“Hmm?”
He shook his head. “I hope she’s not too broken. It makes me sick, thinking—” He broke off, and seemed to be struggling with his thoughts. “And I abandoned Phoebe for a woman I barely remember. That’s what family would do, right? I mean, my mother’s in more trouble than Phoebe is…”
“Aw…you do have a heart after all. You miss Phoebe.”
He looked down at me with a cool expression. “And how are you faring here, little queen? Seems like you have your hands full as well, but you don’t have sigils to help you manage your slate of lovers.”
My cheeks burned. “I don’t need sigils.”
“Is that so?”
“You look skeptical. Well.” I crossed my arms. “They all seem pretty happy.”
“Not as happy as you…”
I sputtered as he laughed.
“You’re right about Niko, Aurek. He is annoying,” I told them that evening.
“You don’t have to tell me that,” Aurek said. “He’s arrogant.”
“He’s not that bad,” Seron said, lounging back on the bed and taking a sip from a cup of wine on the edge of the bath. He’d spent a long day with the soldiers getting ready for the move back to Irandal. “He’s defensive. I’ve dealt with guys like him before. You have to just politely ignore them until their walls come down.”
“Gods, but he is hard to ignore,” Aurek said, sitting down near Seron, loosening the sash of his robe. “He always has a comment. I hope he isn’t more handsome than I am.”
“Totally the most handsome,” Seron said, deadpan.
“He has a burn scar on his face,” I said primly. Just the sight of the two of them sitting near each other got me going. “And not my type.” But I’m sure Aurek had noticed that the ladies of the court were quite bold about asking Niko to dance every night. He was the sort of roguishly handsome man who actually looked better with a scar.
“Grr.”
“I’m every bit as good as a priestess, aren’t I?” I asked, stroking my hands across both their chests. I had to admit, one thing about Oszin being gone is that it felt so much easier to initiate with Seron and Aurek. I didn’t feel like I was leaving anyone out. “Even though I don’t have sigils?”
“What are sigils good for anyway?” Aurek asked. “They force the priestess and her guardians into sex for the purpose of drawing out her magic. That is hardly romantic. I’d rather have you…” His hand trailed down my back, drawing me closer to them until my left leg was hugged between his. Seron followed suit, and I was spread across their thighs, skin to skin.
Seron gave me an expression of relaxed lustiness. “That’s right,” he said. “There’s nothing helping you along. No magic at all. So when we’re all claiming you and you’re asking for more, I can only think, that is one hungry little queen…”
Aurek groaned, his hand moving to my breast. “Delicious…” He plucked my nipples and they were promptly stiff with arousal. Seron watched for a moment before digging his hand into my hair and claiming my mouth for a kiss.
“Mm…” I wrapped my arms around Seron as I felt Aurek’s hands move around my hips, down to tease at my folds. I braced myself with anticipation, knowing that he would soon demand more, when he had my desire stirred up enough that his thick cock could easily drive deep into me. And sure enough…
I gripped Seron’s shoulders as he released me from the kiss long enough to see my face as Aurek claimed me. “Ahh…”
“Feels good, huh?” Aurek’s tongue slid around the edge of my ear and he nipped gently at the lobe. He gripped my hips again and drew out of me, pushing me toward Seron, down onto the bed. Now Seron pulled me down onto his stiff shaft, thrusting into me a few times before he let Aurek have me again. They drew closer together, and I was pinned between them, moved back and forth from one cock to the other and then when Seron tried to pull out, Aurek stopped him. “No…” He covered my entrance with his hand, fingers brushing the base of Seron’s shaft.
Seron flushed. “What are you trying to do?”
“I think you know what I’m trying to do,” Aurek said. “While it’s just the three of us, I want to know how it feels to share her with you entirely.”
“I don’t want to break her,” Seron said.
“Stop us before we break you,” Aurek said to me.
“What?” I gasped.
“I’m going to share you with Seron,” he said. “Both of us, together, in the same place. I think you’ll like it.”
I felt a rush of wet heat. “Be careful. Very slow…”
I was a little scared; they were already pretty big, and yet…they were also pressed so close against each other and that turned me on more than I ever would have expected.
And I thought Seron would protest. He always did. But right now, although he didn’t seem to want to look at Aurek and his brow was sweating, he wet his lips, and he was still very hard. He shot me a quick look, and I must have looked quite overwhelmed. “My moonlight…,” he panted.
I smiled. “Perfect,” I whispered.
And then I was crying out as Aurek went deeper inside me, so tight…the two of them, together inside me. Their cocks seemed to fit closer together than I had feared but I was so full of them. I could do nothing but endure, groaning at the overwhelming pleasure as Aurek fucked me while Seron was deep inside me. Seron stayed still but clearly he was getting as much pleasure out of it as I was. His blush was deep, his breath quick.
Aurek panted, “I’ve been dreaming of what it would be like to feel you both at once, and it doesn’t disappoint…”
They were like two halves, two different people and yet so close to each other that they didn’t even care whose child I would have. It hit me that Seron loved Aurek as much as Aurek loved him. I don’t think it was like my brother and Gilbert. They just shared everything. The throne. Their children. Seron would serve Aurek or Aurek would serve Seron; no matter how high the stakes, their love for each other far exceeded jealousy.
It was just about the sweetest thing I’d ever seen, for two people to love each other like that, and even more endearing coming from two men who both had a lot of pride and standing in their world. It would have been so easy for them to be competitors instead.
It felt so good and the very idea of them together inside me, all of that shoved me straight into a state of ecstasy. My body was trapped between theirs, and so was my heart.
I shut my eyes, losing myself in the feeling of them. It wasn’t just between my legs but everywhere; their solid chests against my soft skin, their mouths claiming kisses, licking and nipping at me, their hands pinning me in place with caresses. I bucked against them as the intensity grew, but there was nowhere to go. My dragons were lost in me and I was lost in them.
I was crying out for what seemed like forever, and we all came almost at once. I collapsed into a long sigh afterward, as Seron’s arm wrapped around me and Aurek lay down beside me.
We hardly said a word after that. I didn’t have much to say, but I still wanted to touch. I snuggled between them, until finally Seron pulled a blanket over me and put out the lantern.
In the morning, before the day officially began, an unfamiliar horn sounded somewhere in the castle.
“That’s for a known visitor,” Aurek murmured. “Not danger.”
I flew to the windows and saw a herd of rock dragons entering the parade grounds.
Ezeru had returned, a week before he said he would.
Chapter Thirty-One
Himika
I insisted on running out to meet him. Of course, Seron and Aurek were also curious to see him, and Niko was right behind us, without asking for an invitation.
Ezeru was standing in the field, waiting for us to come to him.
He looks different, I thought. He stands taller.
His leathers were scraped up in places and torn in others; he generally looked ragged and travel worn. But I only noticed this after the serious eyes, the patient stance, the crown he seemed mor
e comfortable wearing.
“You’ve picked up more dragons,” I said.
“Yes. I had to turn more of them away from joining me. Travel would have become too unwieldy.”
I wanted to ask him where he’d been, what he’d seen, if he’d happened to get any word of Oszin, but…I found myself stopped short, just looking at him. I missed him more than I realized.
“I have a lot to say to you,” he said.
“And I have a lot to ask you,” Niko said, slipping to stand beside me. “I’m Niko—”
Niko couldn’t even finish his introduction before Ezeru said, “Peri’s son.”
“I’m told that she—raised you,” Niko said.
“Yes, she did…she’s a wonderful woman. And also a very crafty one. You…are certainly her son. I see it right away.”
Niko bowed his head. I saw his face twitch. “Aw, don’t cry,” I said, not really to be nice. I really just wanted to get him back for calling me ‘Little Queen’ constantly, and I knew Aurek would want to see that face twitch and this was the best way I could ‘show’ him.
Niko shook it off. “I would not,” he said, very unconvincingly. “But…I mean…she’s well? Her tongue?”
“That was a long time ago,” Ezeru said. “She doesn’t complain.”
“Hmm. If she’s tougher than I am, that will be awkward,” Niko said. “But I just want to know that she isn’t…broken.”
“She’s not broken,” Ezeru said.
I could see relief cross Niko’s face.
“I am afraid she’s in danger, though,” Ezeru said. “Can we talk? Right now?”
“Of course,” Seron said. “Let’s talk in the private dining room. It’s more comfortable.”
Servants hastened to provide drinks and a few bowls of confections, and then Seron shut all the doors—at least, as much as any doors could be shut in the dragon kingdom, which was a land of the sturdiest rock walls and the flimsiest doors.
While Seron shut the doors, Ezeru was still standing, and he kept glancing at me. He looked a little nervous but also sort of like he wanted to jump my bones. And also, sort of like he intended to jump my bones.
It was extremely distracting and was giving me a few daydreams that I had to shove out of my head as quickly as possible.
Seron came to the table, nodded, and Ezeru sat down too. I think both my men sensed the change in mood, although they might not know what to make of it yet. And they reacted predictably. Seron looked wary; Aurek poured drinks and asked Ezeru if he’d had a good trip.
“First things first,” Ezeru said. “I decided I would travel to the castle Imaru that was mentioned as the home of Orvenu’s rock dragon son.”
“You went to Imaru?” Aurek said. “That’s a lonely road.”
“Well…there are many rock dragons on the road to Imaru,” Ezeru said. “So, I wasn’t lonely. As you can see, I had too much company, in fact.”
“Did you have any trouble getting rock dragons to follow you?” Seron asked.
“None,” Ezeru said. “I wasn’t eager to declare myself a king, but approaching them while wearing a crown and introducing myself as their king—well, it tells me there are huge cracks in Dvaro’s control of them. The moment they see one of their own crowned a king, they follow me instead.”
He sounded a lot more confident than before. Of course, it’s because he found his place among the rock dragons, I thought. It’s being around the high dragons that makes him prickly.
“When I got to Imaru, I happened upon a meeting between two of Dvaro’s men. One was a mist dragon, Gerala. I knew him. The other said he has been living among the humans in the sky kingdom as an ‘Elder’ and his name is Rothair.”
A jolt went through me. “Rothair? Elder Rothair!?”
“You know him, Himika?” Aurekdel asked.
My hands clenched. “Yes. When I was trapped in the emperor’s palace, Rothair came and promised to find a cure for my bones…for the dragon’s tear. He said the gods whisper to him. He always gave me a bad feeling.”
“He also mentioned that you, Aurekdel, had banished him through the gate.”
“Well,” Aurek said. “It is something I have done. He must have done something against us. I don’t remember him…”
“The name is vaguely familiar,” Seron said. “Is he Queen Izeria’s cousin?”
“Brother,” Ezeru said.
“Oh.” Aurek frowned. “Him. Yes…I do remember. A forceful character who was part of that little raid outside Hemara. We were quite young, though. I felt like a kid doling out punishments to adults.”
“Well, that’s because you were a kid doling out punishment to adults,” Seron said.
“I encountered this ‘Rothair’ as well,” Niko said. “He was there aiding the emperor at the battle for the capital. He’s the one who told me my mother was alive and possibly working for Dvaro.”
A shiver went down my spine. “So every one of us has encountered him?”
“He’s bad news,” Niko said. “When I rolled the dice for him, I got twos.”
“So that’s bad?” Seron asked.
“Very bad,” Niko said. “Of all the numbers you can roll, naturally two and twelve are the only ones that require one specific roll. As such, they are uncommon rolls, and while twelve is very good, two is very bad. If you roll a two more than once for the same person…”
“He said he’s a potential guardian,” Ezeru said. “He said that if the current priestess were to die, he would become a guardian.”
“He wants to kill Phoebe,” Niko said, with no surprise in his voice.
“And if he’s Izeria’s brother, that means Dvaro and Izeria will be behind him fully,” Aurek said.
“They also mentioned wanting to take the north,” Ezeru said.
“That backs up what we’ve heard about their movements,” Seron said.
“And the Elders have been holding the northern gate,” Niko said. “They have help on the other side.”
“Dvaro does like a good trick,” Aurek said. “But we can guess that his broad plan is to capture the northern gate and go through it—eventually plotting an attempt on Priestess Phoebe’s life. We’ve got to take this guy out.”
“Yes,” Seron agreed.
“We can’t strike until Oszin comes back, can we?” Hearing all this, I was terrified that he might be held hostage there.
“That’s true…” Aurek looked frustrated. “Though there are some ways to plan around that.”
“I think Himika is right. Oszin and Peri are right in the belly of the beast,” Seron said. “We need to get them back, and then we should probably go to the sky world and coordinate with Phoebe and the guardians.”
“I’m glad to hear it. This is our fight too,” Niko said. “We have strength in numbers. If I could just get this fake mist dragon king out of the picture, I think I could help you negotiate with the other mist dragons. And then you have Ezeru getting rock dragons on his side easily.”
“Aurek, are you really saying you’d attack quickly?” Seron asked.
“I think we already have the advantage right now, especially with Ezeru’s help. The very moment Oszin returns, we move out to fight with the humans.”
I nodded. “This is our fight, too.”
“You want to see your sky again,” Aurek said. “And your seasons.” His posture relaxed. “In the end, either plan should be successful, if all of you—and good fortune—are on our side.”
Ezeru had gotten very quiet.
“Ezeru?” I said. “You’re in, right? Even if you don’t want to be near me…you can help lead the rock dragons and fight with Seron and the other armies?”
Ezeru seemed to be mustering his courage. “Something else happened up there. That is—Rothair cast a spell to seek out the blood of King Orvenu among the rock dragon population. He told me I was chosen by Izeria for these experiments because I had the blood of Orvenu. And this crown you found it in your store room? He thought it was back in their ca
stle. In short—I believe I could have healed Queen Himika and maybe I do have a greater purpose than I initially assumed. And I—I want the right to—to win her affections. Since the matter of her husband is already in question, I think I deserve that much. She already has three men, so why not—one more?”
“By that logic she might as well have ten,” Seron said.
“Oh—my—” I said, a bit stupidly.
“Look in my eyes and tell me you have no feelings for me whatsoever and I will back off!” he gasped at me.
“I—I do have—some sort of feelings for you,” I said.
Seron’s eyes shifted between us. Aurek propped an elbow on the table, looking curious to see where this would go.
“Well, then,” Ezeru said. “If we need to have some sort of duel, or whatever it takes, but—”
Aurek said, “‘From the shadows, the lost ruler appears. The princess will be healed, her pain eased, by the seed of the great man who is descended from King Orvenu. This union shall bring peace to all dragon and human kind, at the time it will be needed most…’” He waved a hand. “It sounds like Seron, who came out of my shadow to be the direct heir to the royal family. But it sounds equally like it could have meant Ezeru. Prophecies are so vague.”
“Prophecies usually have multiple paths,” Niko said. “And the farther into the future they go, the more paths they might have. That’s why they’re vague. It’s quite possible that one future led to Ezeru being the king and Himika’s destined husband, and that another led to Seron.”
“But they’re both here,” I said.
“Are you saying Ezeru should be—with the queen?” Seron asked. “That’s too much to ask of her.”
“It wasn’t too much to ask of Phoebe,” Niko said.
“Well, Himika is not a priestess,” Seron said.
“I can answer for myself, Seron! And I—I don’t want to be unfaithful to any of you. But I can’t deny that I do feel a draw to Ezeru…”
“What, exactly, are we discussing here?” Aurekdel said. “What are we saying she can’t handle? Our lust? Because I seem to remember that you had basically sworn yourself to celibacy before she came along, and Oszin appears to have been in the same boat. So—if the queen is tired, you’re not really any worse off than you expected.”
The Kingdoms of Sky and Shadow Box Set Page 47
