Queen of Darkness (War of Heavenly Fire Book 1)

by Devyn Sinclair

Suddenly the bed feels too hot, and I toss the covers off of myself and head to the balcony. A stronger wind that normal whips across the island. The sky is clear, never-ending blue with a bright moon and stars breaking through. Why now? Why like this?

  I feel him before I hear the footstep. Atlas, still in shining armor, steps from the darkness of my room onto the balcony with me. He looks drained and driven at once. “You’re back.”

  He doesn’t speak, just pulls me to him. I don’t care that his armor is filthy, still stained with dirt and too-dark blood. I care that he’s kissing me like he hasn’t before. It’s different. It’s complete. Willing. All-in.

  “Malakai was right,” he says, voice rough in the darkness. “And that insufferable prick will never let me live it down.” I don’t have a chance to reply before he’s kissing me again. The armor vanishes from between us and now I can feel the heat of his skin. No clothes. Completely bare against me.

  The moon shines on dark skin, painting him with light. He’s never looked more like an angel. This is what painters see when they imagine perfect men with wings and painted them. He is the inspiration for all the pictures and all the stories.

  “What happened?”

  He shakes his head. “Nothing happened. It was a battle of no consequence. Just like every one seems to be now. And still, if something had happened—and no matter what anyone tells you, something can always happen—I knew I would regret it if I did not see you again.”

  “But you don’t know,” I say. “Who I am to you.”

  “I will know,” he says. “because I have to. It’s who I am. I need to solve the mysteries in the world. Old and new. But mysteries can always be enjoyed.”

  Atlas takes his hands and runs them through my hair, gathering it together and letting it fall again. Slow and sensual and completely made of tingles. “I’m a mystery?”

  “First one I haven’t been able to solve.”

  “Why?” I lean into his hands, letting him melt me with every movement.

  He pulls me back through the doors to my bed, picking me up and laying me out across it. “The hardest thing for someone that loves knowledge to admit. That not everything has a why. Some things just are.”

  My nightgown disappears before him and tiny silver flames grace a few of the candles in my room. Just enough to see his shape. Perfect and gorgeous and hard. I reach for him before he catches me by the wrist. “No.”

  “I want you.”

  “You’ll have me,” he vows. “but first I will have you.”

  Atlas’s skin is hot on mine, but it’s heat that’s created between the two of us. Nothing more or less than desire. “I want you to feel good with me.”

  Catching one nipple between his lips, he sucks it deep. All the words go fizzing out of my head replaced by shimmering waves. “Your pleasure is my pleasure,” he says moving to the other nipple, making sure it’s just as hard as the first. His teeth graze my skin and I realize I’m not consciously moving. When my back arches up into him. When I spread my legs for him, it’s like it was meant to happen and destined a long time ago.

  “Did you feel me?” I ask. “At the battle?”

  Atlas licks a line of heat up to my neck, nearly to my ear. “The battle?”

  “I dreamed you. Saw through all of your eyes. It woke me.”

  He pulls back far enough to look me in the eyes. “Yes. I felt you. Here.” A kiss directly between my breasts. The center of my chest. He sinks down my body, determined. Nips and kisses across my stomach marked with starbursts of flame that flash in the dim light. His fingers follow the line of his mouth, and fire licks up, staying there. He’s lit me on fire. One inch of me at a time, wherever he touches, shining flames follow. Drawing symbols and patterns. My nipples streak with flame. And every touch he adds sends me higher with that impossible, relentless pleasure.

  Atlas drags his palm down the center of me, and I heave in a breath. Nothing about this is painful, but the sight of my skin on fire is not something I ever thought I would enjoy. I’m still not in control, body wracked with shudders of pleasure that will not drive me over the edge. Only let me drown until I die of desperation.

  “Atlas.”

  His features are stark in the silver light of his flames, and I can see all of him. On his knees over me, every inch of his body is chiseled, cock thick and hard and raging though I cannot touch him. He’s power and beauty at once. And he’s gazing down at me with awe and that same mischief in his eyes.

  One flick of his finger, and my clit is set ablaze. I can feel it. That’s the tipping point. I’m crushed under the weight of pleasure and flame, imploding. I cannot scream, there’s no voice left. Everything I have is taken and absorbed in the force of the blow. And it keeps going. All flames are extinguished, replaced by Atlas’s mouth on my clit. His tongue sparks power as he licks, tracing down to the entrance of my pussy and back. Circling me with his tongue before fucking me with it. Seeing stars doesn’t describe it. I think I’m seeing a meteor shower.

  “You’re cheating,” I moan. It’s too much. All the power.

  Atlas laughs, hand suddenly splayed on my stomach. All the power draws back into him, and I sag onto the bed. “If you think I can’t make you come without that, you’re wrong.”

  I manage a smile. “Prove it.”

  He grins. “You’re wicked.”

  “Yes.”

  Hands push my thighs apart so I’m stretched before me, and Atlas plunders me like a feast. Lips and teeth and tongue that’s suddenly pushed so deep inside that I moan. Slick, intimate, and enough to make me shake. The way he seals his mouth over me—sucking and then plunging in again—has me grasping the bed sheets.

  Atlas teases his way back to my clit. One side and then the other he circles, finding the little space where I moan and focusing all his attention there. Over and over and over with perfect steadiness. I rise impossibly higher from the simple movement, and I squirm under his tongue. but he doesn’t falter for a moment. “Oh,” I breathe. “Oh, oooooooh.” My voice is one long sound. I come again, this time a rumbling and slow orgasm that rocks me to the core. I flood his mouth with new wetness, and Atlas groans, sucking harder to finish me off.

  “Seems like you had the same idea I did, Atlas.” A new voice makes me jump, and I look to see Kai step into the dim candlelight. He’s naked too, hair damp. He must have showered when he returned.

  Atlas doesn’t seem surprised. I’m sure he knew that Kai was watching. He smirks. “She tastes amazing.”

  Kai raises an eyebrow. “Willing to share?”

  I laugh, “Do I get a say in this?”

  Both sets of eyes snap to mine, and the tone goes cold. “Of course, Arielle,” Kai says. “If you want to say no, we would never cross that line.”

  Atlas tugs me up off the bed and into his arms. “There is never a time when you feel like you can’t get out. Especially after Tartarus.”

  “Thank you.”

  Kai stands before us, “Do you want us to go?”

  “No,” I say quickly. “It’s not what I meant. I’m just,” I falter, “I’m not used to people talking about sharing me like this. I want it. I want you. I do. But I also can’t pretend that it’s not a little strange.” I realize when my voice disappears that not one word was a lie.

  He smiles. “That’s true. We’ve had a chance to get used to the idea of sharing, since it would be this or nothing. For you, it must be a whirlwind.”

  “A good one,” I breathe.

  Atlas pulls me more fully into his lap, hard cock pressing against my ass. I resist the urge to wiggle and torture him. It would be so easy to do it. And so cruel. “She tastes like ginger,” he says, words sending vibrations through me. “and peaches. Honey.”

  I’m lost in the feeling of his lips on my skin. So lost that I don’t realize the way he has me restrained until it’s too late. My arms are behind my back, pinned against his chest. And his legs curve around mine, spreading them wide. Right in front of Kai. “Sound
s delicious,” he says, kneeling in front of me. “And that looks like an invitation.”

  Here, now, I can see all of his body. Long and lean, the lines of his hips leading down to a cock that’s long. Longer than I’ve ever seen. He’s pale like Cassian, but there are more glittering tattoos, and his skin fades in and out of shades of color, just like his smoke and wings. He runs his nails down the inside of my thighs, and Atlas keeps me from jerking in response. “It’s not fair,” I moan. “I want to touch you.”

  “I am touching you,” Atlas whispers in my ear.

  “Don’t pretend you don’t know exactly what I mean. Fuck.”

  Kai’s tongue grazed me. Barely there. Almost nothing, but enough to draw my every nerve to attention after Atlas’s onslaught. The angel holding me was rigorous and unyielding. I expected Kai to be the same, but he’s not. Every motion is smooth and slow. Languorous. His tongue covers me in rolling waves. Even when he speeds up, moves faster it’s like thick, rich molasses being poured over me. He pinches my clit with teeth and lips, explores every part of me with his mouth until there is not an inch of my pussy that he has not tasted. My thighs shake, pinned as they are, and I’m still wet for more.

  The sound of pleasure he makes has my head rolling back onto Atlas’s shoulder. “She does taste good.”

  Atlas laughs, the movement making his cock press harder against my ass. “We might need to re-think some things, Malakai.” ‘

  A long slow thrust inside my pussy before he answers. “Like?”

  “I no longer feel the need to buy bulk gelato,” Atlas says, pulling my arms tighter behind me and gazing his lips over my ear so lightly my body breaks out into shivers. “Not when Arielle’s pussy tastes like a fucking dessert.”

  I curse, making them laugh, and I squirm in Atlas’s hold. I need to move. To get Kai closer so that I can have more of his mouth or away so that I can have a rest from that blasted, wicked tongue. I’m not sure which. But I’m held fast in their grip. “I don’t.”

  Another long plunge deep into my pussy with Kai’s tongue, and then he’s standing, leaning closer, kissing me. That same plunging motion between my lips. I can taste myself on his tongue. I’m so hot, so lost in the wave of arousal that I couldn’t tell you what I taste like if there was a sword to my throat. “I beg to differ,” he says when he wrenches away from my mouth. “I’d like to spread you out on top of the terrace table and eat you after every meal.”

  “You’d have to share,” Atlas says.

  “Of course,” Kai laughs, licking into me again. “Desert for everyone.”

  I try to say something snarky back, but I don’t have it in me. Not when his tongue swirls around my clit just the way I need it, and I groan. Soft and slow, those strokes pull pleasure from the depths of my bones. From places that I didn’t know that it could hide.

  Sudden emotion shocks me. This is crazy. They’re doing this for me and not for anything in return. I can’t remember a time when I’ve had that. On an assignment. I’m the one that’s supposed to be giving them everything that they need. But I already knew this wasn’t an ordinary assignment.

  My orgasm washes in like a tide, sweeping up to the edge but not pulling me down. Not yet. Pure, vibrant power flickers from Kai’s tongue. Directly on top of my clit. The wave pulls me down, and I feel the connections between us surge with light. I cry out, surrendering to the pleasure and finding myself held. Cradled. Kai keeps his mouth sealed over me, sucking in pulses that draw out every last bit or my orgasm. More waves of the tide.

  Atlas stretches my legs wider so I cannot run away from it. Holds me still as the pleasure has its way with me, and finally wraps his arms around my chest when I sag, spent and exhausted.

  Light blazes in the room so bright that it burns my eyes, and then Solomon is standing right there in the center of the room, fully clothed. He doesn’t look angry when he sees me held, Kai’s mouth between my legs. Just...nothing.

  His ambivalence almost hurts more.

  “I should have known.”

  Kai turns with a sly smile. “Finally come to your senses?”

  “No.” The word hangs like frost in the air before it shatters. “Absolutely not.”

  Without a word, Atlas shifts me on his lap so I’m in a more chaste position, and Kai steps into my bathroom and comes back with a robe. I let him wrap me in it, let him press a tender kiss to my lips before he turns to the angel that’s burning with emotions I cannot name.

  “Why not?” Atlas asks.

  “I cannot believe you have to ask me that,” Solomon says. “She belongs to hell.”

  Kai steps in front of me like he would protect me from his words. But Solomon is right. More than they know. “No one belongs to hell, Sol.”

  “You don’t know what kind of hold on her they have on her. What she could be feeding back to them.”

  Kai crosses his arms, and I move around him enough to see him smirk. “I think you’re simply jealous that you don’t know how she tastes. Delicious, by the way.”

  Anger flares, and Atlas steps in-between them. “Now’s not the time, Kai.” He turns, voice calm and reasonable. “Kai’s bad timing aside. This is what we thought we were giving up, and now we do not have to. We know that you feel this too.”

  “You barely know her,” Solomon seethes. “And yet you’re both already twisted around her like it doesn’t matter.”

  “It does matter,” Kai says. “It’s everything. Read me, if you have to, Sol. I’ll let you see everything. This is not something we can turn our backs on. Not now.”

  I place a hand to my chest. It seems strange that this would hurt, after everything. After knowing with certainty what I’m here to do. But I was so sure that he would see. That he would change his mind and trust me. That I could get him on board. But the coldness in his eyes feels like a betrayal that I can’t explain. It makes me feel small.

  “This is impossible. She’s human. You know what that means.”

  Atlas straightens to his full height. “Read her then.”

  Everything goes quiet. Solomon asks. “What?”

  “You keep talking about Arielle like she’s not in the fucking room, Sol. Ask her. If she’ll let you search her mind for this tampering that you’re so concerned about. And nothing more, because you’re not yourself, and I won’t let you rip apart her mind because of anything that happened in the past.”

  Solomon goes stock still. There’s something that I’m missing, but I don’t dare speak to ask what it is. I don’t want any attention on me. I can’t let Solomon’s power search for anything. If he does, he’ll find everything. The infernal spark buried in my soul. The fact that I cannot actually be trusted. Everything.

  Every time that Atlas and Kai have used power on me, it’s been a transfer. Something arcing between my body and there’s. It hasn’t been seeking anything. Solomon will not be the same. But I don’t have a reason to say no.

  “You weren’t there,” Solomon says.

  “No,” Kai says. “We weren’t. And we have our own pain that runs just as deep. You don’t get to use yours as an excuse to what could be a gift from the holy flame.”

  Solomon sighs, shoulders slumping. This is an argument that they’ve had before, and he knows he will not now. Though they don’t realize it, they’re standing in a perfect triangle, like their bond arranges them that way whether they want to or not. “Fine,” he says.

  There’s a knock at the door. I jump.

  “Yes?” Solomon calls.

  A male angel enters, barely scanning the room. He doesn’t seem at all bothered by the two naked archangels or the human trying to make herself invisible in the corner. He says something softly into Solomon’s ear and then exits. “Fuck,” Solomon spits out, scrubbing a hand across his face. “This will have to wait.”

  “Why?” Atlas asks.

  “It was a distraction,” he says, striding out the room. He does not look at me before he goes.

  Kai is cursing under his breath. Atla
s turns to me. “That could have gone better.”

  “Yeah,” I say. “Probably.”

  He kisses my forehead. “I do not want to leave you.”

  “This is who you are,” I say as Kai kisses my temple too. “Do not apologize for it.” But even as I say it, I hate how quickly they’re gone. I watch them disappear over the horizon, until their wings are nothing but one speck of glitter among the stars.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  _______

  They do not return as quickly this time, and I do not dream of them again. I eat breakfast alone on the terrace, looking out at the view and wondering what kind of battles they’re facing. And for the first time in days, I wonder what is happening in the Underworld.

  This certainly isn’t the longest amount of time that I’ve spent on an assignment, but Arad will be eager for this one. If I were anywhere else, on any other assignment, I could go home for a few hours. I’ve done it before. Sneak away from whatever place I’m infiltrating and create a gate. But I have a feeling if I tried to do that the cuffs would stop me. Or they would shatter completely.

  I wander the grounds for a while. The sun is cool and bright today, a little bit of the outside chill leaking through the angelic temperature control. There are far fewer angels here today. I’m sure that whatever ones live here, some are with the trinity. The entire population of angels do not live on this island. Not even close. But enough that their absence is significant.

  Though the angels I do see don’t avoid me as much. A couple even smile at me. Though I still seem to find myself alone, with the exception of guards. Which is why I’m surprised that there’s an angel that doesn’t avoid me when I walk my favorite garden. There’s a gorgeous and wide fountain in the center, and the breeze nearly always cools your skin with mist. If you’re sitting there, the site of all the flowers and the sound with water can be peaceful. I’ve never seen an angel stay when I entered. Except this one.

  She’s beautiful, like all angels are, but there’s something about her that seems different. On the surface she looks about my age, but as I draw closer to her, she reminds me of the trinity. This angel is old. Her power runs deep, in the way that makes you cautious. She’s using a pair of shears to prune the rose bushes. Though the gauzy white dress she’s wearing doesn’t seem like it would be convenient for garden work. Her long white hair is braided over her shoulder.