A Fey Harvest

by Sumida, Amy

  “I believe we had sex,” he said as if that made his point.

  “I take it back, you're not romantic.”

  “Hey,” he growled and pulled me closer. “I'll show you some romance.”

  “Still not romantic,” I giggled.

  “Alright,” he got up, pushed the door open, and climbed out of the tub.

  “Hey, I didn't mean you should leave,” I pouted.

  “You're coming with me,” he helped me up.

  “Where are we going?” I started drying myself off.

  “How would you like to see the lava lake?” He asked me with a wry smile. “It's the perfect time, the Hidden Ones will all be at the party.”

  “I think that sounds fantastic and depending on how you play it, it might even be romantic.”

  “Oh, it will be.”

  We strolled down to the caverns beneath Castle Aithinne, content with taking out time since it felt like we'd been rushing everywhere for ages. We passed several fey, on their way from or to the dining hall, and we paused to speak with each briefly but we resisted their attempts to get us to attend the festivities.

  Arach was right, the caverns seemed to be deserted and he led me back into the depths of them, further than I'd ever been before. The cavern narrowed down into tunnels, very dark tunnels until Arach sent a stream of flame shooting toward an unlit torch secured to the wall. The torch caught and flared, sending bright yellow light up the smooth walls.

  I'd expected the stone to be rough, like in the main cavern, but the sides of the tunnels seemed to have been polished until they shone like glass. I thought about it and realized that some of the Hidden Ones were quite large. They probably came close to filling the tunnel and had softened the walls with their very hides. I ran my hands along the stone and smiled. They had put their mark upon the castle and I thought it very appropriate.

  We went down a few different tunnels, enough so that I doubted my ability to find my way back without Arach, but finally the passage widened and then opened out into a cave. It was warm but not as hot as I'd expected. The floor was covered with glowing lichen and the high ceiling was curved and smooth. In the center of the cave was a round pool of bubbling lava without a crust to it at all. I don't know why Arach had called it a lake, it was nothing of the sort, only about fifteen feet across. It was definitely a pool and the energy I felt rolling off of it was shocking.

  “My King, my Queen,” Taog stepped out into the light of our torch. There was light from the lava and the lichen but it was soft and low, and he'd easily hidden in the shadows it provided.

  “Taog,” I smiled at him, “why aren't you at the celebration?”

  “Ssssomeone hassss to guard the pool,” see, even Taog knew it wasn't a lake.

  “We'll take over for awhile,” Arach patted Taog on the shoulder. At least I think it was his shoulder. “Go and enjoy yourself.”

  “Yessss, my King!” He padded away on his thick rhino legs. We didn't have to tell him twice.

  “Now I'm really glad we came,” I laughed as I watched Taog hurry off. “He deserves to have a little fun.”

  “And so do we,” Arach pulled me forward. “I intend on making you even more happy that you came.”

  “Oh you nasty dragon,” I laughed and toed the soft lichen. “Are we having sex on the ground?”

  “Hardly,” he scoffed and shrugged out of his jacket. “I thought I'd show you the fire fey version of a hot tub, even better than the springs.”

  “How do you even know what a hot tub is?”

  “Movies, remember?” He sighed and continued to disrobe. “Are you going to get undressed or do I have to help you?”

  “Hmmmm,” I grinned mischievously. “One of those options sounds like a lot more fun. Wait... are we getting into the lava?”

  “Yes.”

  “But it's lava,” I gaped at the bubbling pit. Yes the pool becomes a pit when it's scary.

  “Vervain, you're fireproof, remember?”

  “Right but that's a little more than fire,” I know, I know, I've walked into an inferno before, hot magma shouldn't faze me, but somehow it did.

  “I'll go first,” he held out his arms, showcasing his naked hot body that was about to get much hotter.

  “Okay,” I frowned.

  He walked across the spongy lichen and stepped into the pool of lava. I couldn't help cringing a bit but he only sighed and settled in. As soon as his skin touched the surface, scales sprang up to cover him. They flowed up over his skin until his was completely covered in shiny red scales. I walked closer and he smiled at me, crooking a finger before scooping some lava and pouring it over his chest. It ran over his scales like water.

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” I gaped at him. “Your posing like a stripper in boiling magma. This is surreal... and so strange that I'm not even sure how it rates on the romance scale.”

  “It's lovely, come in and see for yourself.”

  “But I thought this was like a sacred pool or something. I thought we could use this to connect with the entire kingdom.”

  “It is and we can,” his eyes were starting to slant more and the angles of his face were getting sharper.

  It was a surprisingly sexy version of himself that I'd never seen before. You hear scales and you think snake or even alien but he looked like neither. His shape was still human, no wings or tail, but he was exotically different. His hair had been replaced by scales and a crest of small horns that went back over his head in a line. He blinked glowing yellow eyes at me slowly and smiled, revealing lengthening canines. I eyed the muscles in his arms and the curves of his chest, all enhanced by the scales, and then I started to undress.

  He grinned and held out a hand to help me in the pool. My first step was like being tasered except with pleasure instead of pain. A jolt of energy sizzled up into me and caused a chain reaction. Scales replaced my skin in a rolling wave until I was as covered as Arach. My long hair was simply gone and I don't know if it was covered with the scales or simply magicked away. I reached up and felt my own mohawk of horns going down my head and ending just above my shoulders. I ran a hand over my arm, the talons on my hand sliding over the gold scales with a clicking sound. I felt like I was in someone else's body, an exotic and sexy creature, and I was excited to experience the sensations it had to offer me.

  Arach was excited too. He inhaled sharply, his eyes sliding over me greedily, and tugged on my hand. I obliged him, stepping fully into the pool and sliding down into his arms.

  It was the most exquisite heat I've ever felt and it was full of power, no not power, magic. If I closed my eyes, I could feel the life-force of every fey in the kingdom, pulsing and shining just beneath the surface of the lava. I sighed, running my hand through it and feeling as though I were touching the very heart of my people.

  “Arach,” I whispered, “this is amazing.”

  “I know,” he turned me around, laying me back against the smooth side of the pool, and started kissing his way down my cheek.

  “Will they be able to feel us too?” My eyes shot open. The last thing I wanted to share with the kingdom was our sex.

  “Not like that,” he chuckled, “we're only touching their magic.”

  “Oh,” I relaxed and started to enjoy his ministrations.

  His hands slid down my sides and I was surprised to find that the scales were just as sensitive as my flesh. Well it wasn't really the scales that were sensitive, more like they amplified and conducted sensation to the flesh below. Scales or flesh, it didn't matter, my body was singing with pleasure and I was moaning along to the song.

  I trailed my hand down Arach's chest, over the flat plane of his stomach and between his legs. I drew back with a gasp and looked up at him with wide eyes. His own eyes were laughing at me and he pushed himself between my legs so I could feel what he was packing again.

  “What the hell?” I flinched at the feeling of something way too hard to be flesh. “Is your dick scaled?”

  “No,” he
laughed outright, bracing himself against the rim of the pool so he wouldn't fall in. “It's shielded.”

  “Shielded? You have a cock shield?” I raised an eyebrow.

  “Well you didn't think such sensitive flesh could be immersed in magma did you?”

  “You seemed to imply it could.”

  “It's a flexible casing,” he took my hand and pressed it against the shell that surrounded him. “When I enter you, it will slide back. You have something similar protecting your sex.”

  “What? Shut up!” My hand plunged down to find that he was right, there were two flaps of rigid flesh guarding my inner sanctum. “Well damn.”

  “Would you like to see how dragons mate in fire?” His grin turned lascivious.

  “Your damn right I would,” I pulled him closer, caressing his ridge crest of horns, and felt him press up against me intimately.

  He pushed me back, arching my back over the rim of the pool, so that my breasts lifted free of the lava. I could feel streams of thick magma roll off me like hot fudge, and then his mouth was at the tip of a breast, pulling my scaled nipple into a different type of heat. I sighed, my hands going immediately to his head, to pull him closer.

  As my sigh left my lips, he pressed more firmly against me and I felt myself part as a softer, yet still firm, part of him slid inside me. I could feel his casing slide back, forming a roll that came to a point at the top. Every time he sank deep, that point rubbed right where I needed it to. I screamed and rolled upright to claw at his shoulders and wrap my legs around his waist.

  His back was slippery but I finally got a handhold on his horns and found his mouth with my own. His tongue was longer, more tapered, and so was mine. It was easier to snake them about each other and more pleasurable too. The flesh beneath my scales felt more alive, every stroke of ecstasy enhanced by the slick covering, and it was almost like my whole body was an erogenous zone.

  Arach started picking up the tempo, at one point lifting me out of the lava in a volcanic splash, only to fall back with me on top. I took advantage of the moment to set my own pace and roll my hips into his. That protected flesh of his seemed longer, just like his tongue, and it went deeper, especially when I was on top. I would have thought it was too deep, that all that flesh would be too much for me to take, but it wasn't just the outside of my body that had changed. He fit me perfectly, filling the new version of myself as if he'd been made to.

  By the time he rolled me over again, my magic was rising and I smiled, looking forward to the addition of the lust magic. But it wasn't lust that rose to the surface. Oh, it was there, pulsing red in response to our passion, but the magic that burst up into my chest was the magic of the Land, Demeter's magic.

  I had a sudden sense that this was right, that I was connected to my kingdom, so the land magic should be the magic to come forth. I welcomed it and it blossomed upward, sending shivering sensations through me and into Arach. He shuddered with it, then started pounding into me violently as if it were urging him on. I looked up and found his lips pulled back to reveal his fangs, as he threw his head back in rapture. It was the sexiest I'd ever seen him and my own pleasure started to fill me in response. I screamed and let the magic go, released it into the lava and into my kingdom as my blessing for my fey.

  The pool shivered around us as we roared in ecstasy, then it bubbled up and up, finally erupting into a spray of lava that coated us and sent a rush of magic tingling over our skin. It settled as we did and by the time I laid resting in Arach's arms, it was calm, barely simmering.

  “What was that?” Arach whispered against my throat.

  “My new magic,” I smiled. “It's a magic connected to the land, so I think it wanted to connect with our kingdom.”

  “I don't know,” Arach trailed his hand through the lava, like he was feeling out the magic. “I think it did more than connect.”

  “Like what?” I pulled back a little so I could see his face.

  “Like change,” he shrugged. “You just put a part of yourself into our kingdom, Vervain,” he had those impressed eyes again. “You joined your magic to our kingdom and our people. That doesn't happen without effects.”

  “I'm sure it will be fine,” I shrugged. “How much damage could I possibly do?”

  “I'm not worried about damage,” he grinned at me. “Why do you always jump to the negative conclusion? I think you may have helped the land, recharged it at the very least, and so helped our fey. It's amazing.”

  “You're amazing,” I grinned and slid onto his lap. “Especially that little ridge that forms when you slide inside.”

  “My crest?” He smirked and pulled my thighs wider apart. “Care to feel it again?”

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  I woke up in a panic. My arms flinging out to either side and grasping for weapons. I had something to fight, something to kill. Didn't I?

  “Vervain?” Arach blinked sleepily at me, one of my hands was on his chest, clawing at his nipple.

  “Oh,” my heart rate slowed and I realized that for the first time in a long while, I had nothing to prepare for, no one to worry about killing or finding. “I'm sorry, I'm fine.”

  “Nothing to kill?” He smiled wryly at me and I grimaced. “That's the dragon in you. We're happiest when in pursuit.”

  “Oh yeah?” I laughed, the panic finally fading away. “Maybe I should give you something to chase. I knew I made it too easy on you.”

  “Too easy,” his eyes went wide. “I've never pursued a woman for so long in all of my life.”

  “You barely pursued me at all, you just put the whammo on me and married me before I came to,” I teased.

  “That doesn't count,” he waved his hand . “It's after that I'm talking about.”

  “We were married after that,” I kept going with it because it was just too damn fun. “You hardly have to pursue your wife.”

  “You'd think so,” he huffed and climbed out of bed, giving me a delightful view of his sculpted ass. When he turned back around, I was grinning from ear to ear. He shook his head at me. “I wish someone had told you that. You are the hardest won wife in the history of the world.”

  “That can't possibly be accurate,” I laughed and jumped out of bed to get dressed too. “There's Helen of Troy.”

  “That war had nothing to do with that bimbo,” he scoffed. “It was about Troy.”

  “Bimbo? Really?”

  “She was, from all reports, a vacuous woman,” he lifted a brow at me. “Did I not use the correct word?”

  “No, that's perfect,” I shook my head and pulled a black velvet dress on.

  I had just started brushing out my hair when a knock sounded at the door. I groaned and looked at the door as if it had failed miserably in its job of protecting me from everyone else.

  “Enter,” Arach called out, while all I wanted to do was run and hide.

  Isleen opened the door and came in with a concerned expression.

  “No,” I held up a hand and stopped her before she could speak. “Whatever it is, no. I need a few days off. I'm tired of solving problems, get someone else to handle it.”

  Isleen looked helplessly to Arach.

  “It's fine, Isleen,” he shook his head at me. “The Queen has just awoke and is in a foul temper. What do you need?”

  “There's some fire fey awaiting an audience, my King,” she frowned. “They've come a long way to report some incidents in the kingdom.”

  “Have you seen to their comfort?” Arach was already pulling on his boots.

  “Of course,” Isleen gave him a look that he never would have tolerated when I'd first met him. Now however, he just laughed. Then again, it was Isleen, the woman who'd practically raised him. If anyone could have gotten away with it, it would have been her.

  “Good work,” he got up and held a hand out to me. “My Queen.”

  “Aw man,” I grumbled. “Do I have to?”

  “Vervain!”

  “Yeah, yeah,” I slipped on some soft shoes
and took his arm begrudgingly. “Damn demanding faeries.”

  “This is the price of queenhood,” he led me out after Isleen.

  “If you recall,” I pointed out as we descended the stairs. “I never asked for queenhood, I'm not even sure what queenhood is. Is it a piece of clothing? Does it come in red? Does it attract wolves or does it have to be a riding hood for that?”

  “Why do I put up with you?” He rolled his eyes and then glanced at me. “Oh, yes, I remember now, you're a most excellent sexual partner.”

  “He calls Helen of Troy a bimbo,” I griped as Isleen gasped, “and yet he doesn't know how to say I'm good in the sack.”

  “What sack?” Arach frowned at me, confusion rampant on his face.

  “Please,” Isleen was starting to look panicked. “Some of these fey have traveled through the night to reach you. Can your talk of coitus not wait?”

  “I'm sorry, Isleen,” I picked up my pace and she started to relax. “My husband can be inconsiderate sometimes.” She groaned while Arach growled. “Oh, and we're here,” I cut off Arach's reply.

  The throne room was full of fey, anxious looking fey all staring at us. In the midst of a group of strangers stood one woman I knew, a fey who had been there for me when I needed someone to talk to. Her black skin shone in the light of the fey globes and her thick strands of black hair shifted restlessly as she met my dark eyes with her fiery ones. She smiled carefully, as if unsure of her welcome.

  “Caitir,” I went straight to her and gave her a hug. “How are you?”

  “Well, my Queen,” she smiled wide as murmurs swept the room. “How fare you?”

  “I'm good, we just defeated the Darkness,” I shrugged. “So it's nice to not have anything to worry about.”

  “Vervain,” Arach was behind me. “Would you like to introduce me to your friend?” He sounded annoyed and I wasn't sure if he was irritated that I'd gone ahead without him or that I'd made a friend he knew nothing about.

  “This is Caitir,” I waved a hand out to the fire fey. “I met her in the Weeping Woods. Caitir, this is King Arach.”

  “My King,” Caitir nodded her head.