by Kayleigh Sky
“I don’t know. It just doesn’t usually work out that way.”
“You aren’t shy, are you?”
He snorted a breathy laugh. “I know guys like me. I’m skinny, and they think they can push me around.”
Rune laughed, and something tight in his chest let go. “Have they met you?”
Isaac grinned at him. “Take your pants off too.”
He pushed onto his feet while Isaac stripped off his jeans. His bones moved under his skin like fish under water, supple and firm. Rune bit back a gasp at the touch of the air on his hot cock. It sprang free, and he gripped it around the base, kicking his jeans sideways. Isaac’s fell to the floor, and Rune stepped on them. Paper crackled under his heel, and a thin, sick pain pierced his heart. The map. But not now. He didn’t want to think about that right now. Not with Isaac’s sleepy eyes looking up at him. Rune stepped between his knees and nudged his legs open. A rosy flush deepened on Isaac’s chest and cheeks. He tugged his knees up and braced his heels on the edge of the mattress.
The pull of Isaac’s balls moving in their wrinkly sac dragged Rune’s thoughts back to the warm bedroom and the ache in his cock. His gums throbbed at the push of his fangs to emerge. He pumped himself, his gaze following the dark crack of Isaac’s ass up his taint to his dick and the thin treasure trail that faded to a wisp by the time it reached his chest. The intensity of his stare turned his green eyes dark and smoldering. Hazel. Forest green, moss green, flecked with seeds and nuts and forgotten berries. His bottom ribs flared like a bird’s wings, delicate and fragile.
“Do you want to fuck me?”
Isaac’s eyes flew wide. He scrambled back, got on his knees, and flung himself into Rune’s arms. “Oh God, yes. Yes, yes. You’d let me do that?”
Rune laughed against his lips, kissing him deeply, sinking into his sweet taste again. He surfaced with a groan. “Aren’t you my fated?”
Isaac cupped his ears and stared into his eyes. “I am. With all my heart.”
“Be with me.” He used his weight to push Isaac back onto the bed. “Leave me with some of you.”
The sound Isaac made cut like glass, pain-filled, but Rune didn’t look up again. He buried his face in Isaac’s neck where his pulse pushed his blood close to the surface and inhaled him before moving down. Trailing kisses. Around his nipples, between his ribs, ghosting the flesh over his hipbone. Isaac writhed.
“Pretty,” he murmured, licking and kissing the tip of Isaac’s cock. He lapped at the sticky shine on his quivering belly, sucked the head into his mouth, and explored it with his tongue, pinning it against his palate, a salty-sour squirt flooding his taste buds. He slid his lips down the hot length, the whisper of “Oh God,” growing louder and louder. Sucking, he pulled up, popped off, and licked the diamond-bright beads of sweat off Isaac’s pelvis, before kissing his way over the balls and soft taint.
When he reached the top of Isaac’s crack, he stroked his palms up his thighs to his knees and pushed his legs up, rolling him until his pink hole appeared. Damn. It quivered, tensing and relaxing. He blew on it, and Isaac jerked. Stretching his tongue out, he teased the skin around it, blowing again to dry the hot shiny trace of his spit. Isaac hissed, cupped his legs and pulled them to his chest. Rune plunged into his crack, licking and biting, flicking the tip of his tongue into the tight hole. It softened, letting him slide in deeper. He groaned at Isaac’s scent and flavor. This was high summer, rich and ripe. The lusciousness of sun and slow sugar. Honey and plums. He removed his tongue and bit the curve of Isaac’s ass.
“Ouch. That hurt,” he laughed.
He smiled, knowing the tips of his fangs showed, but Isaac’s face was light and bright. He reached between his legs and stroked Rune’s cheek with his fingertips. Rune crawled up his body and lay on his elbows. Isaac stroked up his arms and over his shoulders. He cupped Rune’s face and tensed, elevating until Rune rolled onto his back, and Isaac followed and settled on top of him. Isaac stroked his hair and kissed his eyelids, his nose, his lips, and his chin. A moment later, he kissed the spot over his heart then got onto his knees.
“Lube?”
“Bathroom.”
Isaac gazed around the room, a frown forming. “Where is it?”
Rune grinned. “Down the hall.”
Isaac gaped. “Are you serious?”
“What can I say?” He stretched. “I didn’t pick the luxury suite.”
“Great.”
Isaac ran on tiptoes to the door and peeked out. Then he darted into the hall. Another door closed a moment later. Rune chuckled. The thought of the map drifted through his thoughts, but he let it go. He floated on the sensations still tingling on his skin, Isaac’s taste on his tongue, his scent in his lungs. The click and clack of a drawer in the bathroom, the busy bee still buzzing outside the window. Fragments, shards, and slivers that formed an unbreakable piece of art in his mind. Crimson and gold glass. Bent and stretched and twisted. Isaac’s body, limber limbs twining together. He wanted to make that piece without hope he’d live long enough to do it. So he only sank into the softness of his bed, smiling when Isaac lay on top of him again.
I love you.
But he didn’t say it, lest it broke him to hear it.
He opened his eyes.
Isaac smiled too and kissed him. He let his legs fall wide. The heat in Isaac’s eyes burst into bright golden flames.
Isaac drew a palm down his body, one finger pushing harder than the others, dragging through the sweat that beaded his skin. He circled the tip of Rune’s cock. “I like that you aren’t cut.”
“We don’t do it. I don’t mind either way.”
“Have you been with a lot of people?”
He tipped his head to the side, liking the way the sun caressed the outline of Isaac’s face. “I liked them all. At least at the time.”
“Did anybody stay long?”
“None were meant to.”
“And now?”
“I’m not meant to.”
“I’m not letting you go.”
Isaac’s face when he said this was his usual face, not bold or determined or smug, but with the same pensive, worried tenaciousness that was always there. He stood, and Rune rolled over and closed his eyes. Isaac kneaded the muscles in his shoulders and back and kissed the base of his spine. Rune rocked his hips, dragging his dick on the sheets. The itch on his skin turned into goosebumps, and he shivered.
Isaac planted a palm on his ass cheek. “You’re a dream to me.”
“This is a dream. I’m happiest when I sleep.”
Isaac’s weight pressed down on his back. “But this is real. I promise.” He moved the hair off the back of Rune’s sticky neck, exposing him to the soft breeze. It chilled his sweat, but Isaac’s breath warmed him as he blew a path down his spine.
His lubed fingers stole between Rune’s legs, and Rune rolled his ass up. The tip of Isaac’s finger pushing in pulled a sigh from his lungs. He groaned as he settled his cheek against the sheets. The burn focused him, held him still. Peace surrounded him. His cock ached, his breath quickened. The curtains blew in and out until the pleasure that burst inside him filled his eyes with bright light.
“Fuck.” He rocked back now, seeking that bright burst again. Isaac added another finger. His dick dragged on the sheets, setting off more sparks. “Yeah,” he whispered. “Yeah.”
The burn flared hotter at the first push of Isaac’s cock inside.
Isaac moaned. “Oh fuck.”
Rune pushed back, and Isaac slid forward with a gasp. The splitting pain faded to an ache that sank into his belly and spread like tree limbs, displacing everything inside him, filling him with Isaac. If he breathed, it would be with Isaac’s breath. His heart would beat Isaac’s blood. And when he died, it would be… alone. With this memory.
He thrust his hips back, and Isaac slammed in, balls slapping his. The sharp burst of pleasure jolted his heart into overdrive. Isaac panted, falling slippery-slick onto his back. The heate
d slide of skin on skin tipped him closer and closer to the edge. He grabbed his dick, fucking into his grip with Isaac’s pounding. The world vanished in a swirling haze of red and green and yellow, a blur of trees and sun and the furious flow of his own blood in his veins.
Isaac grunted. “I don’t… want to… come.”
Rune lurched up and twisted as Isaac popped out with a wide-eyed gasp. He flopped back on the bed with his knees spread wide. Watching Isaac’s pupils spread like shockwaves rippling through space, Rune suspended himself over Isaac, not touching, humming with tension, dripping sweat in the building heat. “No one but you. My everything. When all is lost, I will find you in the dark. You are my only light, my fated. My only hope.”
He climbed back onto his knees, slicked his cock with a shaky hand, and pointed himself at Isaac’s hole. Isaac reached for him, and he sank into his heat, his arms, a dizzying, blissful forgetfulness. “Oh yeah,” Isaac whispered, rocking, taking him deeper.
He dug his knees into the mattress, rounded his back, and buried his face in Isaac’s neck. He thrust in aching slow motion. Isaac clawed at his spine, dug into his shoulders, pulled at his hair. The sun was a glacier compared to the nova blooming inside him. It stole his breath. He panted, but his lungs found no air. His dizziness sent his thoughts spinning away.
Isaac’s shout yanked him back. His muscles clamped down on Rune’s dick, rippling and squeezing, enflaming him. The tickle at the base of his spine ignited. Fire ripped through him. He thrust in a paroxysm of something like agony and shattered inside like glass. His balls boiled over, cum burning through him in earth-rattling spurts.
“Fuck, fuck…”
Isaac moaned. He wrapped Rune in his arms, heaving underneath him, peppering the side of his face with kisses.
The tenderness of those kisses, the softness of his lips, and his gentle crooning dragged Rune down into a dreamy sleep.
33
Isaac Holds On
That was the most intense sex of Isaac’s life, and he didn’t know what to make of it. Rune’s soft breaths lulled him into a still place as the sun sank and his mood drifted in the shadows.
You wanted him. You abandoned everything for him.
What kind of person did that? Especially when he was doing it for somebody who’d never do it for him. He had no illusions about that. He wasn’t some stunning revelation in Rune’s life that would suddenly make him change course. And he didn’t understand himself. Even Jessa, sweet as he was, had stood his ground with Otto. You will too. He had no choice about that. He wasn’t giving Rune the map, no matter how in thrall to him he was getting. It wasn’t a choice. He knew without any doubt the map was his. And it was his for a reason.
He sat up beside Rune, who lay sprawled on his belly, and snagged his jeans off the floor. After checking that the map was still in his pocket, he let the pants fall again. His gaze drifted over Rune’s body, the muscles so solid under his skin, the dusting of hair on his legs softening the harsh lines. The tattoos on his back dipped into the shallows of his spine and ribs and pulled in strange distortions over his shoulders. Many of the letters repeated, spaced randomly it seemed. How long had it taken to get them all? Obviously, it meant something to him. Maybe it had all been one session, the pain a relentless reminder of his obsession with… what? Treasure? His fall?
When all is lost, I will find you in the dark.
“You won’t have to,” Isaac whispered.
He raised his head and stared at the door. Somebody was climbing the stairs. Looking for them? With a sigh, he bent and kissed Rune’s shoulder. “We can’t stay here all day.”
Rune mumbled into the crook of his arm. “‘M ’kay.”
Isaac reached for his jeans again as the door flew open, and Mal burst in. “We—!”
He scrabbled for the sheets and yanked the coverlet over his lap. Mal chuckled and murmured, “Whoops.”
Rune lifted his head, bleary-eyed. “What’s going on?”
Isaac’s skin crawled with prickly goosebumps. Grinning, Mal smacked her palm against the doorframe. “Come downstairs. I didn’t think I’d be saying this so soon, but Clara translated the first of the ciphers.”
Rune sat up, turning his dark stare on Isaac. If they hadn’t been naked, Isaac would have wondered if he’d dreamed Rune opening up to him, whispering his poetry. I will find you in the dark.
Rune meant to leave him.
Isaac grabbed his jeans and jumped up. With a slow frown, Rune stood too. “I’ll be down in a few minutes.”
As he climbed into his clothes, Isaac watched him pad down the hall to the bathroom. He buttoned his jeans, ran his hands through his hair, and hurried downstairs. Voices came from the living room. He leaned against the edge of the door and looked in.
Uriah stood in the center of the room, face twisted in anger. “You’re not going.”
Camiel turned away from the window. “Try and stop me. Why do you think I’m on this little trek?”
“It’s a question I don’t know the answer to. Tell it to me.”
Camiel sneered. “You might be a Nezzarram too, enforcer, but you are no more royal than I am.”
“I’m the king’s enforcer, and if I choose to make you answer to me, you will. Unless your skin means nothing to you.”
“And I am a witch, Uriah.”
Isaac stared between them. Uriah’s eyes narrowed, but he remained silent. Isaac stepped into the room and sat on the couch beside Yair, who was twirling his hair around a finger, a worried frown knotting the flesh between his eyes. A moment later, Mal appeared, tugging Clara behind her.
She gestured Clara to a chair and sat on the arm. After a glance around the room, she chuckled. “Oh children. Do play nice.”
“Is Anin outside?” Isaac asked.
“I wouldn’t worry about him.” Camiel laughed, but his eyes glittered with sharp lights. “We don’t really need your boyfriend for this.”
Isaac glowered. “He isn’t my boyfriend.”
“Well, color me confused.”
“You never thought he was.”
“No,” Camiel snapped. “I was being a supportive friend and playing along.”
“What is wrong with you, Cammy?”
“I don’t like being in the dark. I was happy before this fallen king came into my life.”
“You serve him,” Uriah growled.
“I thought I was serving Dinallah, who never wanted anything from me.”
“And what do I want from you, Cammy?”
Everyone turned and watched Rune approach from the hallway. His wavy hair fell about his face, his expression stony except for his coal-black eyes.
Camiel inclined his chin. “I will know when you tell me.”
A slow smile curved Rune’s lips. “Time will tell.”
“Something like that,” Camiel muttered.
Rune crossed the room until he stood at Uriah’s side. His gaze slid across Isaac and came to rest on Mal.
“What does it say?”
Mal nudged Clara. “Our piece of the map has the last two ciphers. Isaac’s has the first. Go on, honey.”
Clara smiled, then cleared her throat and opened a book she held on her lap. “I found that I recognized some of the letters because they referenced religious figures. Using these known letters, I compared them to each reference of the same figures in the other languages I knew. Remmor, which Onopiel is closest to, has few borrowings from younger languages, but these references led me to relevant texts. I want to stress that Remmor depends on the placement of other words for context, but once I found the key, it wasn’t that hard to decipher the meaning of the symbols.”
“The key?”
She nodded at Rune. “It’s Remmor, but it follows the instructional case. The closest I can come in English is the imperative tone, but in Onopiel, old Onopiel, it was its own case, and specific to religious texts.”
“I know about it. There are relics in Celes, a few words we still use.”
�
�Well, in Onopiel, it was its own category, and it was based on Rilian, which is related to Remmor.”
“Rilian? From Rilith?”
“Yes. I believe so. There are references. I’d never heard of Rilith before though.”
“It was barely a city,” said Rune, “and very old.”
“And connected to Celestine,” said Mal. “Another dead culture and language, which is why it took us some time to connect it to Onopiel.”
Rune took a chair on the other side of the coffee table and faced Clara. Uriah stood behind him. “Go on.”
Clara cleared her throat again. “They are riddles. At least the two we have.”
Rune rested his elbow on the arm of his chair, rubbing the corner of his mouth with a finger. “Read them.”
“This is the first one we have. ‘The broken knot lets loose a web of deceit. Beware the endless descent into fire, the way of no return, the false promise of victory. Carelessness burns, confuses, and corrupts.’”
Camiel laughed, still at the window. The bitterness in his tone sent a shiver down Isaac’s spine. “This is shaping up.”
Rune rolled his head. “As I recall, you invited yourself, Camiel. Feel free to uninvite yourself.”
Camiel set his hands on the back of the couch between Yair and Isaac. “But you see, sire, I am loyal.”
“To whom?”
A wide smile brought the lightness back to Camiel’s face. “Usually to myself. I must be getting old.”
Rune’s smile widened too. “Enjoy it.” He looked back at Clara. “The second cipher?”
She nodded. “It says, ‘The self is the other. The mirror a dark reflection. Look not away. Look in, and the truth will be yours.”
Rune laughed. “My god. That sounds like something you’d say, Cammy.”
Mal stood. “I wouldn’t be so glib, Rune. The Adi ’el Lumi are willing to kill for this map.”
“Which is reason enough to follow it.” He cocked his head, gaze on Isaac. “Where is your part?”
“In my pocket.” Isaac winced at the humor in Rune’s eyes. Of course, that hadn’t been a question. More like a command.
