Desire condensed deep in his balls as he palmed her breast, and his mouth left hers to trail down her neck and across her shoulder. Her skin was so soft, and he wanted to immerse himself in her and forget everything else. He would do anything for her, lay down his life if he had to, and that she would allow him to touch her like this made his soul sing.
She backed up to the side of the bed, tugging him with her as she went. They tumbled together on the soft mattress, and he ducked his head to her breast, his tongue laving her nipple before covering it with his mouth. He sucked, feeling the peak harden against his tongue and the roof of his mouth, and she moaned above him. The sweetest sound he’d ever heard.
Her fingers laced in the strands of his silver hair, and he left her breast to move farther down, his tongue leaving a wet trail between her abdominals, to her navel, and lower still. Dela gave a satisfied sigh and opened her legs for him to bury his face between them. Her back arched as his tongue hit the spot, and the taste of her musk coated his palate.
“Oh, Vehel,” she groaned. “Yes, keep going.”
He had no intention of stopping. His cock strained hard, and though he was desperate to be inside her, he also reveled in giving her the sort of pleasure that made her cry out. He was doing this to her. No one else.
He tried not to think about the sleeping baby dragon on the windowsill. He hoped she didn’t wake up and think he was trying to hurt Dela. He might end up with a singed rear-end.
Vehel circled her clit with his tongue and then speared it inside her. He kept up the rhythm, moving faster until Dela was bucking under him, lifting her hips to press her pussy harder against his mouth. Her fingers knotted in his hair, and he thrust his tongue deeper until she cried out and shuddered around him with her release.
When her body fell still, he slid back up her body and kissed her mouth, knowing she’d be able to taste herself on his tongue. He groaned at the thought.
They lay side by side. He wanted to be able to look into her face, to watch her expressions as he moved inside her, to stare into her beautiful eyes. This wasn’t just about sex for him, it was their union, their joining together. His heart, mind, and soul belonged to her.
He reached down and pulled her leg over the top of his hip, allowing him to position himself between her thighs. He knew he wasn’t big like Warsgra and Orergon, but he had no doubts that he could give her all the pleasure they did. He was fairly sure human girls worked in the same way as Elvish women.
He kissed her again, his tongue inside her mouth, and then angled his hips to push inside her. By the Gods, she felt incredible. Hot, and tight, and wet, sheathed around his cock. He used his thumb to rub at the sensitive bundle of nerves between her thighs. Their foreheads pressed together as they moved as one, staring into each other’s eyes. Dela began to gasp, little shallow breaths, and he increased his momentum, keeping up the work on her clit. He squeezed her breast with his other hand, pinching the nipple between his thumb and forefinger.
“Oh, yes, Vehel. Yes. Just like that.”
Dela’s movements became more frantic, and he kept up with her, his strokes inside her deeper and faster. His hand left her breast to cup her bottom, pulling her even closer, their bodies pressed together.
She orgasmed around him for the second time, crying out and clinging to him as she came.
He couldn’t hold back any longer. Flipping her onto her back, he held himself over her, pistoning his hips against hers. He felt himself swell inside her, his balls and ass tight with his impending climax. He grabbed her hands, pinning them above her head as he came inside her with a forceful grunt, his teeth clenched, his face screwed up in pleasure.
His orgasm ebbed out of him like a life force, and he felt like that was what he’d just done. Like he’d gifted her some of his energy.
He pulled out of her, breathing hard, and then tugged her into his arms so they lay together.
They held each other, both coming down from their climaxes.
“I’ve wanted to do that ever since I first saw you,” he told her.
Dela grinned at him. “No, you haven’t. You all hated me when we first met. I was the annoying human girl—the one who was responsible for all humanity’s past mistakes, remember?”
He chuckled and held her closer. “Maybe a little. But that didn’t last long, did it?”
“No, I guess not.” They fell silent for a moment, and then Dela spoke again, but he already knew what she was going to say.
“Will you help me, then, Vehel?” She looked up at him, her golden brown eyes so full of hope, and pain, and trust.
“Help you? How can I help you?”
“Help me find Ridley. Just to find out if he’s still alive. Show me the entrance to the catacombs, and use your magic to protect me from whatever is down there.”
He closed his eyes to shut off the sight of her pleading face and shook his head. “Dela, stop it. You’re killing me.”
“And this is killing me. I have to know.”
He opened his eyes again, bringing her face into view. “Don’t you see how selfish you’re being? You’re willing to give up everything—everyone—for your brother.”
“I can’t help it. Yes, maybe it is selfish. But perhaps love is selfish. I can’t walk away from here knowing he’s trapped beneath the castle in some kind of underworld. It’ll drive me crazy. How can I ever be happy knowing I didn’t do everything in my power to help him?” She glanced away, shaking her head. “I know you can help me, Vehel. You used magic to protect the dragon when we landed here. Can’t you do something like that for me?”
“Yes, I could, but you have to understand that I can’t hold magic like that for long. The size of the dragon meant it sapped my magic quickly. You’re obviously far smaller, but the catacombs are dangerous. You can get lost down there forever, and never find your way back.”
“You’d help me back, I know you would.” She must have seen him waver, as she sat up slightly, pulling the silk sheets around her naked breasts, her eyes lighting with hope.
“If I was to cast my magic, I wouldn’t be able to go into the catacombs with you. If something happened to me down there, you’d be unprotected, too. If we do this, Orergon or Warsgra should go with you.”
“The others can’t know about this,” she insisted. “They’ll never allow it.”
He exhaled a frustration sigh. “They’ll kill me for going behind their backs.”
Her teeth dug into her lower lip. “They might not need to know.”
He cocked an eyebrow at her.
“Okay, they’ll find out, but hopefully by then I’ll be safe and will know what happened to Ridley once and for all.”
He hesitated then said, “If I help you, I won’t be able to keep the magic going for long. You’ll have a couple of hours, at the most, and then you’ll need to get out of there. If you stay any longer, you may never find your way out again, and you won’t be protected either. All the creatures who live down there will be after you.”
“What are the creatures?”
“They’re the people who were put down there. Once the catacombs take over, once you give in to the solitude and the helplessness, and the despair of the place, you become a part of it.”
“So, I have to hope Ridley hasn’t given in to the despair of the catacombs?”
He hated hearing the optimism in her voice. “After three years, Dela, I really don’t think you should have much hope.”
“Can anything be done to help him if he has?”
“No, I’m sorry. All the magic in the world won’t be able to turn him back. You might not even be able to recognize him.”
She placed her fingers to her lips, her eyes glassy with unshed tears. “I still have to try. Even without your help, I’ll find a way.”
He didn’t feel he had any choice. “Okay, I’ll help you. But you have two hours, that’s all, Dela. Two hours to try to find him, and if you don’t, you come back and accept that you have done everything you po
ssibly can. Is that agreed?” He felt sick saying the words, but what else could he do? She was never going to back down and leave this place without looking for her brother, and he didn’t doubt for a moment that she would do it without his protection if he refused.
Dela flung her arms around his neck, squeezing him tight, pressing her bare breasts against his chest. He felt himself stir with desire for her again, but already she’d released him and was climbing out of bed to pull on her clothes.
“I have to do it tonight.” She tugged on her boots. “It might be my only chance.”
Vehel swung his legs out of bed and bent to gather his clothing as well. He’d have happily remained in bed with Dela for the night, holding her close, and maybe even having a repeat performance of what they’d just done, but instead it seemed he was sending the woman he loved into the most dangerous place in the Inverlands—and quite possibly the whole of Xantearos.
Warsgra and Orergon were going to kill him when they found out.
Chapter Nineteen
Dela
“WILL YOU TAKE CARE of Iros while I’m gone?” Dela asked Vehel. They were both fully dressed now, and the baby dragon was still sleeping on the windowsill, her head tucked under her wing, apparently undisturbed by their antics.
“Of course. But you need to come back for her, Dela. You need to come back for all of us. We need you.”
She nodded. “I will, I promise.”
She left Vehel’s side and crossed the room to the high, arched window. “Hey, Iros. We have to go for a walk, okay?” The dragon stirred, and Dela slipped her hand beneath her scaly body and lifted her up. She put her on her shoulder, and the dragon wrapped herself around the back of Dela’s neck, her tail curling around Dela’s throat, and then settled herself back to sleep again.
“Okay, I’m ready,” she told Vehel.
The Elvish prince took a breath and nodded. “We need to stay quiet. We can’t let anyone see us.”
“I understand.”
Together, they slipped out of the bedroom door and into the stone walled corridor beyond. Everything seemed to have settled down after the festivities, and things remained quiet. She didn’t trust King Dawngleam, however, and wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d put guards on their bedrooms to monitor what they were doing. So far, however, it seemed they were alone.
Vehel jerked his head to the left. “This way.”
They hurried down the corridor. On the walls, a number of swords and daggers had been mounted in frames as decoration. Vehel passed one then paused. She glanced over to see what had caught his attention. It was a small dagger of Elvish steel, just like the one King Crowmere’s men had taken from her back at the castle.
“You might need this,” Vehel said as he removed the dagger from the mount and handed it to her.
She took the weapon. The weight felt good in her hand again, and she slipped it into her belt. “Thank you, Vehel.”
They kept going. Eventually, they reached a set of stone stairs winding downward. This was a different set than they’d used to come up from the Great Hall. The stairs wound down into darkness only broken up by the oil lamps attached to the walls. They reached a lower floor, a door leading off onto where, she didn’t know, but they didn’t stop there, and kept hurrying down, into the pit of the castle. Dela wasn’t surprised. The catacombs were located beneath ground, so of course they’d need to go down.
They came out of the stairwell into tunnels below the castle.
“This way,” Vehel said, leading her with certainty.
Nerves churned in her stomach. What was she getting herself into? She was allowed to be nervous. There would be something wrong with her if she weren’t.
The tunnels were all made of large stone blocks, the same as the castle. They started wide with high ceilings, but the farther into the maze they got, the narrower they became and the lower the ceilings.
“Are these the catacombs?” she hissed at Vehel, unsure why she felt the need to keep her voice down. They hadn’t seen anyone so far.
He glanced over his shoulder at her. “No, this is just the way to the entrance.”
She swallowed down a gulp of fear. If this wasn’t even what she had to contend with, she didn’t want to think about what the actual catacombs would be like.
Vehel suddenly came to a halt. “We’re here.”
The passageway had widened to a small room. In the floor, a circle of stone was embedded. “This is it?” she asked, confused.
“Yes, but we have to open it first.”
An iron handle was positioned in the middle of the circle, laid flat into a groove in the stone, so she hadn’t seen it at first. Vehel crossed over and pulled it up, and then strained as he tried to pull it across. “You’re going to have to help me.”
Feeling bad that she’d just been standing there, watching him get on with things, she hurried over and bent to the handle. Iros’s claws dug into her skin as she was tilted by the movement and tried to keep her balance.
They both pulled hard, grunts and groans of exertion filling the small space. Suddenly, the circle of stone shifted and it pulled to one side to reveal a crescent of darkness beneath. Dela caught her breath. That was where she was headed.
“Keep going,” Vehel said.
She bent back to the handle, and they pulled again, edging the stone circle father off the dark hole it was covering. They finally moved the whole thing to one side, and they stepped away, staring down into the utter blackness it had revealed.
“That’s it?” she asked, though she already knew the answer.
Vehel nodded. “Yes. Do you still want to do this? It’s not too late to back out?”
“I still want to do it,” she replied, though her mouth had run dry, and she had to clench her fingers into fists to prevent them shaking. She reached up and removed Iros from around her neck and handed her to Vehel. The dragon puffed smoke out of her nose in annoyance, but probably more at having her sleep disturbed than being passed over to Vehel. He placed her on his shoulder, and she curled back up and went to sleep again.
“So, what do I do?” She heard the tremor in her voice. “Just climb down there?”
“Yes. There are metal bars on the wall which you can use as a ladder, but you need my magic first.”
“Of course.”
“The magic will protect you, but not only that, it’ll leave a trail as you walk. You’ll see it like a luminescence. Like fireflies at night, only more like a snail trail. Understand?”
She nodded. “I think so. I’m going to be like a magical slug.”
He gave a small laugh, but they both knew she was trying to make light of a serious situation. “You need to start back before my magic wears off. Once it wears off, the trail you’ll leave will vanish. The catacombs are full of twists and turns, and if you lose the trail, you might never make it back again.”
“How will I know how much time I have left?”
“I’ll include it in the magic. You’ll see something on the inside of your wrist that will look like an hourglass. Watch it carefully, and as the magic starts to wear off, so will the amount left in the hourglass. Are you ready?”
Dela nodded and took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves. Of everything she’d done since all this had started, this was the most terrifying.
It’s because you’re going to be alone, a little voice that sounded like her dead best friend, Layla, said in her head. You wouldn’t be so frightened if the others were with you.
But this was something she was going to have to face alone. Warsgra and Orergon would never let her go, and even if they did say they’d go with her, she would never ask them to put themselves in that kind of danger for her brother.
In front of her, Vehel’s eyes slipped shut, and the look of concentration she’d come to recognize took over his features. She held her breath, waiting. His lips moved, though she couldn’t understand what he was saying, and then he lifted his hand to her. The same blue light that had surroun
ded them on the dragon’s back glowed from his fingertips. Vehel opened his eyes and lifted his hand to her face. His fingers met with her cheek, and she let out a gasp.
The magic ran in tendrils across her skin, racing down her neck and arms, and then the rest of her body. The hairs on her arms rose to attention, as did the hair on the back of her neck. Her skin pimpled in goose bumps, and she could feel the magic spreading across her like a million tiny insect wings batting her skin.
“Look at the inside of your wrist,” Vehel told her, holding her gaze.
She did. A small rectangle of the same blue light was marked onto her skin, like one of Orergon’s tattoos.
“It will start to empty as the magic wears down,” he told her. “Get back before it does.”
She nodded. “I will.”
“Go now. I can already feel my hold on it slipping away.”
Not thinking about it too deeply, knowing if she stood there and questioned things she’d lose her nerve, she quickly turned from Vehel and Iros and got to her hands and knees on the edge of the hole. The illumination from the magic was enough to light the way, and she was able to make out the iron bars embedded into the rock, which she would be able to use as a ladder.
“I love you, Dela,” Vehel called after her. “Be careful.”
“I love you, too. And the others. If I don’t come back, tell them—”
But he silenced her with a raise of his hand. “Just go, and make sure you come back.”
She gave a final nod and started to climb, the sight of Vehel and the baby dragon slipping from view, replaced by the dark, dank wall of the hole she was descending into. How many people had been forced to climb this way before her? Her brother’s hands had once held these same rungs as the stone circle overhead had been pushed back over, trapping him down here. Had he tried to climb back up? Had he beat on the underneath of the stone with his bare hands, yelling to be freed? Had he eventually given up and descended, just as she was descending now? She couldn’t help but play all these events over in her head, wondering if Vehten had told her brother what lay in his fate. Had Vehel’s brother mocked Ridley, perhaps taken pleasure in his fear? She doubted Vehten would ever admit to doing such a thing, and it was unlikely she would ever find out unless she found Ridley and asked for herself.
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