A Fey New World (The Godhunter #32) - Amy Sumida Page 0,85

blazed to life at last, its silver beams bashing through the invading gold. Just before I was taken completely, starlight shone through fey light and seared it away. I gasped, fully myself once more, then huffed out that breath as my husband bucked into me savagely. I dug my hands in the grass and braced myself—against his brutal love, wild magic, and the knowledge of what he was fighting. I had nearly become what he was in the space of a few heartbeats. Mere moments to lose myself. I knew now the power that moved through him and how it was nearly impossible to deny. Azrael didn't have a star inside him to defend his soul; all he had was me. So I would be his star.

“I love you, Azrael,” I said firmly.

Azrael's teeth withdrew and his head angled down to mine. “I love you, Vervain,” he said brokenly before he covered my lips with his.

As Azrael's hot tongue and hard shaft speared me, I let myself enjoy the ecstasy his body offered. I pushed back onto him and went as wild as his magic. But I stayed in control of my mind and even as I shivered through my climax, I held firm against the magic that kept seeking entrance. It filled me in the end, despite my efforts, sneaking in through my lover's release. Azrael shouted out my name as he emptied into me, his head lifted and hips jerking forward to slap my flesh. But as he filled me, my star brightened again, battling back the devious fey magic. My claim on the land and control over the wild magic burned away with it, but what did that matter when Azrael's will superseded mine? Better to stay in control of myself than keep the dubious power he granted me.

Azrael finally dismounted. He rolled onto the grass and pulled me down beside him. His antlers gleamed in the moonlight—once again the only light there—and his eyes shone but they didn't glow. I nestled up against him and wound my hand in his long hair. He eased me across his chest and sighed.

“Lay atop me, my love. The feel of your body gives me strength,” he murmured.

“I'm here, Az,” I covered him with my body. “I won't leave you.”

Azrael sighed but it came out ragged, and I knew that somewhere inside him, he fought to get free, and he'd keep fighting for me. I could feel the real him rising and falling through our bond—struggling up only to be pulled back under.

“I've got you. I won't let go,” I repeated the words that he had said to me so recently. “No matter what happens or what you do, I will always love you, Azrael.”

“Carus,” he whispered, “I...” his voice broke. “Help—”

I jolted up to look at him. “Azrael?”

Green light flared in his eyes and Azrael sighed. “Yes, my love?”

“Nothing,” I said in disappointment and rolled onto my back to stare up at the magic sky.

Azrael turned onto his side, following my movement, and his hand went to my belly. I stared at him and shivered, seeing someone else—or perhaps something else—stare back at me. But more than that, I was afraid. Not of him but for him and for the babies that might be growing beneath his palm. If I was pregnant, what had my star done to my sons when it cast out the golden light? Had it saved them from the magic or destroyed them? I couldn't sense them inside me, as I had sensed my other children.

Was it the fear, the ward Azrael had set on me to separate me from the other men, or the fey magic around me that kept me from feeling them? Was something muffling my senses? Or perhaps I hadn't conceived. Just because he'd removed my birth control spell and declared me fertile, it didn't mean I'd gotten pregnant instantly. Maybe my womb had been empty when my star blasted through it.

I didn't want to get pregnant again, not so soon, but faced with the possibility that I could have lost my precious sons before they were born, I desperately hoped that if they had been conceived, they had survived the starlight. They wouldn't exactly be safe inside me—let's be honest, my children never were—but at least they'd have a shot at being born.

I laid my hand over Azrael's and looked deeper into his eyes, beyond the savage magic and to the god drowning in it. His stare softened and the