13. Ellie

Roots massed and surged from the blue grass. Black strips of bark and wood wrapped around Jonas with ease. The beams of Light mingling with the Dark rays pouring from Cadmus' fingertips dug into Jonas with painful teeth. I could see my cousin's aura pulsing with hurt as he tried, unsuccessfully, to free himself.

Shocked and growing more alarmed, I watched easy-going Cadmus bloom into a monster I had only seen in my nightmares. He seemed invincible, his power amazing in scope, pushing through Light and Dark with a strength I wouldn't have credited him.

Jonas' aura began to dim, and I realized it was only a short matter of time before he lost consciousness, or worse, his life. Cadmus couldn't control his Darkness. I imagined I could feel Foreia begging my to help, the need to soothe Cadmus compelling, overwhelming.

Taking a deep breath, I stepped between my lover and my cousin, gasping with pain as Cadmus' Light seared through my body. "Cadmus." I tried to reach out but couldn't find a hold in his fractured mind.

Then suddenly, blessed ease filled the aching burns within me, healing the invisible wounds that bled…magic.

Magic. Inside me.

Acknowledging the truth about myself for the first time felt almost anticlimactic. My heart rate slowed as the adrenaline rush began to ease. But instead of feeling drained, I felt revitalized. Cadmus and I remained joined. Our energy had fused together.

I blinked at the world around me, seeing it through eyes laced with Storm Lord power. Everything looked more vivid, sharper, the Dark saturating everything standing out in firm contrast to the Light of my Storm Lord.

A deep groan brought my gaze back to Cadmus. My energy soothed his, climbing over the Dark bands connecting them until my magic infused itself within him.

Like one giant Djinn, our Darkness settled over us like a comforting blanket.

"Ellie? I don't…" Cadmus shook his head, his entire body flaming. His Light tried to burn out the black flames encasing his body in truth. "I can't think. I need, I need so badly."

He paused, as if he knew but didn't know how to express what he had to have.

But I knew. Conscious of Djinn approaching and that Jonas lay nearby, watching us with wide eyes, I grabbed Cadmus by the arm and hugged him to my side, startled not to feel a burn from his fiery body. He felt hot yet soothing, and so very right.

"Ellie?" he whispered.

"Jonas, we have to go. We'll be fine. And so will you." Knowing the others would take care of him, I pulled the information I needed from Cadmus' mind and teleported us both to an isolated spot deep in a wooded area away from the scene of his battle.

Cadmus had come here often in his first trek to Foreia. He'd found a spot to commune with the land, a place where he felt at home in the midst of his enemy.

I knew he couldn't help what he'd thought upon first arriving here, considering Djinn the enemy. I could only hope he spoke the truth when he'd said he didn't mind the Djinn now, and that he didn't hold my heritage against me.

"I know what you need." Though I wasn't sure how I knew, I easily drew him out of his Djinn-like form back into solid flesh and bone.

Stroking his arms, his neck and chest, I murmured soothing words of comfort, promises of togetherness I wished might come true. Soon, he returned my strokes with large, callused hands, assuring me of his return.

I wasn't prepared for his sudden kiss.

Or the way my body lit up at his touch.

Before I knew it, we were both naked. He kissed and caressed me everywhere, lingering on my nipples before gliding down my belly to the heat of my sex. Desire shook me like an approaching storm. Lost to sensation, I could only gasp when his hands found me wet and ready for him.

One minute, we were hugging and touching, and then Cadmus mounted me, shoving my thighs wide before pushing inside me. I arched up into him and gasped into his mouth.

He swallowed my cry, kissing me until I could no more than writhe beneath him, so hungry, lost to his touch.

He found my breast again, worshipping me with a mouth so hot he set me ablaze. His hands, his touch, and then his mind worked to increase my pleasure. I trembled with need while he rode me harder, the quakes of my orgasm sending me into a shockwave of ecstasy as I cried his name.

"Yes, Elliara," he moaned, so big and hard inside me. "Take it all, every inch of me. You're mine, and I'm yours. Fuck, I'm going to come so hard." He palmed my ass, pulling me in as tight as I could be while he pounded inside me, the violence of his need incredibly arousing. "Feel the whole of me that needs who you are. Ellie."

I came again, and a wave of Dark pleasure rushed over us both.

He swore and finally convulsed, spilling into me with a mix of magic and seed, the essence of my Storm Lord lover. The orgasm seemed non-ending as he continued to share himself with me.

When he finally stopped moving, I felt as if my bones had turned to water. Too sated to move, to do more than breathe, I laid there and stared up at him in awe.

This was the warrior Jonas had spoken of when telling tales of the dreaded Storm Lords. This was the Casanova women at the bar clamored over for the chance to experience the heaven I'd just reached.

"No, baby," he murmured, leaning down with eyes so dark they looked black. "This is the man destined to make you sorry you ran out on him this morning."

"Eavesdropper." I sighed and kissed his cheek, his nose, his mouth, too pleased with his performance to be annoyed about anything. "This is the man who has a memory like an elephant. How can you still be harping on my leaving after that?"

He remained buried within me, shockingly still hard despite releasing inside me.

"I'd rather focus on your leaving me than think about how I almost hurt you earlier," he said quietly, his expression one of regret. "Ellie, I attacked you. I could have killed you when you got between me and Jonas. I —"

"Don't." I placed two fingers over his lips. "It wasn't your fault. It was the Darkness."

"Of this cursed place." He caged me gently but protectively in his muscled arms.

"No." Upon first settling down onto Foreia's ground, I'd felt the instant connection to the land and its energy. The swirling power in Cadmus hadn't felt the same. "When you burst in truth, that energy didn't come from Foreia. The land isn't evil. I think I'd have sensed if it were."

"I almost killed you and Jonas. That's not a good thing, Ellie." He looked grim.

"But you didn't. I'm not sure what happened, but the only thing I felt as your Light burned through me was desperate need."

"For you. You're the one I need." He kissed me tenderly, placed his forehead against mine and closed his eyes. "I don't understand any of this. Light forgive me, but I can't ignore the truth anymore. I want you, Ellie. All of you."

He started moving in me again, surprising me at how quickly he aroused me after such a mind-blowing climax. His energy reached out to me, and I embraced him, allowing even the tentative touch of his Light. It no longer burned but instead stroked me with fingers of pleasure everywhere.

"What are you doing to me?" I whispered as he pulled out of me and turned me over, propping me up on my hands and knees.

My limbs felt like jelly, his mental support was all that allowed me to remain upright.

"I'm loving you, Ellie. All of you," he said thickly. "This time I'm going to take things slowly to give you the perfection you so richly deserve."