Chapter Forty-Four WITCHING MOON

Chapter Forty-Four

WITCHING MOON

Week Three, Day Six

Year 3000

Zanya had expected to sleep restlessly the first night in the Dragon's bed. But the restlessness that dragged her from unusually peaceful dreams wasn't her own, but Sachi's.

She had thrown back the covers, pushing them off of Zanya and Ash, as well. She kicked and shifted position fitfully, her breathing heavy. Her cheeks were flushed, but Zanya didn't think it was a nightmare that plagued her. Still, she lifted her hand to Sachi's shoulder carefully, ready to lunge out of the way if she lashed out. "Sachi? Are you all right?"

Sachi's eyes fluttered open, and she laid her hand on her own cheek. "I think I might need a bath," she rasped. "A cold one."

Ash made a sleepy rumbling noise behind Sachi and rolled, flinging one heavy arm across her waist. Then he inhaled sharply, and his eyes drifted open. "Someone was having very good dreams."

"Not dreams, just ... I feel ..." Her words trailed off as her gaze fixed on Zanya's mouth.

Dark hunger surged up, bucking against the restraints Zanya had put on it. She of all people knew how confusing it was to wake up in a body that reacted differently than it had before. She'd promised herself she would be as patient as Sachi had, would give Sachi time .

But she could not deny that ardent, longing look, either. She cupped Sachi's cheek and brushed a thumb over her lower lip. "You don't need a cold bath. Just tell us what you want."

"The moons are full." Sachi's eyes flared gold. "Can you feel them?"

"Union Day," Ash murmured. "The day we celebrate the lovers who created our world. Creation and Destruction."

Satisfaction spiraled up as Zanya gazed into Sachi's glowing eyes. "Is that what we're doing? Creating a new world?"

Sachi's fingers drifted up Zanya's arm, then twisted in the front of her tunic. "Say yes."

It was the easiest word she'd ever uttered. "Yes."

"And you, Dragon." Sachi scratched her fingernails across the arm he'd draped over her. "Do you also say yes?"

His fingers bunched in her flimsy chemise, pulling the fabric tight against her breasts. Even in the dim light from the low-burning fire, Zanya could see the tight outlines of her nipples. Her fingers ached to touch them.

Ash lowered his mouth to Sachi's ear. "Yes to anything you can dream up, my sweet sunshine god."

"Careful with your offers, Lord of Earth and Fire." Sachi arched, rubbing her ass against him as she rolled to her knees on the bed. "You don't know what I can Dream."

Zanya's heart pounded harder as Sachi rose above her. Those sweet blue eyes glittered with a hunger both familiar and vast beyond imagining. As if an ancient force of creation had been chained within her all this time and only now prowled free, playful and demanding.

Sachi reached for the hem of Zanya's tunic, slipping her hand beneath the fabric as she leaned over her. She caressed Zanya's stomach as their lips met, retreated, then fused in an open, hungry kiss. And she still tasted the same, like coming home. Zanya twined her fingers into silken strands of hair and moaned into the kiss, her arousal rising with unnatural speed.

It went on forever, Sachi's tongue gliding over hers as her fingers drifted to Zanya's rib cage. She slipped one leg between Zanya's, higher, harder, until every instinctive rock of Zanya's hips left her grinding against Sachi's thigh.

"I missed this," Sachi murmured. "Feeling your skin get so hot when I touch you." She lifted her head as her fingers finally grazed the lower curve of Zanya's breast. "You're the reason I always knew what it was like to burn."

Zanya shuddered and tilted her head back, lost for a moment in the pleasure rising in her body. It was happening so fast that Sachi's thigh between her legs threatened to tip her over the edge before she'd even gotten her shirt off. But there was something intoxicating about Sachi tonight. Her boldness, her assertive hunger ...

"Nothing held back," Ash said, as if he could hear her every thought. His fingers stroked down Sachi's back, loving and wondering. "You're glorious."

"Free, that's what I am. For the first time." She leaned back, gathered her gown, and stripped it over her head. It floated away, hanging in the air longer than it should have before drifting to the floor. "Do you want to be naked with us, Zanya?"

"Yes." Zanya grasped Sachi's hands and pulled them to her shirt. "You're a god now. You know what to do."

"What to do? There are so many things I want to do to you." She jerked at the fabric, and it fell apart in her hands, as if yielding to her will. Cool air washed over Zanya's skin, followed by the heat of Sachi's breath. "So many ways I want to make you come."

Zanya barely bit back a moan as she arched toward those beloved lips. She reached for Sachi's head only to have her hand intercepted.

Ash's fingers twined with hers as he guided her hand to the mattress and pinned it there. "I helped hold Sachi down so you could do wicked things to her," he told Zanya, his tone undeniably mischievous. "Turnabout is only fair."

"Nothing about this will be fair, Ash," Sachi corrected. "But it will be so, so good."

Her fingers traced over Zanya's chest—the line of a rib, the dip above her collarbone, the valley between her breasts. Every gentle glide left behind a tingling sensation followed by a spreading warmth.

"W-what—?" The warmth sank deeper, turned languid and hot. Every place Sachi touched became as sensitive as any erogenous zone. Even Ash's teasing fingertip following the path between Zanya's breasts felt like a hot tongue stealing over her clit.

She gasped and jerked, her entire body pulsing. "Oh gods —"

"Ash has his fire." Sachi's glowing touch finally reached Zanya's nipples, and the first brush of her fingertips was bliss. "You have shadows." Sachi lingered, pinching and toying with the hard peaks, and Zanya bit back a scream. "I have ... this."

She flicked her tongue over one of Zanya's nipples, then sucked it into her mouth.

This time, there was no holding it back. Zanya's nipples felt a hundred times more sensitive, turning the gentle flick of Sachi's tongue into a pleasure that almost hurt. Her hips bucked, searching for the friction that would carry her over the edge—

But Sachi slipped away and settled beside Zanya on the mattress. She rubbed her thumb over Zanya's cheek until she eased back from the precipice. "Not yet, love. I've just begun, and Ash hasn't even joined us yet. Not properly, anyway." She leaned close again, licked Zanya's ear. "Shall he?"

The darkness stirred again. The urge to challenge him, to lunge and roll him onto his back, to pin him to the bed and make him whimper as the edge crept up on him—it rose on a wave of demanding desire, only to crash against the wall of Sachi's giddy eagerness.

No scenario she could dream up could stoke her passion as quick and hot as fulfilling Sachi's most debauched fantasies.

Zanya turned to face Ash and wet her lips. "It's her night," she rasped. Making it an order soothed her inner wildness. "Do whatever she tells you."

Ash leaned so close that his lips brushed Zanya's. "Even the Dragon bows to creation," he rumbled, the words both a kiss and a promise.

Sachi hummed her approval as she bent her head to Zanya's breast again, this time with slow, light licks that dragged gasps from Zanya's throat.

The words she murmured against Zanya's wet, burning skin were anything but light. They demanded , every bit as determined as the darkness within. "Your nipples get so hard in my mouth. I want to suck them while Ash fucks me. I want to suck them while Ash fucks you ."

Both scenarios shimmered into being in Zanya's imagination. Sachi, kneeling over her, with her busy mouth and tormenting fingers, as Ash gripped her hips and thrust into her from behind. Every gasping moan he drove from Sachi would become a torturous vibration on Zanya's aching nipples.

How would Zanya fuck him? Astride him, with Sachi straddling his mouth, like that night at the Villa? Or would Sachi insist that she roll to her hands and knees and let him take her slowly, the endless thrust intoxicating Zanya even before Sachi brushed her lips over her nipples?

And how were these fantasies so vivid , as if Sachi had conjured waking dreams that let her feel every lick and touch and thrust ?

Zanya groaned, fighting Ash's grip on her hands as Sachi eased her pants down her legs. It remained implacable, the squeeze of his fingers a reminder not to fight him in earnest, or he would let go.

Zanya shuddered. "Is this revenge for all the times I did this to you?"

"Revenge?" Sachi beckoned Ash closer and placed his hand low on Zanya's hip. "This is a gift, my love. One that we're all going to share."

Ash brushed a thumb over the sensitive skin at her hip, his touch blazing hot. Sachi stroked past his hand, lower, until Zanya instinctively parted her legs. Their fingers clashed as they moved—Ash's grazing Zanya's clit, Sachi's sliding down to push inside her.

Ecstasy tightened around her like a vise. At first she thought it was an orgasm, but there was no release in it, no relief . Just a tension that wound tighter as Sachi's fingers twisted inside her, every place she touched becoming sensitive enough to steal Zanya's breath. Even Ash's rough fingertips ghosting over her clit couldn't match the reckless need sparked by Sachi withdrawing her fingers and thrusting them deep again. "Sachi—your ... your fingers —"

"Shh. Open up for us, love." Her lips drifted from Zanya's ear to the vulnerable curve of her neck, back down to her sensitive, aching nipple. "Let us be inside you."

Sachi's fingers eased out. The ones that replaced them were broad and so wide that the friction against her magically sensitized flesh made her breath seize. "Oh— oh —"

"Shh." It was Ash this time. His other hand still gripped her wrists, keeping them gently pinned above her head. But his lips found her other nipple, closing around it with a heat that intensified the sensation of his fingers curled inside her.

Zanya moved her hips mindlessly, and he soothed her as he lifted his head. "You can take us."

She didn't know what he meant. Not until his broad fingers withdrew and returned ... along with Sachi's.

The stretch bordered on pain. Maybe it would have easily crossed that line, except for the glittering bliss sparked by every touch. They filled her impossibly, until Zanya whimpered, balanced on the edge. "Please— please —"

"Let her feel you, Ash." Sachi's stardust fingers touched her clit, followed by the slow, wet glide of her tongue.

Release barreled toward Zanya like a landslide—massive, impossible to escape, utterly overwhelming. And just when she thought she understood the mind-blowing scope of it, fire kindled in the darkness. It raced down Ash's arm, danced around his hand—

—and surged into Zanya, hot and prickling and wild, tiny shocks of pleasurable pain that cranked everything tighter.

Then the orgasm hit her, and she exploded.

Her hips bucked wildly, barely restrained by Sachi's firm hand. One of her own hands broke free of Ash's grip, and she buried it in Sachi's hair as she screamed, a moaning keen that barely sounded like her name. Fire consumed her, washing through her body in pulsing waves that made everything shake.

And just when Zanya thought she might claw free of the pleasure, Ash thrust their fingers in deeper and Sachi swirled her tongue, and the tension shattered again. Or maybe it only continued. Surely she couldn't be coming this many times, surely it was one endless fall coaxed on by their encouraging voices and their thrusting fingers and that clever tongue that knew all the ways to caress, to lick ...

She was half-conscious when their fingers slipped away. Her body clenched around nothing, and she shivered through the aftershocks as Sachi and Ash climbed up to cradle her on either side, petting her and whispering soothing words.

Even those touches sparked hunger, as the warmth of Sachi's touch lingered. "Gods," Zanya whispered finally, her voice breaking. "Sachi's fingers are dangerous now."

Sachi laughed, a sound full of joy and love. "Dangerous ... or magnificent?"

"Definitely magnificent," Ash murmured, brushing the hair back from Zanya's sweaty brow. "That was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen."

Zanya's limbs still felt shaky, but there was nothing unsteady about her power. Shadows came at her call—not to carry her away, but to curl around Ash and flip him onto his back as he yelped in surprise. Loops of them wound up his arms to circle his wrists in solid cuffs, dragging his arms above his head. More curled around his ankles, trapping his legs. "I warned you I'd chain you to the bed," she rasped.

Ash's dark laughter filled the room as he tested his bonds. "Was that a warning? I hoped it was a promise."

"Then consider it both." Zanya turned to Sachi with a wicked smile. "I learned a new trick while you were gone."

"So I see." Sachi nipped at Zanya's lower lip. "What do you have in mind for him, my love?"

Zanya rolled onto her side, facing Ash, and propped her head up on her hand. "If he got a beautiful show, I think I deserve one, too." She traced a finger down his chest. His muscles jumped under her touch, especially when she teased a line over his hip. His erection already stood hard and proud, begging to be touched. "He should learn what your magnificent fingers can do."

Sachi crawled to Ash, stalking like a cat. Then she knelt over his thigh and ran a hand down her neck and over her breast as she stared down at him. "Just like the first time I touched you," she noted. "With a few slight differences."

Her graceful fingers fisted around him and slowly stroked the length of his cock.

Zanya's hunger should have been sated, but the sight sparked it anew, a craving that only intensified when Ash sucked in a breath, his muscles flexing and bunching as he strained against the shadows. His hips bucked hard enough to almost dislodge Sachi, so Zanya circled his waist with shadows, holding him in place.

His defiant growl turned into a shattered moan when Sachi dragged those glorious fingers over him. Zanya watched their slow path, her own breathing unsteady, and swore she could see the stardust left in their wake. "So? Are her fingers magnificent or dangerous?"

Ash hissed, and when he opened his eyes, fire danced there. "Magnificent. And dangerous."

Sachi stroked him again, rocking gently against his leg as she moved. "What does it feel like?" she asked curiously.

He gritted his teeth. "Like—" He shuddered. "Like every nerve is a thousand times more sensitive, but there's no pain. Only pleasure."

"And it's warm." Zanya trailed her fingers lower. "And once she's touched you, it's not only her touch that feels good."

Zanya dragged a finger up his length, marveling at the silky smoothness of skin over rigid steel. She'd never quite understood the fascination before, but if he was going to make those noises every time she traced a fingertip around the crown ...

"Not the most useful ability where brand-new god powers are concerned, but right now?" Sachi licked Zanya's mouth and squeezed her fingers tight around Ash's erection. "I'll take it."

"Fuck—" Ash strained against the shadows again, and Zanya almost took pity on him. Almost. The Dragon, bound to his own bed, tormented and teased by two merciless young gods united in single-minded pursuit of his pleasure ...

Actually, she imagined very few people would pity him at the moment.

A new craving blossomed, a delight brought on by his string of curses as they stroked upward without breaking the kiss. If her fingers drove him this wild, what could her tongue do?

She glanced at Ash and waited until she had that fiery gaze. And then she smiled. "Show me what to do with my mouth, Sachi."

Sachi settled down beside her with an answering smile. "Start slow," she instructed. "You have all night, if you want it. This spot here ..." She rubbed her thumb over a delicate ridge of flesh. "Lick it."

Zanya lowered her mouth and parted her lips. Then she stared up Ash's body.

He growled.

She licked him.

He was salty with the liquid already gathered at the tip, the taste nothing like she'd expected but not unpleasant. His growling roar was better, a sound of unrestrained need that nearly shattered the night. Or maybe that rumbling was the castle itself, trembling on its foundations as Zanya rasped her tongue over skin sensitized by Sachi's touch.

No wonder Sachi liked doing this so much. It was heady to know you held the power to make the earth itself tremble.

Sachi's tongue met hers. She sank a hand into Zanya's hair and guided her up just a little, until their mouths met and fused around the head of Ash's cock.

Zanya swirled her tongue, licking Sachi, licking Ash, drowning in the taste of her lovers as the walls shook and Ash growled something that didn't even sound like it was in the common tongue.

Sachi broke away with a gasp. "When he's nice and wet, you can take him in your mouth and suck. It doesn't have to be deep. You can hold him in your mouth and fuck him with your hand." She wrapped both their hands around Ash's shaft, then guided Zanya down with the hand still in her hair.

It could have been awkward, but Sachi didn't let it be. Her fingers guided Zanya's in slow, determined strokes, even as the hand in her hair tugged her gently up and then pushed her back down. The rhythm was easy to catch, a different dance than one Zanya might perform in the practice yard, but—judging by the noises coming from the Dragon—every bit as deadly.

He began to growl words, threats that were all silken promise. "When I get my hands on you, you wicked girl ..."

"You're just jealous," Sachi purred in response, "that I have such an impeccable view. I can see exactly how good she looks, sucking your cock."

Another snarl. "I changed my mind. I'm not letting Zanya spank you the first time. I'll get you across my lap and make you come from that alone."

"Thank you, my lord, for the reminder." Sachi's lips touched Zanya's ear. "Do you want him to come in your mouth? Or on your breasts? You can hold him captive with your shadows, and he can watch while I lick you clean and make you come over and over."

Zanya whimpered around him. Remembering the way he'd responded to seeing his seed splattered across Sachi's skin, she raised her head so her lips barely grazed the tip of his cock. "If I let him come on me, he'll be so smug. The beast, marking his claim."

Ash's chest heaved, his eyes wild. But he didn't deny it.

She didn't need Sachi's direction for this. Without looking away from Ash, Zanya dragged their joined fingers up and down, faster. Harder. She followed those panting breaths, chasing his pleasure until his muscles tensed, his head dug back into the bed, and his cock jumped beneath their hands.

His roar accompanied the feel of hot seed splashing against Zanya's skin. It painted her breasts and spilled over their laced fingers. She shuddered at the way Ash watched her, the predator caged by her shadows but never cowed.

Zanya knew exactly what he wanted to do. She could feel it in the way he resisted her shadows. Lunge at her. Roll her beneath him. Drag his fingers across the proof of his release, rub it into her skin, taste it on her. Revel in his claim.

She would let him claim her, but only if he remembered that claim would always be shared. She lifted her fingers to Sachi's parted lips, edged one inside, and moaned at the gentle caress of Sachi's tongue.

"Poor Ash," Sachi murmured finally. "Should we have mercy on our Dragon?"

Zanya glanced at Ash again and couldn't stop her low laugh. "Get any mischief you want to do out of the way before I release him, love. Because the Dragon isn't going to have any mercy on you ."

"Fair enough." Sachi pulled her closer, until Zanya's side was flush with her body and she was practically riding Zanya's thigh. Her fingers slipped low, between Zanya's thighs, as she drew her tongue over the curve of one breast.

Desire flashed from languid to hot in an instant, whatever relief Zanya had had from Sachi's stardust touch blown away as her lover's fingers rubbed over sensitive flesh and her tongue slicked over her skin. Zanya thrust her fingers into Sachi's golden hair, holding her close as she sank back onto the bed. Sachi came with her, three fingers curled inside Zanya and her mouth locked on one of her nipples.

Pleasure spiraled outward in a dizzying whirl, shattering Zanya's self-control. She didn't even remember there was something she should be controlling until Ash reared up behind Sachi, his hands sliding to her hips.

Sachi lifted her head and stretched like a cat. "Are his eyes aflame yet?" she asked Zanya.

Zanya laughed as Ash bent down. "I can't tell, he's—"

"Oh!" Sachi's entire body jerked. The movement thrust her fingers deeper into Zanya, who also gasped, her eyes nearly rolling back in her head.

Too much. It was too much . She caught Sachi by the wrist and pulled her fingers away. Then Zanya caught Sachi's other hand as well, dragged them both up until Sachi's body was stretched out over hers, her hands braced on either side of Zanya's head.

"You had your fun," Zanya rasped. "Now it's our turn."

Sachi pressed against her with a low, tortured, approving moan.

Whatever Ash was doing with his tongue was clearly mind-blowing. Zanya thought she'd understood, having been on the receiving end of that fierce concentration once, when Sachi had shown him how to drive her mad with a slow, devastating build.

But there was nothing slow about what he was doing to Sachi now. She squirmed until Zanya had to free one hand just to wrap an arm around her body and hold her in place. "What do you feel?"

"The Dragon's tongue," Sachi whispered. "So hot, even without his fire. So hungry —" The last word dissolved into a whimper.

Ash's ravenous growl was audible, and the effects of it shuddered through Sachi's entire body. Then he was rising up behind her again, his large hands sliding over the curve of her ass.

"Such a wicked tease," he rumbled. "What should I do with her, Zanya?"

Zanya wrapped a hand in the wild strands of Sachi's hair and tugged her head up until she could look into those glazed blue eyes. "I'd tell you to make her wait for it, but I would never make Sachi beg. Not for this. Tell him what you want, my love."

"I want you inside me." Sachi arched into Ash's touch. "I want you to fuck me the way you haven't let yourself, not yet. I want you to let go ."

The flames danced in Ash's eyes as he stroked a reverent hand over the small of Sachi's back on his way to gripping her hips. Watching Sachi's face, Zanya knew the moment he pushed into her. Her blue eyes went wide, and her lips parted on a gasp.

"Not slow," Zanya ordered him. "Not this time. She's in your bed, Dragon. Caught, helpless, wet and waiting for you. Fuck her. "

The Dragon's growl filled the room, and Zanya braced herself, all her focus on Sachi's face as the final chains broke on Ash's self-control.

He drove into Sachi. Hard. She closed her eyes, sheer bliss overtaking her features as she shuddered and shook from the force of the thrust. Even with Ash's fingers digging into Sachi's hips, Zanya had to steady her as Ash drew back and slammed forward again.

And again.

And again .

The room filled with the sound of it—Sachi's helpless moans, the slick sound of him driving into her, the low, guttural groans that seemed torn from him every time he fucked into her only to find her gasping and grinding eagerly back against him.

Zanya abandoned Sachi's hair in favor of holding her in her arms to brace her for those unbridled thrusts. But then one of Ash's hands stole up Sachi's body, his fingers tangling in her loose hair as he pulled her head back.

"Touch her," Ash growled.

Any other command, Zanya might have resisted. But there was nothing she wanted as much as to lick over the pulse pounding in Sachi's throat and mark her with her teeth.

Sachi's breathing hitched. "More."

Ash gave it to her, his strength let loose. The flames in his eyes flared, and then it was all around him, a halo of prickling power that slid down his body and drove a scream from Sachi as it washed over her.

The room lit up with glowing bits of light as she came for the first time. They were pieces of the Dream, floating above the bed, gilding Sachi's skin as she pulled Zanya closer and urged her lower.

Zanya didn't need her silent plea. She drew her tongue over one tight nipple, savoring Sachi's hitching gasp. Then she switched to the other, giving Sachi a hint of teeth as her post-orgasm haze banked sharply toward another release.

Pleasure shone so bright in her. The room glittered with it, those tiny dancing sparks flaring when Zanya caught Sachi's nipple and pinched it just as Ash drove home. She screamed again, a sound of pure joy, and the glow expanded until it felt like they were fucking inside a star.

The ecstasy of it even claimed the Dragon. Ash's head fell back on a roar as he dragged Sachi's hips back toward him. He slammed into her once, twice, and when her body shook with release this time, he joined her, their entwined moans almost enough to send Zanya rocketing over the edge.

Almost.

Ash eased back and collapsed to the bed, carrying Sachi with him. The two of them panted as the dancing bits of light faded, but Sachi didn't look exhausted. Restless energy still seethed inside her.

The Dream had been chained for thousands of years. Zanya supposed the euphoria of so much life, so much creation , could not be fucked away so easily, especially at a time meant to celebrate unions.

Pleasuring Sachi until that restless energy vanished under a wave of sleepy languor appealed to every darkly possessive instinct in Zanya's body. And the Dragon's den of debauchery offered so many options.

Slipping from the bed, Zanya moved to the shelves he'd shown her the first time she'd stood in his bedroom. There were half a dozen of those long boxes she'd originally thought held weapons. After opening several, she found the one she wanted—a thick glass rod with spiraling ridges that flared at both ends. She'd imagined pleasuring Sachi with this so many times since Ash had shown it to her that she could already taste Sachi's gasps and moans, could feel the way she would tremble and writhe and come .

She lifted it from the box and returned to the bed, offering Sachi a slow smile. "You wore out the Dragon, but I think you're still needy."

Sachi slowly rubbed her legs against Ash's, looked at the item in Zanya's hand, and licked her lips.

Ash chuckled and tugged Sachi onto her back. "Excellent choice."

"It was memorable," Zanya admitted as she stretched out on Sachi's other side and slid the cool glass down the flushed skin of her lover's body. "It looked like it would feel ... intense." Gliding it lower, she pushed the first twirling ridge between Sachi's thighs. Sachi moaned and parted her legs in invitation, so Zanya turned the toy as she moved it, covering it in the slickness of Sachi's arousal.

Zanya swooped down to catch Sachi's mouth in one blistering kiss, then moved on to the sweet curve of her throat. The flushed slope of her breast. Those tight, sensitive nipples, a caress that made Sachi arch and gasp. Lower, across the softness of Sachi's belly and the flare of her hips.

With a gentle hand, she eased Sachi's thighs wider, lifting one leg to hook over Zanya's shoulder. Then she settled in to savor the taste of her lover as she slowly, teasingly, worked that flared tip into her.

Sachi drove both hands into Zanya's hair, pulling almost hard enough to hurt. "Yes."

Zanya could have teased her, but she knew the agony of that restless energy. She also knew Sachi. She knew the rhythms that drove her mad, the pressure she needed for every kind of orgasm. Those fiendish ridges on the glass toy were a secret weapon that drove Sachi wild as Zanya worked it deeper, tilting it to hit every maddening spot inside her. The girth of it surely challenged Ash himself, filling Sachi until only Ash and Zanya's combined grip held her still.

She teetered on the edge, and Zanya smiled up her body at Ash. "Lord of Fire, we need a little magic."

Flames danced around his fingertips, then crept toward Sachi's nipples as Zanya lowered her head and drew Sachi's clit between her lips.

Sachi bucked, riding the toy and Zanya's mouth. She keened their names, then less intelligible words, and finally went silent as pleasure overwhelmed her. She clenched and shuddered, scratching them both in her ardor.

Lights exploded above them and danced through the room, but Zanya didn't relent. She pushed Sachi up and over the edge again and again, using everything she knew about Sachi's desires to wring pleasure from her body. A body that no longer tired the same way, that was strong , so strong that Zanya had to nip the inside of her thigh in warning and murmur, "Stay open for me," in a tone of dark command.

Sachi obeyed, moaning. Zanya fucked her harder and used the flat of her tongue to send her spiraling into another release, this one enhanced by Ash's fiery fingers on one nipple as his fangs scraped the other.

"Fuck—" Sachi sobbed. Screamed. "Fuck!"

Zanya rode the release, prolonging it until Sachi's sobbing cries turned into whimpers and she slumped to the bed. "Almost there," Zanya promised, turning to kiss her soft inner thigh. The glass toy was still buried deep inside Sachi, and pulling it free would send Sachi reeling.

Zanya met Ash's eyes and tilted her head. He slid his flame-wreathed fingers down and settled the intoxicating shock of his magic directly over Sachi's clit.

She jerked. The strangled noise she made wasn't even a word, just a desperate cry as Zanya began to pull the rod from her body, each ridge no doubt hitting every swollen, sensitive spot on Sachi's inner walls. Ash's fingers moved, almost vibrating, and Sachi shattered as Zanya finally eased the wide head free. Light filled the room, so bright that Zanya had to close her eyes against the first wild flare.

Tossing the toy aside, she kissed her way back up Sachi's body before opening her eyes to stare down into that beloved, pleasure-dazed face. "Feeling better?"

Sachi's chest heaved, and she raked her nails up Zanya's sides. "Better." Her gaze sharpened again with that predatory gleam. "But not finished."

Zanya laughed and nuzzled her cheek. "I hate to disagree with the god of creation, but I doubt your knees could hold you for another round."

"No," Sachi agreed with a hoarse chuckle. She shifted her leg, and Ash inhaled sharply as her thigh brushed his cock, which had once again hardened. "But I'm not the only one in this bed. Would you like to have him, Zanya?"

Zanya shivered. There'd been a time when she couldn't imagine wanting such a thing. When the vulnerability of it would have terrified her. But Ash had seen her more vulnerable than this already. He'd held her while her heart shattered, while she cried out the tears from a lifetime of pain. He'd comforted her during Sachi's terrible absence.

And he'd been patient with her. Breathtakingly patient, his ego unbothered by her need to challenge him, by her obsession with defeating him. Even when she'd pinned him, helpless and unguarded, he had not wavered in his trust.

She was finally brave enough to face the need inside her, the dark desire to let the simmering tension between them explode into something terrifying and wonderful.

"Yes," she whispered. Though the words were also meant for Ash, she didn't look away from Sachi. "Yes. I want him. Just like this. Caught between the two of you."

Sachi held her gaze as she reached for Ash and brushed the backs of her fingers over his lips. "Our lover needs you, my lord, if you please."

The bed shifted as Ash slowly rose to his knees. "As my lady commands."

"Gently," Sachi warned as she held Zanya. "Remember how she likes to be fucked."

"I remember." It was a low rumble directly behind her, and Zanya shivered again. Sachi's hands stroked soothingly over her shoulders as Ash's found her hips, his fingers large but achingly gentle as he traced the curve of her ass and dipped lower.

She gasped when he worked two fingers into her, the slick sound of them plunging deep almost as erotic as the sensation. Without Sachi's lingering magic sparking everything into instant bliss, Zanya could feel the breadth of his fingers more intensely, the slow friction intoxicating without overwhelming.

He pumped them once, twice, then slowly thrust a third finger inside her, as well. When Zanya snarled her impatience, he used his other hand to stroke her lower back. "I'm just making sure you're ready for me."

"I had your fingers and hers in me already," Zanya growled as she rocked back against him. "I'm not fragile."

"Not fragile," he agreed, fucking those three fingers deeper. The stretch of it made Zanya's hips jerk as tension curled through her. "Just different. Do you think she's ready, Sachi?"

Sachi traced Zanya's lips, then stroked her hand down Zanya's body until it clashed with Ash's. "I think she's eager . Perhaps too eager to wait any longer. Reward her courage, Ash."

Tingles raced down Zanya's body in the wake of that touch, distracting her from Sachi's ultimate goal. By the time Zanya's brain caught up, Sachi's fingers had found her clit. Her hips jerked, driving her back into Ash's touch, and Zanya muffled her moan against Sachi's shoulder.

Then Ash's fingers were gone, and something broader and harder pressed against her. Into her. Already drunk from the stardust dance of Sachi's fingers over her clit, Zanya could barely process the sweet friction of Ash's cock.

She'd known he was big. She'd watched him take his time working his cock deep into Sachi's body. But watching wasn't feeling , and the slow, maddening advance had her groaning and rocking, unsure if she wanted to pull away or push back to take more and faster .

Sachi kissed her softly and stroked her hair. "This is all for you, Zanya. You're in control, so you decide."

She captured Sachi's lips, drowning in her soulmate's kiss as she took Ash deeper. Pleasure was already wending its way through her, and Zanya was glad. After so much teasing, the soft burn and slow rise she usually preferred would be intolerable.

Tearing her mouth from Sachi's, she snarled. "Then I want all of him. Now. "

Ash tightened his grip on her hips and gave her exactly what she'd asked for. One long, merciless stroke, filling her and filling her until she thought it would be too much, and then sliding that final bit home while Zanya gasped against Sachi's cheek.

Then Ash was bending over her, too, his chest blazing hot against her back, his rumbled words a tease against her ear. "Is that what you wanted?"

She tried to say yes , but all that came out was a shuddering moan, especially when the pressure of his body pushed her hips down onto Sachi's searching fingers. They slipped across her clit again, sparking heat as well as pleasure. Zanya writhed between them, the tension inside her so tight she almost called shadows so she could flee from it.

But she didn't. She stayed. She whimpered , fingers tangling in the bedspread as she rocked her hips in the tiniest movement, and almost flew apart.

"I can't—" She gasped. "I can't hold on—"

"Then don't," Sachi urged. "You're so beautiful, love. So ready to come all over us."

"Tight and wet and hot and perfect ," Ash growled. The words vibrated through Zanya. "Use me. Take what you need to get off."

Still so careful not to take anything she hadn't offered, not to challenge her for control. Zanya twisted her head and parted her lips, finding that strong, beautiful jaw—and biting it. "Don't be lazy," she gasped. "Fuck me, Dragon."

He made a single growling sound of dark pleasure that might have been a laugh and nipped her shoulder in return. "Hold on, shadow queen."

She clung to Sachi as Ash began to move. Not the long, hard rhythm Zanya expected, but short, grinding thrusts that kept his chest against her back. Without a full withdrawal there was no end to the pleasure, no chance to feel anything but the overwhelming heat of him as he rocked into her again and again, fucking her with his entire being.

Sachi wrapped her legs around them, her hands roaming Zanya's body and clenching in Ash's hair as she arched up against Zanya in counterpoint to every rocking thrust. "Harder," she rasped.

He obeyed, grunting with every movement, until Zanya's world was nothing but the slide of slick flesh and aching friction and those guttural noises—growling and deep from above, throaty and encouraging from below.

Hands touched her everywhere.

Mouths touched her everywhere.

The world spun into shadows. Zanya thought she'd summoned them, only to realize she'd merely squeezed her eyes shut, bracing against the wave that barreled toward her, unsure if she could survive it.

Then it crashed over her, and her world spiraled into throbbing, blissful release.

"That's it," Ash murmured against the back of her neck. "That's it, love. Take us. Take everything ."

Zanya did, shuddering as pleasure turned her limbs to liquid and her bones to dust. She was dust, the stardust of the universe, remade in the arms of Creation with the fire of the Dragon, pulsing with the heat of distant stars.

She was losing her mind.

Vaguely, from wherever she still existed, still trembled , Zanya felt her lips part. Her tongue tasted salt and pleasure on Sachi's skin. She groaned and felt the vibrations of it. Sachi whispered her name, happiness and desire and love swelling through her, emotions that Zanya could feel as surely as she heard Sachi's voice hoarsely chanting every syllable. As surely as she could feel the dark, feral satisfaction that roared up from somewhere inside her, so like her own darkness and yet different —

Ash.

He groaned, thrusting into her again, and the three of them cried out in unison. Shock flooded Zanya, then understanding, all in a dizzying rush before he drove into her one final time.

Release exploded through her. His? Her own? Sachi's? Zanya couldn't tell anymore, couldn't separate the sensations flooding her—the tightness of her body around Ash's cock. The way her lips felt against Sachi's throat. The tug of someone's hands in her hair.

Release. Blissful, unimaginable release.

Creation and destruction.

They toppled to one side. Zanya panted and felt the tickle of her own breath against Sachi's shoulder even as Ash's heated the back of her neck. Every sensation still felt mirrored, giving her the drunken impression that she had three bodies.

"It's a bond," Ash managed hoarsely. "But I didn't do it. I couldn't have, not without the blood and ritual."

Sachi smiled, but she didn't open her eyes as her fingers combed through Zanya's damp hair. "Couldn't, he says, while he's in bed with us . The audacity."

Zanya nudged Ash back with an elbow and rolled onto her back. "Is this what it always felt like?" she demanded, closing her eyes. The love twining through her own tangled emotions felt like twin suns had taken up residence somewhere beneath her heart. She rubbed at her chest. "How did you get anything done?"

"It's overwhelming at first," Ash said with sympathy. "But that usually fades, except in times of ... intense emotion."

"Who knows? With us? It might just remain like this." Sachi rolled until she was draped across both of them, her hair tickling their bare skin. "Would that bother you?"

Zanya was almost too tired to laugh, but she managed as she stroked Sachi's hair back. "You're saying you want both of us to come screaming across the castle in a protective whirlwind every time you so much as stub your toe? Because you know that's going to happen now."

"You'd do that anyway." Sachi rubbed her cheek against Ash's chest, and her hand over Zanya's hip. "You've always belonged in my heart, and I like having you here."

The physical sensations were fading a little, leaving more of a vague awareness behind. But the love was still there, overwhelming but comforting in a way words couldn't be.

Even more comforting was the fact that whatever they felt from her seemed to please both of them just as much. Maybe she hadn't been able to say the words to Ash, but whatever she felt for him had put a dark pleasure in his eyes that only deepened as he touched Zanya's cheek. "So many lifetimes ago, the world promised me that I would never be alone again. I waited three thousand years for that promise to come true. And it was worth it."

Sachi bit the spot right next to his nipple. "Just remember that when we're driving you to distraction. Because we will."

"Frequently." Zanya tugged on a lock of Sachi's hair. "Especially if her restlessness is going to manifest as an insatiable sexual appetite."

Ash caught Sachi's chin before she could bite him again and pressed his thumb to her lips. "Somehow, I suspect I'll carry on."

She snuggled closer and closed her eyes. "You had better."

They'd wrecked the bedsheets and probably needed a bath, but for one precious moment Sachi was nestled between them, sleepy-eyed and content. Zanya met Ash's gaze over her head and felt the swelling emotions—tenderness and affection for Sachi, and that love twined with recognition for her.

They were the same in more ways than they were different—both monsters in other people's eyes. Both warriors, sometimes easier with death than they were with life. But they had each other now, someone who could share that burden.

And they had Sachi. Sunlight and joy.

The world might be falling apart beyond the Western Wall, but here, in Zanya's corner of it, the future had never looked more hopeful.