by Hazel Hunter
“I love you,” Galia said, clutching her. “I love you so.”
Mina’s smile was confident.
“I love you to the end of the world and beyond it.” Mina separated from her, and held her at arm’s length. “Come back to me.”
As quickly as Mina had found her, she was gone, losing herself in the crowd. Though it pained Galia’s heart, she knew Mina only meant to spare her a tortured goodbye. Even so, amidst the revelers flowing around her, she’d never felt more alone.
The shrine of the Goddess lay at the heart of the palace. As she neared it, the crowds thinned, until the final few corridors down which she turned were empty. But in the last hall, outside the high metal doors, stood two guards. At the sight of her, they came to attention, but they did not touch the doors. As the chosen of the Goddess, that was Galia’s duty. She opened the double doors to a space that was more like a rock-hewn cave than a room. Waiting for her at the far end was the Oracle and Strayke.
Strayke stood at attention, and wore his armor and mask again. Somehow it was fitting that he went clad for battle. The Oracle was dressed in the sacred black of her office. Her face was no more expressive than Strayke’s mask. Galia wore only a plain, white silk gown, and no sandals.
“You are called by the Goddess, and now you will journey underground. As you travel below, we offer you the protection of the willing sacrifice.”
“I am here,” Strayke said, his resonant voice filling the chamber with the ritual words. “I will serve, and I will lay down all for you,”
Galia swallowed.
“I undertake this journey for the city of Tenebris and for the heart that follows the Goddess.”
The Oracle nodded, and Galia strode forward. She turned to a trapdoor in the ground next to her. Though it looked heavy, the Oracle moved it easily. Descending into the depths below, there were steps carved into the stone and eerie blue witchfire that clung to the walls. Galia took a deep breath and started down. As she passed her mentor of the past five years, the Oracle looked on impassively. She heard Strayke’s boots behind her. In unison their footsteps tread downward until Strayke’s head must have descended below ground level, because the trapdoor closed above them. Galia jerked at the sound, but luckily stepped down to the landing at the same time. Ahead was a smooth, stone corridor, twice as broad as the stairs behind them, with just enough blue light to show the way. It sloped downward at a gentle incline.
“Did you think of me?”
The words startled her. She came to a halting stop, and turned to Strayke. In the space of a heartbeat, all of the fears of the past five years suddenly confronted her. Though she trembled with the awful weight of her burden of guilt, she was shocked at a feeling she hadn’t anticipated: relief.
“Yes,” she whispered, staring at him.
“I thought of you,” he said. There was a roughness to his voice. He took a step closer. “I thought of both of you every night. I don’t know what else to call it but love. I thought of you when I was killing. I thought of you when I was going to be killed. I tried to blur your faces with other women, other men. It never worked, and I realized it was because I didn’t want it to.”
“How can you say that?” Galia whispered harshly. “I betrayed you. I let them take you. I chose Mina.”
“Was it because you loved me less?”
Gods, the pain in his voice! Tears sprang to her eyes. Any words she would have spoken were trapped in her constricting throat. She furiously shook her head.
“If Mina had been separated from you,” Strayke said, “she would have died.” Hot tears streamed down Galia’s face, and he took a step closer. “I wanted you both to live. I wanted you both to remember me. That was what I needed.”
“And now you are here as my sacrifice,” Galia choked out.
“It was meant to be,” Strayke said. “From the moment I saw you, I think I knew.”
“Oh gods,” she whispered, throwing her arms around him.
She didn’t know whether to beg his forgiveness, or damn him for coming back. In the end, she only clung to him and wept. He held her tenderly against his armor and gently stroked her back, until finally the tears slowed and ended. As he took her hand and they faced the bleak corridor together, Galia found she also had a deep truth that she knew: she could not give him to the Goddess because she could not lose him again.
* * *
• • • • •
* * *
They traveled downward until the ground finally leveled. The passage ahead of them ended in a great double door. It was wood bound with iron, and along the bands glinted rows of precious sapphires. They winked in the dim light like eyes. For a moment, Galia paused. Then she took a deep breath and dropped Strayke’s hand.
“I love you,” Galia said, and approached the door.
The door opened at her touch, and she understood how the Oracle had opened the trapdoor above. The lights in the new chamber were red instead of blue. They ringed the vast and open space. At the rear of the giant cavern was an enormous statue of the Goddess, but she was faceless. Galia shuddered as she gazed on it. She was in the presence of the divine. Strayke inhaled sharply, apparently feeling it as well. At the feet of the statue was a low stone table. That was their destination.
When they drew closer, Galia could see that the table held one object: an ancient, stone knife. Roughed out of a single piece of stone, the edges were wavy and looked painfully sharp. A bone handle was lashed to one end with leather cords. Though Galia halted in front of the table, Strayke fell to his knees. She’d been about to stare at him, when a voice reverberated in her head.
Welcome, daughter.
“I greet you, Great One,” she murmured, gazing up. “I am here to be initiated in the mysteries.”
Woman of power, you have come to stand in my shadow.
“I have,” Galia said.
The words of the Goddess thrummed through her skull. She could feel her there in her bones. This was what the Oracle felt every day, she realized.
I bid you welcome. You will drink from my waters. You will rise among my stars. You will lead my city. You will crush my enemies.
The last made Galia flinch, but she nodded.
“I submit myself to you, Great One,” she whispered. “Do with me what you will.”
The moment she said those words, she could feel a deep and overpowering sensation of strength rush through her. It was exploring her, knowing her, understanding her as a vessel, and then it filled her. Though Galia was grateful that she was still herself, she was herself with the strength of the Goddess. But something else was there as well: a longing so deep that it rocked her. She turned to Strayke.
“I love you,” she whispered. “I need you.”
As if unseen chains had been unlocked, Strayke stood in a daze. With painstaking care, he removed each piece of his armor and clothing. At her nod, he reached for her clothes as well. Despite his size and strength, there was something profoundly gentle about his touch, and the way he pulled the fabric aside. Though she stood naked in front of him, she knew the power was all hers.
The Goddess in her whispered of blood, power, and pleasure, the thoughts irresistible and twisted together.
You are a virgin!
Galia almost laugh out loud. After everything she and Mina had done, it was hardly the word she’d use. But it was true that she’d never been with a man. But Strayke wasn’t just any man. She had connected to him the moment their eyes had met.
She led him to the stone table. As he stood and watched, she traced her fingertips up and down his bare body. She ruffled her fingers through the hair on his chest. She swept her hands along his shoulders and stroked his jugular. When she brushed her fingertips across the tight buds of his nipples, he hissed. He leaned back against the table and gripped the stone, the look on his face nothing short of desperate.
The Goddess in her didn’t care. The Goddess wanted both his fear and his desire.
Galia moved cautiously, as i
f she held a pack of dogs on a leash. She kissed Strayke gently, then ran her lips along his chest and his neck. When she moved close, she could feel his cock pressed between them. The motion made him groan, but she ignored it. She learned his body they way she had learned Mina’s. She took in the lines of him, and the beauty of his scars. He felt like a part of her that had been missing. Below, her hand found his hard, heated shaft, sliding her fingers along it. Strayke moaned.
Slowly, she slipped to her knees. Though his cock was dark and straining for her, Strayke was frozen in place. She lapped experimentally at his shaft and the taut balls underneath. When he groaned, it made her smile. She tasted him at the tip, swirling her tongue underneath the foreskin before pulling his cock into her mouth. She heard his fingernails scrape the stone table.
Galia drew it out, tonguing him, and feeling his response. But as she did, heat gathered inside her. It was so familiar, but it was also strange, because she had only shared this with Mina before. She took as much of him in her mouth as she could. When she pulled back, his cock was slick.
“Lie back,” she said, her voice like many voices together, and no longer her own.
Obediently, he stretched across the table, his head dangling over one edge and his lower legs hanging off the other. Galia was aware of the knife, but ignored it. Instead, all she wanted was to feel Strayke under her body, and then inside it.
Galia lifted herself up on the table, straddling his hips. His hard flesh pressed into her slit.
“Who am I?” she said, in her many-voiced voice, terrible and sweet, demanding his answer.
Strayke raised his head, his delicious jugular pulsing. The Goddess in her needed his sacrifice. Power roiled inside, and she glanced at the knife. It would be so easy.
“You’re the woman I can’t stop thinking about,” he whispered hoarsely. At the unvarnished desire in his voice, the Goddess faltered. “You are the other part of my soul. You’re Galia.”
At his words, Galia felt her heart leap into her throat, staring hard into his glittering eyes. The words were true. He was the other part of herself. She heard the certainty of it as though she’d always known. And in that moment, she was stronger than the Goddess.
“I want you,” she whispered. “Do you want me?”
“Forever,” he swore.
She reached down and took his cock. He groaned as she squeezed it, and lifted it to her opening. The swollen head parted her slick folds, already wet for him. It would be so easy to take him inside. She teased herself, rubbing him along her, until they were both whimpering through clenched teeth. But finally Galia couldn’t take it any more. She sank down on him with a cry of relief, as he filled her. They fit perfectly, the stretch and fullness incredible. Strayke exhaled in a shuddering breath and let his head loll beyond the edge of the table.
Though she took one of his hands, he didn’t look up. Instead his hips bucked upward lifting her. She groaned, reveling in the deeper penetration. As she slid his hand between her legs, her eyes fluttered closed when he found her clit, pressing his fingers against her sensitive flesh.
“Oh yes,” she murmured, shifting her weight.
His hips bucked up against her. His other hand landed on her waist, encouraging her to the ancient rhythm that had claimed him. The pressure rose low in her belly, wondrous and hot. Her hips responded with desperate gyrations, circling and bucking. She couldn’t stop, and his fingers wouldn’t stop.
The Goddess inside her pushed her hard, the pleasure building faster, higher, and hotter. Ecstasy filled her, and she bore down on his fingers. The first shivers of her arousal nearly broke her to pieces, but she wouldn’t give in to them. Instead, she dug her nails into his chest, keening as she fought.
His beautiful body writhed underneath hers. Though he wanted her pleasure, he sought his own satisfaction as well. He thrust harder, plunging upward, grunting harshly as though it was pain. But as the tension in the deepest part of her finally snapped, her climax swelled. The pleasure broke over her like a tidal wave, rocking her to her very core. She felt him climax as well, thickening and jerking, his hips flying upward at a terrible speed. His hot seed shot upward, slapping in to her, threatening to rip her apart.
It was then the Goddess woke in her entirety. Ancient and terrible, powerful and cold, she stretched herself within Galia. Still shaking from her orgasm, Galia opened her eyes. Everything was both sharper and more blurred, shimmering in an opalescent glow. Her eyes were drawn to the knife.
As if in a dream, Galia saw her hand reach for it. When she looked down at Strayke, he smiled up at her. She couldn’t tell if he knew what was coming, but it hardly mattered. He would let her do it. Galia knew that.
Sacrifice him, daughter! Give him to me!
Through contact with the knife, Galia saw every priestess that had ever walked down into this darkness. They flashed in front of her eyes, a wretched parade. She could see the spray of blood, the cooling body taken into the earth.
Drink from my power! Give him to me!
She raised the knife up high. This was how it had to be. This was always how it would end. With his shaft still spearing her, and his seed warm in her belly, Galia brought the knife down.
But with a lurching spasm that tore her spirit from her body, she slammed it down on the stone. With the sound of shattering glass, the knife broke into a hundred pieces. One of them flew through the air and cut her jaw.
No! What have you done? No!
Blood ran down her chin and dripped onto Strayke’s chest. Slowly and painfully, Galia pulled herself away. Though she was sore, and her knees were bruised, she was entirely herself.
“Galia?” Strayke gasped, blinking and sitting up. “What happened?”
“What needed to,” she whispered.
Though Galia had not succumbed, the power of the Goddess was in her. She was the Oracle.
Though the Goddess’s rage surrounded her, Galia slowly dressed. Strayke slid off the table and did the same. But now as she watched, she knew what lay inside him: the green land where he had been born; the first time he had lain with a man, and the first time he had killed one; the first time he looked up into the sky and wondered what lay beyond their world. Then she saw the moment he’d met her and Mina.
“Someday,” she said quietly, “we will leave this behind. You won’t be a soldier. I won’t be an Oracle, and Mina won’t be a slave. We’ll be happy.” She held out her hand.
He smiled a little and took it.
They left the Goddess, and started their journey up.
* * *
• • • • •
* * *
When Galia knocked on the trapdoor, the Oracle opened it immediately. The smile on her face was beaming, but when she saw Strayke, it vanished.
“What have you done?” she said, her voice almost strangled.
As she and Strayke mounted the steps and entered the chamber, Galia met her mentor’s eyes. For five years she had learned the woman’s lessons of strength and will.
“Things change,” was all Galia said.
For a moment, she thought her mentor would lash out, declare her unfit, or claim Galia was no Oracle.
Instead, the woman only stood silently, her eyes dark and quiet.
But the ceremony had been real. Galia had taken the power of the Goddess and was, in fact, the Oracle. But rather than feel pride, or at least superiority, she looked on the downcast woman and only felt pity. Without another word, Galia turned and walked away. As she and Strayke closed the outer doors, she thought she heard her mentor cry out.
* * *
• • • • •
* * *
Galia was presented to the people of the city that day at noon. Her mentor relinquished her sovereign place, stepping down so that Galia could step up. As she recited her vows, she could not keep her eyes from Strayke and Mina, resplendent in their guards’ uniforms. Inside her, the Goddess raged, but it was less important than her lovers, less important than her own power.
As the people below cheered, she wondered, half in fear, half in awe, what she was truly capable of.
Chapter 12
“Gods,” Galia breathed. “I thought we’d never be done.”
It’d been her third full day of meeting just about every single person in the palace.
Mina tugged her into her chamber, and Strayke followed close behind, as an acolyte shut the door behind them. Galia had finally finished the last of her duties as the new Oracle––dinner with the priestesses that she now directed. But as always, Rhea had helped her navigate the day. Her mentor had been nowhere to be seen. Whether the woman’s absence had made them bold, or maybe Galia’s new position, she wasn’t sure, but Mina had declared that she wouldn’t be using the window tonight. Strayke had been waiting outside when they’d arrived.
Mina quickly pulled her into a kiss. Though Galia never minded the way that Mina took control, she felt her face flush, aware that Strayke was watching. Mina must have sensed her hesitation, because she drew back.
“What?” she asked, glancing at Strayke. “I really don’t think Strayke minds.”
But Galia couldn’t bring herself to look at him. Since their time in the subsanctum, when she’d defied the Goddess, they had barely seen each other.
“Mind?” he said, his voice husky. “I’ve conjured this every night in my dreams.”
Mina snorted quietly. “He’ll have his chance.”
Just the words, flooded Galia’s belly with warmth. But when she didn’t move, Mina gently lifted her chin. Her soft eyes met Galia’s.
“I’ve never seen you look more beautiful,” she said softly. “Don’t make me wait.”
Though Galia adored the sensuous and playful side of Mina, it was the tender moments that tore her apart. As Mina leaned in, Galia enfolded the slimmer woman in her arms and slowly closed her eyes. Their lips met in a soft kiss.
