by Aimee Moore
Dal stepped back and looked at me.
“How did you know what to do?” I asked on a whisper.
“Kraw are adept at many languages. Come, it is time for you to hear the song of your world.”
And I took the first shaking step into the chamber that would torment my existence for years to come.
✽✽✽
Energy.
So much dazzling energy suffused my limbs and my core. The room was vast, bigger than ten cottages, taller than the tallest tree I had ever known. And in the very center of it was a deep gouging of rock, veins of bright purple snaking their way out of the hole like gnarled roots made from light.
And in the very center of this veined crater, a massive ball of luminous purple writhed. A stone bridge ached over it. Water snaked down some of the walls around the cavern, and greenery came in with it, reaching for the pulsing ball of energy within the middle of the cavern.
I dared not go any closer, for every step that I took suffused me with more energy, more sparks of fire and chaos in my veins.
“Oh, Dal,” I breathed.
The hum in the air, the song of my world, seemed to mute my voice.
Dal gave a nod. “That is your world's leyline. But not just a leyline, it is also a doorway.”
“A doorway?” I whispered.
“Yes. Humans cannot yet control it, but they can draw on its power. I see this light in their eyes. They know that it is a doorway, though they know not to where.”
“How can you be sure?”
Dal stooped to pick up some crumbling rock, and flung it toward the writhing mass of vibrant purple under the stone arches. The sound of stone meeting the stone of the other side never came.
“Where does it go?” I whispered, my voice shaking from the raw power assaulting me.
“I do not know. It all likeliness, it absorbs lower life forms back into your world.”
“Death,” I breathed, never taking my eyes off its beauty.
“Every time humans take from it, they take from your world. This is why everything is dying. It must be destroyed, Sera.”
My blood hummed in my ears with every pulse of the doorway. “I don't know how,” I said.
“You must tame your fire. Our time here is short, my tenuous welcome is waning.”
I let off a shaking exhale, realizing as I did so that my body was thrumming with need. I glanced up at Dal to see him looking at me, an expression I couldn’t read crossing his face.
“You feel it, too?” I whispered.
Dal gave a single nod, his entire body tense as he did so. “Time is short, Sera. Use your gift. Perhaps the leyline will enhance it.”
I tore my eyes away from the man I loved, the man whose very presence was saturating my cells with desire. I let off another exhale and took a step toward the leyline. It hummed in my blood. I brought a spark of flame to my palm, watching with astonishment as it pulsed with the leyline. I tried to force it to grow, but it wavered under my efforts.
And then my back became warm, and Dal’s deep voice was in my ear, electrifying my spine, igniting a hot need between my legs.
“Surrender to it. It will obey.”
I backed into him on a whimper as hot sparks of ecstasy ran up and down my backside.
“Focus.” His voice was strained. His arousal was pressing against my backside, making it impossible to clear my mind. I had to destroy this leyline. To put an end to this writhing drain in my world. I sucked in deep, shallow breaths as I realized that my chest was tight with need.
“Dal...” I whispered.
Dal's fingertip ran a trail down my neck, and across my shoulder. I lost control and turned to him, pulling his mouth to mine. With a groan, Dal relinquished control as well, claiming my mouth in a carnal kiss that took my breath away. His hands grabbed at me with bruising force, lifting me against him with a roughness that should have frightened me.
My body thrummed for him, demanding more, harder, everywhere. My back met the wall, and a primal groan escaped my throat as he pressed his arousal against the hot, throbbing part of me that was going to kill me if I didn't have him. He tore at my skirts and I ripped with feeble fingers at his clothes, thanking anything that would listen when he tore his pants down.
There was no tenderness in this, no loving. He thrust into me fast, making raw sounds of his own, grinding my back into the rock as he slammed into me. I wanted more. I lifted my legs took it all, greedily, hearing myself far away begging for more, harder. Strange demands that I never thought I would make poured out of me. Each thrust fulfilled me just enough to keep me from going mad, and I dug my nails into my warrior as noises of ecstasy filled the cavern.
Before long he spilled himself into me, and I surrendered to my own climax. But it wasn't enough. It was oil doused on fire. With a groan Dal pulled me away from the wall and shoved me on the floor. On my hands and knees, I arched my back, throbbing for more, needing it like I needed to breathe. And he gave it.
Fingers digging into my hips, body slamming against mine, the length of him reaching places inside me that I didn't know could hurt so good, I cried out in euphoric bliss each time he drove into me. One hand left my hip and tangled into my hair, pulling my head back as his teeth sank into my shoulder. I came undone from pleasure, groaning like a savage creature as he continued to take me harder, faster. And still I wanted more. I had to have more.
How long we rutted like animals, I never knew. Time seemed limitless; our desires seemed endless. Perhaps Dal slowed time, perhaps time seemed to stop for our needs. Whatever it was that time did, I lost all sense of it until my limbs were too heavy to move and I had not the breath to speak. Dal, braced over me, glistening with sweat and breathing fast, collected his senses as his gaze roved over my skin.
“We must leave.” Dal's voice was strained.
“Can't,” I said on a squeak, my body still throbbing for more.
With a choked nod, Dal collected himself, made himself decent despite his obvious arousal, and lifted me from the floor. My body thrummed hard at his contact, making me groan with need, but I couldn't even lift my arms anymore. He carried me out of the room, past the runed doors, and all at once my body was cold, sore, and lifeless.
I was drenched in sweat, in bodily fluids, and in blood. Dal's sharp canines had made their marks on me in multiple places, and I remembered with vivid clarity how it had driven me to climax each time. I was covered in bruises. My hair was a tangled mess. I looked more like a victim than a willing participant to whatever it was we had just done.
I gasped as he set me on the cold floor, and shivers came over me. “How long were we...” I began to ask.
Dal shook his head with a sigh, the tension in his body seeming to melt away. “I know not. I only know that I cannot go back in there with you.”
I took another shivering breath, and Dal reached for me, pulling my sore body close. We sat propped against the stone wall for a time, looking like war victims, as my tender flesh throbbed all over and my shivering muscles began to calm. Dal was warm and still, patient with me as always.
I looked my warrior over, warmth suffusing me at just how much he looked as if he'd been to battle. Claw marks raked across his shoulder and disappeared under his shirt, his lip was bruised, his black hair tousled out of its tie.
“I can't go back in there and destroy the leyline without your help, Dal. You have to go with me.”
Dal shook his head with a sigh, looking down at me and trying to right my dress. I was grateful that the top portion of my dress was relatively untouched, except for some dirt across the back of it.
Dal murmured, his deep voice settling into my bones. “Had I known that you could tolerate Kraw mating, I would never have gone in there with you. Now that I know, I will not have control.” Dal rested his head against the wall and closed his eyes, reminding me of our captive days. “Your world's leyline has a strange power to it, a life of its own. You were affected by it as surely as I was.”
; “How can anyone go in there if they are overcome by desire like so?”
“It is different when one is alone.”
“You went in once already, were you not driven mad with lust?”
“No. But I felt as if I could crush through the stone walls with my very fists.” Dal raised a clenched fist as he spoke, then dropped it. “With you in there with me, nothing else matters but having you the way I want. I have harmed you, Sera.”
“You bear the marks of my affections as well.”
“I will be whole again soon. You will not. I am sorry.”
“Please don't apologize.”
“You must go back in there. Alone. And try to summon your flame. If my guess is correct, the leyline will be destroyed if you cauterize the wound in the earth, destroy the injury it stems from.”
“We'll have to come back, Dal. I don't have the strength to walk.” I stretched a shaking leg before me for but a moment before it went limp.
Dal let off a quick sigh, frowning, and then nodded to me. “I shall carry you.”
And so he did, and I was weightless in his arms as we traveled the long, elaborate tunnels under the castle until I could walk on my own. Dal used his gift to pass the guard quickly, returning time to normal as soon as we were out of earshot. And all too soon, we were back in the normal castle corridors, on our way to our quarters.
“Dal.”
“Sera.”
“Why do you not still time more often? Why must you resume it?”
“Kraw gifts have consequences.”
“Are you going to tell me what they are?”
“Nothing you need worry of.”
I played over what we had done in my mind, the raw desires rising up within me and bearing their fangs, making me question everything I knew about myself.
We had done things I had never imagined. He had been carnal, aggressive, possessive in his desires for me. I had been held down and ravished in primal ways that made me blush and throb for more.
When we got to the corridor that held our room, Dal looked down at me, and the ghost of a smile played across his face.
“What is it that makes you smile like so? I would like to do it more,” I said, a smile of my own forming with my words.
“I enjoy looking upon you.”
I laughed. “Even though I look as though I've been dragged behind a cart?”
Dal leaned in to me, pressing me against the wall next to our door, bracing his large hands on either side of my head. “You look as though you've spent an afternoon in the arms of a Kraw. And it is pleasing.”
My pulse quickened in my throat, and already the stirrings of need were heating my blood. “Goodness, and poor you having to spend the afternoon in the arms of a weak human,” I said with a teasing smile.
Dal was moving in closer. “This human is not weak. She is small, yes, but strong.”
“You look very much as if you wish to test that theory,” I said, twining my arms around Dal's neck.
Dal nipped at my ear, and I shivered. “Have you not had enough testing, Sera?” He whispered into my ear, ending my name on a husky growl.
Just then, the very last thing I wanted to hear met my ears in the muted corridor.
“Oh my word,” said Mindrik.
Dal straightened away from me with a sigh, revealing the ice of Mindrik's gaze. He curled his lip in disgust, dropped a large bouquet of flowers on the floor, and vanished down the hall. The petals splashed away from the bunch as the flowers hit the floor.
Dal muttered a Kraw curse.
My head spun as Dal rushed past me. “What just happened?” I whispered.
Dal was already entering our quarters, lumbering toward our things. “We must leave now.”
“Now? So sudden? But Dal, where would we go?”
“We are not safe here any longer.”
“We don't know that.” I fidgeted with my fingers as Dal swept around the room, gathering our things into my bag, along with a few things that weren't ours.
“The human is injured by our affections. He is weak, and the weak will always find a stronger ally to fight their battles. You are in as much danger as I at this moment. I was foolish to indulge in the open. I allowed myself to be distracted.”
“Distracted?” I asked in a faint voice, my world spinning from confusion.
“It matters not. Collect clothing for travel.”
I looked around the room. Clothing for travel. He had said that, right? But this room, it was gorgeous. And the food, and the luxurious bed, and the unhindered nights spent in the warm and safe arms of Dal, all of it was a dream. A happy dream that I never wanted to end. No, this couldn’t be happening yet. I knew it would end, but not yet. I wasn’t ready.
“Sera!” Dal barked at me, snapping me out of my dazed stupor. I waved my hands about, collecting my senses, and dashed to the wardrobe. I didn't look at what I grabbed, stuffing fabric down into my bag as surely as I stuffed dismal disappointment down inside of me over losing this fairytale reality.
I straightened on a gasp. “Dal, the leyline! I haven't destroyed it yet.”
“I shall return and find another way to destroy it.”
“How? There's no way in here from the outside, or else Patroma would have penetrated the walls long ago.”
“Patroma is patient and strategic. She will rain destruction upon this place at the Warlord's command, and take minimal damage while doing it.”
Dal stopped digging through a drawer, and turned toward me, sadness etched into his face. “You need to know, Sera, that I have to go back to Patroma. And I have to tell her where the leyline is.”
I staggered as if he'd slapped me. “What? You can't be serious. You can't go back,” I said. “Dal, you can't do it, they'll kill you. You must know it. They're going to kill you.” My voice was becoming frantic.
“Kraw will not kill me if they have a use for me. It is logical to keep me alive. This is the only way to save your world.” And with that, he turned back to his task, gathering things that could have been useful out on the road.
I rushed over to him, pulling at his arm so that he would look at me. I may as well have pulled at a boulder. “To hell with my world. Dal, I can't let you go back to that horrifying existence. They will starve you again. They will beat you, torment you, and kill you. Don't you remember the promise Patroma made?
“I can't bear the thought of you going back to those Kraw to die. If we go there then they'll make good on their promise to me, too. Nothing good can come from us offering ourselves to the people who have only offered us horror.”
Dal stilled, then straightened, hazel eyes burning into mine. “You are not to go with me.”
My mouth popped open. “How can you think that? I'm going with you,” I said.
The muscles in Dal's face tightened with pain. “Kraw will break you, Sera. You are not safe among my people right now.”
“If you go, then I go. Make no mistake, Dal, I will burn down everything in my path to go with you, whether it means my demise or not. Think about that before you decide to go back to your barbaric people.” I said with vehemence.
Dal's face was twisted with sorrow and pain, and he reached for me, before letting his hand drop. “You cannot go,” he said. “The only way we will find peace is if the leyline is destroyed. I will take you somewhere safe first, somewhere far away, and then I will return to Patroma and help her destroy the leyline. Afterward, I will come for you, and we will put war behind us with the blessing of my people and move forward into the life we wish for.”
Hope and anger shot through me all at once, and I shoved at the immovable man I loved. “Damn my world, let it crumble, let it rot! How can you pick this forsaken rock of frail humans over me? Don't you see that your people will kill you when they've gotten what they want? You can't go, Dal, because I can't...” …Live without you.
I clutched at my head as my world spun. It was all too heavy, all of the things weighing on me were too much. Dal eased me to the b
ed, sitting me down, and glancing at the door. His touch was fragile, as if I were made of glass. Only hours before his touch had been bruising, and I wanted that concrete force to steady me now.
I raised my lashes to Dal, seeing in the strong face the immovable decision of a man who has his mind made up. Tears blurred my vision, and knowing what I was dooming myself to, my mouth moved of its own accord. “I'm going with you. Whatever they do to you, they do to me. I can't be without you, Dal.” Fear gripped me the moment the words left my mouth, and a tear spilled down my cheek. He knew that I loved him. Would he still cast me aside?
Dal swiped a thumb over the wetness on my face. “You are strong, Sera. Your strength was never in question. Were things different, I would keep you at my side so that together we could fight the world. But now I need you to be stronger and do as I ask, because you are not the whole of my consideration any longer.” And at that, Dal brushed one hand across my belly, gaze penetrating me with meaning.
My world tilted, and I opened my mouth, then closed it as I searched at the face of the man I loved. Too many questions to ask at once became jammed in my throat.
“Please,” Dal murmured between us, “gather your things and come with me. I will tell you everything you wish to know when we are safe.”
“And why would you not be safe here, friends?” Sol Lalpund strolled into our quarters with as many as fifteen armed men at his side. Dal cursed again.
I stood on shaking legs that threatened to give out for the second time today as Dal tensed at my side. My middle seemed to glow in my mind. A tiny, fragile ball of pulsing light. A child? It was possible? I couldn't breathe.
Mindrik and Sol Creljin came forward, Mindrik looking at me as if I were a decomposing Kraw war steed.
“Indeed, tell us what misdeeds would cause two innocent guests such as yourselves to feel unsafe,” Sol Creljin said with a sneer.
