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I knew who he was. Asterion. The minotaur. A legend of my mother's world. An infrequent visitor to The Seven Veils.
"Birsha kept me because I could survive more than human women," I said, not wanting to tell her the truth. My mother was a goddess. It meant less than nothing. It was why I'd been collected, and it'd done me no favors. "And you gain strength from pleasure?" she asked. Hedonism.
So what was this game of pretty objects and delicious sweets? What was the point of offering a starving woman beautiful crumbs?
My eyes stung and my throat tightened and my chest was sore. I wanted to bite at Asterion's warm, soft skin, to tear my way inside of him, as if I might hide my hollow places inside of his.
I was not a lodestone or a tool or a body to sleeve a monster's pleasure. I was a woman, and I wanted to live again!
Laszlo was Hywel's lover, alone in this vast castle with the company of shadows as the dragon dreamed.
We will have vengeance, pretty morsel. My hand slapped against Hywel's side, the weight of the words a great pound in my head that nearly toppled me. But his voice wasn't painful. It was stone and silk. It swarmed me, cradling me even as it bore down. I blinked and found one opalescent eye open and gazing back at me.
"So many misunderstand immortality," I murmured, drawing Laszlo's eyes back to me. "They think it means time passes faster, that days are minutes and years are days and we rush through our lives. But you cannot change the length of time, or how it stretches around you."
Some days I stood at the edge of hysteria, a scream clawing in my throat, a wild violence racing through me. Other days, the only thing that got me out of bed was not wanting to fall back into a nightmare.
"I will devote my life to protecting you. I will be your knight, your shield. I will stand between any danger and you, make any sacrifice,"
"We're going to take your heart, Evanthia," Hywel whispered. "We lay claim to it and to all of you. And if you want to fight us with your pretty claws and sweet little teeth, we will take your scratches and bites too. All of you."
"You smell like dragon cum. And gryphon too. You have them all over you, you practically shine with it. But when I'm in you, you smell like a bitch in heat."
"I do love you, Laszlo," I whispered. He surged up, joy glowing in his eyes as he dove for my mouth, a sharp cry pressed into the kiss, his free hand holding my face to his. We curled together, twining legs and arms around one another, tongues twisting and ragged breaths laughing. "How could I not?" I gasped, kissing over his cheeks. "How could I not love you, my sweetest, gentlest, most patient man?"
"You are my mate, Evanthia," Asterion rasped. "I will always find you, shelter you, protect you…love you."
"I love you. You are brave, even when you're frightened. You're here, my love, and you're not alone."
