by Kim Knox
He nuzzled her neck and Ava let out a long sigh. “You want this. And I enjoy having you...eat me.” His laughter ran a shiver over her skin. “Though I doubt I’ll ever let that hungry mouth of yours anywhere near my dick.” His teeth grazed her shoulder, and she arched up against him, her body touching his. Sparks of his power skimmed across her belly.
“We should be out—”
“Hunting thieves?” He kissed a line to her breast and she couldn’t help herself, she pulled magic from him. A delicious, golden slide that only whetted her appetite for more. He groaned in response, his hands fisting the sheets. “I have men.” His voice was little more than a dark growl. “They won’t rest in hunting out the thieves.”
“But if they come—” Her voice broke over the word. Heyerdar had taken her nipple into the hot wetness of his mouth. Licked and sucked it, and the sensation rioted straight down to between her thighs.
“We have time, little thief.”
Ava closed her eyes. She wouldn’t regret that he had never once used her name. Heat swelled under her skin, and the hunger within her rose.
“You’re holding back.”
The blaze of him flared behind her closed lids. So much power. And he was offering it all to her. He was absolute temptation.
“Take it.”
The words rumbled against her stomach, and her breath caught. His mouth slipped lower, promising what he had only given a hint of the night before. To eat her.
“Consume me, little thief.” His breathing was ragged. It burned against her sex, his lips so close to tasting her. “Eat me whole.”
His first slow, slow lick bucked her up against him and broke open her empty soul. With a low cry, she pulled him into herself, basking in the fierce glory of his magic, letting it fill her. Completely.
Heyerdar swore against her sex and his hands gripped her thighs, biting into the muscle. “Yes. Take it. Fuck.” His body tensed, before his tongue moved again to give her the same long, slow lap. He teased her flesh, flicking at the sweet nub. His hot breath and his moans as she ripped his magic in great, twisting sheets of power drove need into her belly.
Ava threaded her fingers through his hair. A cool silk and such a contrast to the blaze of his power. She wanted to take all of him into herself. She’d never hunger. Never.
His thumbs teased the creases of her thighs, and the tension in her belly coiled tight, her body hardly her own as desire mixed with the flow of magic through her veins. She could taste the edge, the power, of her release. So close. Her heart hammered. Blood wet her mouth as she bit though her lip. It only made her heated skin glow, and she wanted nothing more than him inside her. Now. Fucking her hard. Fast. Making her—
Heyerdar surged over her, his fingers wrapped around his dick, and he teased her sex with its blunt head. She couldn’t breathe. She stared up at his shadowed face, her hands fisting the covers, tearing them with her borrowed strength. Not touching him. Because if she touched him, ran her fingers along the fierce muscles in his arms, stroked them, kissed and licked his skin, she would never stop. And he wasn’t hers. He belonged to Fallon. Or to the anonymous women in the brothel. Anyone but her.
Magic lapped over her so that she could swap places with Fallon. Reist. She was with him for Reist.
“Ready?” The question was a strained rumble.
Ava couldn’t speak. Her mouth opened. She wanted this act, this moment, unlike any other in her life. It made no sense.
“It will.” Heyerdar stroked forward and buried himself deep within her.
Ava cried out, magic lashing through the air, unbound, whipping into the future. She willed it to hunt for Fallon, and take with it the fierce feeling of pain, of joy, of fullness, of belonging body and soul to this man.
Ava clutched at him, her mind almost lost as he drew back, and the incredible friction of his flesh against hers deepened the riot of sensation. Heyerdar dipped his mouth and she tasted herself. It rippled fresh hunger, and he groaned as she returned his kiss and took the unending magic he offered.
His energy brimmed over her and she broke her mouth from his. Not even pushing waves of it towards its goal, towards Fallon, could empty it from her soul. “Heyerdar...”
His teeth grazed her neck. “You’re so fucking tight.” His meaty hand gripped her thigh and pulled it up. He sank deeper and Ava almost whimpered. “And all mine.”
“For now.” Her words escaped on her gasp.
“You think I won’t have you again?”
He rocked into her and Ava wanted nothing more than to agree. Already a fresh rush of need gripped her. The flare of release when he had first taken her was a memory. She was greedy. She wanted more. Why...how had Fallon walked away from him?
Ava arched into Heyerdar’s next thrust, urging faster and harder. The pleasure of it wound her body tight. Fuck, how good of a lover was Reist?
Heyerdar growled. “You want good?”
He did something with his hips, a twist, a turn. Ava didn’t know what it was, but fuck, her whole body started to shake. She couldn’t hold him, only let him drive into her, accept the pleasure and the surge of magic that smashed over her.
He stared down, his gaze molten, his expression fierce, primal. She should be scared. Terrified. He was an elemental. Old magic. But then she was a soul-stealing, death-bringing thief. And just as terrifying. Ava grinned at him and wrapped her shaking legs around his hips.
She caught her bottom lip with her teeth, tasting the last slick of her blood. “I want good.”
He sucked in a breath and said something—what, she couldn’t catch—before he took her body. Riding her hard. With each deep stroke he drove his magic into her, wrapping it around her, filling her. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. What he was overwhelmed her, owned her, and with it her orgasm surged.
Golden waves of light, pleasure and magic formed one continuous roll of joy. Ava cried out. Lost. And Heyerdar followed her, arching over her, his skin awash with the fierce fire of his magic. Her heart stopped. He was beautiful. A trembling hand touched his jaw, feeling his strength and the hard curve of his grin. With a growl, he kissed her palm, and little shocks of pleasure chased under her skin.
Ava had never imagined that her release would leave her completely and utterly...full. Sated. Her body sank into the mattress, every muscle almost liquid. She looked away, her gaze sliding down his chest to where their bodies joined. He was still hard and hot inside her. If she turned her hips... No. Heyerdar had given her more than enough. “Fallon has this memory.”
“Maybe.” He wrapped his arms around her, shifted and pulled her against his chest. His chin rested in the tangle of her hair and he let out a long breath. “You were different.”
Ava closed her eyes and her hands curled into fists. She didn’t know what to do. Could she hold him? Press herself to the hot, slick hardness of his body and enjoy someone holding her? No one had really held her. Her forehead touched his collarbone and she breathed him in, the delicious scent of sex and magic that almost stirred the thief in her.
Heyerdar kissed her hair, and the gentle gesture twisted her heart. “You belong to me now.”
Ava laughed, but strain edged it. “We had sex. It was a transaction.”
“You gave your virginity to an elemental.” He tilted her chin up and she willed herself to hold his gaze. Inner fire streaked across the gold of his eyes. “The mages know what that means.”
Her mouth pressed together and irritation added an edge to the calm. She tried to wriggle free, but his arm pinned her to him. And wriggling? With him still firmly inside her? She held hard to her vexation. “What? What the fuck have you done to me?”
He brushed a strand of her hair from her face and she twitched. “You’ll want me. Ache for me.” His mouth curved upwards and Ava hated the way her belly clenched, because she
knew he’d felt it. “Curiosity made me fuck you, little thief. What it would be like to take someone of the old magic. And a virgin. Reist couldn’t have handed me a more tempting offer.”
His hand caressed her shoulder and ran the length of her spine. Ava curved into him as if she were his pet. She shut her eyes, wanting to deny it, but his hot palm on her backside, the easy play of his fingers was simply...delicious. She had to stop him. This wasn’t the plan. They fucked, Fallon would realize that she was a fool for giving up something as glorious as sex with Heyerdar, and Reist would find solace in her. She had to stop him.
“Is that what you are? A device of the Right Hand?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I am, Heyerdar.” She tried for sarcasm, but his hips where moving in a slow, slow rhythm against hers, and a new pulse of need opened. “I did all this to get power over you.”
His laughter was a low, dark rumble. “I was your first. You gave yourself willingly. I have power over you.”
One thought swirled through her brain before it sank into lust. Her mouth moved. “And that’s why you couldn’t keep Fallon.”
For a moment darkness touched his face. Her stomach hollowed. Whatever happened with Fallon was obviously still not hers to know. His mouth touched hers and a growl warmed her lips. “Time to bind you harder to me, little thief.”
Chapter Eleven
“What are you doing?” Heyerdar leaned in the doorway, his arms crossed over his bare chest. The light from the fire behind him flickered against his skin.
Ava willed herself to look back at the little cart and the carefully stacked eight books. “I need to know what they’ve kept from me.”
“You chose books over me?”
“You were asleep.”
“I was catching my breath.”
Ava bit back a smile. Damn it, she was not growing to like him. She lifted the first of the books from the cart and shrugged the woolen blanket around her shoulders. She shuffled away and focused a thought. A roll of fire burst within the darkened hearth, its glow and heat warming her skin. She was brimming with magic. It was...wonderful.
Light flickered around the worn leather wings of Heyerdar’s high-back chair. She wanted Heyerdar. Her body still ached to have him. Yet she had to sit and read and no doubt curse the mages well into the night. She had to grab at her only chance to know more.
Heyerdar frowned at her. “Where are you going?”
“I’m reading. In this chair.”
“Bed.” He crossed the short distance, planted heavy hands on her shoulders and steered her back towards the bedroom. “Now.”
“I’m still reading.”
He leaned into her, his lips brushing her ear. “Think I can’t resist you?”
Ava closed her eyes, allowing his warmth, the scent of him, the swirl of magic, to wash around her. They’d had sex three times since she’d reached out to Fallon, each release just for her, catching her in hot gold and fierce joy. She was allowing herself the night to enjoy him, not to think about anything but the pleasure they could share.
She winced at a prick of guilt. That she was happy to forget Reist after Heyerdar stuck his dick in her.
His heavy hands cupped her shoulders. “Work...then I make you scream my name till you’re hoarse.”
“Boasting?”
He pulled back the heavy blankets and waited for her to climb onto the high bed. “I am always thorough.”
Ava settled back against the headboard, the thick velvet of the surrounding curtain brushing against her bared shoulders. Heyerdar piled the rest of the books on the bed, climbed in beside her, arranged blankets and found a book. It was all disturbingly...domestic.
Heyerdar lifted an eyebrow. “I am not domestic.”
She glared at him. “How do you do that?”
He gave her the slow smile that heated her blood and made reason almost impossible. His eyes gleamed. He was very aware of the effect he had on her. Bastard. “I’m an elemental.”
Ava let irritation wash away the fire stirring within her and opened the plain, untitled book she held without thinking. Her heart formed a fist in her chest as she read the faded title page. She had to read it out loud. “The UnWorded Thief: Portraits of the First Mages and the Founding of the Institute.” The author was the almost-mythical Sten Konal, said to be the son of the very first mage.
She closed her eyes and a pressured “Fuck” broke from her. All humor, all ease, left her. The magic in her shriveled under the increasing flare of her fury. She shook, her fingers biting into the book she held.
She could’ve been a mage. No soul-eating, no endless hunger, no having people shrink back in terror. She could’ve fucked away her early years in the lower halls and then, at twenty-five, with the wildness of her nature suppressed, high magic would’ve suffused her flesh, making her beautiful, glossy and with fresh power to hoard within her.
Ava pressed a hand to her mouth, willing herself to flick over the vellum pages. Pain tightened her chest. Fuck. She stopped on an illuminated page and a tear broke from her. The Words that made her a thief stared back at her. They sang in her blood. Resonated. The thief had viciously carved every sigil into little Kaia. When she herself was a baby someone had treated her with a touch more kindness, stroking the Words over her skin, her heart, but forever changing her.
The first, faded, vellum page glared at her.
To be mage is to suppress the vile instincts that make a thief little more than an animal. Detestable hunger under the mark of the teken. We will never walk in the projection of another’s skin, never drag their meat from their bones, feast on their heart’s blood.
They can never join us. As a Word is spoken, it can never be unsaid. They remain beasts. Our souls are full. Will forever be full.
In suppressing wild darkness, we become whole. We become perfection.
Smug, arrogant bastards.
She slammed the book shut and threw it at the wall. It gave a satisfying thud, and a spark of high magic broke out across its tough linen cover. “Complete bastards!”
Ava didn’t know who she was cursing. The mages for being so superior or for not telling her, or the unknown people who had stained her skin with the Words that had ruined her life. She stared at Heyerdar. He hadn’t said a word.
“You knew.” She dashed a hand against her eyes and sniffed, fighting to pull herself together. She wanted to sink into her empty soul and never come out, anger and bitterness surging. She would become what they feared and hated and would fucking rage through the Institute. “I should’ve been a mage.”
“Thieves are rare. You’re feared.”
A harsh laugh broke from her. “I’m well aware of that, thank you, Heyerdar.”
He pulled in a heavy breath and his large hand cupped her jaw, turning her face to him. His gaze was molten and his voice had dropped to a raw whisper. “I’m not afraid of you.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re the Left Hand. Nothing scares you.”
“True.”
He waved his fingers without looking away from her, and the books and food vanished. The easy display of power caught her breath, and the hated thief within her rose to it. She wanted him again, wanted to pull him into her, the heat and fire and strength of him...
Pain was a fist around her heart. “I only take from you.”
His thumb wiped away the tear that fell to her cheek. “I’ve never had anyone else like you. What you can do...” He grinned, something hot and wicked, and Ava forgot about her guilt, forgot everything. “Don’t think you’re ever leaving this room again.”
She wanted a real smile, but her lips, her muscles, wouldn’t work. She knew now of the long life she should’ve had. One filled with...not friends, because mages were too self-absorbed, but people who wouldn’t shrink away and stare at her with
loathing. A life. A future.
She had wanted knowledge. And now she had it. More fool her. “Make me forget.”
Heyerdar pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her and sinking them both into the warmth of the mattress. “Use the magic—”
“No.” She pressed her mouth to his collarbone, tasting and kissing him, the threads of his power slicking over her lips. “I have to remember. Just not right...now.”
“Deal.”
The word twisted through her. Her deal with him had given her this. A way to ignore what she’d learned for a short time. She would take it. Take him. His large hand splayed low against her spine, and the possession of it pushed her to grind her hips against his, the hardness of his dick pressing into her belly. “Make me scream.”
“You’re getting highhanded, little thief.” He moved down her body, drawing the blankets over them to form a dark cocoon. His lips and teeth found the sensitive point below her ear, and a wild little moan broke from her. He grinned against her skin and slipped lower until his tongue teased across her breast, achingly close to her nipple. She arched into him, wanting, needing him, but he drew back. “Say you’re mine.”
“I...”
He slid his hand down over her hip, stroked fingers across the curve of her belly and slipped them between her legs. Ava sucked in her breath. Her deal was for Reist. Not for him. Never for him. Her insides twisted together, denying that her need for Heyerdar matched the need she had for Reist. It was physical. That was all it was. He knew how to play her body.
“I do.” His fingers...moved and she stopped breathing. Fuck. “Mine or I stop.”
“Yours.” The word burst from her. She couldn’t argue it. “For now.”
He laughed, his hot breath stirring her skin. The warm taste of his magic flowed over her and sank into her body in a delicious rush. “Deny me again.” And his tongue curled around her nipple, sucking it deep into his mouth.
Ava couldn’t speak. His mouth, his fingers, the fierce press of his large body against hers was everything she needed. Everything. She threaded her fingers through the cool silk of his hair, arching herself into him, pulling at his magic in a deepening rhythm. She didn’t want to fight that need, that instinct to consume.
