by Serena Rose
I sighed. “Don’t tell me, you heard someone call me the Lightning Rider?”
“Ah yes. That is what it was.” He quickly seemed to center himself. “Was that title literal?”
“Not quite. I just came in more of a splash of water than any sort of electrical spark.”
“Electrical?”
“Another word for lightning.”
“I see.”
Several moments passed as he seemed to ponder. I stayed quiet, respecting his need to sort out the massive information dump I had just placed on him. “So, if I am to understand, you love me. And you want a future with me. However, you also love Myrik, and you say that we will eventually grow to be friends rather than the strange tolerance we hold for each other now.
You are from a different world, but you are choosing to stay here to save this one. You never were a seer from the islands, but arrived here in a wave and have an official legendary title known by the humans.”
“Yeah, that about sums it up.”
More silence as he seemed to mull his words. “I understand.” He said. “Although it is more that I understand that I don’t understand, but I hope that I might understand one day.”
“Um, what?”
His arms wrapped around me once more and he pulled me to him once more. “You are a mythical woman who has done things that should not be possible. If I have learned anything, it is that I need to trust you. I might not understand why you do the things you do, but I will try as long as you keep me in your confidence.”
Now it was my turn to stare at him, completely in awe of his kindness. “You say all these nice things, but I think you’re the amazing one.”
“Well,” He murmured, his face dipping towards mine again. “Maybe we can both be amazing.”
I couldn’t resist any longer, and closed the distance between us. “I think I can get behind that reasoning.”
And then we were kissing and everything was right again.
Although being stressed had become about eighty percent of my personality, it all melted away as our mouths moved against each other, quickly gaining in passion and heat. If the practical side of me was working, I would have put a quick curtail to the make-out session, considering that we were in the middle of the woods with three others milling about that could walk in on us at any moment.
But all that logic was somewhere on the ground where I wasn’t going to be picking it up any time soon.
He was pushing me backwards, his hands pulling at the shirt that was tucked into my hosiery as his tongue dominated my mouth. My own fingers fisted in his hair, urging him onward as my legs wrapped around his middle.
“I prefer you in skirts.” He grumbled as he fought with my belt, his breath short and full of passion.
I couldn’t help but release a giddy laugh. “Now you know how I feel all the time. Why so many buckles?”
He stopped fiddling with my clothes long enough to share my mirth and pressed another biting kiss to my lips. “I would look fairly fetching in a gown, wouldn’t I?”
“Oh yeah,” I said, picturing it in my mind. “I think a little mint number, with a broad collar to show off those strong shoulders of yours.”
“I shall fetch the tailor the moment we return to the mountains.”
“Sounds good, but let’s go back to you ravishing me breathless.”
“Are you sure? Because I hear that you women folk love to talk about-”
I quickly shifted my hip, kicking out one of his legs and spinning us so that I was on top and he was flat on his back. “The next few minutes will go much better for you if you don’t finish that sentence.”
“Understood.” His voice grew low and rumbly just the way I liked it, and I dipped down to lock lips with him again.
It was like something was unleashed within us, and all the banter fell to the side as we voraciously devoured each other. We were clawing, ripping at each other’s clothes without a care that we would have to continue to wear them tomorrow. I didn’t give up my perch atop my golden prince, and the raw power of it was enough to drive me mad with wanton desire.
I buried my teeth into the skin of his neck, his shoulder, his chest. Licking and laving along his musculature as he had often done along mine. I rode the high of his breath, hitching and bucking as I made my way lower, until I reached the lacings of his breeches.
And when I finally freed him from his pants, he let out this ragged gasp that made me feel like a goddess. I paused a moment, my eyes flicking up from his member to gaze at his face. He was looking at me with such a sense of rapture and anticipation, that I couldn’t resist the urge to tease him a bit.
I lasted a handful of seconds before he let out a groan and lifted his hips towards me in a physical beg. Wicked smirk across my face, I kissed him exactly how I knew he wanted me to.
His reaction was immediate and confident boosting. My tongue worked him over while I shuttled along his length. In an echo of my earlier actions, his fingers wound into my hair, and he tugged in a counter rhythm to his hips.
We went on that way for several minutes, and I was totally into it, until he suddenly pulled me off breathlessly. “Stop,” He gasped, his face covered with little beads of sweat. “I don’t want this to end. Not yet.”
I couldn’t argue with that logic. I crawled back up his body and pressed my lips to his, as ravenous as ever. It didn’t take long for him to sit up, forcing me back as well.
“Stand up.” He ordered, voice a low growl.
I complied, of course. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was pleased when he yanked my pants down from my hips, and placed little kisses along my pelvis.
“Gael,” I whispered, voice barely audible.
“Yes?”
“I need you. Now.”
He didn’t need any more convincing than that. He pulled me down into his lap, entering me in one fell swoop. It was impossible not to cry out, so I stuffed my wrist into my mouth to stifle my moans.
I rode him with utter abandon, while he thrust up into me with equal passion. It had been too long since I had let myself fall into such passion, and I was living for every single second of the reprieve.
I couldn’t say how long we ground against each other, writhing and gyrating and losing ourselves to our rhythm. I could feel that wave of pleasure come rolling in towards me once more, and I became almost frenzied in my reaching for it.
And when it hit, I was rocked to my very core. Waves of heaven poured over my head, drowning out every other sense. I gasped, every muscle in my body squeezing then releasing in unison.
I thought it couldn’t get more perfect, but then Gael found his own end, his nails biting into the skin at the small of my back. I was blessed with the rush of pleasure doubling in on itself, lasting far longer than usual.
When we finally came down from our respective climaxes, we shared another tender kiss, gasping and breathing heavily into each other.
“I suppose we should get cleaned up.” I whispered into his full lips.
“Yeah, probably. I don’t know how long Carva and Jayne are going to be.”
“Oh that’s going to be a while. I’m more concerned about Myrik.”
“I see.” He became quiet as we dressed. “You need to talk to him, don’t you?”
“Yes. I do.”
“Is now the best time?”
I remembered all the times that he had mentioned smelling Gael on me. “Perhaps not. I’m sure I’ll get another chance.”
Gael reached out, squeezing my hand gently. “Don’t worry. If he feels even a tenth of what I feel for you, he will listen to what you have to say. And if he chooses to walk away,” The Prince smiled cheekily at me. “Well, more for me.”
“I knew you’d say that.” I said, laughing once more.
We finished cleaning up and he took me into his arms once more. “Shall we lay out the bedrolls for our companions?”
“Yes, that would probably be a good idea.”
And with that we
went about being good travel partners like we hadn’t just rutted in the woods like wild animals. But strangely enough, the surprise joining filled me with more resolve than ever.
This was going to work.
I just had to make sure I didn’t suddenly trip at the finish line and ruin all our hard work.
CHAPTER EIGHT
I crawled on my stomach over the lip of a hill, looking down into the quarry stretching below us. It was the next day and we had arrived a few hours before our intended target of nightfall.
To be honest, I had thought there would be many more guards outside. Instead, the abandoned, ancient mines I could vaguely make out weren’t even lit by torches.
“Something about this seems wrong,” Carva murmured, her thick brows furrowed.
I echoed that same sentiment. “These are Perin’s lynchpins. There should be dozens of men here making sure that nothing happens to them.”
“They’re magic users, right?” Jayne said. “Can they cast illusions or something? Hide some men behind false walls, or set traps?”
“I don’t know, you guys tell me. I’m not exactly familiar with your land’s version of magic.”
“It is possible.” Myrik answered. “Depending on what school of magic they studied under and their aptitude.”
“Possible? Or probable?”
“Unknown.”
“Great.”
“What about your vision?” Carva hissed. “Any little tasty tidbits that could help us keep our heads firmly attached to our shoulders?”
I felt my stomach squeeze tightly. “No. I’m sorry.”
“It’s alright, I’ve been in tighter situations before.”
“Yeah?” Jayne countered with a scoff. “Like what?”
“It involves a very nice sailor who had an affinity for wooden spoons. But that’s a story for another day.” She scooted a little further over the edge. “I see a pretty clear path over there to the north. Right along those pines. It’s light enough to indicate rare traffic, but there enough to mean at least someone’s here and moving out for supplies regularly.”
“Well then, what do we do?” I asked. “Just walk down?”
“It seems so,” Gael said. “Albeit carefully. Keep low, and follow me.”
We all rose from the ground, but stayed hunched over as we crept along the lip of the hill leading into the gully.
The night was eerily still, the only noises being the wind rushing through the boughs of the trees and the chirping of various nocturnal bugs. Every single leaf crushed under our feet, or branch we brushed aside seemed impossibly loud, like it would summon a horde of Julian’s men to fall from the sky and set upon us with swords and shields.
Yet somehow, we made it to the entrance of the mines without incident.
“I’m going to repeat my previous statement that there is something very off.” Carva said.
“Shh,” Gael murmured, leading the way.
The opening of these caves was dark. Beyond night-dark, but a thick, inky, total blackness that blotted out every bit of light.
“I can’t see,” I whispered to Gael, reaching out to try to find a wall or his body to make sure I didn’t accidentally careen off into some deadly pit.
“How can you, no--.right. Humans have terrible dark vision.”
“Well, I don’t know about terrible-”
“It’s terrible.” Myrik said matter of factly. “Here,” He fished into one of the pouches at his waist, then handed a crystal to both Carva and I.
“What’s this?”
“Think of it as a glowstone, but dimmer. You can control it via your voice, try to use it sparingly.”
His hand didn’t immediately jerk away from mine, and we had a moment where our fingers remained touching. I didn’t know what it meant, but I took it to be a positive before he drew away and we were back to the mission at hand.
“Thank you,” I whispered before looking to the multi-faceted mineral. I didn’t know if there was supposed to be some sort of abracadabra password to get the thing going, so I decided asking politely couldn’t hurt anything “Light up, please. But not too bright. We’re sneaking.”
Surprisingly enough, the stone began to glow with a faint, dull light. It was enough to see my feet and make out Gael’s back, but that was about it.
“Now that’s the stuff.” Carva said with a whistle of appreciation before catching herself and cutting off the sound. “Yours is enough to go on for the moment, I’ll put mine away.”
“Let’s hope you don’t need it.”
“Right though, ‘cause that would mean we’ve split up or something and I think we can all agree that in this sort of situation, that is usually a terrible idea.”
“You’re strangely knowledgeable for a village housewife.”
She gave him a coquettish little look and pulled her smaller crossbow from her leg. “You pick up a thing or two facing the wiles of motherhood.”
“I feel like that’s not the whole story.” Jayne murmured.
“Guys,” I hissed. “We’re about to storm the metaphorical castle. A little focus, please.”
“I’m focused.” Carva hissed back. “It’s Jayne who’s busying eyeing my ass.”
“What? No, I’m not.”
She frowned at the crimson dragon. “Why not?”
“Guys!”
“Sorry.”
We took a collective breath. I understood the moment of levity, we were risking our lives to find a needle in a haystack --mind you, a haystack that could collapse in on us at any moment.
Gael made a motion for us to move forward, and we crept along in a quiet line.
Our journey was pretty straightforward until we reached a larger opening, and suddenly four different branching halls stretched out before us.
“Dammit.” I spat quietly, my voice barely above a whisper. “Which way?”
Gael leaned forward, his brow furrowing as his nose crinkled. His subsequent sniffs seemed almost comically loud in the painfully silent mine. But I managed to keep in the giggles as he turned back to us. “This way,” he said, gesturing to one of the middle halls.
“What, did you magically smell their cult robes or something?” Jayne teased.
“Piss, actually.”
“Gross.” I murmured.
“Yes. I would advise not touching the ground.”
“Noted.”
We continued forward, and it didn’t take long for the smell to hit me. Sharp and acrid, it reminded me of a time I had to babysit a couple of kids who had parents that horded seven different cats and didn’t clean the litter box enough. That didn’t bode well for once we got deeper into the winding caverns.
I didn’t want to think about what was smooshing underneath my feet, spreading out like slightly too chunky peanut butter. My eyes were watering, and my nose was burning, and I wanted more than anything to sprint forward into somewhere with fresh air.
And then I heard something.
It started off as a gentle scraping, and I didn’t think it was possible, we grew even more silent and slow as we listened to the sound. Then came a light clicking. Eventually, an entire score of different generic working noises reached us as we crept along.
It took a couple more minutes for light to reach us next. It started off as a flickering red against the far wall of the tunnel we were sneaking down, then slowly increased until we were at the edge of our little path, with the sounds just beyond an opening a few feet away.
The tension running through me was like a crackling bolt of lightning, and I was guessing that everyone felt much the same way. Suddenly Carva was pressing her smaller crossbow into my hands, then pulling her larger one from her back.
Myrik drew in a long breath of air. “I smell at least two.”
“But only two?”
“At least two. There is a difference.”
“Yeah, but is there anything else? Why would there just be two people here? Perin should have this place crawling with guards, body doubles
and trick outs.”
“This is a trap. I know it.” I said. “We need to leave now.”
“What? But you said there was no way he could know that you know about his sorcerer’s plan.”
“There isn’t! But think about how easy this has been. It’s too easy. I know Perin and there’s no way he would just leave these guys here on their own volition.”
“Hello?”
We all froze at that, the call out belonging to none of us.
“I can hear you, you know. I’ve been able to hear you since you arrived.”
Well, there went that. I supposed that all the skulking was pretty pointless now and stood, walking out of the tunnel before the others could stop me.
They rushed after me, of course, but by then it was too late. I was in full view of the room and I could not believe what I was seeing.
There were indeed two figures, slight and fragile, as well as several bodies laying around them. The corpses definitely belonged to guards, but instead of being out and rotting as bodies tended to do, each of them were contained in a kind of crystal.
“W-who are you?” The closest figure asked, voice clearly shaking.
It was only then that I actually looked to who the voice belonged to. It was to a woman, although her cheeks were so sunken with hunger, and her lips cracked from thirst that it was impossible to tell her age. She looked like she might have once had long, blond hair, but it was hacked off unevenly in a grime-covered halo around her head.
“My name is Mercedes.” I answered honestly, taking a step forward.
Her head whipped towards me and my stomach jolted as I realized that she had no eyes. Instead, only smooth expanses of scar tissue. “Come no closer! What do you want?”
“Well,” I murmured, “to free you, actually.” I glanced over their work station to see that there were vials upon vials and pestles and mortars and everything else you would expect when making ancient level gun powder.
“F-free us?”
“Yeah. I mean, to be honest we thought this would be more of a kidnapping situation, but that’s clearly not the case. Did Perin do this to you?”
