by D. D. Chance
“I have an army, one I trust.”
The fire flared, casting the king’s face in sharp relief. He looked lonely, suddenly, a king struggling to find a way to defend and protect his people. As much as I wanted to believe that intimacy didn’t contribute to the expression of magic, there was no denying that the strength of his ability to call fire had been augmented by him touching me. There was also no denying that his kiss felt different this last time, unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. Perhaps the rules of magic that I’d been taught worked only for humans. Perhaps I’d deliberately not been taught certain rules of magic useful only to the Fae. Either way, if I was bound to teach this Fae, this king, then…I should teach him well enough for him to survive after I left. While I was here, I should give him my best.
I should teach the king his magic. It was time.
“Aiden,” I murmured, and he glanced at me, hearing the change in my voice, the weird, supernatural tremor that made my words shimmer in the air around us. It was my magic witch voice, yeah, but I had to admit…I was getting to like it. “I don’t want to wait anymore. Whatever I can, I will give you. What would you have me do?”
30
Aiden
For a long second, I didn’t dare breathe, though everything inside me yearned to leap toward Belle, to take her in my arms. Cleaning up the charred room had driven home how close I’d come to causing her serious harm. “But I hurt you,” I finally managed. “The fire—”
“Didn’t mess me up,” Belle confirmed. “It…clarified some things, is all. You need me to make your magic strong, and your magic should be strong. You have a war to fight.”
I let out a long, hissing breath. “You can’t leave me, Belle,” I informed her, then I winced. That wasn’t at all what I’d intended to say, but to my surprise, she shook her head.
“That’s not what this is about. What you feel, the magic coursing through you, the need, I feel it too. When you called upon the fire in your own chambers, I heard that call as well. Whether by the ritual of the cups or the ancient right of service the Hogans pledged to you, I’m yours in magic, Aiden. And, like it or not, the fastest way to get there is…well, like this.”
She stood, tossing a pillow she’d been holding onto the couch and reaching for her tunic. She slid it over her head in one smooth movement, her hair pulling out of her tie to fall over her nearly bared breasts. Heat raced through me.
“Belle,” I whispered, the word more ragged than I wanted it to be.
She edged toward me, slowly, hesitantly. “This isn’t about me leaving you,” she said again. “This is about me sharing myself with you—you sharing yourself with me—to make you strong. Safe. Please, Aiden.”
I didn’t know whether or not to believe her, and at that moment, I didn’t care. All the desire that had been building since I’d first laid eyes on Belle Hogan surged to the fore. Once again, it was as if I was on fire, but I kept my eyes open this time, looking around to make sure I wasn’t going to incinerate another room for the wanting of her. Only her. I forced myself not to tackle her onto the couch.
“Have a care,” I gasped, shuddering. I could barely hear my own words over the pounding of blood in my ears, the thundering of my heart. “A fever is coming over me. I don’t want to hurt you. I never want to hurt you.”
Her eyes widened, as if surprised I’d say such a thing. I wanted to slow down, to pick that reaction apart, to study it the way I’d studied everything about Belle in the last couple of days, but I could barely breathe at this point.
I took a step forward, feeling the heat rise off me, sensing the echoing heat in her, and I nearly went blind.
“Is this normal?” I demanded, the edge of my sanity fraying.
“I…” I couldn’t catch what Belle said after that, because she took a step toward me, her eyes shining, her hands lifted to me, her expression one of utter concentration as if she was determined to give me whatever I wanted, whatever I needed. Something hard and fierce broke within me, and with an incoherent growl, I surged forward, lifting her and pulling her to me as we crashed down onto the wide couch.
She arched beneath me as I covered her face, her brow, her temple with kisses, wanting to explore every inch of her. She had said something. What had she said? It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered, because now she was saying something different, a soft, barely audible plea that drove me to even greater heights.
“Yes,” she gasped as I pushed her hair away, baring her more fully to my greedy eyes. “Yes.”
A surge of white heat screamed through me, so powerful that I flinched back, pulling my hands away sharply, as if Belle might spontaneously burst into flame.
“It’s okay,” she reassured me, though her eyes were wide, as if she was experiencing all this for the first time as well—she damned well better be, I swore inwardly. She straightened, lifting herself higher against the cushions, and I sucked in a sharp breath to see her body laid bare to me. Her skin was a creamy white across her collarbones, around her full breasts, and down her rib cage, but her arms were inked with a deep blue-black scroll design, a twisting, curling ribbon I never realized was there. The shock of its sudden revelation was like a punch to the gut, and my need roared even stronger, demanding I know everything about this woman, insisting I make her mine.
Her hands dropped to her trousers, and another wave of heat swept through me, lesser this time, but more focused, nearly breaking my control right there.
“Tell me it won’t be like this every time,” I practically groaned, and once again, she blinked up at me, looking momentarily confused before her face cleared and she shook her head.
“The first time is the most powerful, perhaps the only time you’ll ever need,” she said in her formal witchling cadence, then looked startled at her own words.
I blew out a sharp breath, barely keeping myself from laughing. Not bloody likely.
I watched her slide the trousers down her hips, where I caught another spray of ink, and I couldn’t wait any longer.
Making short work of pulling off my shirt, then kicking off my trousers, I stepped forward, then fell to my knees and pushed her hands away to take her trousers down the rest of the way myself. They slid off her body easily, and there she was in front of me, bathed in the glow from the fireplace, her beautiful body a canvas of lightly picked out scrollwork down her arms and over her hips. My gaze devoured her, and then I bent forward, unable to resist. When my lips touched the spray of ink at her hip bone, she arched beneath me, her legs falling wide, the bloom of her heat enveloping me in a heady, intoxicating fragrance.
But it was no longer enough for me just to please myself, to fill her, to join. I wanted to know every inch of her, to brand her completely with my lips and tongue. I scored my teeth lightly over the curve of her hips, and she gasped, her hands tangling in my hair, urging me higher, but I wouldn’t go.
Instead, I shifted the other direction and took my time with this most intimate part of her, kissing, stroking, exploring. She whimpered, writhed, and cajoled, but I could hear none of it other than the tone of her voice, the repeated affirmation, the sighs of pleasure and even the half-choked laugh when she went rigid, shattering beneath me in an exquisite climax. I knew by then to lift away from her, the blast of her power knocking me back, seeming to set my skin alive with light and energy.
I reared back, breathing heavily as I saw her scoot more deeply against the cushions, her body twisting away from me.
I froze. Had I hurt her after all? Was she in pain? But as she lifted her head to meet my gaze, I was the one who staggered, the fire within me leaping higher. Her gaze was clear, direct, and echoed the desire racing through me.
“You’re not done yet,” she informed me, and slowly, almost lazily, her legs relaxed against the cushions, her arms lifting as if to welcome me into her body. I shifted forward and sank into her, feeling her tight heat surround me. Then I lost all clear sense of time.
The rigors of a life of battle had
n’t been completely without female companionship, so I was unprepared when I slid into Belle’s warm and inviting embrace and it felt as if my head would come off my shoulders. She squeezed around me, making a muffled cry in her throat, and my heart knocked sideways, my throat closed up, and my entire body began to tremble. It was simultaneously the most excruciating and most extraordinary sensation I’d ever felt in my life, and I forced myself back to a position of control. I’d almost made it when her mouth curved into a knowing smile, and she shifted, lifting her legs to seat me more completely, then wrapped her arms around my back, her palms pressing me even closer.
“Yes. Oh, yes, Aiden,” she urged me. “Now.”
I was lost.
31
Belle
I woke in an unfamiliar bed next to a still unfamiliar male, and I stared down at myself, at us, struck by how intertwined we were. Our hands were clasped, and I lay half sprawled over Aiden’s body, my face resting on his broad chest. That chest lifted and dropped rhythmically, the mighty heart beneath beating slow and steady, unlike how I remembered it hours earlier.
I bit my lip, thinking of how I’d basically thrown myself at him, though he was a willing partner. Had he noticed I was a virgin? Or did he assume I was completely lame at sex? He hadn’t made any comment, hadn’t at all reacted like men usually did in romance novels, but then again, he was Fae. Maybe he didn’t know.
I rolled my eyes. He had to have known. Even though I believed he’d spent years at the front, he wasn’t a male who would lack for female companionship. Which made me, what, just another notch in his belt?
It should, yet I couldn’t quite believe that. Aiden hadn’t had sex with me because he couldn’t keep his hands away from me, because he yearned for me with his body and heart. No. The reasons for our lovemaking were far more practical than that. This was a transaction, a need to be met. A contract to be honored.
I scowled, pushing away the sudden squishy pang in my heart with the focus of something cold and hard-edged. When would I ever see that contract, anyway? It was well past time. He owed me that, certainly—
“I have never known a female who thinks as much as you do, or as loudly.”
Aiden’s rumble of words rolled over me, and I pushed myself up to scowl at him from a greater height. “How long have you been awake?”
“Not long,” he huffed. “And not by choice. It’s still full dark outside.”
I peered around, trying to pick out the windows, which had been thrown into shadow by the crackling firelight. I had to concede he was right. There appeared to be no outside light streaming in, no hint that the day had begun in earnest.
No reason for me to leave this bed.
I pulled away from him, or tried, but he held me fast. He half rolled, pulling me higher as he did so, so that when I slid off him to land amid the cushions and blankets, his heavy thigh between my legs, we ended up almost face-to-face.
“You didn’t tell me,” he accused. I knew what he meant, of course. I thought for a fleeting moment of playing it coy, denying it, but there was no point.
Still, I couldn’t hold his gaze. I glanced studiously past his shoulder and shrugged.
“You didn’t ask. I probably would have lied if you had, and convincingly too. Being a virgin isn’t as big a thing where I come from, so don’t make it into something mystical or weird. It’s just not.”
“As you say,” he said, but it was clear he didn’t agree. “How old are you?”
That question brought my attention back around, and I coughed a startled laugh. “How could that possibly matter? I’m old enough to make my own choices.”
“When I first met you, you would have had me believe you were a woman well past childbearing years, which I know isn’t the case.”
“Yeah, well, good thing Fae can’t impregnate human women,” I reminded him pointedly. “Old news, buddy. I’m not so stupid to not have learned that a long time ago.”
“Oh, so that you know about us. The information your great-grandmother chose to pass along down the line was curiously specific,” he noted, but though his words were easy, his manner had sharpened. I wasn’t the only one who thought loudly.
“Yeah, well, we’re a little sensitive about it. I work in a part of the city where sexual relations between witches and wizards can sometimes lead to an augmentation of abilities. It’s old magic, throwback magic, but it’s tangled up the lives of more than a few people I know. It’s good to be careful.”
“So you’re saying by bedding me, you thought perhaps your abilities might increase?” he rumbled, and I snorted, shaking my head.
“That would assume that you had great and powerful magical abilities of your own, and, you know, that you were human. Though…”
I glanced away, frowning. Most of the patrons who had come into my bar from Wellington Academy or from the streets beyond hadn’t been human, though plenty of them were. Had none of those monsters found love outside their own communities? Surely, one or two had to have? I mean, there could never be a human-Fae coupling, that would be a disaster, but still…
I returned my gaze to Aiden’s, only to find it smoldering with new interest.
“What do your stories say about having sex with a Hogan witch?” I asked, trying to keep the words as clinical and dispassionate as I could. There had to be records or advice on this score, or at least ridiculous stories swapped around the feasting hall.
Aiden didn’t avoid the question. “It was considered the king’s right, though of course in the records shared with me, it was never something that had to be taken by force.”
I twisted my lips. “Oh, of course not. Because all the Fae kings were no doubt stunningly handsome, brilliantly intelligent, and magnificently magical, and what witch could say no to that?”
Irritation flicked across his face, which made me smirk. “The effects of the coupling were varied, but in all cases, the king proved stronger in the aftermath,” he said stonily.
“And the witch?” I asked. It suddenly occurred to me that I might not have ended up with a good deal after all. A nervous chill skittered through my stomach.
“According to the records, the question of her power did not come into play. She was mostly deliriously happy.”
I snapped my gaze back to his only to see him grinning at me, eyes dancing because I’d taken the bait this time.
He tugged me to him, rolling over so that I was once more splayed over his chest before I could get my purchase. No sooner had I planted my hands on his chest than his hands cupped my backside, the gesture somehow more shockingly intimate for how relaxed it was.
“You don’t have dominion over my body,” I informed him. “I don’t know or care what your records showed, but that’s not the way this is going to work.”
As I spoke, genuine irritation burned within me, leaping even higher because there was a part of me that was thrilled by his intimate touch and I recognized the danger there. The room abruptly brightened with the flare of the flames in the hearth.
Aiden, casual as ever, glanced over to the fireplace, one of his winged brows arching. “So not only I can control fire now?” he observed mildly.
“You were able to control fire as of less than eight hours ago,” I informed him. “You know nothing of my magic.”
“But I want to know about it.” His hand beneath my backside had begun moving rhythmically against me, kneading the tense muscles. It felt so good, my eyes practically crossed, but I kept my focus on him.
“There’s been a change,” I said, injecting credible wonder in my voice. “I can read your thoughts more clearly, especially the thoughts you don’t want me to know.”
And there it was. The barest flash of…not panic certainly, definitely not fear. Maybe dismay? I pressed forward, taking whatever advantage I could. Because something had changed in me, all right, but not what I’d just suggested. “When can I see the contract, Aiden? Surely you can’t doubt that I’m willing to do whatever is required. But I deser
ve to know specifically what that original arrangement was.”
He tightened his jaw as if his response pained him, and something worried at the edges of my mind, trying to get me to notice it.
“You do,” Aiden said, none of the sultry suggestion in his tone anymore. “We don’t keep that document at the high castle. We must go elsewhere for it. But I swear to you, we will.”
“Today?” I prompted, trying not to show my nerves. Why in the world would they have taken such an important document away from the castle? The only answer was obvious. They never thought of it as being all that important. A new wave of deep-seated anger stirred, but I couldn’t afford to get irritated with Aiden’s forebears. He was my sole focus. He had to be.
“As soon as I can arrange it,” he said. “You have my word.”
The fire in the grate flared again, and we both glanced toward it. The temptation to invite it out into the room was so strong, it was almost intoxicating, and beneath me, Aiden rumbled with genuine interest. “I can’t afford the destruction of another chamber,” he said.
“People would begin to talk,” I agreed, and I smiled down at him, allowing myself to let the question of the contract go for another little while, to focus solely on him.
The air seemed to snap tight between us, driving all the oxygen out of the room, then sending it flooding back in a rush of heat and need.
Aiden blinked back at me, his eyes going dark, his hold shifting until both hands gripped my hips and held me close against him.
“What are you doing to me, witch?” he murmured. My eyes widened slightly as his skin shimmered, sparks of lightning zipping along his arms, sizzling in the fingers that held me close. But the question was deliberate and earnest. He wanted an answer, but I had nothing to give him but lies.
