Hers to Claim (22 page)

His
words penetrated her comfortable haze. “Better yours than mine,” Adonia mumbled under her breath and opened her eyes. She blinked, and then shielded them with one hand until she could adjust to the radiant light. Everything in the
Chambre Cristalle
glowed—the dais, the floors, the walls and the chunks of diaman crystal—especially the chunks of diaman crystal.

“Is this
lightshow typical?”

In an effortless show of strength,
Hel picked her off his lap and deposited her butt onto the shimmering floor. Her tender flesh objected, and she struggled to rise. In one fluid movement, Hel stood and held a hand down to assist Adonia to her feet. “No. Nothing associated with you is normal.”

I’m
abnormal?
Maybe trained
magistrae
didn’t pass out every time they performed a rite. Maybe they weren’t as…enthusiastic, or as loud? She didn’t know. The
Libre de Diamantorre
gave only the words to the rites. It didn’t go into behavior
during
them. Embarrassment colored her face, and Adonia suddenly felt her nudity where she hadn’t a moment before. Well…nude, if you didn’t count the
miku amar
nested between her legs like a vibrant pink thong.

“Hey.” Hel gathered her into his arms and raised her face to his.
He pressed a warm kiss on her. “Unusual in the best possible way.” Interspersed with nibbles on her lips, he murmured against her mouth, “You are a gift from our Mother, and you could not have arrived at a better time.”

Adonia sighed
inwardly at his reassurance and melted into his hold. “I am glad I please you.”

“You do please me, but…”
His low growl burst her bubble of contentment. “You disobeyed me. You came without permission. Don’t think it escaped my notice.”

“I couldn’t hold
on any longer.”

“Then I need to motivate you to try harder.”

Nia clamped her mouth closed on the retort that
flesh could only bear so much. She couldn’t do any better, no matter the motivation. Hel picked up her folded dress and held it open for her. She placed a hand on his shoulder for balance and gracefully stepped into the full skirt. When Hel had seated the gown on her shoulders, he gathered her hair and draped it forward over one shoulder before beginning to close the fastenings. She tipped her head slightly to catch his eyes. “What sort of motivation?” she asked cautiously, thinking of the many foreign instruments in the chamber just below.

Hel must have recognized where her thoughts led her. His arms wrapped her
, and he pulled her close to him. His teeth nipped at the hollow where her neck met her shoulders, then his tongue and lips soothed the bite. “Shall I tie you to the X-frame and see how many orgasms I can give you before your legs collapse? Perhaps then it will be easier for you to endure the arousal that accompanies the rites.”

Adonia gasped. “I’m not…I don’t think…” His nips and kisses around her shoulders and neck sent chills down her spine and she could feel her nipples harden.
“I can’t possibly come again this soon.”

His low laugh did nothing to reassure her. “Did I say it would be soon?
You have something to look forward to tomorrow…or the day after…or the day after that.”

Adonia didn’t respond. What could she say? She
acknowledged silently that her heart and body belonged to Hel to do with as he wished. She didn’t mind. The uncertain future now offered her a place, and someone to whom she might finally belong.

Adonia took the glowing lantern Hel handed her as they left the
Chambre Cristalle
and stepped into velvet darkness. The chamber’s radiance had obscured the fact that night had fallen.

“I have a favor to ask.”
Hel’s deep voice reverberated off the diaman walls.

“
You must know I’ll do whatever you ask of me.” She offered him a shy smile with her soft reply.

“And that knowledge makes me weigh my every request.
” His eyes studied her and then his arm surrounded her waist to hug her to him. She felt his rib-cage expand and contract in a long sigh, and he rested his chin on the top of her head. “Goddess knows you’ve done enough today, but I need your help in searching the upper levels of the tower for those engraved words A’rken referred to. I cannot waste a single day.”

Adonia pulled back enough to see his face.
“Of course, but it would seem the more eyes the better.”

“Hmm, yes. Bernard
and several townsmen and women are searching the lower levels again and more yet search the walls outside, but the
Chambre Cristalle
and the three floors below have always been off-limits to all but family. I would prefer it remain that way. There is enough coarse speculation about what goes on up here without revealing certain…ah…” Hel grimaced.

Adonia
swallowed a sputter of laughter. “Yes. I understand. The
room
. Certainly, I will help you. I’m glad you consider me family.”

Hel snorted softly. “With reservations. I don’t feel at all brotherly toward you.”

At his wry comment, she threw a glance at him. His infectious grin captured her and flooded her with warmth—not the heat of arousal or the physical warmth from his large body—rather, an inner glow of shared camaraderie and friendship the like of which she hadn’t felt since her days with the Oshtesh. She felt included and necessary and, oh,
valued
. Yes, she’d use that word. Her mind shied from the term love.
He feels something for me. I know he does...but what?

“Follow me, Nia, and mind the stairs. They are worn here.”

She and Hel descended six long flights of steps separated by spacious landings. Human voices and activity on the lower floors of Torre Bianca filtered up faintly from the central gallery separated by the railing that surrounded the landing. Hel set his lantern down on the stone floor before another huge, wood-paneled door set into the stone on heavy metal hinges, the door a match of the two above. Turning an ornate key into the heavy lock, tumblers clicked and he swung it open. Impermeable blackness met her eyes.

“Wait a moment.
Let me see about some light,” murmured Hel.

Before her eyes
, a mammoth library gradually revealed itself from out of the blackness as Hel placed glowing diaman crystals into translucent, cream-colored wall sconces engraved with fantastical creatures from eons ago. Adonia identified dragons, wyverns and a phoenix rising from ashes. She recognized the rearing stallion from the DeHelios standard. Other mystical beasts, she could put no name to.

The fixtures
cast pools of soft light upon myriads of thick books in priceless bindings and collections of haphazardly bound papers. The dusty tomes leaned in disordered stacks on shelves that spiraled upward on a cluster of pillars rising two stories in the center of the room. It was as if a forest of books sprang from the middle of the noble chamber. On the perimeter walls, groups of couches and upholstered chairs arrayed themselves around low tables. On one table, a book lay open, its pages gray with dust. A discolored ribbon carefully marked the place where some long ago reader had abandoned it—obviously with every intention to return.
I wonder what happened to prevent it.

“It’s not
hing when compared in size to the great library at the High Enclave, but the
Initium
, the chronicles of our peoples’ first interactions with Verdantia, are here as well as the collected wisdom of past ages. The Haarb destroyed much of Nyth Uchel, but in their ignorance they left one of her greatest treasures intact.” Hel spoke from Adonia’s right where he placed a radiant diaman crystal in the final wall sconce. “I hope, someday, to set this archive of our first beginnings as a race to rights. If you wish to explore all that is House DeHelios and early Verdantia, spend some time here.”

“I love libraries
like this,” Adonia murmured. “It is as if the learned voices of all those who have passed come alive again and unveil their secrets to you.”

“Yes. Unfortunately, we must save that exploration for another day. This evening we need to concentrate on the walls and floors of the room.” His eyes followed one of the
columns of books to the ceiling high above. “If you will concentrate on the lower floor, I’ll work on the second level. It’s all up and down stepladders and catwalks.”

Adonia nodded with
a genuine smile. “Thank you for giving me the easy part.”

Hel returned her smile
. “Let’s get started.”

Adonia
began on the walls of the great chamber and then moved to her hands and knees to examine the floors. She pulled her long skirts between her legs and tucked the hem into her belt, all the while silently muttering to herself about impractical dresses. When she had scoured the last inch of stone, she gingerly transferred her weight from her aching knees to her tender hind end and leaned back against a column of books, legs akimbo. Her sore bottom protested her position but physical exhaustion muted its complaint. A well-stuffed shelf provided a headrest and Adonia’s eyelids grew heavy and then closed. With a gurgling complaint, her stomach reminded her she hadn’t eaten since breakfast. She couldn’t bring herself to care. All she wanted was a bed. Hel collapsed beside her sometime later, rousing her to awareness.

“Any success?” she murmured, never opening her eyes.

“None. And you?”

“Nothing.”

She felt him wrap her hand in his. “You’ve been wonderful today, Healer.”

She felt his warm lips press a kiss on her knuckles. For years
, she’d been proud to be called “healer”. Now she’d give anything if the word never again passed Hel’s lips. She wanted to
be
more,
mean
more, to him. With a soft sigh, she opened her eyes.

“You’re welcome. You
’ve been wonderful, too. Thank you for your help in the sickroom this morning.” Shudders vibrated through her at the memory. Her gaze fell to her slender hand enveloped in his and she straightened. “I would like to return as early as possible tomorrow and try again. I don’t think I can do it without you. Will you help me?”

Hel stood and
assisted her to her feet. Again, she felt the warm press of his lips against the back of her hand. Sober gray eyes held hers. “For you, Nia—anything.”

~~~

Adonia dreamt a roiling cloud of hideous desolation sought to swallow her alive in a gaping orifice of death. As it slithered its inexorable way toward her, she could not move, each limb frozen to the ground. It was upon her! The horrible pain as it sucked her into nothingness shattered her soul. She awoke screaming. 

“Nia, by the Goddess, you are freezing. Get under the covers,
Beauty.”

Hel’s strong arms wrapped her and pulled her into him, covering her with his warm body.
With a cry of inexpressible gladness, she burrowed into him, pathetic sobs still escaping her lips. The soft gleam from a single small diaman crystal dimly lit his bedroom and cast a false sense of normalcy.

“Did you dream of the blackness?” he murmured.

“Yes.” Her whispered response cracked on a shuddering inhale. “Do you have such nightmares?”

The hand stroking her paused then resumed. “Yes.
”

“Hel, what do we do if we cannot figure out the puzzle A’rken gave us?
Even if we do…what I came face-to-face with today? I drove it from one person. I didn’t begin to defeat it. How can I treat all those in need if it takes me this long with just one?”

“We will
solve the puzzle, Nia, and it may be that we will not win. I believe our Mother has given us the weapons to oppose this enemy; and I will not surrender to the
fear
of the encroaching dark. I will fight until my soul is physically ripped from me.”

In
the quiet that surrounded them, turbulent emotions swirled through Adonia and she lay awake for a long time sorting them into some semblance of order. She examined the residual terror from her nightmare and fought to control her lingering panic. Part of her said to dismiss A’rken’s ravings and flee Nyth Uchel. Return to the relative safety of Sylvan Mintoth. Leave the psychic combat to those more experienced.

No.
In spite of the almost overwhelming attraction of fleeing for safety, that option was closed. The strange interaction with the entity she thought was Isolde DeCorvus hinted at powerful assistance and truth behind the mystic’s ramblings. Maybe Adonia
could
make a difference. But underlying all of these considerations, no matter how much she quailed in abject terror at the thought of the looming confrontation, she couldn’t live with the idea she’d diminish herself in Hel’s eyes by leaving. Adonia wanted to believe she would battle the corruption to restore Nyth Uchel to its former majesty or to save her sentient planet, but, after the confrontation this morning, self-doubt consumed her. She was not that self-sacrificing, not that…noble. But, because
this
man asked it of her, she would screw every smidgen of backbone she possessed to the sticking point. She’d stand before the black void defiantly even as it ate her soul—for it surely would. She would face the terror of the dark void for
him
.

One of Hel’s
arms lay heavily across her waist. His breathing came even and regular. Adonia thought he slept. Just as well. She couldn’t remember when she’d felt such uncertainty about what she intended to say, but she needed to tell him. For good or bad, her painful honesty drove her to speak the words that revealed her changed motivation.

“I’m in love with you.
”

There.
Her breathy whisper was hardly a resounding declaration, but she’d given vocal life to the feelings of her heart. Hel shifted slightly and his breathing pattern changed. His sleep-heavy rumble disturbed the hair across her cheek.

“I love you, too. Now, get some sleep.” H
e snugged her closer to him.

Dumbfounded, she lay inert while her
heart darted to and fro in her chest like a herd of startled
chital
.
He. Loves. Me.
She’d little doubt Hel meant what he said.
He loves me.
Other men were careless with their words—not this man.
He loves me!
She wanted to spring up, to shake him and insist he explain how he meant for them to go on. She didn’t. Adonia gnawed on her thoughts and stared at the opposite wall until fatigue beat her undisciplined, extravagant emotions into somnolence.

~~~

She’s mine. She has claimed me, and I will never let her go.
The predator within Hel roared in triumph and a violent surge of possessiveness rocked him.
Mine.
When her screams had awoken him, he’d meant only to soothe her fears. The words that had slipped unplanned from his lips in response to her whisper of love had been sincere even though spontaneous.
She is mine.
His mouth curved in a satisfied smile. Now, more than ever before, he must ensure they remained alive. He had a future to fulfill—with her.