by VS Winters
Rowan swept his fingers across my skin, tracing from my lips to my neck and my breasts. He cupped them as his tongue flicked over my nipples, making them stiff with yearning. Encircling his lips around one, he started to suck and moved a finger to my mons. I was dripping wet for him, he easily slid in two fingers to spread me open, preparing me for the large cock throbbing against his belly.
"I need you inside of me," I gulped as my delicate muscles ached around his fingers. He smiled wickedly, removing his fingers and shoving my thighs apart so that he was positioned between them. Leaning forward, I moaned at the feeling of his cock sliding up against my folds. The tip kissed my center, not yet entering it. I began to squirm with need.
"I'm going to fuck you until you scream my name, do you understand?" He growled, sending a shiver up my spine.
"Yes, oh God, yes, please." I panted, grinding my hips to try and force him further inside. I needed it, more than I had ever needed anything in my life. What was the air when I had him? He thrust against me but not hard enough to penetrate. It was another tease, payback for my teasing him. Rowan smiled and slid his cock over my clitoris, knowing that he was already close to sending me over the edge by the way I was fidgeting. I wanted to beg. To promise him anything, so long as he finished what he had started.
"Ready, Witch?"
He didn't give me time to answer as he pushed himself inside of my aching slit. I couldn't so much as breathe with every marvelous inch of him that was entering me. His cock grew against the smooth walls of my vagina, stretching me out until I wasn't sure if I would be able to take anymore. His neck was rigid, his breathing shallow, as though it was having the same impact on him as it was me. He looked so beautiful. Shoving his hands under my waist, he dragged my back into an arch so that he could bury himself in my pussy even further.
I cried out in satisfaction, which was cut short by his lips pressing against mine. It was the calm before the storm. Rowan adjusted his hips and started to rock back and forth, my muscles pulling him deeper. Releasing my lips from his, he stood tall on the floor while my ass hung halfway off of the bed. He used one hand to tweak my nipples and the other to massage my core. It was almost too much to take. Waves of pleasure sloshed around me until my ears were ringing.
With every thrust, his cock slammed against my inner walls, which suckled at him, wanting more. Rowan was eager to give it.
"Gods, you are fucking perfect." He said between breaths. I could do nothing but pant in response, the need inside of me rising. I was a screaming teapot about to bubble over. The wave was going to come crashing down, sending me into another plane of existence. No lover I'd ever had, had made me feel the way that I did at that moment. It was like my own personal shard of heaven, and the angels were singing as I felt my inner muscles tighten around Rowan. "You're mine. I own you now. Every time you orgasm, it will be because of me. Do you understand?"
Rowan thrust a hand under my head to pull my forehead against his, still buried inside of my opening. He wasn't even sweating.
"Yes," I breathed in gasps as my body decreased in its shivering. I didn't take the words lightly. I was his. And, shockingly, the idea of it didn't make me want to leave. My thoughts were disrupted as he slammed his hips against my ass, shoving himself into me as far as he could. So deep that I bit my lip in a wonderful mixture of pain and pleasure. He continued the dance of pulling out to where his tip rested just inside of my opening and then thrusting so strongly that I thought I might split in two.
With swift hands, he flipped me onto my stomach and plowed himself into me deeper than before. I took the blanket between my teeth to stop myself from screaming. Rowan noticed the attempt to stifle my voice and leaned forward to take a handful of my hair, pulling me back so that he could kiss my neck, never stopping his perfect rhythm. The quilt fell from my lips, leaving my mouth wide open, my brows drawn in ecstasy.
He kept me that way, enjoying inflicting the small amount of pain just as much as I was enjoying feeling it. His cock grew even more solid inside of me, making every thrust feel so much harder. My eyes rolled back, and my teeth were bared, clenching tightly.
"Yes, baby! Please give me all of you, Rowan!" I screamed through my teeth, releasing the pent-up cries that were begging to be set free. It was what Rowan had been waiting for. He pulled himself from me just in time, and I felt his come roll over my hips and flow in hot droplets down my belly. With one snap of his fingers, a towel appeared in his hand and he started to wipe me clean. When he had finished, he tossed it to the floor and turned me to face him.
A flush crept up my neck and across my chest when I saw his eyes. They were bright, so full of pleasure that it made me feel more naked than ever. Rowan trailed his hands down my shoulders, across the crevasse of my inner elbows and into my hands, entangling his fingers with mine.
"I think--" I breathed, trying to muster some courage. With a sigh, I thought, fuck it. What did I have to lose? Besides possibly the only being I'd developed intense feelings for, in this world or my own. "I think that I'm falling for you, Rowan. I'm sorry, I can't help but feel connected to you somehow"
"Eden," He answered, drawing my chin up so that I was looking at my fears, straight in the face. Rowan's gaze slid from my chin to my lips and rested on my eyes. "I've known you'd destroy me from the moment we met. You are like nothing I have been trained to expect. I'm captivated by you. My mind turns itself over to the point of utter confusion every time that we touch. A woman like you is a rare find, no matter what Realm you belong to. I'd be a fool not to feel the same."
I wanted to weep at the understanding that coated his words, and I knew he had meant every single one of them. A memory uprooted me from the bliss of that moment as I wondered how much of the emotional whirlwind I had just felt was my own, and how much of it was his. Scott had said that I had absorbed his emotions when I attacked him. It made me wonder how much of the lust had been my own. How much of the deeper emotion I was talking about was Rowan's?
"What do you know about Empaths?" I asked Rowan with curious eyes. His face pulled into a frown, his mood changing instantly. Damn, I was ruining it. Killing the mood with a simple question.
"I know a few things. Why do you ask?" His voice was as tight as his face, his eyes searching mine fervently. I smiled at him, releasing a little laugh to try and calm my newly sprung nerves. Looking at his fingers in mine, I twitched my pinky across his palm fondly before continuing.
"It's probably nothing, but Scott said that I'm an Empath. He figured it out when--"
Rowan released my hands and rose, taking a step back. My heart jumped into my throat as I watched his face turn from confusion into revulsion, hatred even. My heart sank as I moved to reconnect with him, to explain I didn't even know what it meant to be what I was. Rowan watched me carefully, taking an additional calculated step away when I took one toward him. Ouch.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Rowan
A fucking Empath! How did I not recognize it, the aura that was now clear as day to me? It seeped from her, like fog being chased by the morning sun. How had I been so careless? Did she know what I was? Knowledge like that could get me overthrown, it could get me abolished and thrown to the hounds. One Empath in the kingdom was dangerous, but two...Fuck.
Eden's eyelids were becoming pink, I could see that she was holding back tears while I treated her like a plague. I questioned how much of it was real. Was she making me feel remorseful? Forcing me to desire running to her, to sweep her into my arms and promising that everything would be alright? A mass was rising in my throat, one of guilt. Shaking my head, I knew that I needed to get out of the room as quickly as possible before caving in to her anguish.
I hastened through the doorway, slamming it behind me and ordering Azrael to keep her on lockdown. Sharp stabs of grief buried themselves in my gut as I walked the corridors, hearing her fist thumping against the door as I walked. If she was faking innocence, it could be dangerous for someone like me. Knowledge holds
power, and I couldn't risk another second with her in case she knew exactly what she was. Undoubtedly, she had been sent by the Coven to destroy me.
I traveled out of the keep and into my favorite of the clustered gardens. It was a small, peaceful place that I could have to myself whenever I wished. None of the staff would bother me here. Anchoring myself on the stone bench in front of the fountain, I tried to sort through my scattered thoughts, attempting to decide on a plan of action.
I couldn't return to her. Not yet. If she failed the Final Trial, she would be on her way homeward, to forget everything. Being stripped of her status would exhaust her powers, the mortal realm would as well, and Empaths didn't exist in the Mortal Realm like they did in mine. If she succeeded, however, I would be obliged to figure out how to hide what we were from the council, as well as the people. History didn't speak warmly of Empaths, particularly not those who became lovers. Danger.
I couldn't handle thinking what my kind would do to us if we were found out. What they would do to her. I shuddered at the idea. For hours that I didn't bother to count, I sat in the garden thinking until I felt Eden's energy dim. She had fallen asleep, but I kept a link attached to her just so that I could be sure that she was alright, for I had sensed every tear that had fallen from her eyes from the moment I left.
It was killing me inside to have to be the monstrosity she had convinced herself that I wasn't. But, it was for her own well-being. I wanted her. As someone who grew up privileged by royal blood, I hadn't wanted or needed much in my life. This was different. I felt connected to Eden. On such a profoundly deep level that it scared me, and I was not one to be scared easily. I'd seen things, during battle, that would make grown men weep. Empath's had that impact on one another. Destined to find their match, they would go to great lengths to protect each other.
For someone in my position, that could be a very dangerous path. All I knew was, despite my fear, I needed her in my life. In one form or another, I couldn't let her go. And, if I had to, it might drive me to insanity.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Everything felt strange the next morning. I awoke in Rowan's bed at daybreak, but without him alongside me. He had not returned the previous night. I knew that I must have said something extremely offensive to make him react in such a way. I'd worked out that being an empath must be worse than just being a Witch to the people here. Determining that I'd cried enough the night before, I left the mattress to resume pounding on the door.
"Hello!" I shouted in a croaking, raw voice. My fists beat against the door in bursts of three, disregarding the pain it produced. The night before, I had done this so many times that my hands had curled up in agony, refusing to open from the discomfort that followed after hours of abuse. "I need fresh clothes. And some coffee would be nice!"
The door swung open, and I took three swift steps back. My heart sank when I realized it wasn't Rowan returning to me. Instead, the person that stood in the doorway was Ellie. My spirit warmed slightly at the face of the tiny--whatever she was.
"Morning mistress. Apologies for the tardiness, I wasn't aware that you had been transferred." She wheeled in my breakfast and a change of clothes. The heap of attire seemed much larger than usual that morning. Ellie grunted as she hoisted it onto the bed while I poured myself a cup of coffee and sat down, hungry, and ready for the day to be over with already.
I watched her in curiosity. "Forgive me, El, I'm in the habit of saying things I'm not supposed to lately, so forgive me if I come off as offensive by asking, but...What are you, exactly?"
Ellie chuckled, laying out the breakfast feast and wiping her hands clean against her apron.
"I don't think that's inappropriate at all, mistress. I am a Brownie. Proud of the fact too!" She shot me a toothy grin and moved around me to start pinning my hair into a low bun that sat tight against my nape. With her behind me, I ate the rest of my breakfast in silence, drinking the coffee until the pot was empty. Pondering what had happened between Rowan and me, hoping that there was a way to fix it. Ellie bowed to me once she had finished grooming my hair into a stylish, military look.
"Good luck at the coliseum today mistress, I'm running late for my other chores, and am sorry to say that I can't help you to dress this morning. It is my hope that, when we next meet, I will be calling you 'Your Grace.'" She gave me one last hopeful smile, which I returned before she left, permitting me to examine my latest gear.
Coliseum, a place where hundreds of people watch you battle to the death? I tried to push away the idea of today's Trial possibly holding an audience, a detail that nobody had mentioned. Not that I was told much of anything; it wasn't new. I picked up the first piece of new clothing to examine it.
The flawlessly cut virescent scales layered over one another and mimicked those of the Dragon that I had encountered in the cave. But these were smaller, finer and had been polished to a gleam. The sleeves were long and clung to my arms with surprising elasticity. Scales across the breast jingled as I pulled the top on. The fit of it was perfect, this outfit had been made for my body, down to the last curve. I tugged on the plain leggings afterward, as well as the pieces of metal meant to protect my thighs and shoulders.
It was tricky, buckling the leather straps on my own. But after an hour or so, I was completely outfitted in the armor. I realized soon after that I should have put my boots on before all the heavy shit, but it was too late. Cursing at myself for it, I spent the next twenty minutes doing just that. A chunk of hair had loosened from the bun on the back of my head during the struggle and rested between my eyes as I sat up. Blowing it away before it got stuck in the sweat that was now beading my forehead, I stood again, heading for the door.
Azrael was in the hall waiting for me, something I discovered after turning the handle of the door, surprised it opened at that time. He looked me up and down disapprovingly before advancing to jerk on the pieces of armor that I had misplaced on my shoulders. I felt like an insignificant little ant under his judgmental stare.
"So, um, where am I supposed to go for this event?" I asked softly.
"I'll be accompanying you to the coliseum. Lord Blaive awaits you there." He said shortly.
"Yeah, I'm sure he does," I mumbled, remembering the fit he had thrown the night before when he had left me without so much as an explanation. Azrael's wide nostrils flared, his pitch-black brows angry with lines setting between them. He was Fae, so getting those wrinkles must not have been an easy task to accomplish. Pulling me up the hall, he waited to speak again until we were out of earshot of the other guards.
"You don't understand, do you? Stupid Witch, stupid mortal." He growled and stared at me like I had just kicked his dog. "The Lord favors you. So much, that he was willing to reveal knowledge to you that could get him overthrown. Are you a moron?" He jabbed a humongous finger into my temple. "Because right now, in this moment, you look like a damn fool, woman."
"I--what? I--" It was challenging to find the words to respond. With a deep breath, I decided that my best course of action would be to show him that I, too, had feelings. "I told him something about myself, and he ran away from me. I've done nothing wrong here! Other than to be what I was born as. What is his excuse?"
"You don't know him. The boy would have been killed by his father, like Fenris and his kind were," His eyes softened just slightly. "But the young lord survived. Because Alara, his mother, and yours worked together to stifle the boy's powers. When they were discovered, Rowan's father thought the worst. He never found out about Rowan being an empath. The boy lived because of your mother's sacrifice, Eden. Do you understand that? Rowan knows of this. But, he--" Azrael's head snapped ahead, hearing the footsteps long before I did. He looked back at me and leaned in.
"Win the Trial. Earn his trust and respect. Then talk to him like a grownup, little girl."
"Wait, back up. Who is Fenris?"
"Your father," He whispered, shaking his head to cut off any other questions. Ah, so my biological father had a name.
It wasn't much to go on, but I'd take it. The news of my mother's sacrifice struck a chord in me. It was a hard thing to find out that my mother hadn't deserted me just to run to la-la-land for a different life. Guilt was what I was feeling. Shame for hating her.
With that, Azrael was back to being a bodyguard, leading into the courtyard that was filled to the max with crowds of people. The mob exploded into a roar when they saw my face. Not one of anger, but excitement. It was unbelievable. I felt like I finally knew what it was like to be famous. How did I even have fans?
"They watch through the crystal balls," Azrael whispered, as though he read my mind. Well, now I just felt embarrassed. People had watched me in each Trial, including the part where I almost died at the hands of---well---myself. Fingers reached out to me from every direction, trying to touch whatever they could land on as the screaming grew louder with encouraging cries. I smiled meekly and waved to as many people as I could while we passed through, headed toward the city below.
The enormous entrance to the city was hanging open, enabling the townspeople to approach the keep freely. Under the vigilant eyes of the guards, of course. I even saw one guy as he tried to make a run for it through the castle entrance. He was immediately pounced on and stopped before he could lay a finger on the building. Sheesh, these people take things pretty seriously around here.
A short walk later, we strolled upon the main street of the town that I still didn't know the name of. It was my first time in the city while people were awake and the streets were bustling. The sound of children's merriment filled the crisp morning air, along with the parents screaming at them to get their chores done instead of gaping at the contestant walking the dusty, cobblestone path. Merchants were also a prominent source of the commotion, bellowing out their goods in hopes that the new parade of bodies would be tempted enough to stop in for some skewered lamb, fresh fish just pulled from the sea, or a nice beaded necklace.
