Chapter 19

Dravyn

Her body tensed as we rose higher. It was like lifting a statue—not particularly heavy, but awkward and stiff and nearly impossible to guide.

I pressed my mouth closer to her ear, making sure she could hear me within the roar of wind rising around us. "Relax. I've got you."

She gave a barely perceptible nod, but remained entirely too stiff. I kept an arm around her, pulling her against me while I moved my hands over hers. Once our hands were securely locked together, I shifted so we were more side-by-side, my arms braced and holding her up as I stretched my wings more fully. In the same moment, I summoned flames far below to create a warm, uplifting draft to help support us. It built and built, becoming a thick cloud of energy that gave a sense of solidness beneath our feet. Between it and the strength of my hold, soon she was essentially walking through the air alongside me.

She relaxed a bit more with each step, allowing me to focus on my own balance and lift us higher with several strong beats of my wings.

"Don't look down," I warned.

She started to do exactly this, but caught herself and instead fixed a determined stare straight ahead. She trembled from what felt like a combination of fear and anticipation.

I waited until the shivering had stopped, until she was able to calmly glance my way for more instruction, before I said, "Now, try summoning wings as you did before. Feel the fire pooling around your shoulder blades…and just let it extend from your body the way it wants to."

Her breath caught as she tried to take a deep breath. But she managed another nod, and then a slow exhale that brought magic with it. Little bits of fire appeared at her back, fluttering without any control or direction. They were followed soon, however, by the budding foundation of solid wings.

She closed her eyes. Took another deliberate breath. The fire dancing behind her pulled in toward her back—almost as if she'd inhaled it—and melded with the start of those wings, building them up and outwards.

I concentrated on keeping my own magic separate, neither pouring into hers nor pulling away from it; I was determined to make sure she could do this on her own.

After a few more breaths, she'd managed to wrangle all the loose embers into the wings. She looked over her shoulder, eyes widening slightly as they took in the feathered flames sweeping and curling out behind her in a relatively orderly, solid shape.

"Don't overthink them," I said. "Just let them work."

She gave a nervous laugh at this, glancing my way as if to remind me she didn't know how not to overthink things.

Before her mind had time to race, I let go.

Her expression turned to panic, then horror.

Then instinct kicked in, followed by a flare of light and power as her wings became bolder, their outline more defined. They fanned out, catching the warm updraft I'd created, lifting her higher without much effort.

I darted higher as well, curving into the space in front of her. Her gaze caught mine. For a moment, she seemed too elated to think of her panic or fear. Too overcome by her accomplishment to think of anything other than flying.

But it was a short flight.

The initial elation wore off as soon as she took her eyes from mine. I felt her focus snapping, saw the exact moment she recognized I was no longer holding her, followed by the mistake of looking down and seeing nothing between her and the faraway ground.

In the next breath, bits of her flaming feathers started to peel away.

She plummeted for an instant before managing enough control to stop the rapid disintegration of her wings. They no longer remained solid or strong enough to carry her upward, but enough gathered together to fan out once more and slow her descent.

As she approached the final stretch of that descent, I sensed her magic truly start to flicker—then go out—and only then did I intervene, swooping down and wrapping her up in my arms once more.

We were perilously close to the ground by the time I properly caught her, making it difficult to adjust for a graceful landing, so I simply pulled her against my chest and maneuvered as best I could to cushion her fall.

Despite the bumpy landing, she was laughing as we rolled to a stop in the long grass.

I ended up on my back with her straddling my waist. My wings stretched out on either side of us, burning an impression into the ground and sending little swirls of smoke into the air.

As those wings faded away, Karys leaned forward, pressing her lips to mine. The last of her hair slipped free of its binding, falling in wavy curtains around our faces.

I took her head in my hands, pulling her deeper into the kiss.

Our hearts pounded from the fall. Our bodies shivered. The pulse of our magic was wild, heating the space around us to a point that made it ours and only ours. We were the only two who could have withstood this burning—set apart from the rest of the world and its problems, if only for a moment.

I stopped trying to keep my strands of magic separate from hers, instead taking the full heat of her in, letting all her breaths and beats tangle up with mine.

"I'm going to seriously injure you one of these days," she mused, lips still hovering close, "if you have to keep breaking my fall like this."

"You're easy enough to catch."

"One misstep and…" She shrugged, and then her forehead wrinkled with thought. "Can gods break their bones?"

"Whatever corporeal forms we take are susceptible to all kinds of injuries, yes. But you've seen how fast we heal other injuries. Bones aren't much different, and they're stronger, harder to break in the first place compared to mortals. So it's unlikely you're going to shatter me beyond repair."

"But it's possible."

"So little faith in my abilities," I laughed, sitting upright, shifting my grip to her hips and repositioning her with enough quick, easy strength to make her gasp.

She settled into my lap, hooking her arms around my neck for balance. "More like ‘so little faith' in my own coordination."

"For a first flight, that could have gone much worse," I pointed out.

She lifted her gaze to the sky, to the remnants of her wings drifting over us as ash and glowing-edged feathers. Her mind was racing along with her heartbeat.

I shouldn't have intruded on those racing thoughts, but it was nearly impossible not to in moments like this—when she was so maddeningly close and so much of her was wrapped around so much of me, physically and otherwise.

She wore a knowing look as she lowered her eyes back to mine. "You hear what I'm thinking, don't you?"

"Not anything specific."

Her hands roamed over my chest, fingers smoothing my shirt before hooking around the collar of it and using it to pull my lips toward hers again. Her kiss was soft, a brush of velvet and fire. I felt the smile curving her mouth when I tried to deepen it.

"Impatient," she chided, teasingly.

"No one has ever mistaken me for the God of Patience," I countered, sliding a hand against the back of her neck, holding her in place as I leaned more fully into her.

As my tongue slipped into her mouth, her grip on me tightened. The harder I kissed, the more fiercely she held, and the bolder the fire inside of her blazed. The strength of her hands, the heat of her waking magic…I could have gotten drunk off the sensation of these things alone—and yet I found myself craving more.

When I finally drew back for breath, her hands roamed a bit longer before slipping under my shirt and settling against my back. As her fingers dug into burning hot skin, I couldn't stop myself from imagining them in other places. Around other things.

I drew back to find a faint hint of red spreading over her cheeks. Could she hear my thoughts as clearly as I could hear hers?

Likely more clearly, I realized—she didn't have enough control over her new powers to be as selective about what was slipping its way in.

I lightly gripped her chin and tilted her face so our eyes met. "Blushing?" I murmured, trailing my fingertips down her throat. "Now I'm very curious about the specific things racing through that mind of yours."

Her lips parted, a soft little noise escaping them. The muscles in my stomach flexed. My fingers moved to her face, running along her lower lip, pulling her mouth open wider; I wanted to hear her make that sound again.

She shuffled in my lap, repositioning her knees on either side of my hips and settling her weight more completely onto me.

I inhaled sharply as her lips closed around the tips of my fingers in a slow, sucking kiss—a wickedly deliberate kiss that sent a shock of desire through my core.

I slid my other hand to the small of her back, firmly holding her in place because… fuck, she felt good sitting on me like this.

I swallowed down both the groan and the curse rising in my throat and, as calmly as I could, I said, "No more magic practice, then? Seems like you've gotten distracted."

"It's not my fault my teacher has been trying his best to seduce me."

"I've hardly been trying," I informed her with a smile. "I think you just want to be seduced."

She scoffed playfully at this, but the sound gave way to a gasp as I took hold of her hips, digging my fingers in.

"If I was trying," I told her, "then I might have done something more like this ."

Her mouth formed a small ‘ o' as I lifted my hips slightly upward, just enough to let the softness of her collide more fully with my growing hardness.

"And I would have told you to strip off all that unnecessary clothing for me," I added, "because it was impeding our ability to practice."

"Impeding it, hm?"

"I need to be able to feel the heat of your skin," I said, slipping a hand beneath her shirt, "so that I can properly gauge your fire."

A corner of her lips inched up at this last part, eyes lighting with mischief and desire. Without taking her gaze from mine, she pulled her shirt over her head and tossed it aside, leaving only the thin, supportive undergarment underneath. That garment hung haphazardly, one of its straps dangling off her shoulder. Her breasts nearly spilled from it, stiffened peaks pressing through the silky fabric and begging to be touched.

I brought my lips to her shoulder, kissing along the path where the strap should have been while reaching to slide the other one off as well. Then I rolled the entire thing farther down, leaving her breasts fully exposed and pushed upward.

I cupped one breast, lifting it toward me as I bowed my head so I could trace the velvety tip with my tongue. As it hardened more completely, I took it in my mouth, sucking as slowly and teasingly as she'd sucked the tips of my fingers a moment ago.

She leaned back, adjusting the angle of her body so my mouth could more easily reach her. The movement shifted her hips as well, sliding her center over my stiffened cock. I felt a throb of need go through her, and my mouth grew rougher in response, sucking harder and scraping teeth over her pebbled, aroused flesh.

Her mind was racing again. And again, I tried not to intrude on her thoughts…but I still caught flashes. Visions of us intertwined. Ideas that caused her blush to deepen, and rushes of need that might have been hers, or mine, or some combination of both.

"We could use the connection our minds seem to have to our advantage, you know," I said.

"How so?"

"Use your imagination."

"Walk me through it, instructor," she teased.

I brushed my knuckles across her cheek. "If I can see what's going through your head, then I'll know exactly how you want to be touched." My fingers swept lower, down her neck, along the curve of her chest. "Tasted." The word drew her toward me. Our mouths collided once more, and her hips rolled eagerly against me as I sampled that taste with my lips, my tongue, my teeth.

Her breaths grew more shallow. More needy. I slid my hand between her legs. Even with her bottom half fully clothed, she still shivered with pleasure and anticipation, her hips working even harder to find a rhythm that would meet the need burning more and more strongly within her.

I matched her strength and speed with my own caresses, curling my fingers and penetrating her, cloth and all.

"And most importantly," I said, emphasizing the words with small but powerful twitches of my fingers, "I'll know exactly how you want to be fucked."

Her head tilted back. Her eyes closed as she breathed slowly in and out; she seemed to be concentrating on trying to draw out the pleasure of the moment for as long as possible.

"Yet another advantage of this whole divine business," she said.

I laughed, planting another kiss on her exposed throat.

She looked down at me as I drew my mouth away, her eyes smoldering, her cheeks flushed. "So if you actually try to see and hear my thoughts, do you think we can clearly communicate in this way?"

"Most likely."

Her smile turned mischievous once more. "So I could imagine anything I wanted to…"

I lifted a brow. "At your own risk."

"Meaning…?"

"Meaning if you start putting ideas in my head, I can't guarantee I won't act on them. I only have so much self-restraint." I repositioned my hands on her hips, holding her more firmly against me as I added, "And you're already sorely testing it, sitting in my lap like this."

A familiar look crossed her face—the slightly parted lips, the wild gleam in her eyes, the determined set of her jaw. The look of a challenge accepted.

She lifted herself slightly from my lap, shuffling backwards until she was at a better angle. She balanced there as her hands moved along my sides, sliding down, fingers fumbling with my clothing. Unbuttoning my shirt. Unbuckling my belt.

I relaxed my mind. I was not actively trying to keep her thoughts from it, but not pushing them out, either.

The images became clearer. Visions of her kneeling before me. Then me before her. And then…

My pulse quickened. "You're actively trying to torture me, aren't you?"

"What do you mean?"

As if she didn't know.

"You weren't listening when I told you to be careful of what you thought about."

"Wasn't I?"

I ran a hand along the curve of her breast, finding her hardened tip once more and giving it a flick. "Wicked thing."

She smiled. "So we're getting better at communicating through our thoughts. Which means this still counts as practice, I think."

"I feel like we're moving outside the realm of the training we'd planned on."

"Maybe. I'm always trying to improve in all areas, though."

"I don't believe you need training in this particular area, for what it's worth." My voice dropped lower, thick with want as I took a handful of her hair in my fist and pulled her into a quick, rough kiss. "But if this is what you want, I'm still happy to provide guidance, of course."

She kissed me back, her hands feeling their way over my pants, pulling them farther down until she'd freed my cock. Her hand wrapped around it, somewhat tentatively at first, but growing more confident as it gave an enthusiastic twitch beneath her warm touch.

I exhaled a slow, raspy breath.

Her eyes flashed up to mine. She licked her lips—a small, unconscious motion, but it undid the last of my restraint.

I gripped her hair more tightly in my fist and offered that guidance I'd promised, pulling her head downward. I needed her mouth around me.

Now.

She needed no more persuasion—or guidance, for that matter—as she ran her tongue along the length of my cock. Slowly. Tantalizingly.

Her hands joined in the stroking after a moment, closing around me once again and moving up and down in a perfect, excruciating rhythm. At the same time, her mouth teased the tip of me as she'd done with my fingers, lips brushing in the faintest of kisses before sucking and pulling away.

"Wicked thing," I repeated in a growl.

It was an enormous test of control, fighting the urge to drive myself deep into her throat.

I couldn't keep myself from thinking about doing this, however—an image that grew bolder with every lash from her tongue and caress from her fingers, until I was sure she'd seen it clearly, judging by the way her strokes grew more purposeful. More persistent.

She adjusted her stance, sinking lower onto her knees so she could take more of me into her mouth. My thoughts seemed to implode, swallowed up by that mouth, lost in the wake of her touch.

With slightly shaking fingers, I pushed her hair from her face, tucking it behind her slender ears. Pieces of it slipped free again within moments. Wild. Beautiful. Messy.

"Look at me," I commanded.

Her gaze fluttered up while her mouth continued to work. The sight of her like this—eyes heavy with lust, lips glistening, breasts heaving—was one of the most beautiful fucking things I'd ever seen.

I wasn't going to last as long as I wanted if we kept this up, so I pushed the loose strands of her hair back once more, cradled her face more gently, and eased her away from me.

"As much as I love the idea of dripping down your throat," I ground out, "I think we have more things we should practice ."

She responded by resisting my touch, leaning up and taking half my length into her mouth once more, gripping the other half with soft yet certain hands.

After a moment, she pulled up slowly, eyes fixed on my face the entire time, and I nearly lost myself in the rush of hunger that radiated through me.

Wicked thing, indeed.

"Not following directions…that's the sort of thing that could get you in trouble during these lessons," I warned.

She ran her tongue over the dampness coating her lips, her eyes still on me, as if daring me to punish her.

I twisted my hand tightly into her hair again and used the grip to pull her head forward again. I slid deep into her throat. She managed to take nearly two-thirds of my length before I felt the vibrations of a building cough. I held her there for several seconds before allowing her to come up for air.

She sucked in several deep lungfuls of that air only to immediately bring her mouth back, drawing enough of me in to nearly choke once more.

A glutton for punishment, apparently.

I caught her jaw between my fingers, tapping the bulging outline of my cock against her cheek.

"I appreciate your enthusiasm for learning," I growled, pulling away from her, "but we're moving to the next lesson. Turn around."

She gave me a curious look. I grabbed her pants and ripped them down, not bothering with loosening ties or buttons or anything else. The sound of ripping fabric was eclipsed by her sharp gasp.

I barely heard either of them over the thunder of my own pulse and the throb of my magic as it burned hotter, desperate to take her in.

"Turn around. Now."

She did. I finished stripping off the rest of her clothing, then leaned back, taking hold of her legs and prying them apart as I went.

She resisted at first, self-consciousness keeping her thighs close together as she hovered over me. I ran my hands over the soft and ample flesh of her thighs, waiting for her to be ready. Truthfully, I was no God of Patience, but for her, I would take my time. I would have spent an eternity mapping out the shape of her, worshipping and memorizing the mere outlines of her body until she felt comfortable enough to let me into the softer, more sacred parts of it.

As my light, admiring touch circled its way along the back of her thigh, the tension began to slowly melt from her muscles. Her spine arched and her legs eased apart—an invitation.

"Wider," I encouraged, my hands moving to her center, the heat of my fingertips meeting the damp warmth of her arousal.

A quiver went through her. I slid my hand more deliberately against her, cupping her sex, teasing the swollen bud of it with my fingertip. Her legs opened more completely, all sense of hesitation abandoned. I took hold of her once more, positioned her with a few powerful tugs, then wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her center down to meet my mouth.

She cursed as I planted a trail of soft kisses against her. Several more curses followed as I pressed my fingers hard against the small of her back, holding her down, allowing me to devour her without any more mercy or restraint.

She tasted like she belonged to me. Marked by my fire—like smoke and salt and that particular zest of magic. But there was something else, too, a soft spiciness that was undeniably her.

As my tongue pushed deep inside her, driven almost completely mad by the need for more of that spice, her hands found my hardened shaft once more.

Her mouth soon followed.

Her tongue swept across the head of my cock. I groaned without taking my mouth away from her. The vibration of sound and the warmth of my breath spilling over her folds caused her legs to clench together. Her mouth soon returned the favor, lips sucking the tip of my length before closing over it and sliding down, up, down, up.

She moaned as she worked—a particularly sweet sound while she had a mouth full of me—and my hands gripped her legs, fingers digging into her soft skin. Her hips rolled against me, growing increasingly desperate, chasing release.

I considered giving it to her. The way I could have spread her thighs wider and licked, kissed, sucked until she was writhing on top of me, all restraint forgotten. It was enough to drive me mad with desire, just thinking about it, yet it wasn't enough—I wanted more. Needed more. Needed to be buried deep inside, filling her with more than the fire and magic I'd already given her.

I didn't bother with commands this time. I simply grabbed her and spun her back around into the position I wanted her in.

I settled her into my lap once more, but this time my cock was free, fully erect and there to meet her. She slid onto it without hesitation. Warm. Dripping wet. Perfect. A little whimper left her as she sank lower, and I moved my hands to her hips, helping to ease her down.

"I know you can take all of it," I murmured, pressing my lips to her hair.

She wrapped her arms around my neck and rocked her body against mine, grinding her way down, slowly taking more and more of me in until her soft cries of pain shifted to pleasurable moans.

"Good girl," I mumbled against her, voice wavering as a shiver went through me.

"Goddess," she corrected, breathlessly.

"Goddess," I agreed, smiling.

I rose onto my knees, adjusting for balance and leverage. My hands slid to her thighs, holding her in place while I drove more fully into her. I moved subtly inside her at first—and occasionally not at all because it was mesmerizing just to be still and watch her face, to see her eyes widen and her lips part as I stretched her and throbbed inside of her.

Her hold around my neck tightened as her head tilted back. I took her by the hips and lifted her slightly, just enough to give myself room to push harder, faster.

She cried out with my first full, fast thrust. The sound was like the first taste of a divine, perfect fruit, leaving me desperately hungry for more. The fire inside me roared, determined to meet hers more completely.

A few more thrusts. A symphony of beautiful sounds cascaded from her mouth. Her back arched with increasingly perfect timing to meet my pounding movements, and a dangerously feral need began to rise within me.

I lowered her onto her back, keeping myself buried deep inside her.

She reached a hand toward the pinnacle of her thighs, fingers sweeping over the dampness we'd created. Her touch grazed my erection as she moved it more furiously against her sex. I matched her quick, needy caresses with faster, deeper thrusts. Her eyes soon fluttered shut, and she started to stretch out her hands, abandoning her sense of control, ready to surrender.

I caught her wrist and held her hand in place. "Keep touching yourself."

She did, her eyes flashing open and fixing on me. Her stare was deliberate. Her touch was equally so, each increasingly fervent stroke pushing her closer to orgasm.

"That's it. That's my goddess."

Her breath caught at the low rumble of my voice. She stroked even harder. Faster.

I lifted her legs, hooking her ankles over my shoulders, elevating her lower back and taking advantage of the angle to drive more deeply into her.

She kept her fingers moving over her center. Her other hand soon joined in. The position pressed her breasts together between her arms, and I was forced to amend my earlier thought —she was even more fucking beautiful now than she'd been with my cock in her mouth.

I tossed my remaining restraint aside and gripped her legs more tightly, rocking harder against her until I felt her climax building, her body shaking from the effort of trying to hold on to the last shreds of control.

I leaned over her, pushing even more completely inside, leaving no space between our bodies. No space for control . As I pinned her down, her hands fell to her sides, fingers clawing into the ground. Fire bloomed in her palms. The scent of smoke and scorched earth enveloped us.

I brought my lips to her neck, to the sensitive spot just below her earlobe. The slightest pressure from my tongue made her hips lift and her back arch. I met the movement with one last, powerful thrust. She came as we collided more deeply, her cry echoing through my body, my soul, sinking in and drawing my own release in answer.

We remained pressed together, sweat-slicked bodies heaving for breath, for several moments after. She continued to move beneath me, slowly twisting and turning, wringing out every last drop of pleasure. The air hummed with heat and hints of our still restless, aroused magic.

Once the world ceased its spinning, I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her upright as I settled back into a sitting position.

She cupped her hands against my face, holding herself steady as she pressed her lips to mine. Everywhere we touched still felt electric, tingling, sore in the most pleasant sense of the word.

A cocoon of warm magic settled around us as we drifted down from the heights we'd reached. I closed my eyes and leaned my forehead to hers. She continued to kiss me, her lips dragging lazy, savoring paths over mine.

"You know," she said, finally pulling her face away from mine, "these sort of endings make the training sessions a lot more bearable."

I chuckled. "Agreed. I find it's always good to end on a positive note."

She snorted at this before crawling away and reaching for her clothing.

We dressed, mostly in satisfied silence save for the teasing lecture she gave me about ripping her clothing. Luckily, with a few minor adjustments, these things remained wearable enough—at least for the trip back to the palace.

As she finished fixing her attire into place, her back was to me, her gaze fixed on some distant point on the horizon. I wondered what she was thinking, but I didn't try to pry my way into her thoughts.

Her cheeks were still flushed with the heat of our encounter when she looked back to me. Her hair fell in wild waves around her face. Her eyes seemed an even bolder green than usual. I exhaled slowly, trying to keep my balance.

She was fire and fierceness, my brightness and breath.

She was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.

She was also talking—I saw her lips moving, though the words didn't register in my mind right away.

She fixed me with a wry look as she stepped forward and smoothed the front of my shirt, which was still rumpled from being so hastily discarded.

"Are you even listening to me?"

I gave her a roguish smile. "Sorry. I was distracted."

"I asked if we needed to head back," she said. "Valas will have gone to Mairu by now and told her what he told you. They'll want to discuss what comes next; we shouldn't keep them waiting."

"We shouldn't," I agreed, my tone calm and even despite the sudden weight in my chest.

Neither of us felt like walking, but we both wanted to drag this trip out a little longer, I think—which ruled out transporting instantly back into the problems that awaited us at the palace.

I called the selakir instead, summoning the particular vein of magic I shared with the creatures, connecting specifically to that bond I'd developed with Farak over the years. He appeared, accompanied by a gust of wind and spiraling threads of fire, a few moments later.

Zell followed soon after, eagerly kneeling before Karys and allowing her to climb onto his back. The pair of them rocketed forward without hesitation.

Farak snorted at the sight, clearly disgruntled by the overzealous behavior, but he didn't resist when I urged him into a gallop to catch up.

We retraced the path Karys and I had taken earlier, eventually making our way back through the valley full of the Watching Pools. Karys slowed Zell to a trot as we wound our way through them.

"Is it my imagination," she asked, frowning, "or do several of the pools look different than they did a few hours ago?"

I swept my eyes over the area, eventually focusing on the pool in the center—the one that corresponded to my old kingdom. Karys was right; its waters had shifted to an even more ominous shade of dark grey, like heavy storm clouds.

"…More things we need to discuss with the others," I said, nudging Farak back into motion. "Let's keep moving."

She nodded. Though she looked hesitant, Zell was already breaking into a run once more, his form becoming little more than a fiery gold blur as he swept up the far hillside.

Farak, perhaps sensing my unease, carried on at a much slower trot, occasionally tossing his head and fixing his shining dark eyes on me as if to ask, What is happening?

We reached the top of the hill overlooking the pools. I glanced back one last time, my eyes immediately finding the one in the center.

And I would have sworn its waters had already turned even darker.