14. Begin the Ritual

The fog had movedin while Levi was out fishing, slithering silent and heavy over the beach. He made his way to the house he shared with Iason and Sophie and a very spoiled water dragon, the sand cool on his bare feet, a net of fish bumping against his back and the evening air ruffling the perpetually tangled strands of his oil-slick hair.

The house was well-lit and warm when he went inside, through the back deck, since there was a small container of water and a rough-hewn rug there. It was mostly for Levi, who understood the need for clothing, but still found shoes to be a waste of time. Sometimes he didn't bother, enjoying the spark of heat in Iason's pale eyes when he saw Levi tracking sand over the tiles, the crack of magic electric in the air as Iason metaphorically—and sometimes literally—whacked Levi in the back of the head for it.

Levi didn't mind. At this point, he'd learned what Iason considered playful, and they'd long ago mastered the silence wards around their bedroom to not cause Sophie undue embarrassment at breakfast. It wouldn't matter tonight—Sophie was off with her friends to visit the sirens for a few days, and they had the house to themselves. Levi still cleaned his feet, because while Sophie and Argo weren't in the house with Iason, he could feel that someone else was.

"I'm not sure I understand," Iason was saying, as Levi strolled into the kitchen and tossed the net of fish on the new large, butcher-block island that had been a gift from Summer and Tanis. Iason liked to cook and Sophie liked to bake, and Levi liked to watch them and sample, even though he still found cooked fish to be about as useful as shoes, and just about as flavorful. Soon, he and Iason would shift forms and go swimming toward the mainland, and Levi could have as much raw fish as he wanted.

"I'm so sorry," came the reply, which sounded muffled as if spoken into a teacup, and more than a little miserable. "I didn't…quite mean for it to happen."

Iason sighed. Levi knew the other person at the table was Lazaros, the representative for the mages in the newly-formed Mislian council, but that was probably not what he was here about. Iason had made it more than clear he had no interest in politics, and kept his attentions firmly on helping people rather than trying to govern them. Other than assisting Summer and Tanis in the archives, Iason was mostly an apothecary who would discreetly help you with overgrown garden plants or critters eating unripe tomatoes off the vine.

Lazaros looked up when Levi entered, his face going red immediately. The younger mage had mostly stopped blushing every time he saw Levi, but the bloom on his cheeks happened so fast this time that Levi actually glanced down at himself, frowning. "What? I'm wearing clothes."

Iason snorted softly, his mouth twisting into the slight grimace of his smile, but he hid it quickly in his own mug of tea and said nothing.

"I—yes, I know, I'm sorry," Lazaros said.

Levi tilted his head, studying him in the unblinking, still way that heforgot was disconcerting to humans. "Why are you sorry? That I'm dressed?"

"Dragon," Iason murmured. "Behave."

Levi waved off that absurd suggestion and kept his focus on Lazaros. "Is everything all right?" He assumed it was, or else he'd feel it through the bond, especially if it had something to do with Sophie.

"She's fine," Iason said. "This is about something else."

Levi gave his companion an arch look, becausehe knew Sophie was fine, he could sense her through their bond, alive and happy and enjoying herself. "Are you staying for dinner?" Levi asked, instead. "We have enough to give you, if you want."

Lazaros, who was taking a sip of his tea, choked on it.

Iason coughed, which Levi knew was his way of covering up a laugh even if Lazaros didn't, and he patted Lazaros on the back. A flare of magic lit up the kitchen, and Lazaros' coughing stopped immediately.

"Thanks," he said weakly. Iason only nodded.

Levi stared between the two of them, waiting patiently to be told what was happening.

"There's an artifact," Lazaros began, fingers curled around the mug, as if seeking its warmth. "I'm not sure what it is, but there's a significant radius of power affecting the local population. There's an underground cave sealed off with magic, and until recently, no one lived close enough to notice. But now they do, and it's…um..."

"It's making people want to fuck," Iason said. Unlike Lazaros, he was not blushing.

Levi considered this. "And that's a problem?"

Iason's smile twisted over his features, his eyes bright, fond. "It is when they don't want to do anything else, like sleep or eat."

Levi considered it again. He shrugged. "Still doesn't seem that bad to me."

"Because you're immortal, both of you. That's why I'm here."

"He wants us to go look at it, since we're not…likely to be damaged by the spell." Iason sipped his own tea.

Levi glanced at his companion, then back at Lazaros. His eyes narrowed. "There's something you're not telling me," he said, pleased at noticing, because sometimes the intricacies of human interactions went right over his head. "What is it?"

"The ritual to unbind the magic requires sex," Iason said.

"Okay, sure," Levi said. "Why's that making the mage blush?"

"Because," Lazaros said, speaking up at last, "the mage has to be there, too."

Levi blinked. "Come again?"

Iason snorted into his teacup.

"The ritual requires a human," Lazaros said.

"But you said the sex magic makes the humans fuck too much," Levi reminded him. "You said you needed us, but now you're saying you need to be there, so which is it?" He still didn't know why that would make Lazaros turn so red and mumble and not be able to meet their eyes.

The quiet was almost deafening, and it was several long, poignant moments before he spoke. "Forgive him, Lazaros. As unfettered as he is, sometimes he misses the obvious."

"Misses the–"

"We have to fuck him, dragon. That's what he's saying."

"Asking," Lazaros said, quickly. "That's what I'm asking."

"Oh." Levi hopped up on the island, nudging the fish aside, kicking bare heels against the wood while he thought about it. "And you don't want to?"

"Um." Lazaros shot Iason a look, but Iason gave nothing away, eyes as clear and bright as glass under the sun.

Levi flashed him a grin, let his knees drift apart, softened the muscles of his thighs and leaned back on his palms. "You shouldn't be so quick to reject a god, you know."

"Ignore him," Iason said. "He thinks a lot of himself."

Levi didn't bother to correct him.

"He's concerned because he's not part of our relationship," Iason said, to Levi. "Humans sometimes don't like sharing."

Levi thought of his brother Arwyn, the way he'd once asked Levi to drown all of Staria because a traveling bard had said Declan's eyes looked like rainclouds. "Sometimes gods don't, either."

"A prospect slightly more frightening than displeasing a couple of humans," Lazaros said, lifting his mug like a toast. "More than anything, it's that I think of you both as friends, and I don't want to make you uncomfortable."

"How? I don't think your cock is–"

"That's not what he means, dragon."

Lazaros cleared his throat unnecessarily. "You're a couple. I don't want to come between you."

"That sounds like exactly what you want, to me," Levi said.

Silence, and then it was Lazaros that snorted, like he couldn't help himself, clapping a hand over his mouth.

Iason didn't laugh, but there was a healthy amount of amusement in his tone. "I think we'll be all right. We know you're not trying to, ah, cause any disruption in our relationship."

"You really could have been a politician," Levi told him. "You said that like a Katoikos imperator."

"Be quiet, dragon."

"Are you worried you won't like it?" he asked Lazaros. "Or that you will?"

"Which of those answers is more respectful, Lord Tempest?"

"Pick the other one," Iason said.

"I'm not going to fuck you if you don't think you'll like it. What's the point? But I'll fuck Iason, and he can fuck you, he's the one you've always wanted to–"

Lazaros leapt to his feet, chair skittering back on the tile, the sudden sound of it interrupting Levi's drawl. "I should be going, let you two talk it over." His voice was more of a squeak, and he was hurrying to the sink with his mug like a clownfish darting for the safety of the reefs while being chased by a shark.

Levi ignored the very tedious and dull leave-taking rituals humans engaged in, until Iason returned to the kitchen.

"You're terrible," Iason said as Levi grabbed at him, drawing him in for a kiss. He wrapped his legs around Iason, then his arms. "Ach, are you an octopus, then? Or a dragon?"

"That question is beneath me to answer," Levi sniffed, and smiled when Iason rolled his eyes. "He does want to fuck you—or have you fuck him. I can't figure out how humans decide which of those they want, it really should be both."

Iason was, in many ways, a different man than the one Levi met in a storm-tossed sea, but in some ways he was the same. The tendency to get lost in his thoughts was still there, his ability to go cold and still in a way entirely different than Levi. But those moments rippled and broke easier now, like wind pulling waves up from the smooth surface of a still sea, and he smiled at Levi now and touched the tip of his finger to Levi's nose. "It should," he agreed, "but people like different things, dragon."

Levi tried to bite his finger, and Iason let him, so Levi sucked on it lightly and enjoyed the way Iason shivered as he slowly pulled his head back, teeth dragging, until he could speak. "I like you."

"And I like you," he said, "any way I have you, or you have me. That's why he didn't want to ask. He knows how I am."

"How you are?" Levi tossed his hair. "Enthralled by me?"

"Well, yes." Iason moved closer, playing with the strands of Levi's hair. He looked pensive. "I don't normally want to fuck people."

"Right. You were saving yourself for a god."

Iason pulled his hair. "Not quite. But I love you. I don't love him. I'm not sure if I could."

"You're very good at it," Levi said, "if that's what you're worried about." At Iason's look, he realized he was missing something again, and tried his best to go over what he was being told, find the patterns, the currents, swirling around him. "Oh. You don't think you could get hard enough to fuck him? Won't the magic fix that?"

"But then I will have fucked him," Iason said, smoothing a thumb over Levi's lower lip.

"Yes," he agreed. "That's the point, isn't it?"

It was clear that, no, that wasn't the point at all. Iason was quiet, playing with Levi's hair and rubbing a thumb idly over his neck, clearly seeking the right words that would make Levi understand. "Sex means something to me," he said, finally, voice rough. "I only want to have it with you."

"So I'll fuck him," Levi said, which he realized was the wrong thing to say immediately. Iason's eyes flashed with heat, the spark of magic like lightning glimmering within. "I meant, if it matters to you that this is done. Sex with him won't mean anything to me."

Iason looked like he was going to argue, but then he seemed to consider the words, turning them over and over. Levi liked very much that he considered things carefully, which seemed so very strange to a being that thrived on sudden and dramatic shifts in the fabric of his environment. "And if I said that I didn't want you to?"

"Then I wouldn't," Levi said. "But if the magic is a problem, what do we do? I could call Cillian and Astra. They're not mortal, but they were human, and I think they fuck other people sometimes, at least in dreams."

"How do you— Never mind, don't answer that. Lazaros said the reason he asked wasn't only because you were a god. It's because we're both dragons. This is Mislia."

"Where they killed their dragons," Levi said, a growl in his voice.

Iason's eyes flashed again, but not with anger this time. "We brought them back."

Levi smiled, showing fangs. "We did. Lazaros wants to fuck you, not me, though, so we'll have to figure that out."

Iason nodded, then kissed Levi again, nipping at his bottom lip. "We will. Let's not waste having the house to ourselves. See if you can make me scream."

Levi surged like a wave up off the island, hauled Iason into his arms, and carried him with his god's strength up to their bedroom.

The fish in their net lay forgotten in the kitchen, and that would be a problem in the morning, but for now, Levi had another catch to take care of.

* * *

Lazaros was in the Library when Iason knocked on his door.

It was a dangerous habit. The first time someone had caught him doing it, he'd been brought to the Inquisitor's offices, where the Inquisitor's assistant had spilled sawdust over the floor to catch the blood that drained from the stone chair in the middle of the room. He still remembered the sound of surprise the Inquisitor's demon had made when it tried to enter Lazaros' mind and found it empty.

You are not one of the great Lords, it had said, its voice slithering through the stacks of the Library where Lazaros was hiding. What are you doing with a mortal soul?

Demons didn't claim the souls of the humans they possessed in Mislia. They shared space with their bodies, and when a mage died, they carried their soul beyond the dark and into the well of life, but they didn't own mortals. That was something reserved for the great demons who ruled below, who the Library spoke of in flippant terms as Lazaros climbed the shelves and explored the labyrinthine expanse of her realm.

The Library didn't know how to share. Everything in the Library was hers, even if someone borrowed a book for a while. Why wouldn't the same apply to a Mislian boy trying to summon a demon for the first time?

He'd held his soul once or twice. It was sealed in a book the Librarian kept in her private collection, a small chamber in the heart of her labyrinth. Every thought and feeling was written there, and when Lazaros had held it for the first time, his body had trembled as though a current of lightning were running through it.

He couldn't just disappear when he entered the Library, so the Librarian made a puppet who would take his place while Lazaros ran about in the stacks. They couldn't do it all the time, but it gave Lazaros something the others didn't have—a quiet place to hide.

That was where he was when Iason Ellas arrived. Man at the door, the Library said, her voice booming through the stacks. Lazaros cursed under his breath and ran for one of the book-stairs in the middle of the Katoikos History section. He half fell down the steps and emerged in his office again, almost knocking over a lamp and scattering papers to the floor.

His puppet stared up at him from where it was sitting at the desk. Lazaros snapped his fingers and dispelled it, and the sudden knowledge of three hours of paperwork surged into his mind.

"Is something amiss?"

Damn. That was Iason's voice.

"One moment," Lazaros said. He adjusted his robes. Look professional. You're in charge of most of Mislia. You know what you're doing.

"I know what I'm doing," he said under his breath. He could sense the Library chuckling to herself and blushed hotly.

He swung open the door.

Iason Ellas was not a particularly attractive man. The scars that covered half his face twisted his mouth in a perpetual sneer, and he held himself stiffly when he wasn't around Levi or Sophie, as though he were a soldier at attention. Still, power was a lure, and Iason was brimming with it. It didn't matter that he spent most of his time tending to the gardens of Mislia and raising his adopted daughter—Lazaros could almost taste the magic burning inside him, and he knew the others noticed too. If Iason were so inclined, he could have a wealth of submissives to pick from.

As it was, he wasn't so inclined in the least, and Lazaros felt guilty enough for asking for his help with the spell-breaking. He pulled out a chair for Iason and leaned against his desk, arms crossed tight over his chest.

"I won't be offended if you decline," he said.

"I'm aware." Iason didn't sit. "But I admit that I am curious—why did you ask me and not Levi? He wouldn't be opposed to the prospect."

Lazaros suppressed a shiver. "You're mortal," he said, "or you used to be. There wouldn't be a risk of…" he gestured vaguely, "breaking me."

Iason's mouth pulled at the edges, but Lazaros wasn't sure if it was a smile. "You worry he might turn into a dragon?" Lazaros shrugged. "He knows the limits of a mortal body. Would you feel more secure if I were there as well?"

Lazaros knew Iason didn't mean it as a slight, but he still looked down. "Only if you approve, and if you're sure he won't be too much."

"He's always too much," Iason said. "Not physically, don't worry. You can handle it, I'm sure." He tilted his head as though in thought. "You might want to prepare yourself, though. You've seen him before."

Lazaros felt heat rush to his face. Even in a human form, Levi was formidable. Lazaros wasn't afraid of that, exactly. He wasn't even afraid of Levi shifting into his dragon shape, and that was truly worrying.

The Library had nearly every book Lazaros could dream of, and some of them were highly informative. Lazaros had read of demons with fleshy, probing tentacles that pulsed hot with a substance that was more liquid darkness than anything known to mortal-kind. There were demons with barbed phalluses and knots that locked them to their lovers, beings so enormous that they could split him in two without a thought, and Lazaros craved them so fiercely that he thought there might be something cracked in his mind. Surely humans didn't want to be swarmed by demons. They befriended demons. Sometimes, like Summer and Tanis, they fell in love. They didn't dream of being spitroasted between a tentacle and a dragon's cock—or if they did, they didn't act on it.

When he thought of being shared between Levi and Iason, feeling scales under his palms and his body jerked about like a toy…

He cleared his throat, trying to banish the image. "Are you saying you'll do it? I mean to say, if Levi serves as the divine element in the spell?"

Iason rubbed at his mouth with a hand, and his expression went back to his stern half-sneer. "Yes. We'll do it. When would you like to arrange the spell-breaking?"

Lazaros thought of the toys he kept in his bedroom, some ridged, others formed into a shape that wasn't human, locked in a secure chest in the closet. "Sunset? That should give us time to prepare. Here, you'll find it at the crossroads by White Street and Ridge."

"I'll meet you there." Iason nodded to Lazaros and turned to go. Lazaros waited until the door closed to let out a heavy sigh, then raked his hands through his hair.

"I'm in control," he whispered. "I'm in control."

Oh, darling, the Library said fondly. You are most certainly not.

* * *

There were altogether too many caverns in Mislia.

Iason knew there was a reason for it, something to do with volcanic eruptions long ago—Sophie had learned about it recently, and spent several days probing Levi for what he remembered of when the country was formed. When Levi admitted he hadn't noticed much aside from the sudden influx of giant jellyfish off the coast, Sophie had scowled in teenage disapproval and had started forcefully writing notes in one of her workbooks with the occasional disgusted glare in their direction.

"She's becoming more like you," Levi had pointed out, which Iason found ridiculous, given that Sophie was acting more like one of Levi's storms at sea these days. Her teacher among the sirens said they were both wrong, and teenagers were just like that for an indeterminate amount of time.

Regardless, when Iason had seen just how many caverns supposedly ran under the island in one of Sophie's maps, he felt that it didn't matter how they were formed. They were simply excessive. Sometimes, he wondered how Mislia didn't collapse like a soap bubble and become a nation of sinkholes.

Someone had marked the entrance to what Levi had started to call the fuck cave with chalk, and when Iason and Levi crossed the line, magic tickled the edge of Iason's awareness. He was much more attuned to magic now than he'd been before. He could see it without adjusting his vision, blinking spots from his eyes as charms glittered and demons glowed with the warmth of their humans' magic. Lazaros, who was getting up from the edge of a collapsed hole in the rocky ground, gleamed with protective magic in his clothes and earrings. Several were wards against poison, likely to protect against the old mage council's supporters.

"Thank you for coming," Lazaros said, adjusting his shirt collar as Levi and Iason approached.

"We haven't yet," Levi whispered, and Iason stepped on his foot.

If Lazaros heard, he didn't mention it. His face was slightly flushed, though, and he kept his gaze down as he gestured toward the rough wooden steps that someone had wedged into the cave entrance.

The walls of the cavern were made of a dark stone he couldn't name, altogether different from the crypt that ran through the other side of the city. The air was cooler there, but Iason's skin warmed as he walked down the steps, and his chest ached in the way it did when he had Levi beneath him or digging sharp teeth into his shoulder.

"Oh, that feels nice," Levi said.

"It must be weaker on you." Lazaros' voice shook slightly. He raised a hand as though to take it through his hair and stopped. "You can't see the sigil in this light, but it's on the floor there. That's where we'll need to—where the ritual should happen."

"I can see it," Iason said. The stone was smooth, almost polished, and the sigil glowed faintly as Lazaros stopped just outside one of the pointed stars in the circle. Lazaros was breathing harder, and his eyes had gone glassy.

"It might be easier for you," he said, then stopped. "You don't have to do anything, Iason, but it might help if you didn't think of me as a person so much as a tool, or a…something to use between you."

Iason raised his brows. Dehumanizing people was something he tried to avoid after a lifetime of hunting light mages for the Archmage. He wasn't sure he could see Lazaros as anything other than himself—the kind, slightly overwhelmed young man who'd offered Iason forgiveness that he still wasn't sure he'd earned.

"Oh, I see," Levi said, stepping forward. "Like this, you mean?" He grabbed a fistful of Lazaros' hair and yanked him to his knees. Lazaros dropped with a cut-off groan that echoed in the small chamber, and his face flushed pinker still.

"S-Something like that," Lazaros said.

"I didn't know toys could talk," Levi said, with a wicked smile. Even Lazaros' neck was burning. Levi jostled him a little. "I used to get sacrifices like this, people who liked not being people when you took them. He has the same look in his eyes—or it does?" he added, looking at Lazaros. Lazaros bit his lip so hard that Iason thought it might bleed, then nodded jerkily. "See? Just a toy. Not as pretty as you, maybe."

Iason rolled his eyes at Levi and took a careful step closer. Lazaros looked under already, watching them as Iason came close enough to touch. They were still outside the sigil, but Iason could feel its effects more strongly now, the heat coursing through him as he locked eyes with Levi.

"If he's a toy?—"

"It," Levi said.

Iason wasn't about to call him that, even if Lazaros wanted it. "Then we can use him when we want to."

"That's the point," Levi said, and let go of Lazaros' hair as Iason dragged Levi closer. Levi was wearing a silk chiton that barely covered him, sliding over his skin like water, and Iason could feel his hard cock as they pressed together. Levi, too, was clearly affected by the spell.

They kissed lazily, Lazaros kneeling quietly beside them as Levi slipped off his chiton and started tugging at Iason's clothes. It was odd to do this in front of someone else, but it helped that Lazaros was so still and quiet, and the heat running through him from the sigil eased some of Iason's nerves.

"We could use its holes between us," Levi said, biting at Iason's neck, "like an offering at a temple."

"I don't get those." Iason could have sworn he heard Lazaros whimper, and glanced down to find Levi had his free hand clenched in Lazaros' hair.

"You will. You can ignore them if you want, but if it's willing and warm, well." He pushed Lazaros onto the sigil, which pulsed with power. He backed into the sigil himself, dragging Iason with him, and Iason withdrew slightly as Levi pulled Lazaros between them. He slipped a finger in Lazaros' mouth, and Lazaros' jaw went slack, his chest heaving, eyes unfocused.

"It's just a hole," Levi said, and Iason felt Lazaros shudder as Levi pulled Iason in for another kiss. Lazaros was pressed between them, and Iason felt hot breath on his skin.

Levi grabbed Lazaros' head with both hands, and Iason kept his gaze fixed on Levi as his cock slid over Lazaros' tongue. He even acted like a toy, mouth open, letting Levi guide his head back and forth along Iason's cock, and Iason grabbed Levi and bit down hard on his ear.

"That's right," Levi said, smiling indulgently. "It's still just us."

* * *

It had been some time since he'd had a proper offering.

Levi did not, as a rule, spend much time in his shrines. Sometimes he and Iason would shift forms and race through the waters toward the mainland, and they'd see a small pile of shells on the coast with a fish, or an offering on an outcropping with some netting holding it tight against the slick stone. But these weren't for him, Levi, they were for the Leviathan. Levi lived in a coquina house with his man and their adopted daughter and a water dragon who slept in the tub. Leviathan, the Tempest, was the storm. Levi was both, though for the first time in his long existence, he found the balance between both seemed perfectly settled.

And that, likely, was due to his bond with his companion. Iason was the wind, the kind that whipped storms into frenzies or soothed heated brows on summer days, brought rain to water crops or funnel clouds to destroy them.

At the moment, though, Levi was thinking less about the ephemeral and complicated companion bond and more that Iason looked lovely when he was being pleasured, and while he'd never think that of himself, Levi could see the truth of him. Shallow pools were pretty enough to look at, but in bright enough sun, you could see everything there was to see in mere moments. The deep ocean, now, that was something different. Beautiful creatures swam alongside terrifying ones, working together to create a perfect, balanced ecosystem. That was how Levi thought about Iason—it was everything that went into the shape of him that Levi loved, all the razor-sharp teeth and camouflage and predator's instincts just as much as anything beautiful and delicate, like sea glass or the coral that closed at a touch.

Iason might never understand how Levi saw him, but obviously, he wasn't the only one to find Iason attractive. Lazaros was clearly enjoying being used like a toy and Levi suspected he would have enjoyed it even without the thick, heady swirl of magic on the air, so saturated that Levi could taste it at the back of his throat. It wasn't dangerous, but it was a sudden undertow in an otherwise calm sea, and there was a prickle of awareness at the base of his neck that told him that it would be for the best to clear this strange aura sooner rather than later. It felt like an old amphora from a shipwreck, gasses building and building until eventually the pressure would be too much to contain.

Levi let the magic swirl, a distant storm gathering on the horizon, and pushed Lazaros to take more of Iason's cock. Iason made a sound, a groan caught behind his teeth, and Levi remembered how it had been with them in the beginning, how difficult it'd been to make Iason let go—and how satisfying it'd been, when he'd broken. He didn't think Iason was trying to be quiet for the same reasons as before, but he still wanted him to enjoy himself. "Mmm, don't be quiet, wizard, let me hear you. When I give you a gift, you should let me know you like it, don't you think?"

Iason's eyes flashed at him, but Levi responded by gently easing Lazaros even closer, letting the younger man choke on Iason's cock. This time, Iason didn't hold back his moan.

"That's better," Levi purred, fingers tugging on Lazaros' hair, and he could hear a moan from him, too. He was so distracted by how lovely it was watching Iason, hearing him moan while Lazaros choked between them, that it took him a moment to feel the difference in the magic that was swirling around them.

"I think it's working," he said, focusing, and ah, yes, the magic was a slower pulse now, like a heartbeat easing into sleep. The magic still felt powerful and potent, but the ebb was encouraging.

Also encouraging was the flush on Iason's face, his breathing going faster as he fucked Lazaros's throat, and those were signs Levi recognized all too well. "I like this," he said to Iason, no longer thinking of the magic, "watching you fuck a toy. Does it feel good on your cock when it chokes?"

"Fuck," Iason said succinctly. "Fuck, yes."

The magic's pulse ebbed again, but gradually began to increase in speed. Iason was close, but this wasn't enough to completely break the spell, and Levi knew it wouldn't work with just this alone. "We need more."

"Yes," Lazaros moaned, gasping for breath as Levi pulled his head back to make him ease up. "Yes, more, please, please–"

Levi hummed. "The toy makes a lot of noise."

Iason gave something that was half a moan, half a laugh, but he too seemed more aware of the magic now that Levi was keeping Lazaros from deep-throating him again. "Maybe your turn to—use that toy."

Levi clearly had an easier time with the objectification than Iason, but that was all right. Part of their balance, he supposed. "We need more than that. We need both of us together."

"We do, yes," Lazaros said, dazed, and his pitch-black eyes were glowing like lit onyx, shining with the magic that was growing once more, a miasma of lust that made Levi think about pretty young sacrifices left for him, naked and trembling and tied to a rock. His mouth watered, teeth sharpening, fingers going a little too tight in Lazaros' hair. "Do you want its mouth or to fuck its ass?"

The objectification is all for Lazaros, who had a hand on his cock between them while they talked about how they were going to do it, and that at least kept the magic dimmed enough to work out the details of what Levi was really asking—is it all right if I fuck him, I won't if you don't want me to.

But Iason might have been just as turned on as Levi—perhaps not at Lazaros' level, but Levi couldn't blame him, anyone would be this excited to be between them, sex magic completely unnecessary.

"I can see your ego, dragon," Iason said, but there was obvious fondness in his gruff voice. "Getting worse by the second, aye?"

"Aye," Levi said, and Iason's much-beloved sneer of a smile flashed for just a second before they both looked at Lazaros.

"Do whatever you want to me," Lazaros said dreamily, head thrown back, stroking his cock. "I'm only a toy to be used."

Levi's brows went up at that. It seemed the young mage's shyness had evaporated completely under the effects of the magic, but maybe that was just the prospect of being fucked between them. Whether one caused the other didn't really matter all that much, Levi knew Lazaros was enjoying himself, and would also enjoy what was going to happen next.

Levi could feel Iason watching as he pressed inside Lazaros, the tight head around his cock pulling a groan from deep within his chest. It felt good, the magic giving an added little electric spark that roused Levi even more. It wasn't just the magic, though—watching Iason fuck Lazaros's throat, Iason watching him as he drew Lazaros back on his cock, was intoxicating. He was beginning to see why Astra liked fucking multiple versions of his companion in dreams. Maybe he'd ask his brother to send one of him and multiple Iasons, or Iason could have one with several of him. In fact, perhaps Astra would send him a dream of him fucking multiple Iasons and himself. That would be enjoyable.

As this was enjoyable, fucking Lazaros, who was fucking himself back on Levi's cock and trying not to let Iason's cock out of his mouth while he did it. He was moaning, speaking delightfully filthy things as he was filled up, and the magic's pulse was growing fainter as the sounds of skin-on-skin filled the chamber.

"Is that how you look when you're taking me?" Iason asked, pupils dilated, hips shifting as he fucked Lazaros's mouth, no need now for Levi's assistance. "Don't say you—don't know, I've seen you look in the mirror, dragon."

"Then you should know," Levi said, his voice heavy with his dominance and something else, the deep rumble of thunder, a dragon's roar.

"It's working," Iason gasped, clearly nearing his peak as he grabbed Lazaros's head, thrusting wildly, control slipping.

Levi could tell—as he neared his own release, he could feel the pulse of the magic slowly begin to swirl, like water going down a drain or a whirlpool in the open ocean, moving faster but beginning to fall apart as it reached the singularity, just as Levi, Lazaros and Iason reached their own release.

It was Lazaros who came first, his body shaking between them as he fell apart from Levi's relentless thrusts and his own hand, which he was thrusting into every time Levi pushed him forward to choke on Iason's cock. He shouted his pleasure, spilling onto the floor, and Levi knew it would work when they were finished, so he concentrated on the way Iason looked as he stroked his cock, hard and fast.

"Come on his face."

Iason blinked at him, his voice just as rough as Levi's own. "Is that—for the magic?"

"No," Levi admitted. "I just want to watch you."

Iason's smile flashed again, and then he groaned softly. Iason came over Lazaros's face, which looked as blissful as it did messy. Levi took his hips in a hard grip, pulling him back on his cock as he thrust harder, harder, watching every time he drew his cock out to thrust back in.

"Aye, and I want to watch you, dragon," Iason said, spent, tucking himself away and fixing his clothes. "Go on, let me see you. Fill that toy up for me, aye?"

That was enough to push him over the edge, and Levi groaned as he ground his cock into Lazaros, spilling hot inside of him. It felt good, and it was very clear when he withdrew that the sex had done what it was meant to do in more ways than one—they were all satisfied, and the magic had dissipated, and that meant Levi was overcome by a sudden, possessive need to mark his territory.

Levi only had to twitch his tunic down, and he crossed to Iason, taking him by the neck and pulling him in for a biting, hot kiss. "You looked good fucking him, but you're mine."

"I know." Iason kissed him back, biting just as hard as Levi. "And you're mine." He looked over at Lazaros, and there was the twist of his scars again, a smile. "He's acting like a dragon, don't take it personally."

Lazaros, who was a pile on the floor, blinked hazy eyes, no longer glowing, just their usual pitch black. He grinned, waving a hand. "I'm not. Really."

"Well," Levi said, holding a hand out to Lazaros to help him stand. "Let's go see our prize."

* * *

The three of them stood in silence as they beheld the object on the pedestal, with a letter sealed with wax propped up beside it.

It was Iason who took the letter, because Lazaros had his head in his hands and his shoulders were shaking.

On the pedestal was a dick.

It was a toy used for sex, an actual toy, not a person they were pretending were a toy. Iason read the letter in his gruff voice, which wasn't much, just a simple and somewhat desperate description of the reason why it was here in the first place.

"I, Achilles Santos, apprentice to a mage who is more than ready to toss me off a cliff, do solemnly swear that I will never again, in my existence or Mislia's, attempt to enchant my master's sexual aid devices to pleasure me because I am bored, and because Hippolytos from the market turned me down for a date. I further declare it is impossible to die of want of a dick, so therefore, items I have made magical to fuck me are of course going to do nothing but leave me dehydrated, sore, and thoroughly embarrassed when Master Georgio's parents come to visit unexpectedly."

"It's a magic sex toy," Lazaros said. "A magic. Sex. Toy."

"Just like you," Levi said warmly, and he frowned slightly when Iason shot him a look, and Lazaros stared at him with a face as red as one of Iason's roses.

"It would seem an apprentice mage created this from his master's spellbook and then, ah, was disciplined to place it here. Over the years, the magic from the, ah, toy…filtered out and joined with the protective magic keeping it hidden."

They all stared at the phallus, which was made of some kind of glass, a little dusty, and rather uninspired, if you asked Levi. He picked it up, ignoring both Iason and Lazaros's shouts as he did so. "I think it's only a toy now," he said, waving it about. He tried to hand it to Lazaros. "It's probably fine if you want it, but after that, I doubt it's going to be very satisfying."

"Put that down, dragon," Iason hissed. "You don't know where it's been."

"Here, for a few hundred years," said Levi. "You just said that."

"I think it's fine," Lazaros said quickly, clearing his throat. "We can just go."

"It's pretty small," Levi continued, as they left the now unmagical cock behind with the letter, all that remained of what was once a mage apprentice's punishment for not following the rules. "My brother Arwyn has a nice one, made of gold. It's much bigger, far more in line with my cock, which is bigger than Iason's–"

"Please stop talking," Lazaros squeaked, hands on his ears.

"Not that much bigger," Iason muttered, behind him.

"I'll ask him where he got it, if you like," he said, patting Lazaros on the shoulder. "You probably don't want the one he has, though, even though he probably knows where it's been."

"Stop giving away your brother's sex toys and let's get out of here," Iason said.

"I'm still interested in the way the magics were able to combine like that," Lazaros was saying to Iason, as they made their way out and headed home. "Do you think we could look for other examples? That mage must have been powerful, do you think it was him or the apprentice who bound it there?"

"I'll check the records," Iason said. "If it was before the Archmage took power, maybe it was a wizard."

"Hmm, I don't know. Wouldn't the magic need—oh!" Lazaros snapped his fingers. "I was going to say the magic would need a wizard to make it work, but we have one! You coming into your powers could have made it more potent, perhaps, or noticeable, or…"

Levi sighed. He wondered about the mage who'd made the magic phallus, if he'd missed it. It was too bad, really. He could have moved to Katoikos and made a fortune with those things. Humans were always willing to pay for sexual novelty, or so Arwyn was always telling him.

"You know," Levi told Iason, later at home. "If you could make those sorts of things in the shape of our dragon cocks–"

"No," said Iason.

"But Lazaros isn't the only human who wants to fuck a dragon–"

Iason shut him up with a kiss. "We don't need money, Levi."

"I know that," Levi said, as Iason began sliding a hand up his thigh. "It's more that the humans need dragon dick. We don't even need to sell them if you don't want to."

"I can't believe I love you," was Iason's response to that.

Levi tackled him back on the bed. "Who wouldn't?" he asked, and kissed Iason before he could answer.