Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 99201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 496(@200wpm)___ 397(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 496(@200wpm)___ 397(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
Perhaps I am reading too much into this expression of hers because she leans down without another word between us, sliding her hands up my chest with her claws just a little bit exposed. Just enough to tantalize me with those sharp tips, but not enough to cut or even make a scratch.
“Do you know what I’ve noticed about you, Eros?”
I try not to grin, but I only just barely manage it. “What have you noticed, my queen?”
Her smile grows bigger right before my eyes. “You’re easy.”
I laugh. “I’m easy?”
She nods, slowly. And hums out the word, “Mmm-hmm. You are the complete opposite of me.”
“Come on, you’re easy too,” I say. She nearly snorts. “As long as one calls you queen, that is.”
“You float. You float through your life taking things as they come. Unbothered and nearly unaffected.”
“I just hide it better than most.”
“No. I don’t think that’s it. I just think you know your worth. And no one can take it away from you. It’s something inside.” She places her flat hand right atop of my heart. And it thumps harder against her touch. “Something right here. Something you know about yourself. Something you know is true, so you don’t need anyone to proclaim your merits or build you up with titles or crowns. It’s something you were born with.”
“But that’s something you have too.”
She’s already shaking her head. “No. I was placed somewhere and made the worst of it. You, on the other hand, come from here.”
She’s got the completely wrong idea about Glory Rome and I don’t how to explain it to her so that it sinks in. The best course of action is to just get her the hell out of here and never come back.
But not now. It’s late and that’s a task for tomorrow.
Besides, we’re already in bed.
So what I do is reach up with both hands and place them alongside her cheeks, bringing her forward just a little bit more. Just enough to kiss her long and good. I know I can’t fall in love with anyone, but I think I might be able to find the next best thing with Callistina.
A partner. A companion. Someone to travel through life with.
It’s a new thing for me, to feel a connection of any kind with anyone. And I think she knows this. Because she kisses me back like I’m the only man left in all the times and places this world has to offer.
Her hand reaches down and when her fingers wrap around me, I feel nothing but want for this woman. She pulls back from the kiss so she can lift her hips up and place me at her entrance. Then she sinks down, pushing me inside her, and I just want to close my eyes and get lost in this feeling.
She’s still for a moment. Like she too is enjoying herself too much to move. But then she slowly starts to rock back and forth on top of me.
Something is building inside me. Not just the feeling of an upcoming climax, but something else too. Something much bigger than that.
Callistina slows down, takes her time, and refocuses our excitement into a long, slow fuck. I look her in the eyes and she meets my gaze, but then she’s biting her lip, and arching her back, and when she comes, I do too.
Time is weird when she slowly rolls off me and snuggles up to my chest because the sun is already peeking out from atop the horizon. But I’m too spent now to care about time. Especially with her warm, soft body pressed up against mine.
I kiss her shoulder and then… fall blissfully into sleep.
A moment later I sit up, breathing heavy and my heart beating in my chest.
I look around, searching for Callistina, as the wind whips past my naked body.
But then I realize I’m not in bed. I’m on top of a roof and it is the dead of night under a full moon.
I scan the scene as my heart thumps dramatically inside my chest.
There is a line of boys in front of me. Dozens of them, all naked. All marching forward into the dark.
A few of them step off the roof on their own accord. They are done. They’ve given up. But most do not, and have not, and they are pushed over the side.
Even from here, thirty floors up, I think I can hear the bodies as they crash on the ground below. Maybe it’s my imagination. But then again, maybe it’s not. Because this is what’s happening.
We, the erotes, are being tested. Not for brains, or strength—but wings.
Because we don’t have them. And this is what they want. This is what the alchemists have been doing with the Erotes bloodline.
They want us to have fucking wings and the wings are just not there.