Sea Fae Trilogy

by C. N. Crawford

  He leaned down again, his mouth on my throat. Heat radiated out where he kissed me. One hot, lazy kiss after another seared the skin. I tilted my head back as I gave myself to him. His enjoyment of my body was apparent. Now, I wanted the skirt off.

  With excruciating slowness, he slid his hand down my bare skin to the waistband of my skirt. I arched my back as he dipped his fingers inside the waist. He trailed his fingertips from one hip to another, teasing me as he kissed my throat. His touch was unhurried, drawing out my desire. My hips started rocking as a deep ache built between my thighs.

  “Salem,” I whispered.

  He let out a low laugh. “I am going to enjoy taking my time with you, Aenor.”

  Slowly, he unbuttoned my skirt, and it slid off to my ankles. He swept his gaze down, taking in my blue silk panties. His muscles had tensed completely, and he looked for a moment like he was about to lose control.

  But he still kept stroking me—slow and lazy over the front of my panties. The touch swept a little lower, moving over my hipbone. Liquid heat rushed through my core. Oh gods, I wanted him to fill me. He slid one of his fingers into the top of my panties, circling lightly over the hollow of my hip.

  “Salem.” My voice cracked; I was desperate for satiation.

  Another low laugh as he delighted in my desperation. I wanted to force his hand lower, between the apex of my thighs.

  But those slow, lazy strokes over my hipbone just made my blood pound harder. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and he kissed me again—a slow, sensual kiss.

  His touch on my hip was infuriatingly light, the other a possessive hand on my waist, rooting me in place where he wanted me.

  He pulled away from the kiss. “Tell me what you want,” he whispered.

  “You.”

  He pulled his thumb from my hip, then stroked his knuckles over the front of my panties. Gods, just a little lower…

  Molten heat surged. My nipples were painfully sensitive as they brushed against his bare chest.

  Salem was born to torment, and that’s what he was doing to me. In the clearest hollows of my mind, a single thought—Keep the sea glass close. Protect it.

  But another, lower stroke of Salem’s fingertips burned those thoughts away, teasing me with light movements between my thighs. I widened my legs and moved against his hand, demanding more.

  “Salem…” I whispered. This was an exquisite sort of torture, my entire body humming with raw sexual need.

  “Is there something you need from me?” Amusement tinged his voice.

  Maybe I didn’t need to move at his pace.

  My chest heaving, I leaned back against the tree so he could watch me. I slid my hands into my panties, then pulled them down to my ankles. Once again he traced his gaze down my body, taking me in completely, and his body emitted a glow of fiery light. He was burning up with need as much as I was.

  His muscles had gone completely tense, and he let out a low, appreciative growl when his gaze reached the apex of my thighs. When his eyes met mine, I saw in them a burning possessiveness, an unmistakably masculine craving for me.

  His wings spread out behind him, and the gold that shot through the dark feathers seemed to glow. Wonder bloomed in my chest. Right now, he didn’t seem like a being meant for this world…

  I reached out, touching the tips of his feathers, and he closed his eyes, his breath hitching. When he opened them again, wild desire burned. “You know what I like, instinctively. And I think I know what your body craves.”

  In one smooth motion, he turned me around to face the tree. He pressed his hard body against me, every glorious male inch of him.

  “I need to explore you more.” He moved his hand up to cup my breast, moving his thumb over it. Tingles radiated out from his touch. I leaned back into him. My body swelled for him.

  And yet—I had that feeling again of bliss… of perfection together. It was the same as when I’d slept in the boat, curled up in his arms.

  He traced his other hand slowly down my body, sliding it down my belly, over my hips, until he reached the apex of my thighs. He groaned low into my neck as he felt my slick arousal.

  He touched me in light circles, feeling my heat, teasing me until I couldn’t think clearly anymore, until my mind burned.

  He kissed my neck, and pleasure crashed through me.

  With one hand, he spread me open, and I was about to scream with need. He slid a finger inside me, and I moaned. I writhed against his hand, in and out, clenching around him. I flung my arms backward, curling them around his neck. The desperate noises I was making now sounded animal.

  “Salem,” I managed. “Please…”

  A low, dark chuckle from him skimmed over my skin. I could hardly remember how words worked now. I only knew I needed that feeling of fullness.

  He pulled his hand away and turned me around again—the movement faster now. He was desperate for me. I hadn’t even realized he’d taken off his pants until now, but I took in the sight of him, his stunning, masculine perfection. He reached under my bum, and I wrapped my legs around him as he lifted me against the tree.

  “Aenor.” There was a wild hunger in his voice now. His eyes were on mine as he slid into me slowly, filling me completely.

  Oh gods yes.

  His magic snaked over my body in ripples of pleasure, as he moved in me—slowly, deeply.

  Gods help me, I felt safe with him. I felt like I belonged with him, like we were made for each other. We moved with each other, pleasure spiraling into my body as he pounded into me. With each deep thrust, I felt myself arcing higher to a perfect completion, a deep soul connection. He kissed me, and this time it was urgent, demanding. He was losing control as I was.

  I dragged my nails down his back, moaning his name as I shuddered against him, pleasure shattering my mind into a thousand tiny pieces of sea glass.

  Aenor

  With my arms wrapped around him, I caught my breath. My body glistened with a light sheen of sweat.

  “What are the scars?” he whispered in my ear.

  I’d almost forgotten about them—the scars carved in my skin long ago, after I’d lost my power.

  But I didn’t really want to go into it now. “Left by some bad demons.”

  His muscles tensed for a moment. “I hope you cut their hearts out.”

  I smiled. “Oh, I did.”

  Slowly, Salem released me to the ground. The ripples of pleasure still pulsed through my body, and I caught my breath. His eyes were still on me, half-lidded, arms warm around my body. He was looking down at me with a look of complete satisfaction.

  Salem’s heart beat against me, loud and echoey like a sacrificial drum. His body felt like it was burning against me, and his smoky magic curled around me.

  But when I caught a flash of silver hair moving through the trees, my blood turned to ice. There she was, the Merrow’s agent—a reminder of my task: kill him, or the world burns.

  Gods, had she been watching us?

  With the cold chill of reality seeping into my consciousness, icy dread spread out over my mind like webs of frost.

  “What’s wrong?” Salem asked into my hair.

  His powerful arms were wrapped around me, pulling me in close to his chest like he never wanted to release me.

  And yet reality was eating away at the warm bond between us.

  I still had so many unanswered questions.

  “When I made a teeny-tiny sacrifice to the god of the sea,” I began, “and I spilled a little bit of blood into the ocean—why did that bother you so much?”

  “Gods are petty creatures, demanding love,” he said. “Demanding that you prove yourself. Petty and jealous, more beast than angel.”

  My mind flicked back to what he had told me, about the burning human sacrifices in the cave. “But people sacrificed to you when they thought you were a god.”

  “You really know how to kill a mood, do you know that?” he murmured into my ear. Then, more coldly, “I can’t answer th
at. It is what it is, and I’ve told you what I am. I’ve told you I poison everything. You know that I’m destruction embodied. I don’t belong in this world, and neither does Shahar.” He stepped away from me and pulled on his pants.

  Shahar… He was already moving on to saving his sister. Desperation spiraled through me. “The prophecy, the visions—my own magic is telling me that complete destruction awaits if you save your sister. I need you to find another way. We need more time.”

  “Time? You want me to leave her, tormented in darkness, drained of her magic, because of visions and prophecies?”

  “I don’t know how to say this without sounding insensitive, but she’s been there for a hundred years—what’s another week?” That was phrased badly, perhaps.

  I snatched my underwear off the forest floor and stepped into them.

  The air seemed to go cold around us. “I have a destiny, Aenor, and if I don’t fulfill it within a few days, it’s all over. And it begins with saving Shahar.”

  So this wasn’t just about love for his sister. “A destiny,” I repeated.

  “Which you have done your best to thwart. Your seduction didn’t help.”

  “My seduction?” I was on the verge of saying you started it, but that sounded outrageously childish.

  “Do you plan to keep repeating everything I say?” he asked.

  Oh, screw you, Salem.

  I kept one eye on my skirt, then snatched it up off the ground. What had I been thinking? He was right. He never lied about what he was. He was destruction embodied—chaos and death personified in one beautiful, masculine form.

  Had he ever pretended otherwise?

  Salem’s eyes narrowed as he watched me slip my hand into my pocket, reaching for the sea glass to make sure it was there. He understood I was keeping the weapon near me. Nothing had changed. I still had to kill him if he wouldn’t listen to me.

  I took a deep breath, searching around for my shirt. My mission here had gone off task just a tad. My thoughts in this enchanted forest had become completely confused until I actually believed that I was safe with him, that I belonged with him.

  In reality, the exact opposite was the truth.

  “I don’t know what I was thinking.” I gestured at the tree where we’d just been entwined only moments before. “What just happened? It was the wine. And the festival. Nothing more. I feel nothing for you.”

  “Of course, Aenor. It was the wine.” His voice was frigid as his wings spread out behind him. He looked down at me, eyes cold as ice. “We are still mortal enemies. I wouldn’t dream of anything else.”

  I glared at him, pulling on my shirt. Frost spread through my chest. “I will stop you before you get to the driftwood cage.”

  His lips curled in a lethal smile. “Then you’ll need all the help you can get.” He plucked the ring off his finger and grabbed my hand to slide it onto mine.

  I thought I saw a flicker of hurt in his eyes as they shifted from coral to blue. This was a dark sort of wedding, a ceremony threaded with betrayal.

  “The thing is, Aenor, I’m not sure I need you anymore. You’ve healed me, and given the number of times you looked at the castle, I can only assume he’s there—in the dungeons, where the water reaches.”

  I felt like my chest had been hollowed out with a jagged rock as I reached into my pocket.

  Do it, Aenor.

  But it was like my hand would not move to complete its task. Ice chilled my blood as his wings spread out behind him, resplendent in the fiery twilight. I finally managed to snatch the sea glass from my pocket, but his wings were already beating the air, his eyes on the sky above him.

  My breath stopped as I watched him take to the skies, flying through the canopy of leaves.

  My heart was shattering into tiny pieces.

  The extra magic from the ring surged through my veins, an overwhelming rush of power that made me want to tear through the forest. It made me want to drown everything. Now, the twilight seemed too bright, garish. The sound of the birds in the trees was deafening, the rustling leaves like someone screaming in my ear.

  I tried to control the rush of magic, focusing on my connection to the earth. I leaned back against the tree trunk, modulating my magic through the ground. The power, my old power, fully returned to me, was hard to control.

  When I opened my eyes again, I caught a glimpse of Salem’s wings, slipping away above the trees.

  When I looked down, I saw the silver-haired nymph staring at me, furious.

  “You had one simple task,” she said. “Kill him, not fuck him. I mean, you could have done both, but the important part was killing him.”

  My magic vibrated through my body. “I just couldn’t do it. It was like it was some kind of magic.”

  Fury burned in her eyes. “Of course killing your mate isn’t supposed to be easy, but you had to do it. You know the consequences if you don’t.”

  Your mate.

  It was like she had slammed her fist into my stomach and flattened all the air out of me.

  My mate? The Nameless One I’d always hated, the man who’d killed Mama…

  The world seem to tilt beneath my feet, until I wasn’t quite sure where I was anymore. And yet it made sense.

  All the pieces were sliding into place in my mind—that feeling of safety when I was with him. My wild desire for him. The reason he’d never killed me, why I couldn’t kill him.

  That weird way we could heal each other. He knew, didn’t he? But he’d still left me here. Because like he’d said—he’d never pretended to be anything other than evil. Having a mate didn’t change that.

  My entire body felt cold and numb, my mind a dark hollow. The word “mate” echoed off the confines of my skull, like a drumbeat off cave walls.

  “Oh? You didn’t know? Well, yeah. Now you’re up to speed.” Her gaze flicked up to the palace that towered over the forest. “Look, you’re the one with the soul bond to him. What’s he doing now?”

  When somebody asked you a question like that, about your soul bond to another person, you wanted to be able to say something empathic, give a glimpse of their softer side or vulnerability.

  But that was not the case with my soulmate, the actual devil. “He’s going to find the Merrow in the dungeon. He will greet him with an excruciating, mind-bending torture until the sorcerer confesses the location of the driftwood cage. We can only hope to get to the Merrow before he finishes.” I gritted my teeth. “It’s possible he can also take the Merrow with him, and torture him on the way.”

  “Gods below.”

  I nodded at the river. “I can get us there faster through the water. Try to keep up.”

  My magic electrified my body, and I turned, running for the river. My bare feet pounded against the earth, the sound booming. I was exploding with power.

  I could hear the other woman behind me, just barely keeping up, her breath heavy.

  The sea glass hung heavy in my pocket, brushing against my thigh. The wind whipped over my body as I ran. I could see the water now, glistening nearby. With a spell and my overpowering magic, I could get us to the castle fast.

  When I reached the river’s edge, I dove in. A few moments later, the nymph followed.

  I pulled the sea glass from my pocket and sliced my thigh.

  Blood pooled in the water around me. “God of the rivers and sea, take us to Salem.”

  The river rushed and swirled around us, an orchestra of light on the water. Then, at the speed of a furious typhoon wind, the waters carried us. In the wild surge of water, I gripped the sea glass. I would be ready this time. That feeling, that surety of safety, was nothing but an illusion. It was a trick of the mating bond, nothing more. A dumb, animal instinct.

  Get to Salem. Stop him, by whatever means.

  The river seethed and frothed around me, and I gave in to its power as it carried us.

  But was I too late? I’d never met anyone so determined. My darling mate would burn the world down to get what he wanted. Hi
s destiny, whatever it was, mattered to him more than anything.

  At last, the rushing river carried us into the moat that ringed the castle. I grabbed for a rock to stop myself. Dripping wet, I hoisted myself up to the banks of the moat.

  Anger at Salem was giving me clarity now.

  He’d left me. Why did that feel so terrible?

  As I pulled myself onto the bank, the nymph followed, gasping for breath. Then she fell onto her hands and knees, coughing up water.

  A drawbridge spanned the moat, but a heavy metal portcullis blocked the main entryway. And beside it stood an armed guard. Salem had the distinct advantage of flying in from above, probably unnoticed.

  Sucking in a deep breath, I looked up at the castle. Its dark, spindly spires speared the heavens, but vines had overgrown them. The statues and gargoyles jutting from the castle were worn with time, many of them broken. A ruin of a place.

  And Salem wasn’t anywhere in sight.

  “How do we get in?” I asked.

  The nymph caught her breath and stood. “I’ll get us in. Follow me.”

  Her bare feet slapped against the wooden drawbridge as she hurried over it. Just before the gate, she stopped and grinned at the guard. “Hi, Mallour. Are we still meeting for dinner later?”

  He grinned at her, blushing. “Yes. Oysters and cheese.”

  “Mmm, oysters.” She giggled. “I forgot my shoes inside; could you let me in?”

  “Of course, Lyria.”

  Within moments, the portcullis began to slide up. We darted inside, and I let her lead the way. Within moments, we were in an all-out sprint—but luckily, the castle seemed deserted.

  My legs carried me fast, my sea magic rippling through my body with wild abandon.

  I followed Lyria through a vaulted castle hallway, its stony walls cracked. Flowering vines seemed to be overtaking the place. Spheres of pearly light hung in the air like dim stars, lighting the way.

  One turn after the next in the byzantine halls had me feeling that we were lost, until Lyria stopped abruptly. She stood before a small wooden door inset in a wall.