19. ~Talon~

19

~Talon~

It had helped.

Being with Alena again.

Our foursome coming back together.

It had worked to ease some of the rage that had been infusing me and growing too great for my liking and worrying the shit out of me.

But in spite of that relief, I knew it would wear off all too soon. It wouldn’t be enough.

Not until Alena was back with us.

Not until this war was over and we were all safe.

Not until Constantine was fucking dead!

There it was acting up again.

Shit. This wasn’t good.

I sucked in a breath and focused on my surroundings.

The black and charcoal-gray jagged rocks both below in the ravine either side of the stone bridge I was standing on and via the mountains surrounding the area. I looked up at the palace in the near distance, the glowing black and silver majestic structure with a shitload of spikes. And high on top at its jagged peaks were four gargoyles now in their resting state.

Yeah, we were in the Dark Fae Realm.

Me, X, and Ore.

Saryan had needed to get back and deal with the fallout of Constantine’s invasion. And Orpheus had needed to go with him, as Prince, too. He’d clearly wanted to as well to make sure his father was okay. He was constantly ingesting more black magic through the spell he’d done on Alena to siphon it from her. The more she fought against the infection, the more black magic that infused him, and so far it had been a great deal.

She still hadn’t made contact, though.

She hadn’t come back to us.

It had been two whole fucking days since we’d seen her. Well, kind of seen her—in her mind and all that.

The magical know-it-alls of Orpheus and Xavier had told me over and over that it could take time for her to break free enough to come back to reality and to herself.

The thing was, I was getting to a state of beyond reason now.

As I walked inside from taking everything in and hanging out with the gargoyles while Orpheus was meeting with the Dark Fae High Court alongside his father, and X was taking a call with his dad, I caught sight of a couple of the members walking about, meaning their meeting was finally over.

After two long hours.

At least I’d had a lot to keep myself busy. Before hanging with the awesome gargoyles, I’d been given a tour by a couple of the staff. I’d never been here before. I’d only ever met Saryan when he’d come to Electi Academy a couple of times.

The place really had a dark beauty to it.

I ventured further into the palace until some interesting sounds caught my attention, coming from the room I now knew to be the library.

Grunts and groans. Sounds of pleasure and play.

Mmm. Sounded like a great distraction to me.

I made my way over there.

The door was ajar.

Even hotter, because it suggested whoever was messing around inside had been far too eager to even manage to lock—or even properly shut—the door. That suggested some intense passion.

I employed my phoenix stealth and slinked in through the small gap.

And my breath caught in my throat.

Oops. I probably should’ve kept on walking.

Because there, lounging back in one of the oversized black leather armchairs a few feet from a row of floor-to-ceiling bookcases was Saryan Hart.

His pants were down to his ankles, his thighs spread wide as none other than Professor Edgar Marlowe knelt between them taking the king’s cock down his throat.

“I’ve missed you too,” Saryan groaned, softly caressing Marlowe’s hair.

I started. It wasn’t just fucking around then. No, there was some real intimacy between them.

Marlowe was stroking Saryan’s thighs, feeling him and reveling in it as he devoured his cock like he couldn’t get enough… and like he was making love to it with his mouth.

He eased off for a moment and licked up the shaft, telling Saryan in between, “I was sick with worry for you. Don’t ever do that again, going out there on your own half-cocked.”

“Are you giving your King an order, Edgar?”

Marlowe grinned up at him. “You better believe I am.”

He dove down onto Saryan’s cock, making him buck as he took him deep in one shot.

“Ungh… I’ll take it under advisement.” He smirked down at him. “Since you’re making such a strong case.”

Marlowe chuckled around his cock.

And then he was deep throating the fuck out of him, making Saryan writhe in the chair and tug roughly at his hair.

It wasn’t long before Saryan was crying out and coming down his throat.

Marlowe lifted his head and made a show of licking up every drop off his lips.

And then he smashed his mouth to Saryan’s the two of them kissing and groaning, grinding against one another.

When they were done, Marlowe joined him on the chair and Saryan cradled him against himself.

Definitely heavy on the intimacy.

Marlowe rested his head on Saryan’s shoulder.

“You’re not well.”

Saryan waved his hand dismissively. “I am fine.”

“Darling King, I know you better than anyone and I can feel the difference. The black magic is taking its toll.”

“Things are as they need to be.”

“No one can hold as much black magic as will be running through your veins once it’s all siphoned into you. Combining it with what you already have within… it will be far too much, Saryan. It will compromise your physical ability and your mental faculties.”

“I’m aware of the consequences.”

“You won’t be able to rule.”

“My time is coming to an end, my love.”

“You intend for Orpheus to ascend then? This early? He’ll still require tutelage. On-the-job training.”

“Yes, which is why it needs to be soon. Once he’s readied his army.”

“I still can’t believe he was able to keep that from me. Me, Saryan.”

Saryan chuckled. “You made the mistake of underestimating him because of his age. My son is special and not just subjectively because he’s my flesh and blood. He’s steps beyond the rest.”

“That has certainly been demonstrated lately, yes.”

Saryan nuzzled his neck. “Been giving you trouble, has he?”

“He has.”

“I’ll make it up to you.”

“And I’ll hold you to it.”

Saryan’s eyes darkened.

In the next second, he was pouncing on Marlowe and driving him down into the chair.

Then they were going at it again, this time on the on-ramp for some rough fucking.

“Playing the voyeur again, firebird?”

I almost jumped out of my skin at the sound of X’s voice. I swung my head to see him now standing right behind me. His stealth game was right on now.

I whispered to him, “You know about the last time?”

“Between Ore and Callum? Yeah, I’m aware of what went down.”

I screwed up my face as certain images got stuck in my mind.

“Who is it this time? Randoms?” he asked.

Before I could ease him away, he was looking right at it, then choking, and stepping back.

“Come on. It’s Ore’s father.”

“I didn’t know that when I peeked inside. But I couldn’t look away from the shock of it.”

“Nah, him and the ex-Commander makes a lot of sense.”

“Seems like it’s been going on for a while.”

“Good for Saryan. Nobody deserves to be alone like that.”

“Yeah,” I murmured, realizing how true that rang. Especially for me. Everything happening lately called to my intense issues about being left behind, about everyone leaving me, or being lost to me.

And it—

“What’s going on here?”

We both spun to see Orpheus striding up to us.

Shit.

“What are you looking at?” he whispered, amused.

We pulled away and shut the door quietly, then eased away a good few feet, Ore moving with us and eyeing us curiously.

“Nothing,” I answered quickly.

Too quickly.

I saw suspicion spark in his eyes.

Thankfully, X was there with a save, telling him, “We happened upon two staff members getting it on in there.”

“And you just stayed and watched?” He eyed me. “My, my, baby bird. This voyeurism of yours is getting a little out of hand, wouldn’t you say?”

“It was an accident.”

“Was it? You’re certain?”

“I mean, I guess I knew what I was gonna be walking into, but…” Damn him and his perceptiveness.

When I’d caught him and that asshole Callum Cornwell going at it, I’d been turned on, yeah. And, sure I’d also stayed way too long watching it go down. But I’d put that down to Ore being there. Maybe he was right, though. Maybe it had been more than that.

Either way, now wasn’t the time to get into it. I waved my hand, “Whatever.”

He chuckled and so did X.

I stepped up to Ore and rubbed his arm. “How are you doing?”

“As well as I was doing the last time you asked before I went to the Court gathering. And as well as I’ve been doing each time you’ve asked me every two hours.”

“Be grateful. It was every twenty minutes the first day,” X said with a chuckle.

There was nothing amusing about it.

All right, yeah, I got that he was trying to lighten the mood, but I just couldn’t go there.

Especially not with the memory of Orpheus choking up blood still fresh on my mind.

And what I’d overheard of Saryan and Marlowe’s conversation.

“This black magic shit is serious business.”

“I’m aware. You know I am.”

“He’s proven that, firebird.”

Ore frowned. “Is there something more to your reaction, Talon?”

“Yes! Okay?” I cried, pulling back and throwing my hands in the air. And then I was blurting out, “Your father is sick! He’s sick from all that poison he’s siphoning from Alena! He already has too much in his system from his days of fucking around with it in the past, and now hers is gonna push it too far for him.”

“I know that it’s going to take a toll. He won’t be as—”

“It’s worse than what he told you, Ore! Way worse! He will barely be able to operate at all and his mind will be compromised too!”

“What?”

“You’re sure, Tal?” X asked me.

“I’m sure.” I laid my hand on Ore’s shoulder. “I’m sorry I blurted it out like that.”

Footsteps sounded and we all turned to see Saryan and Marlowe walking toward us hand-in-hand.

Saryan’s gaze went to his son’s. “Your phoenix friend is correct. We need to talk.”