by Amy Sumida
“I'm sorry about this morning, mo shíorghrá,” he said sincerely.
Mo shíorghrá—it means “my eternal love” in Fey, which is basically Gaelic. Raza had adopted it as his endearment for me long before we were a couple. He had been that determined. I had secretly loved it back then, even as I'd admonished him for saying it, but I didn't have to hide the way I felt anymore.
“So, Superdragon, you decided to bring me to your Fortress of Solitude to make it up to me?” I drawled with pleasure. “Good call.”
Raza grinned. “I intend to make love to you nonstop until we must return to the castle.”
“That's a pretty bold statement.”
“Simple truth.” He smirked.
Raza paused to breathe fire down the tunnel. The torches held within wall sconces caught fire and illuminated the gradual shift from gray stone to quartz crystal as well as the gradual downward slope. We continued onward until we entered a vast chamber of quartz. Raza spoke a single word and fairy lanterns came to life, illuminating the glassy surface of the lake they floated upon. They began to rise, trailing water droplets as they floated upward until they bounced gently against the ceiling, caught within hanging crystal shards. Adding to the rain from the lanterns, the crystals collected moisture from the air and dripped it back into the lake, the drops gleaming gold in the lantern light.
Moisture hit my skin as the scent of freshwater filled my nose. I breathed in deeply, the solace of the place sinking into me and relaxing my tense shoulders. With the fairy lanterns at their apex, the entire crystal cavern was revealed in full. Quartz points as tall as my husband angled out of the floor, walls, and ceiling, magnifying and catching the light. Combined with the glittering water droplets, it turned the cavern into a magical, sparkling retreat.
Raza escorted me down a set of worn stairs, then to the left, where a massive, thick rug outlined the only furnished area in the cavern. A huge bed sat atop one side of the rug while several trunks and a dining set took up the other. On the bare crystal floor, to the right of the dining table, a cooking hearth waited to be lit. It would wait even longer; we weren't there to make soup.
Raza was already naked from his shift, his skin gleaming gold in the warm lights. His wings shivered as he magically banished them, then his claws retracted into his fingers. I lifted a brow at him as I started to undress, laying my clothes across one of the trunks. Raza didn't have to explain his actions; I've loved him long enough to know what motivates him, at least when it comes to sex. The wings wouldn't do well in the lake and as far as the claws, he didn't want to have to be careful with me.
The dragon was looking to get wild.
A low growl crawled up Raza's throat as I removed the last of my underwear. I turned to fully face him and he had me in his arms before I finished the movement. Muscles twitching beneath my roaming hands, lips demanding a searing kiss, and blunted fingers massaging my ass, he set to fulfilling his earlier vow. I groaned into his mouth and wrapped my arms around his broad shoulders as he lifted me. I assumed we'd be heading for the water but instead, Raza took me to the bed.
Raza sat me on the edge, at the foot of the bed, then laid me back on the plush blankets. My knees were bent over the side and he knelt between them before pushing them apart as wide as they would go. I stared down my body at my husband and found a pair of golden eyes gleaming back at me, full of erotic promise. Raza lowered his head as he held my stare, then covered me with his mouth.
I cried out as his hot tongue split me, my hands going straight to the sides of his face as if pulled there by strings. I stroked the Dragon-Djinn ridge of his brow bones, tracing up from where it met the bridge of his nose before flaring out to his temples, and admired the sharp features that had never ceased to fascinate me. Raza laved me, aroused rumbles vibrating from his lips into my flesh. A thick finger prodded, then slid inside to start a gentle thrusting. I couldn't look away from those dragon eyes and they didn't look away from me.
Raza's tongue flicked, then lashed, then stroked. His lips moved as if he were kissing my mouth—sensually sliding and pushing. He drove me quickly and expertly into ecstasy and my cries echoed off the crystal walls as my body began to tremble. I was making whimpering sounds I couldn't stop, and the dragon between my thighs growled as if he would consume me.
“Raza!” I screamed as I crested.
Before those echoes could fade away, my husband rose above me, shoved me up the bed, and followed me. My legs wound around his waist as he swiftly settled his shaft at the entrance to my sex, then gave a powerful shove. I was so wet, he didn't even have to guide himself. We cried out together with that first plunge—the first stroke of becoming one. Then Raza claimed my mouth as his cock claimed my body, both actions verging on violent. I clawed at him, as savage as he was, needing more and more and more.
Finally, I rolled him onto his back—or, rather, he let me—and straddled his waist to ride my dragon. The sounds of sex and pleasure seemed to surround us, the acoustics of the cavern making it seem as if we weren't alone. As if other couples made love mere feet away. Raza's hands went to my breasts and massaged them, his thumbs flicking my nipples.
“My beautiful star,” he murmured. “Nothing shines like you.”
“My fierce dragon,” I countered as I bent to kiss him. Against his lips, I whispered, “No one fucks like you.”
The right naughty word at the right time does wonders with Raza. His eyes widened and another growl rose from his chest in a tumbling rumble. He sat up suddenly and clasped me close as he got onto his knees. Once he had me draped securely over his lap, he began a wild, upward pumping. I would have bounced away from the power of his thrusts if not for him holding me so tightly—his fingers curled over my shoulders as if they were still claws, pulling me down as he shoved up to meet me.
The position brought our faces together so we could stare into each other's eyes as we formed a more physical connection. It was too much pleasure for me—the feeling of his thick shaft stretching me, my ass smacking his powerful thighs, and his hard muscles pushing against my softness all combined with his predator stare. I threw my head back to cry out, but Raza grabbed my chin and angled my face back down so he could watch me as I climaxed. It made my release surge even higher and it must have done something for Raza as well because his roar soon joined my scream.
“Seren!” Raza gave one last, powerful thrust and emptied into me.
Chapter Four
“I wanna go!” Shahzadi screamed.
“Sweet Danu, grant me patience so that I don't murder this child and feed her to the Sluagh,” I murmured.
Raza chuckled. He was still glowing from the hours we'd spent screwing all over his crystal cavern—in the bed, in the water, on the ground, even propped against a massive quartz shard. It had been a very full couple of hours with very few breaks between episodes.
“Your grandfather is very busy; I'm not inflicting you upon him,” I said sternly.
“In flicking?” Shahzy paused her tantrum to frown. “I never flick Grandpa.”
Raza choked down his laughter as he turned away.
“A little help here,” I called after Raza, but he'd lifted his wings so he could hide his amusement from our daughter.
“Inflict,” I corrected her. “It means to send something horrible—with wings and little claws—to do awful things to someone.”
“Does it though?” Raza lowered a wing to smirk at me.
I glared at him.
“I'm not horrible!” Shahzy screamed.
“Just listen to yourself, child. I rest my case.” I shook my head at her. “If there were a golden egg room here, you'd be down the garbage shoot in a second, Veruca.”
“I am not Veruca Salt!” Shahzy stamped her foot.
“How did we make such a creature?” I asked Raza.
“She's a Dragon-Djinn.” Raza shrugged. “Full dragons are very volatile during adolescence. This is perfectly natural behavior.”
“She's going t
o be like this for her entire adolescence?” I nearly screeched.
“I'm right here!” Shahzadi screamed.
Rowan was sitting on Shahzy's bed with Cat, her arm around Cat's neck as they both watched the proceedings impassively. Why, oh, why couldn't all of my children be like her? Actually, come to think of it, Shahzadi was the only terror in the group. My boys are pretty mellow too.
“Mommy!” Shahzy yelled.
“Shahzadi Tnyn, I am going to spank you if you don't stop screaming at me and I'm going to do it with a burning hand,” I snarled as I lifted my hand and set it aflame.
You may think the addition of fire to a spanking is a bit extreme but Shahzadi is immune to fire. The flames would only add a little extra heat to the pain of my hand smacking her bottom. I only threatened it when she was exceptionally bad.
Shahzy's emerald eyes widened. They were similar to mine except her star spokes were gold instead of silver. It made it difficult to look at her and stay mad. But when she got like this, it became a bit easier.
“I want to go with my sister,” Shahzadi whispered and sort of crumpled. “I never get to see her.”
Never was, demonstrably, the incorrect word but my daughter loved using words with weight such as never or always. I sighed deeply and Raza had to turn away again to hide his grin. As much as Shahzy could wrap her father around her little finger in seconds, she could also, if she applied herself, do the same to me. That little girl is dangerous.
“And what about Daddy?” I asked her. “Would you leave him here all by himself?”
“No, I want him to come too.” She pouted. “Why can't we live together?”
It was something I often wished so it was even harder to hear her say it. I looked at Raza and he gave me a sympathetic and slightly sad smile. In his mind, this was the price he paid for loving me but it was a minor cost. In my mind, it was a problem.
“Come here,” I said to Shahzy as I sat down on her bed beside Rowan.
Shahzadi crawled up onto the bed with us, and I scooched back against the padded, gold, velvet headboard. The girls clambered to either side of me and Cat sprawled across my feet. Raza went to sit in the heavy armchair beside the bed—the one he used whenever he read Shahzy a bedtime story. Tonight, she'd be getting her story a little earlier than usual.
“I know you don't get to spend as much time together as you'd like to,” I said to my daughters. “And I'm going to try to change that but, for now, we need to make the best of the time we have together.”
The girls wrapped themselves around me in response, their tiny hands clasped together over my belly. I smiled down at them, a sense of immense gratitude washing over me as I put an arm around each child and hugged them closer. I looked up and found Raza staring at us with a soft smile.
“When Danu first told me you were meant to be mine, I never dreamed it would be like this,” Raza whispered to me. “I would empty the seas for you, mo shíorghrá.”
“And I would swim across them for you, Dragon.”
The girls giggled, ruining the mood, but I grinned down at them anyway.
“Have I ever told you the story of how your father saved my life?” I asked Shahzy.
“Which story?” She smirked.
Raza chuckled. “Good girl.”
“The one on the battlefield when he became King,” I clarified.
“No,” Shahzy whispered and went silent.
“He saved Cat too,” I said to Rowan.
“He did?” Rowan's eyes went to Cat, who made an agreeing huff.
“My evil uncle Uisdean was King of Unseelie then,” I started. “And he had brought his even-more-evil wife, Queen Rue, back from the dead to rule with him,” I added a dramatic, eerie tone and nuzzled the girls.
They squealed in delight.
“I brought the armies of Twilight and the Court of the Nine Sons to Unseelie to fight for Raza, who was not yet my husband,” I went on. “Your grandfather was already on the battlefield and there were dragons in the sky along with your uncle Rayetayah. I brought more dragons with me, but those couldn't fly. Instead, they flowed over the ground like water.”
“Sea Dragons,” Raza said when Shahzy looked his way.
Shahzy made a little sound of wonder, then settled back against me. The girls watched me solemnly, the cadence of the story lulling them. I glanced at Raza again and saw the tender look on his face. Our eyes met and I had to blink rapidly to keep from tearing up. I'd never told our daughter this story because it was a difficult memory for me—the moment when I thought I had lost Cat. That loss had taken all the will to fight out of me—something that, as an extinguisher, I'd never thought was possible.
“Our warriors streamed across the battlefield before the old Unseelie Castle but the evil King and Queen remained beyond our reach,” I recounted it as my memories unfolded in my mind—the acrid scent of blood and magic, the roar of dragons on the earth and in the sky, and the shrieks of the wounded. “Uisdean knew he was losing and he did the only thing he could think of to win back the advantage—he released the Sluagh.”
Both girls inhaled in shock. They knew what the Sluagh was and how no one except their mother and uncle had ever survived a Sluagh attack. It didn't matter that the Sluagh was under the Unseelie King's control and that king happened to love them both. All little girls fear monsters, even little girls who also happen to be dragons.
“I rode Cat into battle in her horse form and she bravely fought off our enemies with her strong hooves.” I stared ahead of me, losing sight of the glittering room with its miniature, silk-draped vanity and piles of toys, seeing instead the blood-churned earth and the darkness rolling across it. “But then one of the Sluagh swept down from the sky and attacked us. I was knocked off Cat's back and she reared up to protect me. A Sea Dragon killed the beast and dragged it off but Cat and I were both wounded in the attack. Gravely injured.”
“Cat was hurt?” Rowan asked in a small voice.
I nodded. “I told her to shift back into her canine form but she was hurt too badly for it to make a difference. Cat was dying and as we bled, laying in the mud together, the Sluagh came for us.”
My girls knew that both Cat and I had survived—that much was obvious—but their eyes still filled with fear. This was another reason why I'd never told them this story and part of me wondered if I should have told it to them now. But it was too late to stop.
“I couldn't leave my dear Cat. I refused to. So, I held her as she died and I laid back and looked at the sky with her, knowing that I would likely join her.”
“Mommy, no,” Shahzy whispered and burrowed closer. “Don't die.”
“I didn't, baby.” I turned my head toward Raza and smiled. “As I looked up at that blue sky, it turned red. Your father landed above me to protect Cat and me from the Sluagh. But before they could attack us again, Danu appeared and called the Sluagh home.”
The girls made awed sounds.
“I didn't care,” I admitted. “My best friend was dying in my arms, and I knew that Danu wouldn't save her—she was too busy saving our army. But Raza did what Danu couldn't. He called the Grindylows and they came to heal Cat. They healed us both.”
“Was that when you knew you loved Daddy?” Shahzy asked innocently.
I chuckled. “I loved your father long before that but I wouldn't admit it. Not even then and especially not to him. He told me that he would marry me and make me Queen of Unseelie one day. He asked me to crown him, as his future queen should, and do you know what I did?”
The girls shook their heads.
“I slapped him.”
Raza laughed at the horror on their faces.
“Mommy slapped you, Uncle Raza?” Rowan asked.
“She did.” He nodded solemnly. “Your mother vowed that she would never be mine—not in any way. She told me to move on. And I told her that she was wrong. I asked her how she would feel if one day we did marry and she had given up the chance to crown me.”
“Did you cro
wn him, Mommy?” Rowan asked.
“I did.” I kissed her forehead. “I had a premonition when he said those things to me. It wasn't visual, only a feeling, but it was very clear: I'd regret it if I didn't accept his offer.”
“You never told me about that,” Raza said in surprise.
I shrugged. “I don't get premonitions often, but I always listen to them. I wasn't ready to admit what it meant but in my heart, I knew you and I would one day be together.”
Raza grinned brilliantly and the girls sighed with relief and delight over the happy ending. But it wasn't an ending, was it? For Raza and I, happily ever after was just another beginning.
Chapter Five
I kissed Raza and Shahzadi goodbye, then Rowan, Cat, and I used the magic unique to our race to travel the Between home. We could have used a rath, but I wanted Rowan to get as much practice as possible with twilighting. As a Twilight Fairy, she could travel the Between—the magical place that connected the Realms. With proper focus, the Between could take you anywhere that you've been before or that you have a proper name for. For example, even if we'd never been to Castle Twilight, we could have asked the Between to take us there by directing the magic with the name.
