by Megan Derr
Finally, he returned to his workroom to write out enough spells for the seven pyres.
Seven people. Five soldiers and two servants. All dead because his brother's ex-lover got mad at being caught doing something forbidden. Kohar sighed as he finished the first of the seven spells and set it aside to dry.
By the time he was done, he was stiff, sore, and ready to go back to bed. He'd have to settle for tea. Climbing to his feet with a groan, stretching to ease the worst of the aches, he shuffled over to his table and got a kettle heating, pouring the tea into a pot and then slumping right there on his stool, half-sprawled on the table as he waited.
A familiar banging came at his door, and then it swung immediately open, Nerek's form filling the doorway as his eyes swept the room—and finally landed on him. Some of the tightness around his eyes eased, and the barest hint of a smile flickered before he strode into the room like he had a thousand times before.
"If you're coming to give me work to do, go away," Kohar mumbled. "I'm finished with work for the day."
Nerek came up to the table but remained on the opposite side of it. "I came to see how you were doing, since no one has seen much of you today, not even the cooks, despite the fact they're making dragon stew."
Kohar perked up at that. "They are?"
"Yes," Nerek said, rolling his eyes. "I take it you've been busy with spells for tonight?"
"Yes. They're finished, more or less." Kohar yawned and rubbed his eyes. "I just need to stay awake long enough to cast them." Funeral pyres were always set with magic, since they could burn in any weather, burn hot enough that nothing survived the pyre, but the heat was contained so that people were not forced to keep a great distance between them and the flames. Magic fire was expensive, and difficult, but there were perks to working for a duke who kept a mage-in-residence and cared about his people enough to ensure they received such things. "Have you had a chance to meet my brother?"
Nerek gave him a look. "It would be hard not to—everyone is talking about him, and he's become fast friends with His Grace."
"That's a terrible idea. Who let that happen?"
"You," Nerek retorted.
"I'm busy!"
"Looked like you were sleeping to me."
Kohar slid from his stool and rounded the table. "Did you just come see me to be aggravating, or did you have some other purpose?"
"I told you why I came to see you." Nerek folded his arms across his chest and scowled. "Why must you always be such a brat?"
"This brat saved your life."
"Only because you probably wanted to save the pleasure of killing me for yourself."
Kohar laughed and rested his hands on his hips. "Are you going to keep standing there blustering, you clod-head, or are you going to kiss me?"
"Gods save me from obnoxious mages," Nerek said, but then Kohar was the one up against the table, his arms full of voracious, scruffy soldier, and a hot mouth doing more to wake him up than any cup of tea ever could.
Regions, if he'd known Nerek could kiss like this, he'd have flirted with the man sooner. Maybe. He'd always been really good at missing the obvious when it came to things like this. Without his siblings to tell him he was being flirted with, Kohar had always missed it.
He moaned into the kiss, enjoying how consuming Nerek was, the way he demanded all of Kohar's attention and would not accept anything less. His stubble was going to leave Kohar's face red, and his mouth would probably ache by the time they were done, but oh would it all be worth it.
When they finally parted, he was panting for breath and utterly, completely, hopelessly lost in those green eyes. "How long have you wanted me, Nerek? Why in the Regions didn't you say something sooner?"
"You wanted him," Nerek said sourly, letting him go, eyes sliding away. "All you ever do with me is complain and argue. Every time he's around, you take pains to look even more beautiful than usual, but you really don't care when I stroll into your damn room and see you in your bed clothes or whatnot. How in the Regions was I supposed to say anything?"
Kohar opened his mouth, then closed it again. It was true. He never fretted when Nerek was around—he never had to fret. "It's ability you admire, not appearance. What good would dressing up have done when I was trying to prove myself? And then I just got used to not having to pretend or fuss with you." He stopped, stared. "You think I'm beautiful?"
"No, I think you're hideous, that's why I'm here kissing you and making a fool of myself when I have five hundred other things that need doing."
He pulled away, but Kohar grabbed his arm and managed to reel him back in. "Stop being grumpy and get back to kissing me. We're not going to inspire more rumors if you behave."
"Shut up," Nerek said with a sigh. "You're so annoying. You make me insane. You're a spoiled brat who stole my bed, my blankets, and nearly smothered me with your clinging."
"I'll make it up to you by being way more fun the next time I'm in your bed," Kohar replied, and dragged him into another of those delightful kisses. "Where did a grouch like you learn to kiss like that?" Nerek just kissed him again, until Kohar's lips were sore and he needed badly to breathe. "Seriously, how did you acquire such skill?"
Nerek groaned and shoved away from where he'd pinned Kohar to the table. "That's a stupid question and I'm not answering it."
"You're blushing!"
"Shut up," Nerek hissed. "You are making me regret me this."
"This what? This kiss? This admitting you like me? This—"
"This letting you live when I should have tossed you out in the snow right from the start," Nerek snapped. "I may yet do it."
Kohar grinned. "If you killed me, you wouldn't get to see me naked in your bed."
Nerek covered his eyes with the heels of his hands. "I hate you. And no, we are not doing anything in my bed. The rumors are already out of control after last night and your little reprimand this morning." He dropped his hands to scowl. "The very last thing I need is a barracks full of my people hearing things. I would never get any peace."
Oh, that was too easy. Why had he never thought to flirt with Nerek before? It was already his new favorite thing to do. Batting his eyes as ridiculously as possible, Kohar said, "Why, Captain, are you saying you're going to make me scream?"
"Stop that," Nerek hissed. "I had no idea you could be this much of a brat."
Kohar laughed and threw his arms around Nerek's neck, laughing harder when Nerek tried to push him away. "Have you always been this easy to fluster?"
"You know damn good and well that I do not tolerate nonsense."
"And yet you want me," Kohar replied. "Anyway, it's not nonsense. It's called flirting. Surely people have flirted with you before."
"My mother is an unbending, humorless general who thinks I'm soft and weak and an embarrassment to her good name. They call her General Stoneheart behind her back. Do you really think people flirted with me?"
Kohar kissed him softly, angry at a woman he would probably never meet, hurting for the boy who was never allowed to play and flirt and have fun. "Well, I'm flirting with you. It's much more fun than flirting with customers in the hopes of good tips."
Heavy hands settled at his hips, and then he was being treated to another one of those divine, rough and hungry kisses. Why in the Regions had it never occurred to him to do this sooner? Why had he always dismissed the idea of Nerek as a lover? Past him was stupid.
Forcing himself to withdraw, though he did it slowly and thoroughly, eliciting an utterly delightful groan he wanted to hear again and again. "As much as I would love to drag you to my bed and ravish you until you can't move, we should probably get to dinner."
"Yes," Nerek said quietly, but gave a last soft, lingering kiss that left Kohar tingling.
"Seriously, where did you learn to kiss so well? Because I have kissed a lot of people—"
"Including my damned cousin."
Kohar rolled his eyes. "Yes, and he was absolutely awful. I was a better kisser my very first time,
and let me tell you, the man who put up with me that night was a saint."
"Stop talking about kissing other people," Nerek groused, but his dark eyes gleamed with mirth. "If you really must know, I learned from the whores that followed my mother's camp. Women. Men. Both."
"Oh, the bashful Captain has some adventures to his name. Tell me more. What a pretty image, you caught between a woman and a man. What about two women? Two men?"
Nerek shoved him away with a groan and headed for the door. "Shut up! This is why I didn't want to tell you. I hate you."
"That is a lie," Kohar said, gathering up his spell scrolls and racing to catch up to him, latching onto his arm as they walked. Nerek gave him a look but didn't dislodge his hand, and if Kohar didn't know any better, he'd swear there was a hint of a smile there.
The great hall was already crowded when they entered, a hush sweeping over as they were spotted, followed by an immediate increase in chatter. Kohar rolled his eyes, but didn't drop his arm until they reached Bedros, who sat at the centermost long table, at the end closest to the fire. It had been strange, when Kohar had first arrived, to see a lord who did not have a fancy high table apart from the rest of the castle inhabitants. But it was the kind of strangeness that had made him like his new lord, even if his new home had been remote, desolate, and nothing at all like the vibrant city he'd left behind.
Sitting across from Bedros, next to his brother, Kohar ignored the smirking smirks they were both giving him. "Castle rumor is that you two are fast friends."
Bedros laughed. "We are the least interesting rumor in the castle."
Nerek scowled as he heaped his plate with food from the platters set down the length of the table. "I wish people worked half as hard as they gossip. What is there to talk about?"
"My Captain of the Guard finally getting through to my oblivious Mage-in-Residence, though of course you two pick the worst possible time. At least the matter is resolved, though I wish it had been resolved with fewer dead." With that, Bedros took up his cup of wine and stood. Lifting the cup high, he said, "To our fallen, gone too soon, taken unjustly. May their spirits return to the Great Hearth, and their memory live in the Guiding Winds eternally. To death, and to life."
Everyone chorused the final words, and Bedros tossed the wine in his cup into the fire before sitting again. "Kohar, you've barely touched your stew. Are you dying? Or distracted?"
"I've only just got here!"
Taniel snickered. "I see that hasn't changed. Aunt Merida could barely keep up with making it, you stole so much. There was hardly any for the customers."
"Ugh, go back to your monastery."
Nerek set his wine down, a positively evil smirk overtaking his face, a gleam in his eye. "Tell us more stories of Kohar as a boy. He mentioned flirting with customers?"
"Flirting? Taniel howled with laughter. "Flirting is the least he did with—"
"You will shut up right now!" Kohar said, and groaned as he was summarily ignored.
By the time dinner ended, he was determined to murder all three of them.
Those thoughts lapsed, however, as everyone filed out of the great hall and up the stairs to the pavilion. The levity of dinner faded to a somber mood as they gathered around the pyres. Kohar went to each one and cast the spells, rejoining Nerek and the others as the flames caught.
Bedros started the singing, and gradually everyone else joined in, the hymn of farewell sending their lost friends to their new home.
*~*~*
Kohar was bent over a new set of inks, two bottled and three still to go, when he heard his door open. "Get out, I'm not doing any more work today, I don't care if you're the lord of the manor."
"I'm not the lord of the manor, and I'm not here to work," Nerek said, the words punctuated by the closing and locking of the door.
Oh, that sounded promising. "Let me finish this."
"Take your time," Nerek replied, in a voice that made Kohar want to just let the ink rot. But making the full set had taken him two days, and he wasn't about to waste all that time and effort. Forcing himself to focus, he meticulously poured and capped the remaining inks, then went and put them all in their places on his desk.
When he was finally done, he turned and leaned against the desk, staring at Nerek, who lingered by the door still. "Well? Did you just come see me to stare?"
Nerek pushed lazily away from the wall and walked—prowled, mercy, that was distracting and arousing—toward him, green eyes like flames. "You've been wearing your hair down more."
Kohar resisted the urge to reach up and touch his hair, which he'd mostly left down, only pulling the front back so it wasn't in his way while he worked. "I have it on good authority that it's a particular weakness of the Captain of the Guard, and I've been trying to get him to notice me." They'd been so busy the past month, and respecting the period of mourning, that they'd done little more than exchange heated kisses and fall asleep together in whichever bed was closest. More and more, they used Kohar's chambers, since they afforded more privacy than Nerek's.
"An effective strategy," Nerek murmured as he reached Kohar, pinning him to the desk and feasting on his mouth, rough and bossy and still the best kisser Kohar had ever encountered. He tugged his hands free and wrapped them around Nerek's waist, delighting in the way he hadn't worn all his armor and weapons, though he probably still had a knife or two secreted somewhere.
He slid his hands down and pushed beneath Nerek's tunic to get his hands on that marvelous ass. Even when he'd been an oblivious nitwit he'd admired Nerek's backside.
Nerek broke the kiss, but only to work his mouth along Kohar's jaw and throat, making a frustrated noise when he reached fabric. "I hope you are amenable to missing dinner."
"I've gone to the kitchens late before," Kohar replied breathlessly. "Stop asking stupid questions and get to the part where you fuck me, Captain."
A rough, hungry noise tore from Nerek's throat, and then Kohar was being kissed ravenously again, eager hands setting to work on his belt. It was gone in a moment, and Nerek tore away to pull his tunic and under tunic off in an impressively smooth move. He skated a hand along Kohar's bare chest, and the heat and approval in his eyes was the most gratifying thing Kohar had seen in a long time—especially considering he was all squishy softness where Nerek was tight, trim muscle.
He got more kisses, more rough stubble scraping along his throat, nibbles at his collarbone and sucking bites at his nipples and down his chest. He was so hard it hurt, and standing was becoming increasingly difficult. "Bed," he managed, "and you're wearing more clothes than me."
Nerek pulled away like it cost him something and dragged him over to the bed set in a nook that was separated from the rest of the room by an archway and curtains that Kohar rarely bothered to close. "Get naked, mage."
Kohar obeyed, though he was distracted more than once by the sight of Nerek becoming increasingly naked. Regions, if he'd thought Nerek good looking before…
The man was practically a work of art, toned and fine, layers of muscle and fat that explained why he was always hotter than even the fire in the great hall, why he made even the most strenuous tasks look so effortlessly easy. And gods have mercy, not a single part of him was out of proportion.
"You're still dressed," a very naked Nerek said as he prowled closer, pushed Kohar onto the bed, and pulled off his hose and underclothes.
Kohar licked his lips, torn between lust for Nerek and the painful awareness that he was not nearly as impressive when the clothes were gone. "I'm starting to see why whores were more than happy to teach you things."
"I regret ever telling you about that," Nerek said, and practically tossed him further up into the bed, nearly causing him to knock against the headboard. "As though you've room to talk, flirting with customers instead of working."
"Excuse you, but occasionally prostituting myself right in front of my domineering aunt without her noticing took a lot of work."
"Shut up," Nerek said, spreading his le
gs and settling between them. Kohar moaned, letting his head fall back against the pillows, closing his eyes because otherwise he might come simply from the sight alone.
A hot, heavy hand rested on his chest and trailed slowly down, and Nerek's voice was rough and low, sending shivers down Kohar's spine. "I like you naked."
"I'm a pasty, pudgy mage," Kohar replied, dragging his eyes open, heartened by the heat in those too-green eyes. "But if that impresses you, far be it for me to complain."
In reply, Nerek leaned in to kiss him and wrapped one hand around his cock, causing Kohar to writhe and moan and stop caring what they were talking about. He wrapped arms around Nerek, holding him close, wanting him close always.
Pulling away just barely enough to speak, Nerek murmured, "You're beautiful." He squeezed Kohar's cock, sending shudders through his body. "I've wanted to see you like this for years."
"You should have said something."
"How can you be so good at flirting with customers and so horrible at noticing when someone wants you?"
Kohar moaned as Nerek stroked him, his other hand reaching down to tease and fondle his sac. "Flirting is easy, and my siblings and cousins always pointed out when someone looked willing to pay me for special treatment in the back room. That's what I'm used to. Not handsome soldiers scowling and having jealous fits." Nerek's mouth worked his throat, his chest—and then he withdrew, making Kohar swear loudly and colorfully. "Why did you stop?"
"I have every intention of fucking you, and I wanted to get the oil before we got any further." His smirk said he also just liked to be a jerk, but that was hardly surprising.
Sitting up, Kohar shoved him down and scrambled off the bed, digging in a basket he kept on a nearby shelf for oil he hadn't bothered to use for weeks. Months? Didn't matter. He carried it back to the bed and shoved Nerek right back down when he tried to sit up, straddling those heavy thighs and slicking his fingers before wrapping them around that thick, heavy cock.
