Stellar (The Halo Series Book 3) Read online

  Gray’s mouth, still agape from being cut off mid-speech, closed slowly. This didn’t seem to make him feel any better.

  Aurora turned and left the room, leaving her torn-looking Stellar behind. The distant memory of their brief encounter before they left Hiraeth floated to the forefront of her mind—him caging her on the bed, pressing himself against her and leaving her breathless.

  It felt like a whole lifetime ago.

  GRAY

  An indifferent Aurora was worse than an angry Aurora. The door closed behind her, and he felt the rest of the hopeful breath he’d been holding slip out of his mouth. It seemed Lilith and Lucifer’s presence put a strain on one’s relationship.

  Imagine that.

  AURORA

  Time seemed to slip away in other realms, and after a fitful nap filled with nightmares that felt like reality, Aurora was jolted awake by cool breath pooling on her face.

  At first, she thought it might be Gray. Turning to look up at him and finding, instead, the grinning countenance of Lilith, Aurora sucked in a startled breath and rolled away from the evil bitch.

  “So sorry, puppet. Did I startle you?” The way in which Lilith spoke was a mixture of poetry and an evil villain delivering the monologue of a final-battle-scene. The slightest snarl and hiss fluttered beneath her words, as if a serpent resided within her.

  It probably did.

  Pressing her back up against the wrought-iron headboard, Aurora regarded Lilith with suspicion, saying nothing. In the demon woman’s arms, rested a black garment with dark blue details stitched into the seams.

  “I’ve brought something for you.” With this statement, she gently lay the dress across the base of the bed. “For dinner.”

  “I prefer not to eat fabric when I can avoid it.”

  Lilith’s amused smirk sparked with annoyance. “Snarky little thing, aren’t you? If you weren’t half angel, I’d think you were a long lost sister.”

  This was the furthest thing from a compliment Aurora could have received. Funnily—or unfunnily—enough, this wasn’t the first time in her life she’d been compared to the dark succubus.

  “Weren’t you once an angel?”

  Lilith’s left brow arched. “Between Lucifer and myself, only one of us was ever an angel. I started as dirt and stone. The same as Adam. I was his first wife. But I defied him. I refused to bow down to his rule. Why should I when we were made from the very same earth?”

  “I don’t recall reading that version of the story,” Aurora stated.

  “Many events occurred long ago, of which Christians will never read. You think the history of humanity can be told in less than 800,000 words?”

  Aurora frowned in thought, her gaze moving back to the gown at the base of the bed. The bodice was a corset laced with ribbon, and the skirt looked to be made from silk and lace. Had she seen it in a costume store, she would have admired it. Black was, after all, her favorite color. As it was, however, she wasn’t eager to accept a gift, of any sort, from Lilith.

  “You don’t have to wear it, of course,” Lilith said. “Though it would look rather nice with Mr. Cross’s ensemble.”

  Aurora felt the sizzle of envy and annoyance flicker in her chest. Narrowed sapphire eyes snapped up to meet Lilith’s unnaturally amethyst ones.

  “It’s lovely,” Aurora said tightly.

  The corner of Lilith’s mouth twisted upwards, and her chin rose with pride. “Our couturier is rather skilled. She’s a new addition to the Kingdom. We plucked her from one of the wealthiest families in London only a few centuries ago, after she was put to death for practicing witchcraft.”

  Aurora’s head inclined. “You seem to have collected a highly trained staff of horrible people.”

  “Thank you.” Lilith turned to walk towards the door.

  “It wasn’t a compliment.”

  Sending a glance over her shoulder, the evil woman smiled. “I know.”

  Aurora sat staring after Lilith a moment before looking back to the dress. Sighing regrettably, she snatched the garment off the bed.

  Revolving before the full-length mirror in her bathroom, Aurora had to admit the corset Lilith had gifted her was beautiful. Though she looked like a gothic queen, it suited her.

  Another demon child soon came to fetch Aurora from her room for dinner. This one was a boy with dark hair. He looked a bit like Soren, save for his solid black eyes. Aurora wondered if Lilith and Lucifer chose this boy specifically to unnerve her.

  She wouldn’t put it past them.

  “Aren’t you going to get Gray as well,” she said to the demon boy as he moved to leave their flat.

  “No.”

  Aurora wanted to question him further but decided against it. His words had a strange, whispering echo to them, and she’d rather he spoke as little as possible.

  The boy led her into a grand dining room where everyone else was already seated, including Gray. He was dressed in a Victorian-style suit. Aurora’s eyebrows rose as she took him in. At her entrance, his eyes landed immediately on her, raking up and down her ensemble, lingering on her décolletage.

  Color filled his cheeks.

  Lucifer waved at the seat across from Gray. “Please sit, Miss Coel.”

  She sat, realizing her corset was a bit too tight. She wouldn't likely be eating much. Though, once the mass-murdering French chef sent out his first course, she somehow managed to clean her plate.

  The devil hadn’t lied. The food was unbelievable. But something was bothering Aurora. Well, many things were bothering her, but one, in particular, tugged at her conscience.

  “As lovely as this dinner is,” she said cautiously, “it seems a tad inappropriate to spend so much time dressing up and eating fancy dinners while Halos and angels are dying on earth, fighting our battles. I wanted to come here so I could find my son. Who knows how much time we’ve wasted.”

  Michael spoke for the first time in a while. “We’ve wasted no human time.” He offered a reassuring smile. “And Luce has already gathered an army of his best fighters.”

  “Luce?” Gray said.

  Aurora thought she recognized a blush in Michael’s cheeks as Lucifer said, “That was his old nickname for me.”

  The two angels, dark and light, exchanged a quick glance, fortifying Aurora’s suspicions about their romantic past.

  “Are we leaving after dinner then?” Aurora asked.

  “There are a few matters to which I must attend tonight,” Lucifer said cryptically, cutting through his Cornish game hen drenched in a buttery sauce. “We shall leave in the morning.”

  “Does Hell have mornings?” Gray asked.

  Lilith answered before Lucifer could. “It does if we want it to.”

  After one of the best dinners Aurora had ever consumed, the two Stellars were escorted once again by a creepy evil child with soulless eyes.

  The boy led them inside their flat and closed the door firmly behind him, leaving them alone.

  A tension that was entirely sexual tugged at Aurora as if it were attempting to pull her towards her Stellar. She tried her best to ignore it, strolling towards her room, looking discreetly over her shoulder at Gray.

  He stood in the middle of the living room, watching her with a conflicted expression.

  “What’s wrong?” she said, her voice uncharacteristically soft.

  “I need to kiss you.”

  Aurora’s breathing hitched, and she felt a tremble course from her tailbone, up her back, ending at her neck.

  Her words came out in a whisper. “So kiss me.”

  GRAY

  Gray did more than kiss Aurora.

  He consumed her.

  It took only a handful of strides to reach her, his arms wrapping around her cinched waist and back as his lips sought hers. They moved together, Aurora walking backward and Gray forward, until they found themselves in a familiar position—Aurora lying on the bed, Gray’s arms caging her.

  Sizzling fire trailed from his lips as they slid acr
oss her sweat-slicked skin.

  AURORA

  Kissing wasn’t enough.

  Aurora needed more of him. All of him. On her. In her.

  Chest heaving with labored breaths cut short by the bones of her corset, she reached down and pulled the crux from the holster tied around her thigh and placed it in Gray’s hand.

  “Cut this thing off of me.”

  His lips paused on her bare shoulder, and his kaleidoscope eyes cut up to hers. “Now?”

  Aurora folded his fingers around the handle of the salt-imbued knife. “Now.”

  She rolled over, waiting. Then felt the crushing weight of the garment release her.

  GRAY

  He took in Aurora’s bare chest like he was an art connoisseur being allowed a private viewing of the Mona Lisa.

  Aurora Coel was an art piece.

  Exquisite in every way. The delicate curve of her breasts. The milky color of her skin. Even her belly button was a thing of beauty.

  She stepped out of the skirt of the gown, kicking it away, leaving her clothed in only a pair of black lace underwear.

  A shiver made its way across Gray’s skin as Aurora pulled him to her, ripping at his shirt, buttons popping off and plinking on the wooden floor.

  He helped her peel off the borrowed garments until nothing separated the two of them but skin.

  AURORA

  Gray's hands slid down her body, their lips seeking one another. He grasped her thighs with trembling fingers. She moved her hands from his chest to his stomach, then further down, guiding him to her. His half-lidded eyes flew wide as they peered into hers, asking a question.

  Are you sure?

  She’d never been surer of anything in her life. If kissing her Stellar felt this good. What might sex be like? Could they survive it?

  Clearly…neither of them cared.

  He moved inside her, both of them letting out a gasp. All moments of tenderness floated away, turning to an animalistic desire. Aurora’s hands, previously gentle and caressing turned claw-like, digging into Gray’s back, pulling him to her until they were as close together as two people could possibly be without becoming one.

  The sensations coursing through her as he rocked his hips with maddening, rhythmic slowness nearly made her black out. Each time he pulled out and moved back in, electric sparks sizzled and crackled within her veins.

  It was like their kisses had exploded.

  If those first sensations had been fireworks, this was an atomic bomb, destroying them and yet somehow stitching them back together.

  GRAY

  Gray’s vision went in and out, going black as the sensations took over his body.

  He’d never known pleasure like this. He hadn’t realized it existed. Judging by Aurora’s reactions, she hadn’t either.

  Placing her hands on his hips, she rolled over until she was on top, taking control. Like they both knew she preferred.

  As she took over, grinding her hips in ways that made him cry out in surprised ecstasy, his languorous, indulgent pace gave in to her eager speed. Like a passenger train morphing into a steam engine. While he wanted the sensations to last, it seemed Aurora was keen to let them build. He couldn’t slow her down. Even if he’d wanted to.

  In the final moment, the sensations reaching maximum power, erupting like a long-dormant volcano, both Aurora and Gray let out wall-shaking cries, neither able to hold back.

  Aurora seemed to black out for a moment, collapsing onto his chest. He held onto her, savoring the waves and tremors tingling across his skin and beneath it. She came to, still connected to Gray as she lay on top of him, their chests rising and falling in synchronicity.

  Aurora rested her forehead against Gray’s.

  “I love you,” he breathed. “I love you, Aurora Coel.”

  She pulled back, looking at him. Like a half-closed door being kicked open, he watched as something switched inside her eyes. A final wall crumbling. He could almost feel her allowing his heart to flood into hers. Aurora’s expression was a mixture of fear and elation.

  “I love you too, Grayson Cross.”

  And, just like that, the two Stellars stepped off a bridge they couldn't return to. They were drowning in each other’s waters. And nothing, not even the King of Darkness or the Light above, could extract them from the undertow pulling them under.

  Twenty-Three

  AURORA

  After Gray had fallen asleep, lying bare beside her, Aurora remained awake. She’d never been in this position before—the position of someone who could make love to a man and not feel dirty and guilty afterward. Even if their first time had been in the fiery pits of Hell. She was used to feeling like a cracked teacup, delicate and broken, after sex.

  Now, though…she felt filled.

  Running her fingertips along the plains of his shoulder, collarbone, and chest, she watched him sleep.

  Grayson Cross.

  The most precious thing in her dark and twisted life. The purest and best man she’d ever known. How had he fallen for someone like her? Someone so clearly closed off and guarded and, let’s face it—fucked up. Better yet, how had he gotten her to fall for him? Never in her life had she loved someone so deeply.

  True, they were Stellars. But her soul could have been bound to an asshole. Someone like David. Someone like Samuel. Controlling, manipulative, evil to the core.

  But it wasn’t. It was bound to Gray.

  Selfless, careful Gray.

  Tears pricked at the backs of her eyes, and she shook her head at herself, laughing out loud at her ridiculousness. When had she become so soft?

  In a way, it frightened her. Her inner walls had been her comfort. Her protection. No one had been able to break through them.

  Until now.

  But, rather than attempting to build them back up, she relished in the freedom, watching Gray’s chest rise and fall slowly, his eyes fluttering in a fit of dreaming. And she realized, he hadn’t just broken in…he had broken her out.

  LILITH

  Without knowing, the Stellars’ sexual antics had destroyed half a million demons. Even she had felt the effects of their connection. It burned her, threatened to destroy her, even.

  She’d had to transport herself elsewhere until they’d finished. Luckily she hadn’t been there when they climaxed. Lucifer soon joined her, looking weakened.

  “They’re dangerous,” she said to him, watching the two Stellars in a looking glass she’d conjured.

  “For Caducus’s army, you mean?” Lucifer stated, seemingly unconcerned.

  “For any dark army.”

  “Michael trusts them.”

  Lilith rolled her eyes. “Michael is one of the Light’s angels. A pathetic excuse for an angel, but an angel nonetheless.” She looked over to see if her words had bothered him. As always, he kept an impassive mask in place. She pushed further. “Have you managed to bend him over yet? How long has it been since you sodomites were together, again?”

  Lucifer’s eyes cut obliquely to Lilith, distaste in their reflection. “Sometimes I wonder if you may be more wicked than I.”

  Reclining her head in a laugh, Lilith pulled her gaze away from the writhing bodies of the two Halo Stellars. “Lucy, darling…of course I am.”

  He merely smiled in a mildly amused fashion. “I sense you have a plan to mess with the innocent one?”

  Leaning forward, Lilith pressed her lips to the mirror where the half-angels could now be seen lying next to one another. The glass shattered on contact.

  “Always.”

  Possession was Lilith’s strongest talent. It took almost no strength from her now. In the beginning, it pained her, and she could only stand to go without part of her soul for hours at a time. Now, after an eternity of practice, she hardly felt the loss.

  With Gray, though, it was somewhat difficult, as his heart was so tangled in Aurora’s. Difficult, but certainly not impossible.

  When Lilith returned to her realm in Hell, the two Stellars were asleep, hav
ing worn their bodies out with their demon-killing, love-making session. Gray lay on his back, Aurora on her stomach. Their fingers twined together.

  Careful not to wake the golden girl, Lilith knelt by Grayson’s side. His mouth rested ever so slightly open. Easy access.

  Speaking the Devil’s language in silent words, a string of black smoke escaped Lilith’s mouth, twisting and undulating in the air like a viper before traveling past Gray’s lips as he inhaled. Down the piece of soul went, latching on to his heart, vining around it, covering it in Darkness.

  Lilith could feel its hold, she could sense his presence.

  Her lips curled upward at her completed task. Lucifer may have agreed to fight this battle with Michael and his little angel army, but Lilith had made no such agreement. What was in it for her? What did she care if Caducus took over the world? Less of a burden for her, it was. She could still mess with the souls of the humans while another male leader tried to play King of the Darkness.

  Blowing a kiss to the pair of Stellars, Lilith walked from the room, leaving the golden girl alone with a man she didn’t realize would wake up to hate her.

  Twenty-Four

  LOGAN

  Something was different about Brielle now. She walked taller—stronger—like she wasn’t relying on someone else to hold her up anymore.

  It made Logan feel slightly better for abandoning her the way she had. Only a little. But enough to not make her fall into a pit of self-loathing.

  Brielle seemed to understand Logan’s brief slip. Luna’s death had triggered something in her. Maybe it had just been grief, but whatever it was had disappeared with Luna’s reappearance. Maybe her sister's visit had only been a dream. But, either way, it snapped her out of the claws of grief.