5. Mica

Chapter 5

Mica

I missed you , the stronghold whispered into Mica's mind the second his feet touched the limestone of the balcony. You took mate away .

His jaw tightened at the unwelcome reminder as he carefully released the infuriating, intoxicating human in his arms, his hand hovering for a moment while he made sure Ra wouldn't stumble from the quick descent. The stronghold wasn't always so verbal, often communicating more in feelings than words. Its greeting was punctuated by a combination of neediness, love, and a hint of threat for removing Ra from its bounds.

It hadn't always been that way. Before it had been so deeply damaged, it had been a deep well of calm, much like the cave system it embodied. Now it would lash out without warning, oscillating between a youthful innocence and murderous rage fast enough to give him whiplash. As much as he would like to correct the stronghold and explain that he and Ra weren't mates and never would be because he would never act on the drive to complete the potential bond the stronghold could sense, that wasn't going to help calm the sentience. Carefully tucking all his concerns and fears out of sensing range of the stronghold, he sent it a wave of reassurance— We're back now. We missed you, too.

Don't leave me again . *tears* *pleading* *rockfall smashing through caves*

"Are you okay?" Ra asked him, concern in his storm-grey eyes as he ran a hand through his blond hair, setting it to rights after the flight.

Mica's gaze hitched on the movement as the man's biceps flexed and the move gave him the perfect view of Ra's muscled forearms, which were bared where he'd rolled up his sleeves. The glitter of the mica collar he'd grown around Ra's neck was a frustrating tease—the soft bronze of the mineral an exact match to his own skin tone where it sat against the much lighter pale tan of Ra's collarbone making him desperate to see the same contrast in his bed as their bodies pressed together. Magic surged inside him, reaching toward Ra, and a wave of want crashed over him that threatened to bring him to his knees where he could grasp the man's hips and…

Fuck. No.

Taking a deep breath, he forced his mind away from the temptation before him. Why did it have to be Ra? He was human. It shouldn't even be possible for there to be a mating draw between them. It must have something to do with the way Bastion's mark had changed the man over the decades. Jealousy roared through him at the thought and his fists clenched, knuckles whitening as he fought to push it down. The presence of another elemental's magic inside Ra where only his should be was slowly driving him crazy.

"I'm fine. I'll collect you in an hour for dinner," he snapped, walking away before he could do something he'd regret. Like pushing the man against the wall and kissing him until his lips and cock were swollen and he was gasping for breath.

The draw to mate with someone was exceptionally rare, but it wasn't uncommon for it to be ignored. Mating bonds were invasively intimate and permanent, which was a really long time for an immortal. They also became a huge weakness if you were the kind of person who had enemies, because if your mate died, you wouldn't survive them. And there was no one with more enemies than the ruler of an elemental court. He couldn't imagine anyone he would be willing to lay himself bare to in the way a mating bond required, especially not a man who'd extorted him into complying with his demands by threatening to starve his city. That didn't make the constant instinctive driving need to touch Ra and make him happy relent, though.

Leaving his wing of the caves and the too-beautiful human behind, he headed to his study to catch up on the work he should've been doing before they'd been called away to deal with the latest minor ley line rupture. He wasn't surprised to see Wren there waiting for him like he often was, his seneschal jumping to his feet and bowing low as he entered the room, emotion shining in his eyes.

Was Ra right? Did Wren desire him? Surely not. They'd worked together over four centuries and nothing had ever happened between them. Sure, Mica had often used him as his plus-one to council social events to avoid the sexual machinations or awkward clinginess that inevitably arose whenever he took an actual date, but they both knew that was strictly a mutual convenience, didn't they? Mica got a hassle-free evening and Wren benefitted from the boost in status of being seen to be trusted by his lord. Everyone knew Wren attended as his assistant, not his date. Everyone except maybe Wren, if Ra was right.

"According to the scouts' reports, the damage has been managed?" Wren asked as Mica sat down at his desk.

"Yes, but I can't close the rift without destabilising the ley line even more. Have the marketing team put out a message explaining it as an unexpected wyrm migration we don't want to interfere with. Ra already organised a new temporary road, so it shouldn't inconvenience those travelling much." It was a delicate balance making sure Wren knew enough to do his job without giving away the true nature of the disturbance. The seneschal didn't have nearly enough power or control to hide his thoughts from the stronghold.

" Ra organised a road?" Wren spluttered.

"He was there and it helped. You know the role he performed for Lord Bastion. He has experience that is useful while he's living here," Mica said, annoyed at having to defend himself again to Wren.

"Exactly. Experience working for a rival court to undermine us. He's probably already planning how to exploit the damage as a strategic weakness," Wren argued.

"What else needs dealing with before the dinner?" Mica said. He didn't owe Wren any explanations.

Wren took the sudden change of topic as the rebuke it was and straightened in his chair, pulling out the tablet he'd been working on. "Two trainees and another half-dozen residents moved to the Tree City while you were at the Soul Court, almost all from the cave sector affected by the most recent collapse. I've taken the liberty of marking the nearby tunnels as undergoing maintenance to keep people clear now no one's living there."

Mica winced. On the one hand, he was grateful they'd taken themselves to safety. It was one less thing to worry about. On the other, the stronghold now only had around twenty percent of its usual resident population remaining and that would further upset the sentience. Reading his conflicting emotions as it listened in on their conversation, the stronghold sent him a sensation like a whining puppy asking what it had done wrong. Reaching out a hand to the nearest wall, he stroked it reassuringly like Ra had done earlier.

Just protect those remaining and I will take care of the rest, Earthshine , he murmured into its essence. Dammit. Now Ra had him using the stupid nickname, too.

"Good work. What else?" Mica said, checking his pocket watch to see how much time he had to get back to his suite and change.

"The Air Court has settled on a date for Daria's ascension as Lady. It's in two weeks. I've RSVPed for you and a plus one. Would you like me to accompany you per usual?" Wren asked.

"That won't be necessary," Mica said.

"You need to reassure people things are stabilising here. You shouldn't turn up alone," Wren pressed.

Ra hadn't even been in the stronghold a day and already his presence had upset the balance with his people. He couldn't remember the last time Wren had questioned his judgement so frequently.

"Ra will accompany me. I'm sure Lord Bastion will appreciate the visual reassurance that we haven't killed each other yet," Mica said, surprising himself with the words almost as much as his seneschal.

Wren's jaw dropped and a strangled sound emerged from him. "You're taking him ?"

"Please see to it that he has something appropriate to wear," Mica said. It was only respect for the length of Wren's service that kept him from calling him out on his behaviour again. "Anything else?" he asked, half his mind in the study and half reaching out with his power to the collar around Ra's neck to check on him. He didn't trust the man not to get into trouble when he wasn't in his sight.

Connecting with the collar was a mistake. He could feel Ra's racing heartbeat where it pressed to his skin and warm water raining down on it. Ra was in the shower. Naked. Right that moment. Mica's cock swelled in his dusty, torn pants as he pictured it in his mind. Knowing it was wrong but unable to resist the compulsion, he opened his senses wider so he could listen in. Heat flared in his face as he heard a tell-tale moan of pleasure and the rhythmic slick of some kind of lubricant. Biting back a tortured groan, he relaxed the connection until it was a barely-there presence in the back of his mind again. Nothing could make him forget the sound of Ra's pleasure, though.

"If that's all, I need to go," he said, cutting off whatever Wren had been trying to tell him while he was too distracted to listen mid-sentence.

Striding from the room, he arrived back to his wing just in time to see Ra emerge into the living room wearing only a towel wrapped precariously around his waist with drops of water still running down his defined abs.

"Enjoy yourself?" he all but snarled, pissed off at how much of a distraction the human was proving to be.

Ra's eyes widened in surprise and a flush bloomed in his cheeks before he leaned a shoulder against the wall and looked Mica up and down with a knowing smirk, eyes lingering on the obvious bulge behind his zipper. The memory of the filthy soundtrack of Ra's moans had been playing on repeat in his mind since he'd heard it.

"Were you spying on me, Lord Mica? How dirty. I like it," Ra said.

The picture he made standing there shirtless reminded him of the texts Ra used to send when they'd been courting. Texts with teasing photos that had kept him coming back for more.

"The collar allows me to monitor you," he said, stray guilt making him at least want to ensure Ra knew how he was being watched, even if he had no intention of stopping.

Reaching up, Ra stroked a finger down the mineral and Mica could swear he felt the touch against his skin.

"Good to know. I'll make more of a performance of it next time," Ra said, before pushing off the wall and sauntering into his bedroom. His towel dropped to the floor a full second before he closed the door behind him and Mica bit back a curse.

Groaning to himself, Mica headed to the privacy of his suite to take a very cold shower. Why had he thought it would be a good idea to have Ra in his space? He knew the answer, though. He would have gone out of his skin with anxiety if the man had been any further away. With the pull of the potential mating connection between them, the next three years would be pure torture. He'd just have to hope the shielding he'd erected to keep his magic from reaching out to Ra would stop the human from realising. He didn't want to contemplate how Ra would take advantage of his weakness for him if he realised just how deep Mica's compulsion to touch and possess him ran.

The last of the sun's light had fled the living area when he returned chilled to the bone and with the comforting armour of his formal attire back in place. Ra was inspecting one of the few pieces of art on the cave walls—a stylised piano of magically spun minerals that appeared to be melting into the limestone. Mica paused in his stride, reluctant to disturb the moment. The human was dressed much more casually than him—slim black pants and a charcoal grey collared shirt that he knew would draw attention to the storm clouds of the man's eyes once he turned around. He'd rolled the sleeves up to his elbows like he always did and was sipping from a glass tumbler of whiskey, his other hand in his pocket making his pants stretch tight across his ass. The man seemed incapable of wearing a suit in the way it was designed to be worn and, annoyingly, it only made him hotter.

"Do you play?" Ra asked, apparently fully aware Mica had been standing there staring at him for the past however many minutes.

"What?" Mica asked, blinking back to himself.

"The piano. Do you play it?" he repeated.

"Not here," Mica said.

Ra rolled his eyes. "That sounds like a yes. Could you be more obtuse? Where, then?"

"Elsewhere," Mica said, not willing to open that side of himself to Ra.

The man was already under his skin and each interaction only made him burrow deeper like a thorn migrating into his flesh until it was bruised and raw. Music was too intimate. A thing he kept between him and the walls of the stronghold that absorbed the sound into its soul. He needed to make time to play again. It was one of the few things that had staved off the worst of the symptoms the stronghold was exhibiting.

"Do you wear the bow tie when you play or do you finally unbutton that collar?" Ra asked.

"Enough with the innuendo. You are the last man on the Earths I would touch," Mica growled.

"Who said you'd be the one doing the touching, my lord? "

Arousal shot through him, making his suffering in the icy shower earlier pointless. Pinching the bridge of his nose to ward off a rage headache, Mica took a deep breath. "I said enough . We are late. You will not speak to me like that in front of my people."

Ra stepped closer, challenge in his eyes and maybe a hint of the same frustrated confusion he was feeling at the way they couldn't leave each other alone. "I'm house-trained. I know how to behave in public."

Mica snorted. "No. You don't. What are you hoping to achieve with this? Do you want me to send you back to Bastion? All you need do is ask."

Ra shrugged, breaking eye contact. "What can I say? You bring out the worst in me. Anyway, you're not going to let me go. You need me."

Mica searched the man's face. There was something slightly off in the way he'd said the words. Like he was simultaneously smug and bitter. Reaching out with his magic to the collar that was visible where Ra had left his top three buttons undone, he felt the slight hitch in Ra's pulse.

"And you need to be needed," Mica guessed.

Bastion had needed Ra for decades, but now he had his mate Hel. As much as Kaia might be vulnerable from the trauma she'd suffered, the last thing she needed was to become dependent on someone. That left Mica as the last-resort backup option to satisfy the gap in Ra's life left by Bastion's new relationship.

"Don't let it go to your head. I just like having the big powerful Earth Lord dependent on me after everything you did. We have a dinner to get to," Ra said, passing by close enough that his thigh brushed against Mica's primaries, sending another electric shock of desire through him.

Swallowing back a growl, Mica sent a silent request to the stronghold and smirked as Ra reached the doors and they failed to open for him.

Mate angry. Make him feel better , the stronghold whined.

Great. That was just what he needed. Relationship advice from a cave system that now had a tendency to shower rocks on people who annoyed it.

He will feel better once I feed him , Mica reassured it.

Mate-feeding good.

Frowning, Mica went to explain that was not what he'd meant and then thought better of it. He wouldn't get anywhere arguing with the unstable sentience.

"Are you going to let me out or have we progressed to keeping me captive?" Ra snapped, not even trying to push at the door or search for a handle. For a human, he had a surprisingly innate understanding of how the stronghold functioned.

"Ask nicely," Mica ordered.

"Fuck you. Stop playing games."

Games? Ra could talk. What the fuck did he call the constant malicious flirting? They really couldn't afford to be any later, though. People were already going to notice and the last thing he needed was for them to draw any more conclusions than they would from the fact the ‘collar' he'd placed around Ra's neck wasn't unheard of as a marker of an Earth Lord's consort. He never should've formed it, and he definitely should've removed it by now. There were a thousand other tracking spells he could've used, but his magic was riding him too damn hard to make sure everyone knew Mica had a claim on Ra.

Fuck. He was so screwed.