by Lee Hayton
In his time studying under Cade Storm, Sulli had learned many tricks to wrangle knowledge out of the space between worlds. Although he used some, early on he’d set a limit. If you crawled into the darkness for too long, the darkness also crawled inside of you.
Sulli had come to Cade with enough black spaces to last a lifetime. The thought of adding more, twisting the man he wanted to be into a distorted version, scared him even more than Cade did.
When the choice came down to leaving forever or laying out an invitation to the darkness, Sulli had torn himself away from all he knew and loved to run away.
The smoke from the fire grew thicker. Sulli adjusted his position, trying to ease out the tension from muscles strained in the journey. When Shandra had complained about riding the horses for so long, he knew exactly what she meant.
With the Thurgus Peaks in the distance between them and home, the Davelmiotas would soon give way to the Grimoild. That was the area where Cade Storm must have come from. A dark and twisted place suited to his desires.
In so many things, the two of them had once seemed to share one mind, one opinion. Their bond had been so close, Sulli felt the joy of hope in his heart when they worked together. Each time Cade withdrew a step further into the dark, letting it crash to the ground.
A figure formed in the smoke, a man. Sulli craned his neck forward eagerly, but it evaporated. He sat back. In time, it would form again.
As Cade moved through the levels of magic, white, gray, pitch black, he thought Sulli didn’t understand the nature of the powers he was using. But Sulli watched his every movement like a hawk, spying when Cade thought him daydreaming. He’d seen. Too much, perhaps. Even when he pulled back, the memories stayed.
Someone moved in the campground. Instantly, Sulli leaped to his feet, blade at the ready. A cough and he recognized Shandra. “What are you doing awake?”
She moved over to the fire, staring at the thickening smoke with a frown. “A nightmare woke me. I dreamed something was pulling me into the darkness. It was thick and black, smothering me. When I struggled to breath, I woke.”
“You should try to sleep again,” Sulli whispered. “Tomorrow will be hard enough without adding exhaustion to the list.”
Shandra nodded but didn’t move away. Instead, she knelt in front of the fire, looking up at him until Sulli did the same.
“What are you doing up so late? If you think we need a night watchman, we should all take turns.”
“I’m trying to find out where Cade is.”
She tilted her head to one side, studying him with an intensity that made Sulli nervous. He shifted his weight from one knee to another, then switched to a squatting position.
“Is that why the fire is burning so strangely?”
Sulli’s heart sang with the connection. Shandra had seen the difference and immediately attributed it correctly. Then he snapped back to reality. “The smoke will tell me his location, but it takes a long time.” He fell into repetition. “You should go back to sleep.”
Shandra sighed, shifting position as well, so she could rest her chin on her knees. “If I go back to sleep, I have the suspicion I’ll just end up in the same nightmare.” She shivered and looked around her. “Do you feel the night pressing in on you? Even here by the fire, it seems darker than usual.”
The words sent sparks of alarm out along Sulli’s limbs, making his fingers and toes tingle. “You should resist the darkness. If it comes for you, I know you’re strong enough to fight back.”
His words shouldn’t have made any sense to her, yet she nodded. “I’ll try. If it comes for me anyway, will you help me to return?”
Sulli wanted to say she was talking nonsense. The words crowded up his throat, his always-logical mind wanted to push them out, so she wouldn’t keep stepping so close to the truth. In the end, he couldn’t. He reached for her hand instead, forming a bond.
“If you get lost in the darkness, I’ll search forever to bring you back home again.”
“And I you.”
They smiled across the fire at each other, the smoke drifting far out from the flames.
“I don’t even understand what that means,” Shandra said. “But I feel it, here.” She placed her free hand on her chest, on top of her thumping heart.
“That’s the only place you can understand it.” Sulli tensed as the smoke circled back in toward the fire. The images were forming again. A man. A horse. A star-studded sky.
It dissipated and Sulli pounded his fist on the ground in frustration. The incantation had always worked before. This time, it was like Cade had a block in place to stop it getting far enough to tell him anything useful.
Or he was being impatient. Telling the spell to hurry up wouldn’t make it work faster. More likely, it would halt altogether to stir his ire.
“What’s going on?”
Sulli closed his eyes, pulling his hand back from Shandra’s grasp, even though the loss of connection left him feeling bereft. He dropped his head behind his forearms, sheltering from her intent gaze.
What should he do?
He knew if he went any further with the spell, it would bring the darkness roaring up around him, pushing into any part of him that was open. He could cover his ears and it would shove into his nostrils. Pinch his nose shut and it would tunnel into his ass.
“Is that the man you’re looking for?” Shandra shook his shoulder, bringing Sulli out of his reverie.
Cade Storm stared at him from out of the fire. Although he knew it was just a trick of the night sky and the smoke from the fire, Sulli felt as though the man was staring directly into his soul.
“That’s him. Now, we wait until he reveals his location.”
Shandra reached out for his hand again and as Sulli slipped his fingers into hers, energy surged into his body. His gaze skidded away from the smoky image to stare into her eyes.
Sulli could have stayed lost in them for hours if Cade hadn’t been such a pressing need. He tore his eyes away, forcing himself to look back into the fire.
The pattern of the stars revealed itself in the caustic smoke. The moon hung above the figure, lighting a pathway in front of the man and his horse. As the beast picked out its footing on the unsure trail, a ridge occluded the moon from view for a minute, coming back into sight only as it rose higher in the sky.
“The left-hand path,” Sulli whispered, trying to peer further into the smoke to find out as much information as it could reveal. When he leaned too far forward, his breath blew the vision away.
No matter. He had the information he needed most.
Sulli scattered the embers, letting the fire die down to a low flame, flickering in the night. When he looked up the mountain, seeing the scene from the smoke superimposed over his vision, he realized the sun was close to rising. A tinge of red and yellow stained the horizon.
“Come with me,” Sulli said, stretching his hand out to Shandra. “I’ll keep away the nightmares until the dawn lightens the sky enough for us to start out trek.”
She came with him willingly, lying down and letting him enfold her into a warm embrace. Although Sulli closed his eyes, it wasn’t to slumber but to concentrate his senses on the woman who lay with him.
Chapter Seven
Shandra slid down Starburst’s side, trying not to twinge anything in her already shrieking thighs and hips. After hours of traveling, Sulli had announced he would ride ahead to see if he could catch sight of Cade Storm. Since the mage had traveled by night, there was a chance he’d holed up somewhere to sleep in the heat of the day.
At least, that was what Sulli said might have happened. He didn’t make eye contact with any of the group while speaking the words.
The late-night talk over the campfire had taken on a dreamy quality in Shandra’s mind. She recalled seeing Cade in the smoke above the fire. Remembered too that she’d promised Sulli to bring him back if the darkness stole him away.
Words that had meant little to her in the night time made even
less sense in the bright light of day. All Shandra knew was thinking about Sulli made her heart ache and when she caught black shadows out of the corners of her eyes, she’d turn—pulse racing.
Even with the sun high overhead, shadows encroached on her from all directions.
“I can see his horse climbing, well up ahead,” Sulli announced as he rejoined the group. Dark smudges circled his eyes, making them appear more deep-set than usual. “We won’t catch up with him today, but we might make inroads enough to overtake him tomorrow.”
Shandra couldn’t fathom how he’d managed to see anything. The high mountaintop was dry, full of shale that slipped away underfoot, but the clouds reached down from above them, shrouding the way ahead in a deep mist. When she looked ahead, everything except the path for a few yards ahead seemed opaque.
Sulli moved closed by her as he led his horse over to the shade of a twisted elm. The trunk of the tree was thick, solid, but it curled in as though trying to hide away in its own flesh.
His shirt smelled of smoke.
Trying not to be obvious, Shandra drifted close by Sulli again on the pretext of giving Starburst a drink. The horse stared at her, dumbfounded, having just slurped up a gallon until she pulled the filly’s muzzle away. When she pushed her head toward the water bucket again, the horse jerked away.
Not that Shandra cared. Her mind spun in woozy circles, making it hard to think. The odor of smoke on Sulli was fresh, but the fire had been doused and left six hours behind them. Instead of forging ahead, had he bunkered down somewhere and tried to bring forth the vision of Cade once again?
“If we’re not going to catch up with him today, I vote we rest in the shade here until the sun sinks a little.” Baile squinted above him, the shield of his arm not much protection against the flat, golden disc in the sky. “We mightn’t come across another water supply this far up and we’re running low.”
Chance bared his teeth and kicked at an overhang of hardened earth until it broke free. He stamped the loose clod to dust. Io looked over to Mal, his eyebrows raised.
“This is Sulli’s call,” Mal said in response to the unspoken question. “If that’s what he recommends, that’s what we should do.”
“I’ll keep lookout farther up the track,” Sulli announced. “There’s an outcropping that gives me a good view above and below.”
As he turned to leave, Shandra saw his shadow grow and trail behind him. It acted like a living creature, hitching a ride on his back.
“I’ll come with you,” she said. “After you stayed up all night, you should take the opportunity to get some rest. I can keep an eye out while you sleep, then I’ll wake you if there’s trouble.”
Mal frowned at her but Shandra wasn’t asking for permission. Not from him and not from Sulli. Even though the latter shook his head, she ignored him and headed up the trail.
Because she thought Sulli was lying through his teeth, it surprised Shandra to find the claim about the outcropping was true. It poked out of the mountainside track like a thoughtful designer had planned and positioned it to perfection. She strode up to the edge, staring down into the abyss below until she felt the first tinge of vertigo.
“I don’t need a babysitter,” Sulli growled.
“You need someone to look after you. Did you see him when you looked into the fire again?”
Sulli’s eyelids hooded over, deepening the shadows under his eyes. “I saw enough. Where we’re headed, we need a bigger advantage.”
“Not if it takes you as the price.”
They locked eyes in a short battle, then Sulli looked away. “I’m fine.”
“You’re growing so dark it’s hard to see you.” Shandra moved to his side, grabbing his hands into hers, holding fast even when he tried to jerk away. “We need to drive the darkness back before it digs its claws even deeper.”
She pulled his head down to hers, feeling his shallow breath against her lips before she fastened them to his. His mouth felt completely different to Mal’s. The lips that appeared so hard, were soft, plump as a peach.
Sulli flinched away, his mouth breaking the hold with such suddenness Shandra felt as though a part of her had been ripped from her body.
“I can see the darkness calling to you.” She grabbed Sulli’s chin in her palms, forcing his face to hers while she examined the beloved features. “You need to come back to us now, else the fight will be over before it's begun.”
“I needed to see more.” Sulli’s voice came out as a gasp. “Cade’s too strong. We have to use every advantage.”
But Shandra didn’t want to hear the logic or the excuses. She wanted to reach into the black void between worlds and pull her beloved logician back out.
How could a man so steeped in facts and figures control something born out of emotion? Wrenched from pure need?
She kissed him again, this time slipping her tongue into his mouth to tease his. She envisioned the blackness inside as she closed her eyes, focusing all her attention where their bodies were joined. Not just in the kiss, also in their clasped hands, and soon with the caress as Sulli’s hands moved over her flesh just as hers moved over him.
The buttons of his shirt frustrated her. Shandra wanted to tear the cloth apart, rip it open like a present too tightly wrapped. His hand traveled the length of her back, setting a fire wherever his fingertips pressed. She opened her mouth to moan and something cold entered her.
It teased her tongue, caressed the inside of her cheek, then slid down her throat like a cooling beverage. Shandra jerked upright, coughing the coldness back out and saw it was connected to Sulli. He was surrounded by a floating cloud of the stuff.
Black. Dead. Cold.
Even as the darkness instilled fear into her heart, Shandra wasn’t about to let it take her man away. She pulled his mouth back to hers, finally working the shirt free of Sulli’s muscular torso so it dropped like a used rag upon the ground.
The buckle of his belt was her next frustration. As her fingers squirmed against his hardening bulge, Sulli picked her up, turned them as one, and crushed Shandra back against the side of the mountain. The edge of roughness tilted her excitement up another notch. This time, when she fumbled at his belt, her fingers worked it free.
“We can’t do this.” Sulli pulled away from her, leaving behind a cold imprint of his body as she stumbled. The cloud of darkness swirled over his skin like a mobile tattoo. Writhing, swirling, seeking further entry.
Shandra didn’t bother to answer him, pulling him forward by the open flap of his trousers and easing her hand further inside as his lips sought hers again. The skin of his member was silken and soft. Like a warm satin sheet coated a rock.
She eased up her skirt, not bothered to continue with the foreplay, just wanting him deep inside her body, letting the darkness play with her until their lovemaking scared it into the light.
With a gasp, Shandra wrapped one leg around the back of his waist, then Sulli’s hands grasped hold of her ass, lifting her high enough for him to enter her. The thrill of cold and heat, darkness and exploding bursts of flame, shivered through every cell in her body.
Warmth, wetness, plunging cold. Shandra rested her hand against the rock face behind her as Sulli thrust deeper into her, jostling her like a rag doll, her muscles working against him, with him, accepting him deeper, not wanting to let him go.
She cried out as the sensations overwhelmed her. The back of her head thudded against the rock but Shandra barely registered the pain. She wrapped her arms around Sulli’s neck, her legs around his waist, and let him use her until he, too, was finished.
Somehow, they collapsed down into a jumble of limbs on the ground. When Shandra got enough breath back to raise her head, she saw the subtle glow of sunlight reflecting off the sheen of sweat on Sulli’s skin.
No darkness. No cold fingers reaching into him.
Whatever had come crawling for him had retreated into the pit of hell it called home.
Chapter Eight
Sulli’s body wanted to say, lazing on the ground, but his mind tugged at him, reminding him they needed to get back to the group and move on. As he pulled his clothing back into some semblance of normality, he shared a shy smile with Shandra. He reached a hand out, wanting to draw her closer.
A cry from lower down in the valley sharpened his attention. His hand moved up to shield his eyes from the sun as Sulli peered down, trying to see their campsite.
“Was that one of your brothers?” Shandra bit her lip and frowned.
Sulli shook his head, not recognizing the voice. They hurried down the path, seeing with relief that all members of their party remained unharmed.
Mal stepped forward, giving a small sniff and turning his face away as he spoke. “Did you hear the noise?” I think it came from farther up ahead.
“Yes. We thought it came from down here.” Sulli turned as the cry sounded again. The noise could come from anywhere. The problem with sound waves was they could be picked up by the wind or reflected off the hillside and end up anywhere. “Let’s just get a move on. The horses should be rested enough by now.”
It didn’t take long for the party to be on the move again, Sulli once again leading. He desperately wanted to know exactly where Cade Storm was, see him in the smoke of the magic fire, but after fighting back the darkness and losing, he wouldn’t take that risk again. If Shandra hadn’t come good on her word and drawn him back from the brink, he might have been lost to the dark magic just as surely as Cade was.
Farther up the mountainside, fog rolled in, coating them all in a sheen of fresh water. It was refreshing at first, soon turning to uncomfortable and cold as the breeze rushing around the edge of the hill picked up speed.
The horses did most of the work, picking out a path that the travelers could barely see through the thickening mist. At the back of Sulli’s mind, he wondered if this was a trick of Cade’s, but nothing came for them out of the gray cloud. Nothing attacked them with row after row of blade-sharp teeth.
