32. Home

32

Home

Safira Chastain

O n Celyn's back, we'd once outrun swans. That had been a mere pleasure-jaunt, taken in the bright sunlight for the sake of laughter. Going home, Celyn outran the wind .

Water-horses, as it turns out, are fleeter than any mortal creature that runs or flies, and they may call on the strength of their waters to return to them. Celyn ran without need for rest or food, his power turned towards carrying me home. Wrapped in that same power, I rode him with ease, as if we were one creature. I didn't care whether it was Celyn who moved my body with his, or if it was me. We were united in our desire, the call of the lake an ever-present sensation, the way a compass must feel as it turns north. We were going home.

We ran through the night and into the day. The warmth of the University gave way to winter by fractions, until we ran across snow and along rivers heavy with ice.

I looked behind us once; Celyn didn't even leave footprints in the snow. I supposed snow was made of water, after all, and I'd seen Celyn interact with his lake many times, never leaving a trace of his passing.

People saw us, shouts heralding our coming and left in our wake. I didn't care what they thought. Maybe they'd tell stories, putting their frightened words down into books, warning people not to touch water-horses. It didn't matter to me. There were stories about the ones who became naiads, too. I was joining them, becoming a story myself.

At last, with the afternoon sun sunsetting through the trees, we broke through the forest and out into the clear clean air of the Tsirisma Caldera.

Celyn didn't slow. His ears cocked forward, his pace picking up a fraction at the sight of home, and then we plunged back down into the trees, racing downhill. His hooves sounded like an avalanche, pounding across the snow and stone with thunder. The gleaming waves beckoned through the trees, and a moment later, Celyn flung us off a cliff .

I whooped as we soared through the air, laughter bubbling through my veins as the wind tore at my shorn hair. For one glorious moment, we seemed to hang in the air, Celyn's body arched in a perfect leap. Then, all at once, the water rushed up to meet us, and we plunged into Tsirisma Lake.

It didn't hurt. The lake embraced me with the same ease as its water-horse, wrapping around me without so much as a ripple displaced on its surface. I only had a moment to wonder at that before Celyn dissolved from between my legs and grabbed my face in his hands, kissing me with ferocity. Nothing else mattered in the face of that touch. I flung my arms around him, heedless of the things I carried in the satchel over my shoulder, and kissed him with everything I had.

I hadn't really appreciated the fact that Celyn was as much the lake as the body he wore, but he set to righting that misunderstanding. The water caressed me like a lover, pressure like hands sliding up my legs to cup my ass and running through my hair. He opened his mouth as I moaned in surprise, his hot tongue running along mine with greed. The touch sent a flash of powerful need through me, one I felt echoed in the water around me, as if he'd spoken his emotion aloud.

I felt the force of his focus, exhilaration fizzing beneath my skin as Celyn's hands ran down my sides, his fingers digging into me. Psalytaemanthe , I thought to him, the silent word coming as easily as speech. You're mine.

He groaned into my mouth, his body arching around mine as the waters of his lake dragged off my clothing, carrying it into the depths. "Yes," he answered, "I am yours, and you are mine."

The words sang into me, carrying with them a brightness as brilliant as the sun. I was his, not because he'd stolen me or bound me to him, but because he'd sacrificed everything to set me free. He was mine because I'd been willing to do the same, answering love with trust.

His fingers found my entrance and pressed into me, his thumb rubbing across my sensitive bundle of nerves. I surrendered to him, throwing my head back and grinding down onto his hand, the lake in my lungs, in my core, in my heart. Heat flooded through me, such a contrast to the beautiful cold of the water, my body closing down around Celyn's fingers as he commanded my body to race towards glorious oblivion.

My hand wrapped around his hard shaft, his desire throbbing through the water that joined us. I could almost feel what he felt, like sensing a conversation just out of audible range, and as I stroked my hand down his stiff length it sent shivering pleasure through me.

"Safira," he moaned, his mouth against my neck. "I would like to have you as the stallion has the mare."

That image made me whimper with desire, my core clenching down around his strong fingers at the thought of being mounted like that. Gods, please, I begged, opening my eyes to look at him with pleading.

Celyn licked his lips, his slot-pupils nearly round in his pale eyes. "There are no gods here," he crooned, the sound of his voice melting me from within. "There is only me."

He didn't move like a man. He dissolved, water replacing his fingers in a cold rush that left me gasping, and grabbed me from behind. Celyn's hands closed on my breasts, jerking me back towards him so that his shaft pressed into the cleft of my ass. Water pressed against me in caressing waves, stroking my sides and up my thighs. The onslaught left me moaning in the back of my throat, forgetting everything but the feel of my lover.

His hands slid down my arms, putting me in a position as if I knelt on all fours. The water held me there as Celyn ran his fingers back up my skin, leaving tingling lines of pleasure in his wake.

I didn't feel trapped. I felt safe , held on all sides by someone I knew meant me no harm. He'd sworn it to me, and he'd kept his promises. Held in Celyn's embrace, I no longer had to be afraid, and I melted into that knowledge. Celyn held me. Celyn had me. We belonged to each other.

Celyn's fingers started circling on my clit again, sending bright pleasure soaring through me, and I fell into the oblivion he offered. I had no need to think—no need to worry. I simply was, becoming nothing but the silver tension coiling inside of me. He made a deep sound of satisfaction, his pleasure radiating into me from every direction, and sank his shaft into me.

I cried out, my back arching as Celyn buried himself in me. His arm wrapped around me, strong fingers resting gently in a collar around my throat. With his hand on my neck and his lips moving in silent prayers along my skin, Celyn made me his mare. He drove his hips in sharp movements, thrusting deep into me, every snap of his hips making him bottom out in me. Heavy pleasure flared out with every thrust, building into a tidal wave I had no hope of resisting.

The pleasure grew into inevitable force, everything falling away until there was nothing remaining but the force and heat inside of me—and then even that broke, my whole being crashing into itself as I came. My body closed against Celyn in throbbing waves of pleasure, each new forceful clench sending ecstasy radiating through me, and the grip of my orgasm threw Celyn into his.

He came with a sharp sound of overwhelming pleasure, slamming himself deep into me. Heat flooded me in beautiful contrast to the coolness of the water embracing me. The satisfaction of his pleasure radiated into me, redoubling the bliss that left me limp in his grasp. Celyn pulled my head back by my hair and kissed me with rough need. The bright force made me moan into him, my body closing down around him again with a brilliant aftershock of pleasure, his shaft filling me to perfection.

I love you, Celyn , I moaned in my thoughts.

"My Saphira," he crooned back, his body relaxing against me as ecstasy eased into bliss. His fingers loosened in my hair, and he kissed me with tenderness. "My light. I shall love you until nothing remains of me."

Leaning back up against him, his warmth and his cold surrounding me, I smiled. To be loved by a water-horse is to be possessed utterly by him, but I was no longer afraid. We would see the years in their thousands together. Trees would grow and Spires fall, and we would always have each other.

Then love me, Psalytaemanthe, I told him, a thrill running up my spine as he shivered with pleasure at the sound of his name. Love me with everything you are.

With my name on his lips and heat in his eyes, he did.