaks of silver. Flakes stick to my gray wool cloak, the hood pulled over my hair, which is braided down my back. I blend with the landscape in shades of steel and ash, but my black boots catch the gleam of lantern light swirling a familiar magic that settles in my bones and turns my heart to dust. Roman walks beside me in silence, his phone screen illuminating the space between us in artificial blue-hued light. I try to swallow, but the knot of nerves pressing against my vocal chords makes it impossible. “He knows I’m coming, right?” I ask in a croak that sounds like a toad. Roman nods, shrugging a shoulder like this isn’t the end of the world as I know it. Like I haven’t spent three months in a purgatory of my own making because of the man who lives in the castle now casting us in its snowy shadow. The castle itself is something out of a gothic fever dream. At least a half-dozen spires stretch into the thick clouds, and four towers
ArisFour Months Later…It never snows in Veiled Valley, even in the winter. At least, it shouldn’t be snowing. Rain, yes. It rains often. So often, honestly, that I can tell what time it is just based on how the storm clouds begin to roll over the mountains with the promise of our nightly thunderstorms. But snow? I stare out the window at the silver landscape, narrowing my eyes at the guards posted at the gate. They’re just as confused as I am, but at least they’re enjoying it. “I think it’s a ridiculous name, but Soren has his heart set on it,” Maeve says from somewhere behind me with a deep sigh. “Can you imagine naming a child after a fruit?”“Is he particular to clementines?” Brie asks with a small laugh. “No, he doesn’t even like oranges. I have no idea what’s gotten into him lately, but when we found out we were having another girl, he pitched the name, and I immediately laughed at him and told him over my dead body, but he’s been calling her that, and now Fallon is calling
ArisRoman steps into the light of the kitchen, scanning Posey from head to toe before turning his sights on me. “I’ve been calling like mad for a day straight. Where’ve you been?”Posey shuffles her feet before stepping past me, but I stop her, setting one foot after the other, and let my shoulders hang, turning my skeptical expression to that charming smirk I’m known for. I have it down to a fucking science, after all, even if it feels strange wearing it now after so many days of just being… me. With her. Just us.Roman’s presence feels like an enemy has entered my territory and is currently threatening the woman trying to shrink into the shadow of the stainless steel refrigerator. I have no choice but to bite those feelings back.“We went exploring on the boat and got caught up in that storm a few days ago. I took her to the hunting cabin up north to ride it out.”Roman nods, the tension in his shoulders easing. “Yeah, I got swept up in that, too.”“Why are you here?” Posey says wi
PoseyThe fever returns in the morning when the sun rises. It’s thick and syrupy with no end in sight. I sit up, surrounded by sheets and pillows I don’t remember carrying up here from the couch. I’m wearing nothing but one of Aris’s cut-off T-shirts, which I don’t remember putting on. I rub my face on the worn fabric, inhaling deeply, trying to clasp onto whatever shred of reality I can find. All that takes up my mind is… here. Being here, in this cabin, with this man I’ve known my entire life. A man so far out of my league it’s laughable. The same man who made love to me last night like it was something fated. An act we’ve done a million times. Slow, tender, aching, the kind of touch I imagine comes from decades of knowing a lover's body. I’m delusional when I walk downstairs, my brain split into sections. Sex. Lust. Greed. Possibly, hopefully, a single shred of who I am outside of this heat, but that section is the weakest of all. Sunlight pours through the open front door, casti
Posey “You’ve always been a whiny, demanding, pain in my ass,” he pants, pinning my wrists above my head. His mouth is hot against the column of my throat as he traces a long, wet line with the flat of his tongue. He likes it when I writhe beneath him. The smiles against my skin paint my body with heat almost as much as the rough, nibbling kisses I know will leave little marks that won’t wash off for a few days–a brief reminder of tonight. “Keep your hands above your head. Grip the pillow.” I obey, my fingers curled in the plush fabric. My heart races when he rises above me just enough to deftly unbutton the flannel I stole, revealing the white, damp tank top underneath. He takes a shaky breath and then chuckles darkly, greedily, and his eyes meet mine in the dim light. “You’re perfect.”“What?” I breathe, losing myself to the way his knee draws up between my legs and puts a breathtaking amount of pressure where I need it the most. “Your breasts are a masterpiece.” He kisses the
PoseyNights falls on the cabin, but neither of us noticed the sunset until Aris mentioned something about the time, which I hadn’t been keeping track of. It’s still raining, and he’s shifting again as it stands, probably to hunt for whatever he’s going to eat raw for dinner seeing as our only other option for cooking is the woodstove, and while I’m capable of cooking like a dream, but not using that. That’s a bit out of my wheelhouse. Still, I twirl the second vial of contraceptive tonic between my fingers, watching the flakes of herbs dance in the milky liquid. I’d been too sick to my stomach to differentiate each herb, spice, and flower used to make it when I took the first draft, but this time I might be able to. If this heat isn’t a one-time thing, I’ll need this again, won’t I? I should know what ingredients I’d need to make it for myself because I highly doubt the priestesses I’ll be sharing the remainder of my life with will have them on hand.A crash echoes from outside, and







