Grave Chance

by D. D. Miers

  "Maybe not like I love Ethan or Cole, but you're still important to me, Gwyd." I did care about him, even if I didn't trust him like my guys. I tried to show him with my body since the doubt in his eyes told me he didn't believe my words.

  With my hands on his shoulders, I pushed him back until he was lying down so I could straddle him. I did, holding my hips up just enough that our bodies didn't touch all the way up, in sort of a push-up motion above him.

  I kissed him, my hands braced on his chest at his shoulders, nipping at his mouth and flicking my tongue over his soft lips until he groaned in frustration. I teased him for a few more heartbeats, then slipped my tongue inside his mouth as I slid my body down and over him, his cock already beginning to get hard, pressed between our stomachs. I felt his arms tense as he gripped the tufts of grass at his sides as hard as if they were silk sheets, forcing himself to submit to my attention.

  His willingness to give himself over and his desperation to maintain control of himself made my pulse race faster, and I rocked my hips over him as I continued to suck his tongue and lap at the warm cavern of his mouth like a cat with cream.

  His cock was a thick, hard distraction, and I shifted my position to place him squarely against the wet fabric between my thighs. “Can you feel what you do to me, Gwydion? Could you, a fucking fairy god to us mere humans, ever question how beautiful you are?” I sat up and rubbed myself against him, pulling my top over my head. I bunched it up and leaned forward to tuck it under his head.

  With the restraint of my hands removed from his shoulders, he slid his hands up my sides from hips to ribs, then cautiously to cup my breasts, his eyes never leaving my face, waiting for my permission to knead the soft mounds of flesh, his thumbs running over my nipples with a velvet touch, bring them to hard points. He drew me down to him, licking and sucking each of them in turn until my breath came in shallow pants and I whimpered into his mouth.

  One hand slid under my leggings, and between my folds, his touch inducing a flood of wet pleasure to pour over his slender fingers as they curled up into me, deftly rubbing the smooth spot deep inside that would make me cum.

  “More.” The word was a command, and I gave to him, my power flowing into him and tingling over my own skin as he tugged my pants down and licked his way to his fingers. His tongue flicked over the hard, little nub of my clit then between my folds, opening me wider to his attention as he drove me over the edge to orgasm.

  He blew cool air over me, sending a fine tremble through my body until I begged him to stop. “I need you inside me, now.”

  His trousers were tight across his hips, and he shed them like a snake sheds its skin, turning them inside out as he peeled them down his legs and kicked them off, thrusting all the way inside me with one smooth motion as he slid over my body.

  I tightened around him automatically, clenching my muscles tight around his erection as he slid his fingers into my mouth, letting me taste myself on him.

  He groaned as I felt his heart race against my breasts. “I wish we had more time. I would take you to the Seelie court and show you all my power.”

  “For the last time, I don’t need your power. I just need you, right now, without manipulation or a power struggle. We’re stealing this moment. Just be my equal.” I wrapped my legs around his waist and locked my ankles behind him, tilting my hips up to meet him as he picked up his pace, thrusting harder and faster, the only sounds our panting breaths and the wet slap of his thighs against my ass as he drove into me.

  “You are too perfect to be only human Vexa. You could never be anything less than what you are,” he whispered in my ear before kissing me deeply. His kiss forced me to swallow his roar as he thrust one last time, holding himself inside my clenched pussy as he came in hot, wet waves.

  Almost immediately I wanted more and clung tighter to him to keep him from pulling out of me, but a tremor of warning ran through the ground beneath me, and the air became charged with static.

  I pushed him off, as he made a sound of complaint, and sat up to sense where the magic I’d felt was coming from, but the feeling was gone as quickly as it had come. Still, we’d tarried too long in one spot, and I was already beginning to lose the bearings I’d gained from my strange dream before reuniting with him.

  "Gwydion." He groaned and dragged his finger up my thigh, but I slapped him away. "Stop. Can you feel that?" I wasn't sure if it was something I'd heard or something in the air that had changed, but the euphoria of Gwydion's touch fled as the hairs on my arms stood at attention.

  He opened his mouth to ask but thought better of it and closed with a snap. Eyes shut, he sensed the air, breathing deeply and listening. “Vexa, there’s nothing there.”

  “No, I heard it, I…I felt it.” I yanked my leggings on and scrambled for my top. “I know we’re not alone, and I am not fighting some fucking shit naked.”

  He surveyed the area and shook his head. “I know this has been difficult for you, but we are utterly alone in this place. I would know if the ancients were moving.”

  I scoffed and crouched, peering around the corner before standing up. “I don’t think so.” I tugged my shirt down over my head. “The magic hummed through the ground itself.”

  Somehow Gwyd got those skinny pants back on and looked out from our shelter. He placed his hand palm down to the earth but shook his head. “I feel nothing but the magic of this place. We can go now, or wait until the light fades.”

  The light was going, and soon it would be dark enough that we could move more freely, as long as we stayed out of range of the traps we kept bumping into. I leaned against the wall and hugged myself. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

  “Of course.” He glanced at me as if he wanted to say more but thought better of it. He took another look around and took my hand, stepping out into the open ahead of me. But the moment he set his foot down, he paused, then jumped back, his eyes wide. “I do hate it when you are right.” He pulled me in the opposite direction and released my hand so we could both run down the narrow corridor.

  “Did you see something? Do you know what it is?” When we finally paused to get our bearings, I peppered him with questions. “Can you at least tell me what you think we might be up against?”

  “I did not see it, and I am not certain what I felt. But I’ve already told you that there are things that live here which we do not want to meet, and if one of them has discovered our presence, there is little we can do to escape it.”

  "We're fighting a lich, and this is scarier to you?" I scuffed the dirt with my toe and winced at the burning pain that shot through my foot. My feet were nearly shredded from even that little bit of full out running, and I was back wanting to punch Gwyd for bringing me into a no-man's land without even shoes on my feet.

  “And far more ancient. These things, they’re more myth than legend, hunting the Endless City for lost souls who run themselves ragged while their hunter slowly, patiently, waits for their strength to flounder.”

  “So, we stand and fight it while we’re strong.”

  "Do you think that has not been attempted? This…thing isn't going to roll over and bare a weak spot for us. I don't even know what kind of a monster it is, or how to counter any magic it has."

  “Well, okay, Mr. Doom and Gloom. What else do we do then? Which of those wells do you know won’t pitch us into a black hole or under the crushing pressure of the midnight zone of the ocean?”

  “That, I cannot say. We must press on, but we’ll use the wells if necessary if the creature fails to lose interest in us.”

  He didn’t’ sound very hopeful, but I took what I could get and began moving again. With my feet torn up and the Endless City stealing Gwydion’s magic a little at a time, I didn’t want to risk healing myself or using big magic until I had no other choice.

  Gwyd carried himself as though we had not a care in the world, but every so often he’d close his eyes and scent the air, then grab my hand and sprint for a few blocks. We’d run and walk
ed miles, twisting and turning through the maze of the Endless City, but Gwyd wouldn’t let us get any closer to the wells.

  “Have we lost the beast?” I finally pointed out to him as he used his arm to press me against a stone wall that bordered the winding road we’d been running down.

  “I do not believe we have.”

  “Then at least let’s head to a well, any well. If the option it death or possible life, we’ve got to at least try.”

  He knew he was beaten, but he dragged his feet, and I was limping as we headed toward the nearest of the wells. "I do not wish to die any horrible death, Vexa. We picked our way down the hill as he warned me about the various horrors that had befallen those who chose unwisely.

  “These are closer, but the well to the Seelie Court is only, what, half a mile away? Let’s go back. I’ll go with you. I can’t promise I’ll let you put a crown on my head, but anything is better than waiting for something to catch up to us and kill us.”

  He dropped a kiss on my forehead. "But can you run? I mean, really run, like your life depends on it?" I shook my head, and he knelt before me, healing my feet with his limited magic without asking me to give him more.

  Taking soft young leaves from the lower branches of a nearby tree, he fashioned shoes for me. They wouldn’t last long. But we were about to head into the heart of the Seelie Court where we would be safe. They didn’t have to last forever, just long enough to get us to our well.

  “Huh. An elf made me shoes. Is this another one of those, ‘origins of the stories,' things?"

  “First, I’m not an elf, I’m fae. Second…I have no idea. I simply used my magic to make you slippers, the magic involved is child’s play, quite literally. Young Fae can make their own playthings and dress them as their magic develops.”

  I made a rude noise at him. “You know, for half a second, I thought you’d actually sacrificed for me, and I was stupid enough to let it touch me.”

  He flashed me a wicked sneer. “If it gets you out of those leggings again once we’re safe, you are welcome to think I risked my very life for you.”

  “Asshat.” I tested the makeshift shoes and found them soft against the soles of my feet, but sturdy. “However, you’re forgiven…again. These feel lovely.”

  “Good. Now we must move. Follow me.”

  We made it past the burn marks from one of the traps we’d tripped, and a little further on, we passed through the icy air left behind by another. The thing that hunted us was closer now, enough so that we could hear it behind us each time we paused to get our bearings and adjust our course for the Seelie well.

  Finally, we entered the clearing, and we could see the well we wanted, nestled among its companions. But the hunter seemed to know where we were headed as well. I caught sight of a mass of flailing tentacles and white, glistening bones between two buildings ahead of us and skidded to a full stop, my heart in my throat.

  "It got around us." He urged me on, but I couldn't move my feet. "I saw it. Gwyd. It got ahead of us, and I saw it." I panted and checked down a side street before grabbing his shirt and pulling him around the corner with me. "It has tentacles, Gwyd, and…and its bones were showing like it walked on bare, living bone, and I couldn't see how many eyes it had, because they kept moving."

  His face paled, but he didn’t speak.

  “Did you hear me? Its fucking eyes roamed so much I couldn’t count them in the short time we were staring at each other.”

  A wet, thick slapping sounded less than fifty feet away, and I took off down the narrow street without waiting to see if Gwydion believed me.

  The street opened up, and the wells were in sight again, but the thing wasn't bothering with stealth anymore and kept close enough that even when we couldn't see it, we could still smell the foul stench of decay and decomposing flesh.

  “Head toward the wells. I’ll stay here and slow it down more, giving you time to get to the Seelie Court well.”

  “Or, we fight our way back there together. You’ll only fatigue faster if you try to fight in this place. What good what that do us, losing you to the Endless City?”

  He wanted to argue, but I kissed him briefly, then took his hand and fed him without the distraction of my tongue in his mouth.

  “At least be wise enough to stay behind me.”

  We backed toward the wells, the monster shambling and rolling and squelching its way toward us. Its large, bulbous eyes rolled around, blinking, in the writhing mass of tentacles that either made up its body or hid it from us.

  My eyes refused to accept the hunter at first, my mind balking at the reality of the twisted, pulsing thing. As we backed up further, I dared to reach out with my necromancy, taking shots at the tentacles and trying to decay them as I had the bars of Gwyd’s cage, but with no effect.

  “It’s not alive, but necromantic power doesn’t touch it.”

  Gwydion took aim at the center of the mass and began his magical assault, each hit barely impacting the roiling grey-green flesh as the thing backed us up farther. "I do not know from whence they come, but they are neither alive nor dead. That is what makes them so difficult to harm. The magic to kill them must be incredibly strong, stronger than I can conjure in this place."

  “Holy shit, I do not want to meet death in any way that thing could bring it to me.” I continued to back up until my heel hit the stone base of the well behind me. “We’re here, Gwyd. What now?”

  He shook his head, panting. “If you are wise, you will take the closest well and leave me to this thing.”

  I slid my hand under the back of his shirt and gave him power, feeding him until his strength returned and his breathing was no longer labored. “I’m here, with you. It would be better if we were at home, held by the people who love us, but we’re here, and I’m not leaving you alone.” I reached for the candle and drew power into me, reveling at the flames I felt licking up my insides. If I was going down, I was taking someone with me.

  Gwydion braced for the attack, and I pushed as much power into him as I dared while still leaving some for my own fight. "It has been good to fight by your side, Vexa. You are quite an adventure."

  “Too bad the adventure’s over, children.” Aethon appeared just behind the tentacled beast, Gilfaethwy by his side. “Give me the candle, and perhaps I will let the beast take you, instead of killing you myself.”

  Chapter 14

  “Fuck yourself and die already, Aethon.”

  It wasn't much of a battle cry, but I was exhausted and hollowed out from all my rage, and I no longer cared if there was a diplomatic option. Aethon had killed Percy, just as surely as if he had stood over her and bashed in her arachnid skull all by himself.

  The ancient whirled on them and howled, but Aethon simply waved his hand and sent the thing tumbling to one side.

  “Give me the candle.”

  “Over my dead body, asshole.”

  Behind him, Gil laughed raucously. “Bad choice of words, Vex.” He feinted, then lunged at me, only to be knocked aside by Gwyd. The men grappled, trading physical blows and magical, as I tried to divide my attention between them, and the beast that had righted itself and was lumbering straight at me.

  “The candle, Vexa.”

  "I don't have it. Percy took it back home. She took it, and she turned into the most disgusting thing I had ever witnessed up to that point." I glanced between Aethon and the monster. "Second most, now."

  Tentacles shot straight out of the mass at my torso, and I dove and rolled to one side to avoid the boney-appearing hooks on the ends. "You made her into a monster."

  "She made herself into a monster, and you know it. At no point did I force her to do anything. Persephona simply saw the logical end to this drawn-out battle you've created." The thing had coiled up its tentacle arms and shot them at me again, but I was distracted enough that I only leaped out of the way at the last second, falling and cracking my head on one of the wells behind us.

  “Liar. Percy hated what you were and what you
stood for. What did you say to make her change her mind?”

  “I simply showed her the world where she survived, and you did not. The poor thing had lost her home, all her belongings, her undead cat…She was afraid to lose you too.”

  I scoffed at him and put him between me and the monster again, my head still ringing from the blow I’d taken. “You made her doubt herself, then you twisted her up inside until you could take control. I saw you watching us through her eyes. She never would’ve taken Cole’s parents or tried to hurt me.”

  “Her magic was too weak to fight me herself, and yours is too, without the piece of me that you stole.”

  “You stole it first, asshole.” I pushed the power of the candle as deep as I could hoping he wouldn’t feel it and would stop to re-center on its energy.”

  He paused, and I thought it had worked. I tried to hone my power to a point like Cole could for a direct, damaging hit, but my ruse had failed. He held out his hand, and I gave up focus and control for another raw blast of power at him, trying to damage the outstretched limb.

  As he dodged my quick blasts of power, backing away a little at a time, the monster crept between us with its strange, rolling gait and lashed out at us both, tentacles swinging in every direction.

  “Goddamn it, why can’t it just be one at a time for once?” The monster seemed to turn toward the sound of my voice and any further complaints stuck in my throat. I scrambled to my left, closer to where I thought I’d last seen Gwydion and Gil tumbling as they fought, and switched targets, hitting the Ancient just hard enough to drive it toward Aethon instead.

  Once more, Aethon batted it out of the way with ease, and the creature rolled and glided away from us regarding us with its myriad eyes. "Give it to me, Vexa." The monster tumbled out of the way, and I braced myself for another necromantic blow, praying the candle could keep protecting me.

  Before he could attack again, there was a screech of pain from the wells, and both Aethon and I glanced over toward Gwyd and Gilfaethwy, who was holding his face where Gwyd had split his face open from the perfectly arched eyebrow to his narrow jutting chin.