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)
She responds to my words, her muscles gripping me tightly as she surrenders to the pleasure that courses through her veins. Her cries fill the air, each one more fervent than the last as her body trembles wildly, her back arching, her neck exposed.
“Tuoni!” she shouts, music to my ears that makes a stalactite crumble in the distance. Her words ignite a fire within me, and I thrust harder, deeper, my cock pulsing with the need to claim her completely. My heart races in time with our movements as I bury myself inside her once more.
“I won’t stop,” I promise her, my voice hoarse with desire. “I’ll never stop, as long as you want me.”
She moans, still coming, her hips bucking to meet each thrust, her body arching beneath me in perfect sync with my movements as the water sloshes around us. Her eyes are closed, lost in the passion of the moment, but I can see emotion on her brow, the hunger, the need, and the pure unadulterated raw pleasure that overtakes us.
As we continue to move together, faster, deeper, the water whirling around us in a violent frenzy, I feel myself nearing my own release. The sensation is intense, overwhelming. I’m dizzy with it.
Dizzy with my feelings for her as they overtake me like a storm.
“I love you,” I whisper hoarsely into her ear, feeling terribly vulnerable as I share these words for the first time. “I've loved you since the moment I saw you, and I’m sorry I never told you sooner. I didn’t know. I was a fool blinded by his own power and ambition and ego, and I didn’t know.”
Her eyes flick open, and she looks at me with an intensity that takes my breath away. I sense Hanna just underneath, I sense her taking stock of my admission and what it means. But she’s still buried beneath a sheen of indifference.
I grab her face in my hands and stare at her, willing her to appear. “I just want you to love me again, Hanna,” I plead, heart on the line. “It’s all I want in the end. You and your heart and your soul. All of which you once gave me so freely, all of which I hope still burns for me somewhere.”
She gives me a wan smile, desire slowly fading from her eyes.
“And I hope I can give you that someday,” she says.
Some day. But not today.
CHAPTER 33
TUONEN
It’s impossible to measure time in this godsforsaken cave. I know days have passed because I feel it in my bones, a numb ache in my ankles from pacing, a dull throb in my head from the stale air. Vipunen’s cavern is vast and dripping with echoes, but it has no markers of day or night. The only light comes from bioluminescent lichen that glows faintly along the walls. I’ve counted their patterns until madness lurks at the edges of my mind.
Did I say lurks?
I meant to say the madness has already overtaken me for I am going fucking stir crazy.
Rauta, the best of all dogs, lies curled at my feet, whining occasionally. He’s restless too. He misses the Library of the Veils and the steady supply of dog bones at Shadow’s End. I run a hand over his wiry fur, grateful he’s here to ground me, my only friend. Without him, I might have lost track of reality altogether, drifting into the murk of memory and fear. I’m worried about Sarvi, about my father, about Lovia, about Hanna, about the war raging aboveground. Waiting here feels like betrayal. I want to move, to do something, instead of sitting on my haunches and twiddling my damn thumbs.
Vipunen, the giant, remains as cracks of light in the stone, his hidden form blurring with the darkness. When he does speak, it’s always cryptic riddles and vague admonitions. He insists we must stay. He claims the Creator has a plan. He insists that deviating leads to unpredictable ends. I’ve tried reasoning with him, begging for more information, but his light only dims in response, as if I’m a child with no grasp of destiny.
But I’m not a child and I don’t want to believe in destiny anymore.
I rise to my feet, Rauta stirring at my movement. My spine cracks as I stretch. I’ve had enough of this waiting. My father is out there facing who knows what horrors and I’m stuck in this cave with riddles and silence. Every hour here feels like a blade twisting in my gut. I can’t stand it. Either I go forward and join my father in his war, or go backward and try to save Sarvi, but either way I have to go.
Rauta stands too, ears perked as if sensing my resolve. He’s waited patiently, only dozing fitfully. At least we’ve had some meager food—dried bitter strips of fungi, and water dripping from stalactites, gathered in briny pools. But it’s not enough to blunt my hunger for change. I pace toward the lights in the stone, fists clenched.