When his teeth scraped over that tiny bundle of nerves, I was done for.

  I came, crying out his name as I did so.

  He didn't stop. Just kept going, tormenting my already frazzled nerves with more strokes until it was too much. I tried to move, to get away from the chaos he was unleashing in my body, but those hands on my ass kept me there for his mouth to devour.

  My second orgasm left me a boneless mess. I collapsed against my mate, letting him ball me up in his arms and pull me down so I was snuggled over his heart.

  When I finally recovered enough to reach for his fly, he helped me.

  My hand finally met velvety, warm skin. I gripped him tight and pumped once.

  Matteo hissed out a breath, and I grinned.

  He died after his Showing. I was probably the first person to touch him here. The only person.

  My possessiveness would surprise me, given that I'd never been that way in any of my previous relationships, but this was my mate. Mine.

  I moved my hand lazily, tightening my grip every time I got to the head. Learning what he liked and what made him fist the sheets in pleasurable agony.

  When I released him, he groaned. But I needed my arm for balance as I leaned down and took him into my mouth.

  “Nelly!” His shout echoed off the walls.

  The first drops of cum filled my mouth, and I lapped them up eagerly. I licked and swirled my tongue across his slit before taking him deep into my throat once more.

  I drove him to the edge, paying close attention to him through the bond to make sure I didn't tip him over.

  No. I wanted him to come inside me.

  My head bobbed up and down in a smooth, practiced rhythm as his hands hovered over my hair, almost like he was afraid to touch me in case I stopped.

  When he did touch me, it was to drag me up his body until we were face to face.

  “Now, please,” he whispered breathlessly, against my lips. “I need you.”

  I kissed him, tangling our tongues together as I gripped his shaft with my hand and slowly took him in.

  Every inch of him stretched me as I shifted, my hand braced against his chest. He was longer than any lover I'd had before, and it took several small thrusts for my body to adjust until our hips met. I looked at his face, only to find his head thrown back, tendons in his neck straining as he fought not to move.

  “Feel good?” I teased, rotating my hips once.

  “Fuck. Nelly...”

  His hips bucked of their own accord, and I gasped as he hit that perfect spot. His hands went straight to my hips, pulling me up and then back down his length like he couldn't help himself.

  I didn't mind. No. I freaking loved it.

  I bent down and claimed his mouth again, letting him thrust from beneath me. Every upward motion pressed my clit against his pelvic bone, sending me spiralling higher towards a final earth-shattering release.

  I fell over the edge first, my pleasure spilling down the bond until it triggered his orgasm too.

  “That was,” he panted, dragging me against him and pulling the covers over us both. “Incredible.”

  I kissed his nose, smiling. “It was.”

  We snuggled in comfortable silence for a second before he left the bed and returned with a cloth to clean me up before slipping back under the covers. I fell asleep like that, curled against him, with his heartbeat lulling me into a dreamless sleep.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Unfortunately, my pillow was jerked away from me a few hours later with a dark curse.

  I didn't have to open my eyes to know that my time with Matteo was over. Neo's fury filled the room, seeming to leech the warmth from the covers.

  “Cornelia.”

  If I didn't open my eyes, he couldn't yell at me.

  “I know you're awake.”

  I took a deep breath and opened my eyes. He was standing there, gloriously nude, his eyes burning with anger as he watched me. But the mating bond told a different story. His emotions were haywire. Power rocked through me as he took in my naked form, desire adding to the tumultuous mix of fear, rage, and jealousy within him.

  It was an explosive mix, and I braced myself for the fallout.

  “Thank you for saving me,” I whispered.

  It was the wrong thing to say.

  “You were supposed to stay within sight of the restaurant,” he roared. “What possessed you to walk off, alone, in a city you knew was probably crawling with my enemies?”

  “I know it was stupid! Okay? I'm sorry.” Hindsight was a total bitch, and I was still blaming myself for fulfilling every dumb blonde stereotype in the book. I didn’t need him to help with that. “But we're both still here, and we know we got close! I'll be more prepared next time!”

  His face shut down. “There won't be a 'next time,'“ he muttered. “You're staying here. Bringing you there in the first place was a mistake. One I won't be repeating.”

  “No, Neo. I can't stay in this fortress forever!”

  “Then it's fortunate that we don't have forever.” He turned on his heel, heading for the door.

  “I can still help.”

  “I've made my decision,” he said, reaching the door. “Until Marcus is dead and his cult eradicated, you will remain here. As you should have from the beginning.”

  “What about Lilith's⁠—”

  But he was already gone, the door slamming shut on any plea I might have made.

  I flopped back onto the pillows with a huff of exasperation. My eyes burned as I fought back angry tears. I lost. Hot, salty drops dripped down into my hair as I let sadness, fury, and self-pity win. My throat was thick with emotion, but my chest felt almost painfully hollow in the wake of our argument and a part of me was grateful Neo had left. I didn’t want him to see me cry.

  Damn him. Damn that monkey. Damn the illusion and damn me for being such an idiot.

  My gut churned at the thought of more weeks trapped in this stupid stone fortress, watching Matteo fade slowly without being able to help. I wouldn’t survive that. But I’d lost my one chance to help.

  If I was forced to miss Lilith's mating ceremony as well…

  I hiccuped an embarrassing little sob as I forced myself up and out of bed. My shaking hands took several attempts to scrub the remaining moisture from my eyes, and a few rebellious tears leaked through, anyway, rendering my efforts futile. But I couldn’t wallow. I had to do something to change Neo’s mind.

  Sitting in this room like a good little mate would only convince him that I was willing to go along with his orders. We had to talk about this. Preferably before the mating ceremony. I scrambled to check my phone—stomach churning as I wondered how much time I’d lost to those drugs.

  Shit. Lilith’s ceremony was tomorrow.

  I reached for the first clothes I could find and took off down the hallway, praying he hadn't already returned to Rio.

  It was a credit to Rasz's stoicism that he didn't even blink as I went sprinting past him.

  “The Master was headed to his parlour,” he said. “Shall I have breakfast brought to you both?”

  I shake my head. “No, thanks, Rasz. I'll grab something later.”

  He bowed, but I barely caught the motion in my haste to find my mate.

  It took me a while to remember where the parlour was in the behemoth castle. I knew most of the rooms Neo had claimed for himself were in the north wing, but despite weeks of exploring alone, I still took a wrong turn and had to double back.

  Only to take another.

  Gah, why did we need such a large fortress? There were only four of us.

  And now I was hopelessly lost. I slumped against the wall and groaned, only to twist in confusion as I heard a mechanical creak from the stone behind me.

  The wall spun around so fast that it nearly knocked me off my feet.

  “What the⁠—”

  I stumbled into a dark corridor, catching myself on the rough stone of the wall. I couldn't see anything, but I could feel the dust which clung to my palm as I stepped away. Reaching for my power, I lit a single ball of pyrokinesis to light the way and groaned again as I realised I'd fallen into another secret room.

  But this wasn't a room. This was a passageway.

  One that Rasz had never found, if the amount of dust and cobwebs were any indication.

  I searched the wall for a switch or anything which might let me back out, feeling desperately around every stone for switches like the one I'd found before.

  Nothing. Nothing on the floor, either. I pressed at random bricks, hoping that one of them would activate the way back. Still, nothing moved.

  The only feature I could see was a tiny, ornate vent in the wall which gave a very limited view into the disused room beyond.

  No. I refused to be the dumb blonde in the ancient castle who got herself stuck in a secret passageway. There had to be a way out of this place.

  A third pass of the wall revealed nothing, and I pressed my hand against the bridge of my nose in frustration.What kind of person would design a one-way secret passageway? What kind of idiot would get stuck in one by accident?

  With the mood Neo was in at the moment, I didn't want to ask him for the way out using our bond. But I also didn't want to remain stuck inside a cold, dusty old passageway for the rest of the day until he came to find me. If he came to find me.

  I eyed the dark corridor beyond my fire's light with suspicion. Would the door at the other end have a mechanism? Surely it must.

  I took my first hesitant step forward, and then another.

  Worst-case scenario, I'd have to blast my way through a wall and apologise to Rasz for the mess.

  The first fork in the passageway had my stomach sinking. A second one only moments later made me groan.

  There weren't any markers. Nothing to say which way I'd come from. Only my faint footprints in the dust gave any indication that I'd touched this place.

  I'd gone from lost to hopelessly lost in five minutes.

  “I'll just keep going left,” I muttered, my feet carrying me forward.

  I was walking for at least ten minutes before I heard voices. My footsteps slowed as recognition hit me.

  Surely not.

  Neo… and Matteo?

  I rushed forward as relief crashed over me in a wave, only to slow as I realised I couldn't be hearing what I thought I was.

  Neo and Matteo couldn't exist at the same time. They shared a body, but there was no way for the two of them to share a conversation.

  When I reached the source of their voices, I grimaced to find it was just another of those tiny vents. I had to stand on my toes to see through it, and when I did, I was unsurprised to see Neo's parlour, glowing with warmth.

  Neo paced in front of the fireplace, running an agitated hand through his hair. The fire was roaring, the shadows of his power playing havoc with each lick of the light. But what caught my eye wasn't the Strange God or the flames. It was his reflection in the mirror above the mantelpiece.

  But it wasn't his reflection at all. It was Matteo, stuck in the glass.

  “When you said that you would comfort her, that wasn't what I had in mind.” Neo glowered.

  “Don't go blaming your sexual frustration on me. If you put more effort into wooing her…”

  “We went on dates!” Neo objected. “I took her to spectacular places. It hasn't done anything to earn me her regard.”

  I was too far away to make out the details, but I could practically sense Matteo rolling his eyes. “Maybe it did, but you fucked it up when you started trying to lock her away again.”

  “She wasn't safe!”

  “She's never going to be safe. You said it yourself. Even when Marcus is gone, there will be cultists remaining. Someone could easily take up his mantle.”

  “It won't matter because there will be two of us then. Your gifts are formidable enough to deter them, and generating power for you is far easier than it is for me.”

  “Hardly,” Matteo scoffed. “Besides, the amount of power I get from interrogating the worms in the dungeon is nothing compared to what you get every time you make a bargain with her.”

  I frowned. Surely that was wrong. Neo had all the crystals, so he must have all the sub-castes, surely? Or had I just assumed that because of how easily he seemed to come by his power? Come to think of it, I didn't remember him ever specifying where his power came from…

  And Matteo was interrogating people in the dungeon? A stone sank in my stomach as I realised I'd never asked him what his sub-caste was. He was a Wrath, but that only narrowed it down so much. He could be a Malice or a Vindictiveness. I'd never asked, and it had never come up.

  “There are only so many bargains I can make without completely destroying your body,” Neo growled, interrupting my thoughts. “You've been fading for almost a week now.”

  “She noticed.”

  “Of course she did.” Neo pinched the bridge of his nose, then shook his head as if to dismiss the thought before changing the subject. “That rat in the dungeon gave you nothing on Marcus?”

  “Nothing useful. He's as tight-lipped as the rest. All we know for sure is that they do have a presence in Rio.”

  “They have a presence everywhere.” Neo dropped his hand and stopped pacing. “She can't leave the Forteca Ciszy. I won't watch another woman I love die.”

  My breath caught, but Matteo didn't give me a chance to process that declaration before Matteo interrupted again. “She can't live like that. You'll smother the light you want to protect if you try to make her.”

  “Smothered is still alive.”

  “Until she decides that she'd rather be dead and free.”

  Neo's entire body stiffened. His fist flashed out, colliding with the mirror in a cascade of blood and glass.

  “Well, that was mature,” Matteo grumbled, his face now splintered across a hundred different shards which were still clinging to the frame. “I know it's a sore subject, but surely you learned the first time that forcing a woman to be something she's not is not the way to a happy relationship.”

  “Never,” Neo began, the threat in his voice whisper-soft, “bring that up again.”

  “Someone needs to.” Matteo's expression was distorted by the web of shards that the mirror had become, but it was sincere. “Who knows, if you told her what happened, she might be a little more understanding of why you're so obsessed with her safety.”

  “No.” The single word was so uncompromising that I flinched.

  “I won't let you hurt our mate. Even if I have to end both of us to protect her.”

  Neo shook his head again. “It won't come to that.”

  “It better not.”

  Neo finally dropped into the chair, obscuring his body from my view. “What kind of god—what kind of mate—does it make me that I can't keep her safe? I left the shadow realm and brought this fucking danger straight to her, used our bond with her to anchor you and me to this plane so I could fulfil my own selfish need to exist again, and yet I can't even do her the simple courtesy of eradicating our enemies.”

  I took a step back, then shook myself. I'd never heard the arrogant god sound so… defeated before.

  “Maybe I'd rather I was happy, than safe,” I whispered into his mind, giving up all pretence of hiding. “Maybe I wouldn't mind having enemies if I felt loved.”

  Neo stood up so fast that he blurred. Matteo's image in the mirror disappeared as soon as his focus was broken, and I bit my lip as I wondered if I'd done the right thing.

  “Cornelia, where are you?” he demanded.

  “I got lost trying to find you… Then I got stuck in this passageway,” I admitted, hating how pathetic the excuse sounded. “I didn't mean to spy, but I couldn't get out of the door…”

  I almost shrieked when he disappeared, then reappeared beside me. As it was, my ball of pyrokinesis flickered wildly as my hold on it slipped.

  “How much did you hear?” he asked, his voice soft.

  I wasn't fooled. His eyes were just as commanding as ever.

  “A lot,” I admitted.

  He nodded once, the motion jerky, before he swept his arm out. “Come, I will show you how to exit these passageways.”

  We walked in silence, turning two corners before he reached an otherwise unremarkable section of wall. The instant he reached it, he kicked aside some of the dust on the floor to expose a brick in the centre, then pressed down on it with his shoe.

  Only his swift grab stopped me from falling over again as we were thrown out into a brightly lit corridor.

  “I'm not a fan of the doors,” I muttered, following him as he led the way back towards the areas of the fortress I was more familiar with. “Or the dust.”

  “No one else can know about them, Cornelia.”

  “Not even Rasz?”

  “No. They serve as an escape route for you should anyone discover this place.”

  He really didn't trust anyone, I realised. Even the butler who was sworn to serve him. “How does his bargain work, exactly?”

  “The firstborn of each generation serves as my butler for all eternity.” Neo seemed grateful for the reprieve. “I was unable to extract a promise of complete obedience from his grandfather, so the bargain is tenuous. Rasz is a welcome change from his father, who was my butler in name only, and prided himself on doing the bare minimum. Still, there is no guarantee of any of their loyalty.”

  “And you gain power from making bargains like that.”

  He didn't answer, but I suspected that was because I hadn't asked a question.

  “Why don't you gather power like the rest of us?”

  He sighed. “I suspect because I have never truly been a demon. I am… something else.”

  “We know you became the Strange God when you died in the Shadow Realm,” I said.

  “But that didn't make me a demon. It was my children who followed me into the cave, but they couldn’t cross the boundary to that cold place. They were changed, thanks to the proximity of the shadow realm. They were the first demons. Not I.”

  “Your children?” I asked, curious.

  Neo’s face went carefully blank. “They are dead, Cornelia. Have been for so long now that the memories I have of them are faded. Even before they died, they wanted little to do with me.”