Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 125422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 627(@200wpm)___ 502(@250wpm)___ 418(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 627(@200wpm)___ 502(@250wpm)___ 418(@300wpm)
“They’re poisonous,” I add.
At the top, Hanna puts her glowing hand on the door and unlocks it with ease. I glance at her before I enter, searching her face for a smirk or a sign of arrogance, anything that would tell me there’s still a spark of her underneath. How I yearn for her to tell me how badass she’s being, besting a God.
But there is nothing. Just Hanna’s beautiful but blank gaze of molten copper.
Still, I give her a nod of thanks and step inside the cave, while the rest of the party continues up the steep stairs.
Once inside, the troops murmur their surprise. The cave system is elaborate and long with high ceilings, not at all what they were expecting, I’m sure. I lead everyone through the lair, pointing out the different rooms and caverns where they can hunker down. Some of them are made up for entertaining and sleeping, a home away from home with animal skin rugs and furniture made of bones, but most of the spaces are empty. Still, it’s better than sleeping unprotected in the forest. At least here everyone will be safe and can finally get a good night’s rest.
“Where shall I go?” Hanna asks me.
I grab her hand and squeeze it tight. “You’re with me, my little bird. Come. I have a surprise.”
Her brows raise quizzically and I lead her down a tunnel to the left, the torchlights magicked to flame to life with a wave of my hand. We pass by my chambers, sparsely decorated with only a handful of furnishings, and I point it out to her before leading her further down the passage.
“Where are we going?” she asks idly.
“You’ll see.”
She points at the skull snails climbing up the sides of the walls, each one the size of a fist, with a different tiny animal skull housed on their back. “Do you have an infestation problem?”
“They cleanse away bad energy,” I tell her. “Helpful at a time like this.”
The tunnel leads to a narrow set of stairs and damp, warm, sulfur-scented air rises up to meet us as we descend.
“Here we are,” I say to her, gesturing around the small cavern that spreads out from the bottom of the stairs. The air is thick with warm humidity as a steaming creek runs through it, glowing a bright greenish blue as it gathers in a small bubbling pool. “My private hot springs.”
I lead her to the edge and then start taking off my clothes. I nod at her to do the same. “We are both filthy,” I tell her. “And normally I like that, but even I know when enough is enough. Take off your dress.”
“I am to go in there?” she asks, eyeing the pool.
“We are to go in there. To cleanse. And the heat will help our muscles. You must be sore.”
She gives me a haughty smile. “I am always clean and warm, Tuoni, and my muscles don’t need any help.”
I let out an exasperated sigh. “Fine. Then we’re doing it for me and I want my wife naked beside me, so I can fuck her.”
She frowns. “You could have just said that to begin with.”
I laugh, taking off my tunic and slipping out of my trousers, the cloth stained with blood and ichor, until I’m completely nude. Naturally, my cock is at full attention.
“I suppose that’s very Hanna of you,” I tell her. “Never mincing words. Now, take off that dress or I might take it off for you. Better yet, I will take it off for you.”
I stride over to her, cock bobbing as I walk which draws her attention. At least I see heat in her eyes, and not the type that comes from the sun. She might not be fully human, but this Goddess still has her primal urges, which is the most human thing of all.
I stop in front of her and reach for her dress. I’m impatient and my fingers are too large to handle such intricate laces, so I end up ripping the corset that’s laced up over the dress right down the middle, the sound echoing through the cave. The dark red gown, torn, dirty, and a few sizes too big for her, falls off her shoulders with ease, pooling at her feet like a blood stain.
I growl at the sight of her naked body, the urge to overtake her here and now nearly too powerful to contain, rumbling eagerly in my chest. But I wait for her to take off her boots, before I grab her hand and pull her to the hot springs. I enter the water first, steam rising from the glowing aqua, then beckon her to follow.
I wade to the opposite end where a bench has been carved out and sit down, my arms out over the rim of the pool, and watch as she steps hesitantly yet gracefully into the steaming water. I already feel a million times better. All the horrors that I’ve seen, all the souls that have been lost under my watch in this endless battle for my kingdom, they all seem to fade from my heart and mind as the hot water seeps deep into my muscles, soothing me.