6. Mica

Chapter 6

Mica

Stepping up to Ra's back, he leaned around him to press a hand softly to the door. The move was totally unnecessary. He could as easily have asked the doors to open with a single thought to the stronghold. Then his chest wouldn't be a breath away from the warm temptation of Ra's body, the man's sunshine scent wouldn't have filled his lungs as his jaw brushed against his collar, and he wouldn't be desperately avoiding the urge to wrap Ra in his wings and drag him down the hallway to his bed.

Neither of them stepped forward as the doors opened to reveal the sloping tunnel leading further into the caves. Ra tilted his head away from him a little, exposing the length of his pale throat and Mica let out a frustrated breath against the soft skin that had the human tensing. All he would have to do is lean forward a little and they'd be pressed together.

His hand brushed over Ra's thigh as he let it drop back to his side and the move made him sway until the last distance between them was gone. Ra was silent for once as he leaned back against him, resting his head on Mica's shoulder. Without conscious thought, Mica gripped Ra's hips and turned his face toward him like a plant to the sun, softly nuzzling the curved shell of his ear.

"My lord, forgive the intrusion but the food service is waiting for you," a voice called from nearby.

The two of them jerked apart, neither having noticed the scout approaching. Clearing his throat, Mica murmured his thanks to the elemental, who was carefully avoiding looking in their direction, and led the way toward the hall they used for more casual gatherings. He'd thought about holding the dinner in the formal chamber, given Kaia's association with a foreign court, but hadn't wanted the girl to feel overwhelmed.

Thankfully, the route from his quarters to the dining area didn't require Ra to scale any more ladders. Now he'd flown with the man in his arms, Mica wasn't sure he'd have been able to resist the urge to just carry him and the last thing they needed was any more excuses to touch.

As the scout had indicated, they passed the attendants waiting to serve the food on the way in. Mica mouthed an apology to the head chef. Their magic would keep the dishes warm, but he hoped his ill-fated run-in with Ra wouldn't leave them eating anything soggy or overcooked.

The brief surge of chattering voices silenced as the doors opened. Two dozen elementals seated at three long tables rose to their feet as he swept into the hall.

"Please be seated, this is not a formal dinner," Mica said, smiling at Kaia waiting by the seat to the right of his as he neared.

He could feel Ra's presence at his back, partially screened from view by his wings, but he studiously avoided looking at the man to assess his reaction. Wren was waiting for him ahead, his attire as formal as Mica's, with whiskey for him on the tray in his hand. Mica nodded to his seneschal before pulling out the chair to his left and gesturing for Ra to take it.

The sound of shattering crystal had magic flaring in his wings as he snapped his attention to the disturbance. Amber liquid spread in a pool of broken glass at his feet as Wren glared at Ra, eyes trained on the mica collar around his neck.

"Good to see you, man," Ra said, winking at Wren before seating himself.

Clearing his throat, Mica raised an eyebrow at his seneschal, willing him to pull himself together, but Wren still seemed to be short-circuiting. Rather than wait for him to have the mess cleaned up so he could take his seat without draping his wings in the spilled alcohol, Mica sent a silent request to the stronghold to absorb the crystal and liquid into the floor.

The scents of lemongrass and coriander had his mouth watering as the moment passed and everyone, thankfully, turned their focus to the food rather than whatever was going on with Wren. For a while, the only sounds were the clink of spoons on pottery bowls and quiet requests to pass the rice. He hadn't realised how hungry he was until that moment, but it wasn't a surprise given he'd missed lunch and spent a huge amount of energy calming the wyrms.

"How has your first day been, Kaia?" Mica asked when his stomach finally stopped feeling like it was eating itself.

The head trainer Serena was sitting opposite them alongside the two newer trainees who Kaia would be practising with once she mastered the basics of connecting with the stronghold and channelling her power safely. They must have returned from the Tree City to visit for the dinner.

"Everyone's been super nice," Kaia said politely.

"I imagine it's very different from home," Mica said, ignoring Ra's soft snort at the understatement. He knew it took time to adjust to living in his subterranean stronghold.

"Yeah, it's so weird only having elementals around," she said.

Mica tilted his head in surprise. It hadn't occurred to him that that would be the biggest difference she noticed when everything from the surroundings to the food was so different.

"Humans don't come here much," Kim, the elemental girl opposite her, said.

"Because a stronghold is no place for them," Wren chimed in from behind him.

Mica clenched his jaw to bite back the stinging rebuke his loyal seneschal didn't deserve to receive in public. If Wren couldn't be polite to Ra, he should at least remember the girl had been raised by her human mother.

"The stronghold seems to like Ra just fine," Kaia shot back. "In fact, I think it's got a little crush on him."

A moment of panic filled Mica that the stronghold might've ignored his command not to speak of the mating draw between him and Ra to anyone, but there was no indication the girl knew there was anything more going on.

"Are there many humans in Soul Tower?" the boy Jasper asked.

"Yes. Not just humans, but vampyr and ceptae as well. The city is run by a ruling partnership with equal representation of all the species on it. Māmā and Uncle Ra have slowly been bringing in new tower staff from the new peoples to make sure that's representative, too," Kaia said.

"Is he your real Uncle? You don't look much alike," Jasper said.

Ra's rich laugh sang out from beside him, sending scatters of sunshine into the room. "Are you saying I'm too pasty white to be her Uncle?" he teased.

Kaia leaned forward to poke her tongue out at him before responding. "Uncle may be pākehā, but he's still my real uncle, just like Uncle Basti is even though we aren't related by blood."

"Kaia's mother is Māori. Pākehā means a human where we're from who was originally of European descent rather than Indigenous to Aotearoa. So, someone who hailed from what you know as Fire Court territory. We often use te reo Māori words in conversation to show our respect and value for their culture and to help keep the language a vibrant part of the city," Ra explained to the boy, who looked confused.

Mica could have told him the unfamiliar language wasn't what had Jasper looking perplexed because the translation spells that had become a permanent fixture for the elementals with all the new species on the Earths would've made the meaning clear to the boy already. Unfortunately, he was too slow to head off Jasper's unthinking comments about his real confusion.

"So, you're really half human? How are you so powerful?" Jasper asked.

Mica winced internally but Serena beat him to a reply.

"Jasper, that was rude," Serena chided.

Kaia's electric blue wings flared behind her in agitation and she glared at the boy. "I'm not half anything. I'm all me. And I'd give anything not to have this power."

Mica shared a concerned glance with Serena as Ra got up to wrap an arm around the girl in support. Her attitude to her magic wasn't unexpected. It had been exploited and drained during her captivity and it was the reason she'd had to move away from her family. It was going to make her path to achieving control that much more difficult to achieve if she rejected it, though.

"Sorry," Jasper said, looking ashamed.

He was good kid. He just hadn't had much chance to interact with humans in his short lifetime and that wasn't his fault. Mica made a mental note to do better at finding opportunities for the peoples to meet each other.

"It's been a long day for our guests. We should let you rest, Kaia. You'll need your energy when training starts tomorrow," Mica said, standing from his place.

"Do you need someone to show you the way back to your room?" Serena asked the girl.

"Nah, the stronghold will tell me," Kaia said.

That was interesting. The stronghold didn't usually bother with casual communication with its inhabitants.

Mate's family , the stronghold said in his mind, sensing his thoughts. Along with the words came the sense of shared suffering with the girl—two hurting beings both trying to piece themselves back together.

Keep her safe , Mica sent back.

"I'll walk with you, K-bear," Ra said, ruffling her white-blonde hair.

"Don't get lost on your way back," Mica said.

I will keep mate safe, too , the stronghold interjected.

Sighing to himself, Mica watched the two outsiders head out to the tunnels, leaning in towards each other as Ra murmured something that had Kaia giggling.

"Walk with me?" Mica asked Serena.

The head trainer inclined her head, bidding the other children farewell before following him towards his quarters. He waited until they were ensconced behind the extra shielding of his walls before speaking.

"How is she doing?" he asked, pouring a glass of the rice wine Serena preferred and handing it to her.

"Better than I expected, given the history you told me. I had wondered if she would have a negative association with the stronghold, since this is where she was taken from."

"She was in the outermost guest quarters when she was taken. Hopefully, being deeper in the caves feels sufficiently safer," Mica said.

"She is already halfway to connecting fully to the stronghold by pure instinct, which bodes well for her training. It does mean we'll have to keep a close eye on her, though. There is a level of co-dependence building there I am not comfortable with," Serena said.

The walls flared brighter for a moment as the stronghold objected to her words.

"Hush, you. I'm only trying to make sure you are both strong and healthy. That's what you want for her, too," Serena chided the sentience.

"Has she tried to use her power since she arrived?" Mica asked, thinking back to the girl's vehement statement that she wished she didn't have it at all.

"No. And none has leaked free as might be expected from someone her age. Only time will tell if that speaks to a level of control she was forced to learn alone to stay alive or a mental block we will have break through to teach her."

"But you're confident we can train her?" Mica checked.

"Absolutely."

"Thank you, Serena."

"Are we going to talk about what's going on with you and that sexy young man she arrived with now?" she teased.

Serena, at almost 300 years older than him, had become a pseudo mother-figure to him and the rest of the stronghold when his parents died and he'd taken over as lord 1,000 years earlier. Of all his extended inner circle, she and the plant-mage Elysia who was leading the agricultural recovery of the nearby lands damaged by the contagion were the only two elementals in his orbit who he counted as friends with whom he could speak freely.

"Nothing is going on between me and Ra. I won't make the mistake of sleeping with someone I can't trust again," Mica said.

"But you don't deny he's sexy. He's nothing like Aliya was," Serena said.

His dalliance with the previous Lady of Air had been an ill-advised attempt to curb her malevolent ways through a relationship. Not surprisingly, it had ended spectacularly badly when her cheating was revealed after the previous Fire Lord she'd been screwing died under suspicious circumstances and his corpse went walking down the street.

He'd been attracted to Aliya, he wouldn't have even considered a relationship otherwise, but it was nothing compared to the mating draw with Ra.

"He has the same ruthlessness," Mica said.

"No. His is different. It's protectiveness. It's not the same at all. You could use the distraction he's offering. I can see the world weighing on your shoulders," Serena said.

The doors swung open admitting the man in question before he could explain there was definitely nothing on offer from Ra. The man could barely tolerate him.

"Is Kaia all settled in bed?" Serena asked.

"Yes. I asked the stronghold to wake me if she has a nightmare," Ra said.

"I'm closer. Let me go to her first and if she needs you then I'll call," Serena said.

Ra's brow furrowed in concern.

"Serena is excellent with children and she needs to be aware of what's happening with Kaia to safely guide her in her training," Mica said.

"I swear I will contact you if she needs you. I would never do anything that put a child at risk," Serena added.

"Okay. We can see how it goes and I'll check in with Kaia in a couple of days," Ra said. "I've been meaning to ask you, Serena, I'll need to work with a magical engineer on my scanning technology. At home I partner with … someone … who tweaks and refines the equipment as we go."

Ra was addressing Serena, but possessiveness swept through Mica again at his words. It was becoming a familiar feeling when the man was nearby, distracting him even from the oblique mention of Zahra, or Zee as Ra called them. The engineer had run away from their responsibilities to the Earth Court centuries earlier after a regrettable incident with a senior courtier, who Mica had soundly held accountable for his actions a little too late. He'd let Zahra go as a silent apology.

"If you need magic, you come to me and only me," Mica snapped.

He couldn't risk anyone realising just how bad things had become if Ra's experiments worked, but that wasn't what had him rejecting the request for assistance from anyone else at a cellular level. There was no way he'd be able to tolerate Ra working so closely with another mage, letting their power flow around him. It was bad enough that Bastion's magic was a constant presence through his mark.

Serena let out an almost inaudible snort of amusement at his thinly veiled jealousy.

"You can't possibly have time. And you can't stand me," Ra said, tilting his head in question in a way that bared the strong lines of his jaw now dusted with fine stubble after a long day. Mica wanted to bite his way up it, feel that roughness against more sensitive skin.

"I'll leave you two boys to it. Good night," Serena said, passing her glass to him as she left with a smirk.

"You clean up after your staff?" Ra asked in surprise as Mica took the crystalware to the sink and grabbed what he needed to wash it.

"Serena is more like family and I don't like people in my space," he explained, though why he felt it necessary he had no idea. "I will make time to ensure your technology is working. There is nothing that is a higher priority."

"Do you even have an affinity for engineering? Or any understanding of electronics? I thought you rulers of the courts were all about your offensive magics. It doesn't seem like creative types are all that welcome here," Ra said, clearly making assumptions based on whatever he thought had happened with Zahra.

"I am 1,267 years old, Ra. If I wasn't capable of every possible use of my power by now I wouldn't deserve my position, and if I wasn't capable of still learning I'd be dead. I'm sure you can teach me what I need to know."

Ra brushed up against his outer feathers as he reached past him for a towel to dry the glass and Mica stiffened as the move sent a shiver of want through him.

"Sorry. Forgot I wasn't with Bast," Ra murmured.

Mica growled. "Brush up against him often, did you?" he asked, unable to resist curling his wings around the man so he could cage him in with hands gripped tight to the kitchen bench on either side of him.

"Wouldn't you like to know?"