The Serpent and the Wings of Night (Crowns of Nyaxia, #1)

by Carissa Broadbent

surely his fingernails were leaving marks. Good. I wanted him to.

To reduce him to the whimpering mess that he’d just made of me.

“Should I make you beg?” I brushed my lips over him again.

“I would beg,” he murmured. “For you, I would. You have fucking destroyed me, Oraya. Do you know that?”

“You’re holding back.”

“Oraya.” He whispered it like a prayer against my skin. “Oraya, Oraya, Oraya.”

“Why am I not surprised that you were the one to draw blood?” I licked my lips, tasting a residual drop. “Maybe I understand what you see in it.”

I would never be able to carve Raihn from my heart. He had embedded too deep. Roots through stone.

this split-second of hesitation. But for me, a million possibilities lived in that moment. Fantasies. Fairytales. Useless dreams.