Trial of Three Read online

  Which was all the leeway the girl needed.

  Twisting her wrists against Coal’s thumbs, Lera broke free of his hold. Her mouth still locked with his, she jerked them around, slamming Coal’s back into the wall in her place. Driving into him hard enough that his bones rattled from the impact. Releasing Coal’s mouth, Lera glared up at him, her eyes . . . usually a stunning brown, but now filled with speckles of silver magic, sparkling like tiny stars over the irises.

  Not a weak, fragile human, but an equal. A predator to be conquered.

  Lera’s nails raked across Coal’s chest possessively, ripping skin. Marking him.

  A roar formed inside his soul and spread through his body, the untamed beast inside him yanking against its tether. Coal knew that beast, made of power and magic. When the qoru had chained him, bled him, pinned him against the wall and used him for sport, the magic inside Coal had roared this way too, right before turning him into a beast capable of meeting his owners blow for blow.

  The beast had let Coal survive Mors. And now it set its predatory sights on the female, drowning out the last of Coal’s better sense.

  Coal yanked on Lera’s right wrist, bending it until her knees buckled. Pulling the wrist across her body, he twisted the female around and shoved her chest into the wall.

  With Lera’s arm now pinned into the small of her back, Coal pressed himself against her, his hard, sensitive cock striking her backside. Coal’s nostrils flared, Lera’s scent, her arousal, heating his blood. Bringing up his knee, he forced it between her legs, wedging her thighs apart until she was splayed open before him.

  Lera’s heart pounded—Coal could feel it through the press of their flesh. Dropping his free hand down, he gave no warning before plunging two fingers deep into her sex.

  Wet, flaming slickness met him, Lera’s body begging for him even as she struggled to get free. A perfect, powerful body whose every contraction made stars dance before Coal’s eyes.

  Coal slipped his hand out of her long enough to free himself, his cock hard and dripping. Screaming with need. With no breath left, he thrust forward, sheathing himself in Lera’s wicked tightness.

  10

  Lera

  I gasp as Coal thrusts into me, the great length of him filling my body as his equally great power fills my essence. Magic explodes inside me, my sex tightening around Coal. My shoulder burns where he has my arm twisted behind me, but even the pain is a rumble that wakes my senses, somehow making the roaring pleasure in my sex even more vivid.

  The power of Coal’s thrusts brings me to my toes, his hot breath scorching the back of my neck. My heart pounds, the energy exploding between us ready to rip the room into shreds.

  I feel . . . strong. Stronger than I did in the ring this morning. Stronger than I’ve ever felt in my life. As if a fog has lifted from the bridge linking Coal and me, revealing Coal’s power in all its intoxicating, undiluted glory.

  Shoving away from the wall, I knock us both backward, caring nothing for what might be in the way. We crash onto the hard floor, my body screaming its fury over the sudden, unintended loss of Coal’s cock. I scramble to pull him back into me, my flailing limbs connecting with something that sends a rain of weapons and armor clattering down to the stone floor.

  Coal grips my hair as he climbs to his knees. His blue eyes flash with specks of black and purple, and as our gazes meet, images of gray-skinned qoru flash in the aching depths of my mind.

  Our other connection surfacing to play, the fog fighting to reclaim its throne.

  Panic flashes in Coal’s gaze, the images coming faster now. Shackles. Pain. The dampened sounds of those bent-the-wrong-way legs approaching in the Gloom. Fear and fight.

  This close, I feel Coal’s desperate, bloodcurdling struggle to stay in the present. A fight that the black specks in his eyes say he is losing. My heart breaks.

  “Leave,” Coal pants, his jaw clenched, his muscles quivering, his hair gleaming silver in the moonlight. “Break for the door and run.”

  Run before I see more, before what remains of Coal’s control fails. This is what the male’s every moment is like, I realize with sudden shock. A struggle to keep his past shoved down to a dark corner of his mind. To protect the world—and me—from himself.

  “There are two of us to fight the qoru now,” I shout into Coal’s face. “Try to hoard them all for yourself and I will tear open your throat.” I mean it too, drunk as I am on our shared power. Shared darkness. I want Coal. With all his jagged edges, his raw, brutal strength that makes me unable to stay still for my throbbing need.

  Purple flashes in Coal’s eyes. With a growl, he yanks me up and throws me away from him. A dull pain I don’t truly feel tells me I’ve struck something—likely the dresser, given its subsequent crash, drawers slipping free.

  I recover into a crouch. Bending my knees, I lower my head and step around Coal, aiming my shoulder for the bend of his hips. Coal’s flesh, fully naked, glistens with sweat. Muscles I’ve never seen before flicker and bulge under his tawny skin as he crouches across from me. For an instant, my gaze catches on the taut, wet length of him, noting that it belongs inside me. By the time the thought penetrates, I’m already moving.

  My shoulder strikes Coal with more speed and force than I thought possible, the impact echoing gloriously through me.

  Coal absorbs the blow, his lithe body spinning with the force of my strike, turning the momentum to his own purposes. His heavy hand shoves between my shoulder blades, propelling me toward his bed.

  I slam into the foot of the bed, gasping as the male bends me over it. With a rough pull, Coal rips the silk nightshift off my back, cold air brushing my exposed shoulder blades and my raised, bared backside.

  One hand sliding to the nape of my neck, Coal rakes the other possessively over my skin, reaching down to grip my breast with his calloused palm.

  I whimper.

  “Quiet,” Coal commands, as if I can control the sounds his body is calling forth from mine. The hand on my breast squeezes punishingly, and I gasp from the sudden pain that zings from my nipple straight to my apex, waking me with brutal efficiency.

  Grabbing my shoulder, Coal flips me over to face him. Shackling both my wrists with one hand, he looms over me, his free palm engulfing my breast again, his hard cock pressing against my mound.

  Gray skin flashes in my mind, sending a streak of terror through my core.

  Coal grips my face at once, forcing my eyes to meet his. The male’s blue-purple gaze opens my soul. Bares his to me in return. Coal saw the qoru too. But now—now we see each other.

  My eyes widen with understanding. Whether stretching through the nightmares’ fog or passion’s light, it is this raw, vulnerable intensity that forges the link between us. That, for good or ill, makes Coal’s magic sing loudly enough for me to echo.

  Coal’s mouth descends upon mine, hard and desperate, his masculine musk flooding my senses. He’s sharing his strength with me, his magic, giving me all of himself to arm me against darkness. Accepting my strength in return. And I love him for it.

  When our air is gone and my lungs scream for breath, Coal pulls away from the kiss.

  At once, my mouth misses the invasion of his, empty without his warmth filling it. I flex my head up and sink my teeth into Coal’s neck. “Get back where you belong,” I rasp, the emptiness inside me roaring.

  A snort, then Coal flips me right back over the foot of the bed. Parting my thighs with his knees, the male buries himself inside me with a hard, well-aimed stroke. I moan as my body stretches to accommodate his length, but Coal gives no quarter. Hands braced on the crests of my hips, he starts pumping, hitting my insides so deep that I feel his reverberations through my core. My moans and pants fill the room, each one fueling Coal’s cock, making his strokes wilder, harder.

  My sex tenses around him, each slap, slap, slap of Coal’s pelvis against my backside bringing me one step closer to the edge. The sheer size of him, the powerful thrusts, the rub of his
throbbing cock along my channel’s ridges . . . Stars. Waves of desire pound my body, a storm of growing, unbearable need. My fingers grip the sheets, my voice filling the air. “More.”

  One of Coal’s hands rips free of my hip and tangles itself in my hair. He yanks my head up, the pain in my scalp as excruciating as the need of my swollen sex, my body instinctively slamming back into his just as—

  All of my muscles seem to tense at once, my body arching from the pressure. The magic pulsing through my veins rattles every frayed nerve. Around my apex, a swirling, excruciating tornado twists tighter and deeper. Harder. Clenching around Coal’s fullness, my sex finally explodes into rippling, painful pleasure, and I scream.

  My breathing—once I find it again—comes in sharp, quick pants.

  Behind me, Coal groans with his own release, his warmth filling my body. And for one glorious second, he holds me there against his hard chest, my head resting on his shoulder, our warmth and sweat mingling.

  Then he lowers me back to the bed and withdraws in a cold instant, chilly air swirling against my back.

  I draw a shuddering breath and crawl onto the bed, my body still trembling from drunken fatigue. By the time I’ve collected myself, Coal is in the middle of the chamber, his feet set apart on the floor as he stares at me with wide eyes, glistening chest heaving.

  I blink at his smooth body then survey the room. The dresser is toppled, the weapons and leather strewn across the ground. My nightshirt is destroyed, little more than a rag. Swallowing, I pull Coal’s sheet over me.

  His dazed blue eyes rake over me, searching for something. “I’ll . . . I’ll get Tye,” he says gruffly.

  11

  Lera

  “What?” The slightly drunk fatigue clears in a heartbeat. “Why the hell would you get Tye?”

  Coal crosses his arms but makes no move toward the bed where we just joined. “Because he knows what to do now.”

  “What is there to do now?” I ask.

  “I. Don’t. Know.” Coal enunciates each word as if speaking to someone hard of hearing. “I’ve . . . I’ve only paid for my pleasure before. This isn’t something I’ve done for . . . I don’t know if you are all right.”

  “Have you considered asking me?”

  “No.” His jaw works. “Are you all right?”

  “No.”

  Coal throws up his arms. “Then why the bloody hell are we having this conversation?” He spins on his heels, grabs his pants off the floor, and strides out of the room before I can stop him.

  My face flames. A moment ago, all I wanted was to feel Coal beside me. Now I just want to sink into the ground or throttle the bastard. Or both.

  I pull the covers higher over my neck, scanning the room to see if I can manage to disappear before the males return. I pull up my knees, resting my forehead against them for a long heartbeat before throwing off the sheets altogether.

  I’m not some damsel in need of bloody assistance. I was the one who came here. Who wanted him. Who took my pleasure, just as much as Coal did. Took more than he was ready to give, if I’m honest. The connection, the magic . . . It was more than I was prepared for. More than I ever felt when we shared his memories. I rub my hand over my face. Rising from the bed, I stride over to what’s left of Coal’s dresser, pull out one of the half-fallen drawers, and empty its contents onto the floor. Before I can locate a shift amid the mess, the door behind me opens and two males, both wearing loose breeches, step inside.

  “Why are you standing there naked?” Coal asks.

  “I imagine because somewhere between her coming into the room and you leaving, you did something requiring her clothes to be removed,” Tye says, rubbing sleep from his eyes. His red hair stands up in messy spikes that would be adorable under any other circumstances.

  “What’s left of my nightshirt is somewhere on the floor,” I say primly, making no move to cover myself as Coal’s nostrils flare. After taking a moment of perverse enjoyment in the male’s discomfort, I pull one of his shirts from the wreckage and slip it over my head. Coal’s metallic musk fills my nose as the cloth settles over me, the hem so long that it brushes my knees.

  “Why am I here?” Tye asks, looking between me and Coal. “It seems you two have everything under control.”

  “There is nothing bloody under control,” Coal growls.

  “That’s good too.” Tye turns to Coal, opening his arms. “What, pray tell, do you want me to do?”

  “Hug her,” Coal demands, gesturing toward me brusquely.

  “What?” Tye and I say together.

  “That’s what you do with females after coupling with them. I don’t. So I’m delegating.”

  “One, you can’t delegate hugging, Coal,” I tell him. “And two, what makes you think I even want that from you?”

  “I hurt you.” His jaw is tight, his fist seeming ready to strike a wall.

  “Yes.” I straighten my shirt. “It was good for me too. Thank you for asking.”

  “Bloody stars, I don’t believe we are having this conversation,” Tye groans. “Can I assume that all involved enjoyed themselves until there wasn’t anything left to enjoy?” He waits the briefest of moments before nodding to no one in particular. “Then figure out the bloody aftermath without me. So long as I can have the lass tomorrow to show her everything you did wrong.”

  Coal grabs Tye’s wrist. “What are we supposed to do now?” he asks. Demands.

  Tye leans close to the warrior, his face only inches away as he snarls right back at him. “Practice.” Pulling back, Tye leaves, slamming the door in his wake.

  I blink once at the slammed door then start toward it, Coal’s large shirt tickling my thighs. Stars. The size of the male . . . everywhere. The fabric smells of soap and cleanliness, while the room I’m leaving is anything but. Overturned dresser, cracked bedpost, weapons scattered on the floor. I trip on a sword belt and swallow a curse.

  “Where are you going?” Coal asks behind me, his voice gravelly.

  Away from here. Back to my room. Outside. I don’t know. With my heart returning to its normal rate, the strength is draining from my body, leaving behind the aftermath of what we did.

  “Nowhere in particular,” I say over my shoulder, my voice wavering. What happened between us, it was little but sport to him. A game. And it was fun, the exhilaration of it. The . . . the ending was certainly worth the ramp-up. My body heats in memory of what just happened, my bones melting with desire for a single moment—before the aftermath crashes into me again like an avalanche. If was fun, and now, like a good sparring session, it’s over. Coal made that clear enough. I should be glad he isn’t heading for the baths. I swat a loose strand of hair from my face. “I’m just leaving here.”

  “Don’t.” Coal’s voice is hard, as if he can’t decide whether he’s asking a favor or issuing an order.

  I turn slowly, facing the male standing half-naked in the lantern light. Coal looks like he’s just come out of battle, his blond hair wild, sweat coating his skin, and a deep, still-bleeding gash crossing from his shoulder over the hard swell of his pectoral and stopping dangerously close to his nipple.

  Coal’s gaze follows mine. He stares at the blood for a moment, a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. His lower part twitches in confirmation of having enjoyed the experience leading up to that particular injury.

  Heat floods my cheeks as an answering pang pulses between my legs. What we did . . . what he did to me. What I did to him. The magic and power that roared through us both. So right. And so very wrong. It was wrong to have enjoyed it. I turn back to the door and stride toward it.

  The room swims, the magic draining from me like water through a sieve. I only realize Coal has moved when the floor shifts and the male’s solid arms catch me before the chamber dumps me onto its floor.

  With one arm behind my shoulder blades and the other supporting my knees, Coal returns me to his bed, settling me with surprising gentleness on the mussed sheets. After a heartbeat
of hesitation, he retrieves the fallen blanket and covers me with it. “Sleep here tonight, mortal.”

  I open my mouth to protest but the words shift to a different sort when, instead of settling down on the mattress beside me, Coal lies down on the floor. “What are you doing?”

  “I told you to remain in my chamber,” Coal says matter-of-factly. “It seems proper to give you the bed.”

  “It seems proper for you to get your ass into said bed first,” I say, my indignation waking me for a moment.

  Coal stiffens.

  I sigh, my jaw clenching hard enough that it’s an effort of will to get it to move. “You need not hug me, Coal,” I say, turning my back to him in emphasis. Trying to sound as if Coal’s revulsion at the thought of brushing up against me is of no consequence. “You don’t have to touch me at all. But for the sake of my ethics, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t stretch out on a stone floor either.”

  After a moment I feel the bed shift, Coal’s body settling reluctantly on the other side of the mattress. As I drift off into sleep, I realize that the heavy weight of the male’s arm has somehow settled across me, while Coal himself slumbers with deep, easy breaths.

  I wake to shooting pain scorching my shoulder and streaking along my body. My shoulder, my back, my ribs. As if I’ve been in battle. Which, given the state of the dresser, is rather close to reality.

  Beside me, Coal is sleeping on his stomach, one heavy arm draped over my hips as his back rises and falls in a deep, slow rhythm, his sculpted muscles shifting slightly with each inhalation. I’ve never seen the warrior sleep calmly before, I realize. Even when traveling, Coal woke at the slightest movement, the merest of sounds. Now, his beautiful face, framed by a wild mane of blond hair, looks content. Amidst Coal’s scars, I find fresh gashes and bruises that make my face heat with memory. Four parallel lines slashing across Coal’s scapula like claw marks are half-healed already.