Chapter Thirty-Two

Ara and I went to our favorite place—the waterfall he had made for me. He conjured a bubble of summer for us again. We lay naked on our spread robes and soaked up the sun. When we got too warm, we went into the pond.

I dove and swam beneath Ara, tickling his thighs and licking his flaccid shaft. His whole body shuddered. When I came up, I was grinning.

"You naughty boy!" Ara reached for me.

I swam away, laughing.

"Come back here! I'm going to give you a spanking."

A spanking. I went still, letting my feet fall to the bottom. As I steadied myself on the pebbles, I saw him again. The Tytra. He had me stretched across his lap.

"Oh, Goddess," I whispered.

"Got you!" Ara spun me into his arms and kissed me.

Thoughts of anyone who wasn't Ara vanished. I groaned and grabbed his wet hair as I shifted my groin against him. Ara made happy sounds and pulled me higher up his body until our cocks aligned. Instinctively, we ground together. The feel of our hardening shafts brought even happier sounds from both of us.

Love will never lead you wrong, a woman said in my mind. A memory. Of the Goddess!

That's when I knew Death was wrong. Will wasn't the strongest power. It was love. He had even said it himself; Love can cross the darkest of barriers. So maybe he wasn't wrong, just lying. All to distract me from my true power.

As Ara's hands roamed my body, my heart opened to him. Spirit rose. This was the path to freedom. I would bond with him and free us both. We would gain the power Death hoped for, but not to use on his behalf. For ourselves. He would never take anything from us again.

"Ara," I murmured and kissed his throat. "I love you."

And it was true. No matter how I had come to this love, it was real, based on true feelings. I loved Aranren.

"I love you, my Ember." Ara carried me to the shore, then laid me upon the mossy bank, our legs still in the water. "I love you so much, it consumes me."

Ara shifted between my thighs as he kissed his way along my chin, then down my throat. At my nipples, he lingered, grinding himself against my cock as he sucked at me. I spread my legs wider and lifted my hips to receive him. The tip of his shaft went where I needed it, rubbing my entrance teasingly.

"More," I gasped, love overflowing my heart. "Join our bodies, and I will bind our souls."

Ara paused and lifted his head. "Truly? We're going to be bound?"

"Yes. I feel the magic, Ara." I cupped his face in my hands. "It's time."

My channel went slick, oiled by Ara's magic, and he gently prodded me. I pushed down, taking him into me.

"Ember," Ara moaned, his hair falling around us in wet ribbons. One of them clung to my cheek. "Ember, I feel strange."

"Keep going, Ara."

He slid deeper. Pumped. Began to thrust.

We moaned together, hands clinging and bodies moving in an ancient pattern. Inside me, Spirit Magic not only manifested but also magnified. It grew and grew, that dark, freeing wraith spreading through me. With it, came a burning sensation. It didn't hurt. Instead, it felt amazing. Liberating. As Ara began to drive wildly into my body, the cold darkness inside me was burned away by the searing wraith of Spirit. I saw the cage again. The bones encasing me. But they were brittle, based on hatred. I had love in me. So much love. And that couldn't be caged by hate. Not even the hatred of Death.

The bones blasted apart, their shards slicing the remaining particles of Death and continuing out of me to explode through Ara.

The first time I had tried to free the Corrupter, he had infected my wraith and destroyed it—a piece of my soul. This time, with Ara's love and will welcoming the wraith, Death couldn't touch it. The Corrupter cried out, ceasing his thrusts to shudder into stillness. I pushed up, rolling him onto his back, then climbed astride my lover and rode him. As my wraith clawed at his bone cage, empowered by my love for Ara, the Corrupter whimpered, then went silent. Bones splintered and exploded outward, the sound of it vibrating out of the inner world and into the real one. Before the shrapnel could hit me, it became bone dust—a fine powder that drifted past my soul with barely the breath of a touch. I looked down and the man who stared up at me was suddenly Ara, all Aranren.

With a gasp of satisfaction, my wraith returned to me, utterly unharmed.

"Ember," Ara said, his voice sweeter, softer, and full of love. "My Ember. You've finally reached me. You've broken past Death."

"Ara." I leaned forward, sliding my hands up his chest, then I kissed him. "I love you."

A new wraith flew out of me, bright white instead of black. This was my binding wraith, not the freeing one. I had already freed Ara. Now, I would ensure he remained that way.

"No!" Death roared.

I was flung away from Ara, my wraith hitting a wall of darkness and bouncing back into me. As I lay there gasping, that wall took the shape of a massive man, larger than any who walked Varr. The man stalked toward me, each step shaking the world, then loomed over me.

"You have betrayed me again."

I scrambled to my feet. "You are the betrayer, not me. You tricked me, Death. I trusted you, and you tricked me. This is your war, not Aranren's!"

The shadow man hissed at me. "I would have given you everything."

"You would have made us your puppets!"

Aranren moaned.

"Ara?" I tried to dart around the shadow, but it shifted too quickly, sliding into my way. "Ara!"

"Ember!" Then Ara screamed.

"No!" I pounded on the shadows. Every strike froze my fists, but I kept fighting. "Leave him alone!"

"Ember, run!" Ara screamed. "Fade, my love. The pendant!"

The pendant? My hand went to the crystal at my throat. Oh, Goddess. Ara had given me a way to escape not only Death but himself as well.

"No!" Death snarled.

"Ember, I truly love . . ." Ara's voice trailed off.

"Ara, I'm not leaving without you!" I shouted.

Death disappeared.

Through the fading shadows came the Corrupter. I knew Ara was gone as soon as I saw that serene face. The man I loved was locked in a cage of bones once more. I had destroyed it, only for Death to rebuild it in seconds.

"Ara, no," I whispered. "Fight him."

"There is no fighting Death, Ember." The Corrupter opened his arms. "Come to me. It will all feel like a dream soon. A bad dream."

My heart broke. It shattered into sharp slivers that cut my other organs. But I was immortal. I would heal. And I had other lovers to think about. I couldn't let this one draw me back into Death. It would do none of us any good.

"I love you, Ara. The real me loves the real you. I will never stop trying to free you. I promise. I'll come back for you. Just hold on, my love. Don't give up hope."

The Corrupter's expression went from sweet to vicious. He lunged for me as I faded. The last thing I saw before I was swept away, was his hands bent into claws, swiping through my fading form. My inner sight showed me even more—those graceful fingers encased in gauntlets of bone.