This scene is the same as the regular Bonus Scene but with the addition of the spicy scene. You do not have to read the Regular Bonus Scene if you read this one.
As night stole over the Chasm and mountains, I shivered at the coolness. The moon had taken on a pinkish cast, the clouds a fusion of silver, charcoal, and gold. We had danced until both of us were breathless. Then Ramiel spun me to the edge of the bridge, brushed the dirt off a broad section of broken wall, and laid his cloak over it so we could sit.
Up above, the dragons continued to weave and fly. I could almost make out the pattern of the wind currents as they sliced through them.
Stars twinkled in the darkness.
I leaned into his warmth, my head resting against his shoulder as we watched the dragons dance through the night sky. His arm slid around my waist, pulling me closer, and I settled against him, ear over his heart. Its steady rhythmic beat was no longer constricted by cursed knots or cruel threads. The cloak itself provided far more comfort than I expected. Probably some other series of runes he’d worked into it. I’d spent many a long hour sitting on a cloak by a fire with Zephyrus at my back, and this was far more comfortable. Seeing him up in the sky, wheeling about on those great wings as he wove through the currents with his kin made my heart warm in ways I’d never expected.
“I never thought I’d have this,” I whispered. “After everything, even just in the past few days—the curse, the omenfang, the void—well, especially when I look back at the life I thought I had chosen…none of this seemed possible.”
“I never thought we’d be here either.” His fingers curled around my shoulder, and he nuzzled the top of my head. His scent filled my lungs and heated my blood. I had a mate. This was my mate. And he loved me as much as I loved him. His teeth grazed the side of my neck as he teased just beneath my ear. “But here we are. I think we both know what happens next.”
I raised an eyebrow at him, peering at him as coyly as I could from my awkward angle. “Well, aren’t you presumptuous?”
That brief look of shock on his face destroyed my ability to remain composed. Bursting into giggles, I fell back, covering my mouth. My head dropped onto his lap as I stretched out on the broken wall and peered up at him.
His expression softened, his shoulders going crooked as he met my gaze. His long silver hair fell down, framing his face and mine. “Do you enjoy being a tease?”
“I enjoy lots of things. Including the scent of your magic and the strength in your hands.”
“I have half a mind to bind you with your own threads and have my way with you,” he said, nuzzling my nose with his. “There are consequences to being a tease.”
“Well, if you decided to do that, you’d have to catch me first,” I murmured back. “And I do like to run.”
“So I shouldn’t let go of you. Understood.” He kissed beneath my ear again, then rested his forehead against mine.
“I could get away if I wanted to.”
“Could you?” He arched an eyebrow at me.
“Oh yes. Lucky for you, at the moment, I don’t want to.” I stuck my tongue out at him.
He pecked my cheek and then buried his face in the crook of my neck.
Bursting into giggles, I curled against him. “Stop, stop, stop. I’m ticklish.”
He lifted his head just enough to meet my gaze again, his eyes flashing wickedly. “Aha! I knew you had a weakness.” He dove back and began kissing up my neck and nibbling and tickling along the sensitive curve.
I dissolved into laughter, wriggling away as best I could. But his arms bound around me as he kissed up and down my neck, his breath hot against my skin. His chest rumbled with laughter.
He continued to nuzzle and nibble my neck just hard enough to make me squirm and laugh. “You horrible, horrible fae!” I gasped as tears streamed from my eyes. “I will have my revenge on you!”
“If your vengeance is as delicious as you, then I win again.” His lips found mine in a searing kiss. Then he pulled back, sighed, and swept in again. This time he took his time. Even when I tried to speed him along, parting my lips or tilting my head, he just adjusted and tormented me with slow, lingering kisses. His tongue teased mine expertly as he deepened the kiss. But he refused to quicken his pace. His hand cradled the back of my head. A soft groan rose from his chest. “I could spend eternity just enjoying the sweetness of your lips.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, catching that glint in his amethyst eyes. “If you don’t start intensifying this encounter, I swear I will bite you.”
“Oh, you bite?” He traced the tip of his nose down to my chin, chuckling. “I am deeply concerned. Perhaps we should cease these—”
“Rune fiend!” I kissed him fiercely then, surging up and covering his face with kisses.
He laughed as his arms swept around me again. He returned my kisses with teasing ardor, his one hand finding my breast and teasing even more. When I keened and started to arch, he pinned me back to his chest, grinning. “I am a fiend. Do you want to see how fiendish I can be?”
“Do your worst as long as you do something.” I bared my teeth at him.
“Oh…oh, I will do it very slowly, but it will be something. I promise you that. After all, I did promise you consequences.” He tugged at my gown and unfastened the ties. The binding at the sleeves fell off first, baring both my shoulders and sliding halfway down my breasts. I found more laughter bubbling up, but he stiffened.
All the play faded from his eyes, his gaze focused on my shoulder. His thumb stroked the breadth of the mark and the remaining scars that framed it. “If I had known you did this—” He closed his eyes.
Leaning in, I kissed him gently. His hand curled along my cheek and held me close.
“If I had listened to that witch and seen your face, I don’t know that I could have gone through with it,” I whispered. “But it was my choice. I made it believing it was the best. And…in the end, I am grateful that the healing brought us together.”
“Just because good came from it doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt,” he whispered against my cheek. His lips brushed mine, and he held me close. Then he dropped his mouth to my shoulder and kissed the mate mark, then the scars.
A prickling heat spread over me. Gratitude, love, arousal, all of it combined into one.
His lips found mine again. He tasted of mountain air and magic, a potent brew that made my head spin. I surrendered to him completely, reveling in the way his fingers traced fire across my skin and drew me close.
The ruins and the bridge faded away as he gathered me closer. The stone beneath us should have been cold, but I felt only heat—his heat, mine, the crackling energy between us that had always been there, even when we’d been at each other’s throats.
A dragon’s cry echoed overhead. Another followed. Then a third, a fourth. A whole chorus.
Our kiss deepened. He pressed closer, his arm supporting my head as the hard planes of his body pressed against mine. My fingers slid through his long silver hair, and I returned every kiss with equal passion.
His lips trailed down my neck as he palmed my breast. I arched up, biting my lip at the friction between us. A soft moan escaped my lips. With that same teasing madness, he gripped my wrists and pinned them over my head. Then he kissed his way down the column of my throat to my collarbone to the valley between my breasts. With a teasing smile, he then traced another line from one breast to the next. Those tortuous kisses continued. Each time I wriggled, he tightened his grip on my wrists.
His lips curved upward with sensual amusement, his eyebrow cocking as well. “Such impatience.” Then he descended upon me and began unlacing my gown.
He devoured my moans, my cries, my very breath as he tugged at my dress with one hand, and I reveled against him, grateful for every point of contact. Sharp but delightful curls of pleasure twisted through me. With surprising skill and a touch of magic, he succeeded in disrobing me, exposing me to the coolness of the night air. “You are more perfect than I could ever have dreamed,” he said, his voice rough with need. A growl rose in his throat, and he drew broad lines down my breasts to my waist to my hips.
I locked eyes with him, daring him to continue. “Well, don’t keep me waiting. When do I get to see you?”
Seeming to grow more serious, he removed his belt and unfastened his trousers. He never once looked away, and I held his gaze. Despite that marble calm, he was cracking. The strain tightened his jaw. As much as he was torturing me, he was torturing himself as well, drawing this out. A faint tremor twitched in his right hand. That laughter and hunger danced in his eyes.
I wanted to bait him more, but I couldn’t. The sight of him—his long, graceful lines, the muscles beneath his pale skin, and the dusting of silver hair—every inch of him was as beautiful and perfect as I could ever have imagined. My breath hitched.
“Rune fiend indeed,” I whispered as heat pooled in my belly. “But you are mine.”
“And you are mine,” he breathed back. Then he closed the distance between us, his body pressed against mine, his mouth claiming me, his scent and his magic becoming my world. I gasped into the kiss, my body arching against his as all the tension that had been building snapped in an instant. I clawed his back, his shoulders, his arms.
He groaned, shuddering, as I held him tighter. I hooked my leg over his. With a laugh and half shaded eyes, he settled against the cradle of my thighs. He dropped one hand to my lower abdomen, his fingers flexing teasingly. “You really are impatient.”
“I am.” I rolled my hips against him, savoring the sharp intake of breath that followed and the lustful glare he fixed upon me. “How long will you draw this out, sorcerer?”
“Long enough to make each touch feel like an eternity. Like I said: consequences.”
“Gah!” I dropped my head back against the stone, huffing. “It already does.”
“Are you saying you aren’t enjoying this?” That smile of his spread. He leaned in, mouth close to my ear, his breath hot. His voice dropped. “Liar.”
“Or maybe you’re just boring. I’m a very busy woman.”
His fingers found my scar once more, stroking its path and then moving to the mate bond. That delicious heat spread through me. “You have nowhere to be, nat. No reason to rush. We have all that time we want. And I will take my time with you.”
I bit back a shivering whimper and had to steel myself to glare at him. “You’re the worst. The absolute worst.”
He laughed. “Your worst.” He lifted my hips and settled me against him, slow and unyielding, hard as granite against me. “Always yours through the best, the worst, the good, the bad.”
I gasped, wrapping my arms around his shoulders, clawing at his chest, pulling him down against me, kissing him hungrily and fiercely. His low growl of approval rumbled through me.
When he finally moved, it was deliberate. Measured.
“Oh, oh! Knots take me.” I arched.
He pulled back with concern. “Too much?”
“You’re still too slow.” I gritted my teeth.
He laughed, relief flashing in his eyes. “Oh. Good.”
He kissed me again, refusing to be hurried as he resumed his slow thrusts.
Heat pooled and spread through me, every deliberate movement stretching and building the pleasure until it was an even more exquisite torture. An intense kind of magic that I wanted to languish in and speed through all at once. He tangled his fingers with mine and pinned them over my head again, deepening the kiss while his other hand explored with infuriating patience and shocking precision.
I could do nothing but clutch at him and let him take me at this maddening pace. Just when I thought I could not bear it, he slowed even more, grinding against me until I keened. Somehow he kept me on that knife’s edge, perfectly balancing his strokes and nuzzles.
“Thread rot!” I panted. “You’re going to destroy me.”
“Yes, I am.” A wicked edge sharpened his words. With sudden speed, he gave a series of quick, hard strokes, then returned to that unhurried, torturous pace. I was already on the brink, but his teasing kept me from crashing over the edge. How was he not going mad as well?
My breath came in ragged gasps as somehow the sensations kept building but never releasing. “Ramiel, please.”
“Please what?” The smugness in his voice sent another thrill through me.
I let out a needy, frustrated whimper.
“Tell me,” he said softly, tracing a line down my throat to my breasts before he leaned back enough to meet my gaze. “What do you need now, my love?”
I set my jaw. Apparently I was going to have to say it. “Take me. Take me hard and fast and stop stalling. Please.”
That smile of his broadened. “Whatever you need.” He released my hands and wrapped both arms around me, lifting my hips and adjusting our position. Leaning down again, he nibbled just below my ear, and I let out a small, desperate cry. The heat inside me expanded until it was all I could feel.
Then he thrust, faster, harder, deeper. His body arched over mine, and magic flared bright around us, crackling at the edges of my vision.
Every movement was perfectly timed and paced, and somehow I was able to savor it before the intensity broke me entirely.
“Ramiel,” I moaned. I shuddered beneath him. He was beautiful, ruthless, relentless, and mine. The heat that I thought couldn’t grow any more consuming did just that.
“Astraia.” His hand tangled through my hair, and his mouth covered mine, muffling my cries. Faster. Harder. Deeper.
His body pressed against mine, and he kept that bruising, dizzying pace with a precision that made my senses blur.
The whole world splintered apart.
I was lost to the world and found in his arms. Light and heat and bliss expanded through me, unending. Wave after wave of pleasure crashed over me. My head fell back as I gasped, sweat clinging to my brow and neck and breasts and shoulders. The coolness of the air contrasted sharply with the heat between us.
Thread rot…That was exquisite.
Slowly, we stilled, both of us breathless. He kissed me with his now typical slow intensity as he cradled me. Then he buried his face in the crook of my neck. “I love you, Astraia.” The words were a rumbling growl, one that fell to a whisper and then became a groan as he ground against me, slow and relentless. “I love you,” he said once more.
“I love you too.” I released my own long breath, every nerve singing with contentment and happiness. Slowly, reluctantly, he released me and rolled off. Heat flared through me all over again when our gaze locked once more.
“What? You’re embarrassed?” He tsked me as he picked up his fallen clothing. Smoothly, he pulled his trousers back on, then his tunic. “You have nothing to be ashamed of, my love.”
“I’m not embarrassed. I’m plotting vengeance.” I canted my head, setting my jaw. But that blush betrayed me. I couldn’t wait to explore his body again, and the thought of him exploring mine even more had me shivering with delight.
“Oh? You must resent how easily I made you pay,” he chuckled, lifting his eyebrows knowingly. “Well, you’re going to have to show me what you’ve got in all its blissfully tortuous combinations, and I will certainly prepare to enact my own particular vengeance on you.” His gaze dropped once more to my shoulder, and his expression softened. Leaning closer, he pressed his lips to the uppermost scar. The mate bond burned bright, no longer hurting but clear. “I am blessed beyond measure to have a mate who is so fierce and yet soft in all the right ways. I hope we have many, many years of mutually exquisite torment.”
“To many, many years of mutually exquisite torment.” I pulled my dress back on. The laces took some maneuvering, and my bodice was a touch crooked. A bit of magic helped right the rest and make everything fresh and tidy. And soon, we were once more just seated on that wall on his cloak, staring up into the sky as the clouds moved across the moon.
“Everything is as it should be,” he said softly. His arm tightened around me, keeping me tucked against his side. His mouth dropped near my ear, making me shiver with delight. “Would you like to see what the Chasm is like without the curse impeding our path before we go to bed?”
“It’s safe?” It certainly seemed different from here. The purple mist curling in the darkness reminded me of black fog over the ice. The pink moonlight caught those deep violet and indigo undertones and made them all the more magical.
He chuckled. “Yes. As safe as such a place can be. But safe enough I do not fear what happens if we enter.”
A smile curled at my lips. “As long as we don’t get eaten or trapped until the end of time, I’m more than willing.”
He took my hand in his and guided me to the rocky edge near the bridge, then down the craggy side to a path that was so slim I did not notice it. It looked as if it vanished, but as we maneuvered along the rocks, it coiled ever downward.
From here, it was clear that the Chasm did not entirely fill the valley. The barrier was a few inches to a few feet away from the natural stone, depending on the spot. Within those depths, a few dark shapes slid through the stone columns and natural rock formations.
His grip remained tight around my hand. Down, down we descended. As my eyes adjusted, I could see more of the strange world that lay within the Chasm. Giant creatures swam among the rocks, spectral and surreal. They twined around each other, twisting, vibrant and alive as they darted through the void and into rock. Was that the leviathan? Or more beings like him? They didn’t seem like they were quite large enough. It certainly wasn’t the chasm wraiths. A few had bulbous lights that flashed into existence and faded.
Up above, Zephyrus called out. His rough cry made me turn my head up.
Ramiel called back up to him. “I promise I’ll bring her back safe.”
Cupping my hands on either side of my mouth, I shouted up to him too. “Everything’s fine, big guy.”
A long shuddering croak of a snarl followed, suggesting he wasn’t delighted but accepted this.
“He’s always got an opinion,” I said with a smile.
Ramiel chuckled, the sound low but pleasant. “Most dragons do.” He squeezed my hand, winked, and drew me down along that narrow path, lower and lower.
“Have any of the creatures in the Chasm escaped and survived? Maybe because of magic or something else?” I asked.
“A few have escaped into the waking world over the many years and found ways to adapt or return.” He moved around a large boulder that blocked most of the path, then helped me up over it. His hands smoothed down my skirt and gripped my hip to steady me. “It’s always led to great chaos. But when they are permitted to live in this space—this wondrous and strange space—they help keep it in balance. Tomorrow there will be far greater tasks that require our focus and time. I’ll show you the work of tending the Chasm and the patterns of dragon flight and managing the barrier.”
The air around us hummed and grew cooler and damper. The dark shapes within continued their ballet, but now I saw circles and highlights of color as if some of the creatures within glowed.
The path narrowed and steepened. I almost slipped on the jagged rocks and loose gravel. He snagged my waist and drew me close. “Are you ready?” he asked, his mouth against my ear.
“Yes.” I nodded, my gaze fixed on the barrier that shimmered before us.
“Hold tight,” he whispered. With that, he stepped forward, drawing me along with him.
Cold and thick, the barrier pulsed around us. I gasped, feeling it like a living thing. This time it didn’t hurt to touch it. Not even a twinge. Just a rush of coldness. It was like moving through thick gel and water. A second later, we were on the other side, and the world came alive as we emerged on a broad clifftop.
Light and shadow danced together, a pulsing rhythm that made the ground feel like it was breathing beneath our feet. The sky above rippled with colors that shifted and merged—violet to jade to crimson. The air—atmosphere—whatever it was—it was thick with energy, buzzing against my skin. I shivered, thrilling at all the strange sensations.
“It tastes more like watercress than algae now,” I said, pleasantly surprised. It didn’t coat my tongue either. “No mud or copper. It’s just…this is so odd.” I’d never experienced anything like this. Sound carried with it a pressure, and yet it was not hard to speak or hear. My breathing was easy, unaffected by the atmosphere except for a bit of thickness.
He grinned. “The only thing better than getting to return is getting to share this moment with you. Down below is the place where my family and I often went.” He kept his hand on mine and then gestured toward the depths beneath. “This way, my lady. Get ready to jump.”
It didn’t even feel frightening. We just moved forward, leaping off the edge. Whatever the air was made of here, it slowed our descent. My skirt poofed but did not slide up too far. It felt like sliding through a cloud that was the perfect temperature, just cool enough to be bracing but not unpleasant.
Down, down, down we slid into the chasm. Little flickers of light sparked.
Some of the smaller creatures darted toward us, drifting close enough that I could make out their tiny, phosphorescent bodies. They flickered like fireflies before darting into the mist.
Shapes of all kinds—spheres, spirals, triangles—glowed and drifted like animated constellations. Some flashed in bright bursts with wings while others just hung like ghostly lanterns.
Our feet touched down on a broad expanse of stone. The ground glowed beneath us in a muted spectrum, veins of color leaking through the rock.
But the creatures did not attack. Not even a chasm wraith was near. It was…peaceful down here.
Light down here came only from jellyfish-like creatures, some with tentacles and others with clusters of beads. They cast us in pale-blue, pale-purple, and pale-pink light. Iridescent moths fluttered around them, their wings rippling in response to the pressure. Large clusters of coral jutted out of the rocks along with crystal formations. A pale-green moth landed on a crystal, and the crystal shattered—into dozens of narrow silver fish.
My skin prickled, my body not fully liking this place but not hating it either. The sensation from being so close to Ramiel made up for it. So did the natural albeit alien beauty. If the space beyond the barrier had been a nightmare, this was more a dream. “You’re sure it’s safe down here for both of us?”
“Where we are now? For a little bit longer. When it’s time to leave, we’ll open a portal and leave through that.” Ramiel pressed his forehead to mine once more. “Now that the leviathan is calm, this portion of the Chasm is not nearly so hostile.” His lips brushed my cheek, then found my lips. “None of the larger predators can get through the outcroppings.”
“You’ve been here often then?”
His expression turned wistful, eyes still bright though touched with an old ache. “Many times with my family and my fellow Sentinels. Then far too many times on my own. Like I said, this is a special place.”
He drew me back to a section beneath an overhang. From here, I could see through an arching coral that framed the expanse in a textured frame.
“Ordinarily this is where I would have gone to help the leviathan.” He patted the coarse stone outcropping. It was like a living cathedral. The colors had a depth to them despite being so delicate. The inky purple black was terrifying and beautiful. If I had to swim above and to reach the surface through that, I’d likely feel the fear more than the beauty.
But from here, with my beloved’s arm around my waist and that delightful pressure in my ears and against my chest, it felt more like walking in a good dream.
As if on cue, a large form appeared before the opening, a dark-orange eye blinking open and fixing upon us. A deep trilling hum followed.
I drew back instinctively and yet smiled at the same time. The leviathan. It was like he’d been waiting for us.
He tilted his head, his pupil broadening into a diamond shape. At this angle, he was far too large to enter the narrow chasm we were in. But his heavy lidded eye regarded us with quiet curiosity and he nudged closer, tilting his head so that the side of his face was pressed against the opening.
Ramiel reached out and stroked the scales along his jawbone.
A deep hum similar to the dragon’s purr rumbled from the leviathan’s chest. It made me wonder if perhaps once the leviathans and dragons shared an ancestor.
“I can’t even see a trace of the wound,” Ramiel said to the leviathan. “You sound more your old self.”
The low vibrating hum passed into me as well, and it sounded like the leviathan was saying something I couldn’t quite understand. Here in the calm, it was easy once more to see that there was far more than a beast. “Does he have a name?”
“I’m sure he does, but he has never given it.” That small smile of his curled at his lips. “Perhaps one day.”
That made me smile too. I still remembered so vividly when Zephyrus had found me. The way he’d pressed his head to mine each night. It had taken a few days—maybe a week. Then I’d known his name. It just appeared in my thoughts, and when I spoke it, I knew. One of the small things that happened that helped me believe once again in magic and that things could be…good.
Stretching out my hand, I stroked the leviathan’s cheek and jaw as well. His scales were far coarser than a dragon’s as he tread here. But then they went flush, becoming smooth as silk as he turned and swam away.
His humming song carried around us, swirling up and up through the layers of light and pressure. The many other strange creatures joined in, their songs rising and falling in haunting harmony.
“So,” I said, my voice soft. “This is it. This is one of the perks of being a Sentinel.”
He smiled softly. “One of many.” His grip on my waist tightened in a way that was both tender and possessive. He kissed the top of my head, then glanced over his shoulder.
“One more thing.” He guided me over into the tightest corner of the coral-like formation and the side of my head to its coarse surface. I stiffened as the myriad of sounds poured over me, the pressure intensifying yet somehow soothing.
Up above, the dragon chorus continued. The voices had taken on a different timbre down here. And I felt the sound through my own body. Ramiel tucked his body into the nook so that his head rested against the stone. With that soft smile, he gestured for me to come to him.
Zephyrus was home. And I was home. My gaze returned to Ramiel’s, and I smiled so big my face hurt. And finally after years, we all had families again. Not the same as what we had once had. No. Nothing could replace them. But different and special in a way that I would always cherish.