Chapter 118: The Devil Prays

Ravial had been staring down at Leitana for the past ten minutes.

The blindfold remained firmly in place, black silk across eyes that had seen the birth of stars and the fall of angels but he didn’t need sight to see her. He felt her. Every flutter of her lashes against his cheek when she blinked away tears. Every shallow catch of her breath when he withdrew almost completely, only to sink back in with aching slowness. Every tiny tremor that ran through her thighs when he bottomed out and held there, grinding deep, letting her feel every thick inch of him stretching her open.

This was not their usual.

Their first time had been fire, hard, fast, filthy. He had fucked her like he needed to conquer her soul before she could escape his grasp. Teeth and nails and growled commands. He had taken. Claimed. Devoured.

But this…

This was something he had never done.

Not in millennia.

Not ever.

He cradled the back of her head with one large hand, fingers threading through her curls, keeping her gaze pinned to his even as her body arched beneath him. The other hand pressed low on her belly, thumb stroking the soft skin just above where they joined, grounding her, claiming her, anchoring her to this moment.

Leitana’s mouth fell open on a broken sound.

“Ughh…”

Tears slipped from the corners of her eyes, trailing hot paths down her temples into her hair. Her back arched off the mattress, trying to chase more, deeper, faster but Ravial held her down with gentle, unyielding strength, hips rolling in a slow, devastating rhythm that made her sob his name.

“Stay with me,” he rasped, voice gravel and velvet. “Look at me, lamb.”

She did.

She always did.

He pulled out almost completely—slow, torturously slow—until only the thick head remained inside her. Her walls fluttered around him, desperate, greedy. He watched her face the entire time: the way her lips parted on a silent plea, the way her lashes fluttered, the way fresh tears gathered like dew on her lower lids.

Then he sank back in—inch by agonizing inch—filling her until their hips kissed and she whimpered his name like a prayer.

“Ravial…”

He groaned low in his throat, the sound vibrating through both of them.

This was not fucking.

He had fucked before—countless times across centuries. Hard. Fast. Detached. A release, nothing more. A chore his body demanded and his mind endured.

But this…

This was different.

This was making love.

And it terrified him.

Because he had never, never let himself feel this. Not the tenderness. Not the ache. Not the consuming need to crawl inside her skin and stay there forever. He had told himself long ago that sex was control. Power. A transaction. Even with her, at first, it had been that—possessive, consuming, but still on his terms.

Now?

Now he was lost.

Every slide of his cock inside her heat felt like surrender. Every tear she shed felt like a brand on his soul. Every soft gasp, every trembling “mi Ravial,” every flutter of her walls around him, it unraveled him thread by thread.

He leaned down and licked a tear from her cheek, slow, reverent, tasting salt and her and something achingly sweet. Then he kissed the corner of her eye. Her temple. The bridge of her nose. Her forehead. Worshiping every inch he could reach while he rocked into her with devastating patience.

“Look at me,” he whispered again when her eyes tried to flutter closed.

She obeyed, always obeyed, gazing up at him like he was her sun, her moon, her entire sky.

“You’re crying again,” he murmured, voice rough with something he refused to name. “Why?”

Leitana’s lips trembled.

“Mi… mi not want to die,” she whispered, voice cracking on the confession. “Mi make peace with it before… but now… mi no wan to. Mi can’t leave yu. Mi wan stay. Mi wan carry yu baby.”

The words landed like a blade between his ribs.

Ravial’s rhythm faltered just once.

He slammed into her—harder than he meant to—burying himself to the hilt. She cried out, nails digging into his shoulders. He pressed his face to her chest, right over her racing heart, breathing her in like she was oxygen and he was drowning.

He knew.

He had always known.

Angels could not procreate.

Fallen or not, his seed would never take root in her womb. No matter how many times he filled her—bare, raw, desperate—no child would ever come from it. It was the final, cruel joke of his rebellion: eternal life without legacy. Eternal desire without creation.

And he could never tell her.

She didn’t know who he truly was.

She thought he was just a man.

A powerful man. A dangerous man. But still… human.

She didn’t know he had once been the Morningstar.

She didn’t know he was the Devil.

She didn’t know why her body would never quicken with his child.

And he would die again before he let that truth break her.

“Enough,” he rasped against her skin, voice wrecked. “Please… enough, baby.”

But Leitana was already crying harder—deep, wrenching sobs that shook her whole body.

“Mi can’t have yu baby,” she choked out. “Because mi die soon… and mi wan give yu everyting… mi wan give yu family… mi wan…”

He lifted her suddenly, still buried deep inside her and knelt on the bed. She straddled him now, legs wrapped around his waist, arms locked around his neck, face buried in his throat.

She cried so hard her whole body shook.

Ravial held her tighter than he had ever held anything in his existence, centuries, eons, eternities and still it wasn’t enough.

He rocked into her, slow, deep, steady, each thrust a silent vow.

Stay.

Live.

Be mine.

Her sobs turned to moans—broken, needy—as he moved inside her. He kissed her tears. Her cheeks. Her jaw. Her throat. His hands roamed her back, her hips, her ass, worshiping, memorizing, begging her body to remember him even when her soul left.

“Mi love yu,” she cried against his neck. “Mi love yu so much… mi no wan go…”

“Then don’t,” he growled, voice cracking for the first time in centuries. “Don’t you dare leave me.”

He thrust deeper, harder, claiming her like he could fuck her soul back into her body.

She shattered again, clenching around him so tight he saw stars behind the blindfold. Her cry was raw, primal, beautiful. He followed her over the edge—spilling inside her with a guttural groan, hips jerking, arms locking her against him like he could fuse them together.

They stayed like that, sweaty, trembling, breathing each other’s air.

Leitana’s sobs quieted to soft hiccups.

Ravial pressed his forehead to hers, still buried deep, still unwilling to let go.

“You’re not going anywhere,” he whispered—fierce, broken, desperate. “You hear me? Not yet. Not ever if I can help it.”

She nodded weakly against him.

“Mi try,” she whispered. “Mi try stay… for yu.”

He kissed her, slow and tender.

“Then stay,” he murmured against her lips. “Stay, little lamb. Stay my wife. Stay my everything.”

Leitana’s arms tightened around his neck.

“Mi tingting blong yu,” she breathed.

Ravial closed his eyes.

And for the first time in his endless existence…

The devil prayed.

Not for forgiveness.

Not for power.

But for time.

Just a little more time.

With her.