Chapter 19

Rosabel La Rouge

He got us fruit and chocolate and cookies and croissants, nuts and juice and lots of water. He’d also gotten four turkey sandwiches that tasted almost as good as his kisses.

“I went in for the pizza, but the smell sold me these instead,” he told me while we sat and ate on the counter together, because the tiny table only had one chair at its side. It was obvious this safe house was meant as shelter for a single person, not two.

“This is so good I can’t stop eating,” I said with my mouth half full, already on my second sandwich. They were big, much bigger than what I usually ate at work. I must have been really hungry without even realizing it.

“I’ll get us more later,” Taland said. “How are you feeling? How’s that leg?”

Heat rushed to my cheeks and I stopped chewing so fast. Seriously, I was eating like someone might come take this sandwich out of my hands any second.

“Leg’s fine,” I muttered, hiding my smile behind the wrap.

“You take it so well—always did,” the asshole whispered, and I almost choked on the next bite of the sandwich.

He handed me water, grinning ear to ear. “Sorry, sweetness. I couldn’t help myself.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” I said with a roll of my eyes just for show, but when I stopped coughing, I dove in again right away. I was in love with those sandwiches.

Taland laughed—and again, I could have sworn something was…off. You couldn’t tell at first glance, but I’d bet my life that he was more cheerful, and the sparkle in his eyes was much brighter before he left. Now, it felt like a chunk of that happiness was gone, and instead it got replaced with worry.

Maybe he worried about what we were going to do next. Maybe he worried about us getting caught—all very valid reasons.

“Did something happen out there?” I asked him the third time.

“Nope—still perfectly okay.” He leaned in and kissed me. “You’re not going to get this if you keep asking.” And he waved the half of his second sandwich at my face.

I squinted my eyes at him. “You sure, though?”

“That’s it, the sandwich’s mine.” And he made for the door.

“No, no—wait!”

And that’s how we ended up running around the tiny space, up the stairs and to the bedroom again, laughing and chewing at the same time. A miracle I didn’t choke for real.

“I’ll trade you for a kiss,” Taland said when I entered the room to find him in front of the bed, waiting with the sandwich in his hand.

I jumped in his arms like a madwoman and kissed all the air out of his lungs.

He sat us on the bed, leaned against the headboard himself, then put me between his legs, and fed me the delicious sandwich himself until I couldn’t even breathe anymore. I hadn’t eaten so much in ages.

The drapes were pulled only halfway to the sides, but plenty of light came through. The sun would be setting soon. Good thing we didn’t really need any light. And if we did, we could both do magic.

I told him about some of my missions, about the training academy, about the people I’d worked with. I told him about Jim and Jam, too, but all the while something kept nagging at my brain, like a voice that I couldn’t quite understand.

Then Taland told me about his childhood in the Blue House, about his dad, who died when his brother Seth was just born, and his mom who cared for them until her dying breath. He was eleven then, still just a kid.

While he spoke, I played with the bracelet I’d left under the pillow when he went to town to get us food.

The more he spoke, the clearer that voice inside my head became, too.

“Taland?” I said, when he stopped talking for a little while.

“Hmm?” His lips were pressed to the top of my head.

“I think…I think you should try it, too.”

He stopped moving, muscles locked for the shortest second, but he heard me. He raised his head to rest his chin over mine.

“The anchor?”

“The bracelet ,” I corrected. “We still don’t know if it’s an actual anchor. But you walked on the Drainage, and everything in that game was real and the fact that it hurts when you use your magic now…” My voice trailed off and I shook my head. “I don’t know, but whatever happened to us there, whatever the reason you saw my memories, I think we’re the same.” Why else would it suddenly hurt him to do magic? Why else would he still be able to do magic even after walking through the Drainage?

Taland thought about it for a long moment. “I’m Mud,” he eventually said, like he was just testing the word on his tongue.

“Or maybe you are…whatever I am. You’re not really Mud—that didn’t feel like this. That was different.”

“You couldn’t access magic at all.”

I nodded. “Not with pain and not without. I had my ring in the forest before they took it from me, and it didn’t work. It didn’t respond, like I wasn’t connected to it at all. It was there, just… unavailable. ”

That was the best explanation I could give him.

“No, I don’t think I ever lost connection, but at first, my magic did seem more brown than black. Not anymore, though,” Taland said in wonder.

“Something did happen in that challenge. I don’t know—just try it.” I sat up straighter and turned to him. “Here—just a spell.”

Taland looked at the bracelet I offered him, not grinning for a moment. He just looked at it and didn’t even blink.

“And…if it works?”

“Then we’ll know,” I said. It was a start. “We still have a lot to figure out, but we’ll know.”

I wanted to take my time with everything from here on, and I wanted to quench my thirst for him here in this safe house first, but we needed to find out exactly where we stood eventually.

Taland agreed. He took the bracelet and put it around his wrist. It fit him perfectly. He grabbed my hand in his and raised the other palm between us.

“I’ve wanted to show you this one since Kaid first taught it to me, long before we met,” he said. “Watch.”

The spell was short, barely a dozen words, and he whispered it fast, his eyes on me all the while. I held my breath and waited, and when magic came to life on the palm of his hand, I still didn’t look away from him, and he still didn’t look away from me.

But we both saw with perfect clarity all the colors of the rainbow on the flames that danced on his skin.

Goddess, I was right.

My heart stood still and my smile froze on my face and my mind repeated those same words over and over— I was right. The Drainage had been real. Taland had been turned Mud—or at least whatever the hell I was. And now colorful magic came out of his hand, and the flames faded to leave way for these little sparks that rose in the air and spread all around us like fireflies.

I was laughing before the minute was over, and tears pooled in my eyes.

“I can make them last all day,” Taland said, as we both turned to look at those sparks, tiny and golden and glowing, spreading all around the room like fairy dust and glitter. As if that was what mattered—not the colors of his magic just now. Not the rainbow that sprouted from his hand to make these sparks and give them life.

I laughed and laughed and my heart was heavy but my body featherlight.

“I always imagined waking you up with a room full of sparkles like this. I was sure you’d love it,” Taland said, and my smile became wider.

I dragged myself closer and climbed on his lap, wrapping my arms around his neck. “I do.” I would have loved anything he wanted to show me. Anything at all.

“It was so easy,” he whispered, bringing his hands to my face as our lips almost touched.

“It was?”

“Very. My magic loved it.” And I knew exactly what he was talking about. My magic loved that bracelet, too.

“No pain?”

He shook his head. “None. I’m really Mud.”

“I think I accidentally gave you the power I took from the Rainbow—at least some of it. I think I… activated you while you were carrying me.” It was just another guess, but the best I had.

“Yes, that does make the most sense,” Taland said. “And the little girl in the treehouse? I think you shared your magic with her for that spell.”

“Like you shared yours with me in the Iris Roe.” Without which I wouldn’t have been here at all.

“Yes, except she was holding the bracelet when she called the spell, so it gave her magic color.”

I thought about it for a second. “I’m glad I did it.” To remember the look in Taylor’s eyes, her curiosity. Her amazement—definitely worth it, even if I was probably never going to see her again. It sucked, but at least she’d have that memory. For the rest of her life, she’d know exactly what it felt like to do magic.

“Me, too,” Taland said.

Then we kissed—slowly, while the shower of sparks that hung in the air around us turned this tiny, ordinary room into a magical place.

“Why did you want to return this, sweetness? You should keep it. It belongs to you,” said Taland, and in those moments I couldn’t think of a good enough reason why I’d decided to return the bracelet to the Vault.

“It’s…it’s dangerous.” That had been my reasoning—it was a dangerous thing, a forbidden thing to have, and if someone found it in my possession…

Afraid. I was always so damn afraid.

“Only if you plan to kill people with it. It’s more dangerous in someone else’s hands,” Taland said, and just like that, I believed him.

“Then I won’t try to return it again.”

We both laughed. As if I was ever going back to Headquarters, to that Vault. We laughed and it was so good for my soul, it mended it. Because I couldn’t care less that I was never going back—on the contrary. I felt free. I felt like I could finally breathe. And with Taland by my side? There was absolutely nothing standing in my way.

“If anybody should have something like this, it’s you. I think you’ll be just fine, sweetness,” Taland said.

I turned and put my legs around his and straddled him so we were chest to chest, our bodies flush against one another.

“Can you keep the sparks flying?” I asked.

“Couldn’t stop them if I tried.”

He wrapped his arm around my waist, and his hand around the back of my neck, and he kissed me until I saw those sparks on the inside of my mind, too.

And this time, we didn’t stop.

He sat with his back against the headboard, and I straddled him with my arms tightly around his neck for support as I rubbed against him, feeling like I was detached from the rest of the world completely.

Too many clothes— why the hell did we put our clothes on again? Because Taland had gone to town and I’d wanted to be prepared in case something happened, but those didn’t seem like good enough reasons just now.

I pulled his shirt up and took it off him in one movement, never once slowing my pace. I was grinding against him like crazy, burning between my legs, on every inch of my body, fascinated about how I could never seem to get enough of this guy. Indeed, the more of him I felt, the more I wanted.

And he was in a rush as well, so my shirt ended up on the floor next, and he was too impatient to unclasp my bra, so he just pulled the cups down and played with my nipples while I moved.

“You’re fucking delicious,” he whispered as he trailed kisses down my jaw, to my neck. “So sweet it’s addictive. I want you to melt on my tongue again, baby.”

His words alone could make me come.

Then he grabbed me by the waist and pulled me up to my knees, and I cried out in protest. But the cry turned to a moan instantly when his mouth closed around my nipple and he sucked.

Fuck, he knew what to do to my body. He knew how to fucking turn me inside out in a second.

Now I held myself on my knees eagerly, my hands in his hair, and for a moment, I watched him suck in half my breast in his mouth, his eyes closed, his fingers digging into my waist as he moaned. He looked so sexy like that, so dedicated to what he was doing, so determined to taste every little inch of me.

When he finally unclasped my bra, he wrapped an arm around my waist and brought his other hand lower, on my ass and between my spread legs, rubbing my pussy over my pants.

My head fell back and the room was full of sparks and the sunlight was growing weaker and weaker outside. It was magical what Taland did to me, but in this setting, everything became even more intense. I let go of his hair as he played with my nipples and rubbed my clit in the same rhythm, and I reached to touch the sparks with my fingers. They let off the tiniest bit of heat, just so I felt them against my skin, and they were perfect. He was perfect.

This room, this house, this moment was perfect.

And we were only just getting started.

Eventually, Taland unzipped my pants, lay me down on the bed, and took them off me. By the time he did, my hands were underneath his and I was grabbing at his hard cock furiously.

“Naughty little Rose,” he said when he threw my pants and panties away. “You want my cock, baby?”

Oh, hell… “Yes!” I said— screamed .

“Yeah? Where do you want it?” He ran his hands up and down my body, spreading my legs to the sides and bringing his thumb to my clit to tease me just a bit.

“Everywhere,” I breathed. “I want it everywhere.” It was the truest thing I’d said all day.

Taland grinned, and my breath caught for a second when I looked up at him, surrounded by a million tiny sparks like he was a fantasy rather than real. The most beautiful thing I had seen yet.

Wow, I thought, and only when I heard my voice did I realize that I’d said it out loud as well

“I want my cock everywhere on you, too,” Taland said, looking down at my body again, running his fingertips down my stomach. “I want to start with your mouth—how’s that sound, baby?”

Fuck, it sounds like paradise. “Yes,” was the best I could give him, and it was enough.

Whispering praise, he stood up from the bed and moved me, too, put me in the middle of the bed, then pulled me until my head fell just off the edge. He came closer until his cock was right there over me, my head between his legs. I reached up instinctively, but he took my hands and put them on his thighs instead.

“Hold onto me, sweetness,” he said, then grabbed my chin and pulled my jaws open just a bit. With his other hand, he held his cock and lowered slowly until the tip of it touched my lips.

I moaned. He cursed.

“Open wide,” he ordered, and when I did, he thrust himself in my mouth all the way.

He’d been right to tell me to grab his legs for support—turns out I was going to need it. I was upside down, the back of my head just off the edge of the bed, and he was thrusting inside me from above, so deep the tip of him pressed against my throat.

Goddess, I couldn’t breathe at all. Taland growled, stayed there for a moment, then moved back to give way to air so I didn’t fucking choke on his cock.

Not going to lie, it would have been a great way to go. But for now, he continued to fuck my mouth in that position, going low until I gagged, then pulling himself back up again while I held onto him for dear life.

He had one hand on his cock to guide it down, the other on my boobs, then lower, between my legs. He touched me, dug his fingers in my skin, played with my clit, then straightened up again.

A moment later, he slowed his rhythm and touched my neck.

“I can see my cock in your throat, baby,” he said, mesmerized, and though I couldn’t see shit from this position, I could imagine what it looked like just fine because I felt it.

I loved every second of it, as strange as that was because I couldn’t breathe more often than not. But pleasing him was what I lived for, so maybe that had something to do with it.

“Touch yourself,” Taland ordered, and I eagerly brought a hand down to my nipples to pinch them, then between my legs, while he leaned over almost all the way over me. In this position he moved in and out of my mouth with more ease, reached new depths down my throat, and he could see exactly how I was touching myself, too.

Fuck, just the thought of him watching my fingers disappearing inside me turned me on more. And while I touched myself, he held himself up with one hand, and with the other spread my legs farther apart. He watched me intently for a little while, whispering praise and growling when I went faster, before he flicked his tongue over my clit. I moaned louder with him in my mouth, and that drove him crazy.

He moved his hips faster, and licked my pussy harder, and I picked up the pace, too. He was in my mouth and I was in his, and I just knew that when the orgasm hit us, it was going to shake us to our core.

I was right.

The sparks came to life inside my head, too. Taland pressed his tongue on my clit, and I had my fingers all the way inside me, and came when he pulled his cock almost all the way out of my mouth slowly, leaving only the tip in. I loved to suck on it, and the feeling exploded inside me instantly when I did.

Taland came, too, while I was still floating in the sky with the clouds. His cum went down my throat, but most slipped out of my mouth and up the sides of my face, since my head was upside down. We didn’t stop moving for a little while, but when the feeling let go of me and I opened my eyes, the sparks were still there, brighter because the sky was darker outside.

When he took his cock out of my mouth, Taland laid me down on the bed, then cleaned his cum off my face with some wet wipes, while my eyes remained on his, on the colors of the sparks that reflected off them. So beautiful. So fucking beautiful it hurt to look at him.

“How’s your throat?” he said when he sat next to me on the bed.

“Sore,” I said honestly. “But happy.”

“Your throat is happy?”

I nodded. “The happiest throat in the world.”

Taland laughed. The sound of it had my toes curling, even when he left to go get us juice and water, and I was all alone in the room with the sparks. No way could I get up from the bed now, so I used my magic to pull those blinds closed all the way. Because even though the sun had almost set all the way, I wanted it to be completely dark in the room so I could see the sparks better. So that they were the only source of light around us.

Taland brought back snacks, too, not just juice and water. I leaned my head again his chest and got comfortable with a big goofy smile on my face while he fed me potato chips because I knew that we weren’t going to stop for a long time.