by Hazel Grace
“Who’s hurt?” I ask. “I might be able to help.”
“You helped enough,” she sneers, averting her eyes from me. “By you being detained here, it brought your people to my island to try and save you.”
“Which sister?” I repeat.
“Kali.”
“Is she alright?”
“She’ll survive.” She pulls her eyes to me again. “But your Edda won’t.”
A sharp stabbing pain hits my gut. I should be more worried than I am even though I don’t want her to die. I don’t know how many men she has with her, how many ships. How many of my clansmen will fall victim to her small hands.
My father should’ve never made us come here. Over a legend that he was fully convinced was real but I’ve always had my doubts about it. I’ve never seen a dragon nor has he, and the longer I am on this island the more I think all this talk of some magical cuff is just a myth.
“Blood,” I say softly, pulling her calves closer to my body. “You need to rest.” Abruptly, she stands, kneeing me in the chest and almost toppling me over.
“I need you out of my life,” she fumes. “You made everything worse. Everything was fine before you came here with your foolish mission.”
I rise to my feet, towering over her, and I can feel it. The anxiety and sadness controlling her body—my presence being the cause of that and how I wish I could take it away but I can’t.
I don’t want to be a faded memory because she’d never be that for me. She is a living and breathing light of freedom that I didn’t know I needed. Being under my father for so long, I never fully considered myself a servant of the people.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind it, it’s just it was my father’s rules, and that was that. I’ve gotten so used to following him that I never fully made important decisions of my own. Ones that could sway my life forever, and regardless of the reason my father put me here, I’m glad that he did—and that scares me more than anything.
More than Davina.
More than wanting to succeed on my own.
Wanting more of the Siren in front of me who can’t see past the reason I’m here and see me for who I am.
Wrapping one of my arms around her waist, I tug her toward me. “I didn’t mean to become a problem, but I don’t regret coming here.”
She scoffs. “You are a fool. You’ve endured enough, don’t you think?”
“I got to meet you, didn’t I?”
“I killed your men,” she counters, looking back up at me. “I threw you across a room, clad you back in your chains, burned you, my sisters almost drowned you in the lagoon. I had your whole fleet burned to ashes.”
I let out a heavy sigh. “Yeah, there’s all that.”
My fellow clansmen just paid the price to save me, but I can’t fully be surprised by her reaction. She’s warned me, I would’ve done far worse and quicker than giving me time to admit the truth. They were collateral damage, and I’m holding the woman who ordered their deaths.
Who’s more fucked up now?
I hear it ringing in my ears, that what I’m doing is beyond traitorous and insane. That I should continue my plot to get off Merindah and go back home. Killing the girls is impossible, I’ve already choked on my pride on that account. However, Davina is something that has fully captivated and snatched me from my old self.
“It was your people,” she seethes with a weak shove. “I killed your people.”
“I understand why you did it, and as fucked up as it is, I can’t fully fault you for it.” She tries to take a step away from me, but I hold her against my chest.
“I think you’ve gone mad.”
A mirthless chuckle escapes me. “May have.” My fingers brush up her back. “But I can say you’ve been an adventure.”
“I will kill her.” Her eyes turn a darker shade of green, filled with promise and warning.
“You don’t have to.” That earns a hard jerk out of my grasp.
“She called herself your woman.”
“I’m sure she did.”
“And you—you laid with me last night.”
“I did, and I’d do it again.” A hard slap comes across my face followed by a sting on my cheek.
“I’m not a whore you can lay with while saying that you are engaged to another,” Davina snarls. I reach up to cup her face again, but she smacks my hand away.
“I’m not engaged to Edda, Blood. It’s something my father has been persistent on.”
“And?”
I shrug. “And it’s not something that I want.”
“Did you tell her that?”
“I’ve been a little busy being held captive,” I state. “And it wasn’t a conversation I was in the mindset of having before I left either. Figured when I got back, if it came up, I’d make my intentions known.”
“Which are?”
“Now you with the questions.”
“Answer me, Viking.”
I can’t help the smirk that plays off my face. “You’re so stunning when you’re mad.”
She tilts her head. “Would you like to go back to being chained up because I can make that happen right now.”
Erasing the space she put between us, I brush a few pieces of her hair back and tuck them behind her ear. “How would I ever be able to go back when I’ve had the honor of knowing what it feels like to experience Davina, known as Blood to me, but the Princess of Lacuna to most? I think I’m one in a million that has gotten to be this close to you.”
“Not the only one.”
“Ah, yes,” I quip as I cross my arms. “The pirate. Where is the Prince of the Black Sea these days?”
Davina straightens her spine. “Here.”
“And?”
“And how did you get out of your chains?”
“Your bobby pin.”
She rubs her temple. “I forgot about snatching that back. “
“I hope you didn’t forget anything else,” I counter, taking a step toward her so that the back of her knees are against her bed.
“No,” she deadpans.
I lean toward her. “I want to do it again.” I kiss her temple. “And again.” Another press of my lips to her forehead. “Until you can’t think about anything else.”
“I can’t think of anything else but your whore stomping onto my—” I kiss her nose.
“She’s not my whore, I’ve never slept with her.”
“Then why did she—” I lift her into my arms, her legs automatically wrap around my waist.
“How about we speak about you kissing me and what comes after that,” I chime in, turning us around so that I can sit on the edge of her bed. Her knees hit the mattress, trapping me with her body—a place I never want to leave.
“I don’t want you to get used to this,” she mutters.
I stretch myself closer, hovering my mouth over hers. “I’m already used to this, and I’m enraptured by it.” My hands grab her ass, letting her thigh feel my already growing cock.
“You don’t know what you’re saying.”
“I definitely know what I’m saying. Question is, do you?”
“You want to…” She lets her next words trail off into the distance.
“Fuck you,” I finish for her. “That’s exactly what I want to do.” I flip her body to my left and lay her on the side. “But first, I want to taste you.”
“Wha—” I spread her legs, thanking Zeus that she’s naked underneath the mesh material of fabric that she’s wearing when my hand roams to the spot I want to discover the most.
“Already wet for me, Blood,” I note, positioning myself between her slim limbs. “You don’t know what that does to me.”
“What does it do?”
“It makes my cock beg to be inside you.” I don’t let her respond, not even the opportunity to think of a comeback, because my tongue is already lapsing her clit and, fuck me, she tastes like conjury and heaven all tied into one.
If I had to give up my life after this I’d die a
man satisfied. A man who was able to experience a woman like Blood. There wouldn’t be anything else in this world that could fascinate me as she does now.
I knew I was drowning in a black hole with her, that coming up from it would be nearly impossible, but my body and half of my head, the lower half, wants to keep coming back for more for as many times as she’ll let me.
A soft gasp leaves her lips as my mouth clasps her sex, arching her back so that she can be closer to me. So that she can take more of what I give her.
It only summons more urgency within me to make her come apart in my control and discover what her release tastes like against my tongue.
“Dagen,” she mutters off a broken breath. “Oh my...”
“Do you want more?” I tease. “Because I could finish just like this, with your delicate moans of pleasure and the way your breathing is hitching from the buildup. I could die right now knowing that I had one moment to worship you. Where you were completely and utterly under my authority for just a few moments.”
Her hands clutch the bedsheets at her sides, crippled sighs and exhales of air filling the space between us. Distance that won’t be between us for long.
A faint tug at my hair causes me to peer up at her. Davina looks down at me with pure lust and hunger in her eyes that it breaks the rhythm of my breathing.
“I want us to do it together.”
“Together,” I repeat. “What do you want from me, Blood?”
“I want us to feel the crashing of euphoria together...like the last time.” She didn’t have to ask me a second time, I’m already working the button of my pants as she wraps her legs around my hips.
Leaning up on her elbows, she kisses me, her tongue following right after. I’m already drunk off her, but the insistence of her wanting me the same way I want her makes me disarm all of my defenses against her.
Nothing around us matters.
No one here makes me give a damn.
Everything else is a blur and a faded mist of what she is to me right now.
With my cock finally free, I position myself to her entrance, slowly sliding into her depths. Her mouth opens but no words come out, nothing but the feel of us joined together.
“You are remarkable,” I recite. “Nothing has ever felt like you.”
“You’re torturing me,” she gripes as I make my way in deeper, harboring onto my biceps.
Bending closer to her, my mouth sweeps hers. “I told you I would.”
“I didn’t know it’d be like this.”
A soft chuckle leaves my chest. “I’ve considered it.” I plant another peck to her lips. “But I didn’t know I’d be in excruciating agony myself.”
Davina licks my lips as I lazily start to pump inside her. “Is it that bad?”
“More than you know.”
“The end result is so much sweeter though,” she teases.
I fill her to the hilt and release a satisfying groan. “But then it’s torture because I want you again.”
“I want you too,” she replies.
I freeze, mid draw from her pussy as her words spill over me again. “What did you say?”
Davina covers her mouth at the same realization. Plucking her hand away, I bend in closer.
“Say it again.” She shakes her head, a soft whimper slips from her body.
“Blood,” I coo softly. “One more time. You can do it—for me.”
“I want you too,” she repeats, and my heart cuts short on its next beat.
It’s her voice, loud and clear. Smooth and sweet, and not a dream.
I just heard her speak.
My hands clasp both sides of her head to keep her linked to me through our eyes. “You spoke.” She nods as I see a glistening tear fall down her cheek onto the bed. “Why are you crying?”
“I haven’t spoken in so long,” she whimpers, her hand trailing up to her throat. “It hurts.”
“Because you’re using muscles that you haven’t used in a long time.”
“I can’t—”
“Shhh,” I console. “Let me pay homage to your body.” I sink into her deeper. “You don’t have to say anything, sweetheart.”
Slowly, I fill her again, praising her body with my cock and lips as I fall deeper into the abyss of her. If it wasn’t enough to be in the same room alone with her, it was her words that quickly became my undoing shortly after.
“Come with me, Dagen—my Viking.”
The moment Davina releases my name from her lips for the first time right to my ears, I come undone with her.
Chest to chest, breaths mingled into one, Davina kisses my lips and tells me to stay with her.
Thing is, I think I want to forever.
I’m welcomed by the calming breeze of the ocean. A serene feeling to the scene that is going to play out before me today. Like animals, I kept the Vikings outside, surrounded by my men and tied up because I didn’t want them any closer to my sisters. Nor did I want their ambiance within my home. It was bad enough they were on my island but to have them inside felt worse.
Sullivan meets me a few feet away, impassive and stoic as he speaks. “They are ill, Your Majesty. They have been sweating and coughing all night, we stayed a safe distance away but one man did run into the ocean. He was...disposed of by sharks.”
I nod. “Thank you, Sullivan. Send my well wishes to your wife.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty.”
Striding toward my prisoners, I feel my sisters come down the beach. My voice still feels strained by speaking last night, and the reality of it has yet to sink in. If I’m speaking, it means the desired spell is fading quicker than we thought it was and someone being here is making it weaker.
“Davina,” I hear Atarah call for me. Patiently, I wait, eyeing Edda who is already staring at me with hatred in her eyes.
Within a few seconds, I feel the slue of my sisters near me.
“We’re bringing out the Viking,” she alludes quietly. “Maybe it’ll release some information to use from either side.”
“He wasn’t in his room when we found him,” Nesrine chats on my other side. “How is the plan moving along?”
“Fine,” I seethe even though it doesn’t feel like one anymore.
I enjoy Dagen near me, I love how he speaks to me in that deep tone that weakens my bones. I believe he’s breaking me down as much as I am him, and that’s a dangerous thing to do.
“Which one of you would like to speak first?” Atarah asks as the band of them stand in defiance.
“Untie us and we’ll speak,” Edda orders.
“Not happening.”
Edda looks back and forth to her comrades and shakes her head. “We have nothing to say but what we’ve already told you.”
“Maybe torturing your leader will make some words come fleeting to your mind,” Atarah retorts.
My body remains calm, but my mind is racing at the thought. I don’t want him to be harmed any more than he has.
Nor do I think I can stay idle and let my sisters do Zeus knows what to him just to extract the things we need to know.
Edda smirks. “Good luck with that.” Her eyes fleet away from us and widen, the first indication that Dagen isn’t far behind.
The way she looks at him, with admiration and relief, makes me want to drive her head into the sea and not let her come up until she’s no longer breathing.
Maybe I’ll get that opportunity.
“I came for support,” Tobias asserts suddenly at my side. A small jump from my body and I’m peering up at him giving me a weak grin.
“You should be babysitting,” I assert, glancing back to my prisoners.
“I have that one big guard watching her door. Arwa—Arowan—”
“Arwran,” I snort. “You only see him every time you’re here and butcher it while I correct you over a dozen times.”
“Just wanted to see if you remembered is all,” he chuckles lightly. I bump into his arm gently as Edda’s eyes go to her right.
&nb
sp; “Dagen,” she mutters loud enough for us to hear. “Are you hurt?”
Slowly, I bring my gaze to him, standing strong and tall, hands tied behind his back with seaweed.
“I’m fine,” he deadpans, stealing a look in my direction before landing back to his fellow clansmen.
Brylee steps ahead, her blue hair pulled back to illuminate the perfect bone structure of her face. “Should we start with the lot of you or your leader?”
Silence fills the air, except for the crashing of the waves on the beach. I’m on edge because Dagen’s life hangs in the balance, and my sisters and I hadn’t fully discussed our hard limits.
“The leader it is,” Brylee states, already striding in his direction.
“Watch yourself,” I warn her so that only she can hear me. “No slicing just yet. The woman will speak.”
“I have to at least jab him,” she replies back into my head. “To show them I’m serious.”
I fight the urge to roll my eyes and refrain from further replying because she’s right. A group full of Vikings isn’t going to give up information that easily.
“The cuff you came for,” Brylee announces to Dagen, who glances down at her. “What is it going to be used for?”
Nothing.
Brylee slams her fist into his torso, and he bows down in pain.
“The cuff,” she seethes, yanking him up by his hair. “Why do you want it?”
Another swell of quiet and Brylee backhands him.
Taking a step back, she looks over at his friends. “Anyone else want to speak yet? My twin, Atarah, is a little more ruthless than I am.”
“We don’t spill our secrets,” Edda berates.
“And what secrets would that be?” Nesrine inquires. “We were told your leader came here in search of farmland, but this is an island as you can see.”
Edda looks over at Dagen for confirmation and straightens her spin. “That’s right.”
Atarah scoffs loudly. “Liar.”
“Prove it,” Edda snaps.
“We will.” Atarah makes her way to Dagen, but I halt her with an extension of my arm.
“Let me do it.”
“Are you sure?” I don’t acknowledge her but march to him, feeling all eyes on me.
His blues land on me, and he uncoils his body to stand, looking at me with softness and care.
