by Anna Carven
She doesn’t need to know about that.
“Now I know you’re going to Daimara.” I extend my hand, longing for her touch. Ghostly warmth whispers against my palm. “There’s only one route for the ship to sail. I will find you, Amali.”
I know.
I try to grasp her again, but my obsidian fingers find only cold air. “You shouldn’t be here, Amali.” A part of me screams in despair as I push her away, but for her sake, I must do this. She doesn’t belong here in this dead, soundless forest. “You have to go back now.” A sense of urgency overtakes me. This place surely isn’t part of the mortal world. What if she gets stuck here?
Oh, don’t look so scary, Kaim. It’s all right. I know. I just wanted to stay with you a little while longer. Please don’t push me away. I’ll go. I will. Just not yet. I haven’t seen you in so long. Being close to you like this… I need this so badly right now. I need you.
“And you have no idea what you do to me… even in my dreams, little forest witch.” My voice cracks as I utter the words. Now I have a raging erection and white-hot anger in my heart. I feel tenderness and despair. How is it even possible to feel so many conflicting things at once? I desire revenge. I desire destruction. Complete and utter chaos.
If fate grants me power, I will tear the world apart.
But most of all, I desire her.
“Fine,” I whisper, yearning to take her into my arms and hold her tightly and tell her that no more harm or suffering will come to her in this life. And when she pleads with me like that… I am not strong enough to refuse her. “Stay… for a while. But then you have to go back. If I could stay with you here forever, I would, but I am only telling you this because I don’t really know what this place is, and I fear—I sense—that it could be dangerous for you here.”
Oh sweet Kaimeniel, everything to do with you is dangerous. I knew that the very first time I laid eyes upon you. Of course I’ll return and wait for you to come to me, but I don’t like it when you look so tense and worried like this. You look like you’re about to explode. Her voice turns devious. How can she manage to sound devious at a time like this? Let me do something about that. I might be little more than a ghost in your other world, but you can definitely feel me, can’t you?
“I… I can. Cursed gods, what are you doing now, Amali?”
She doesn’t say another word. Her ephemeral hands glide over my back, my torso, my hips...
Right down to the top of my trousers, where she quickly and deftly undoes the leather fastenings.
My trousers fall, exposing my desperate need. My erection is massive; almost painful.
“Amali, what are you doi—”
Something warm and invisible surrounds my straining cock. Is that her hands? No, her…?
You know, it’s a little fun, being a ghost in your world.
“B-because I can’t see you?”
Because you can’t really stop me from doing what I want, and right now, all I want to do is make you forget all about the world outside, even if it’s just for a moment.
“I can’t really stop you?” I ask in disbelief, my eyebrows going sky-high. My anger dissolves, instantly reduced to little more than a smoldering ember in the back of my consciousness. “What are you playing at, crazy nymph?”
We’re both going through a trial right now. I just want to remind you of what you’re coming back to, Kaimeniel.
How I love it when she calls me by that name. I don’t even know if it’s truly my name, but it must be, because she says it with such conviction, rolling it perfectly off her little tongue in that sexy Tieg accent of hers.
“Unfair,” I protest. “I can’t see you. I can’t even touch you, let alone restrain you.”
Why ever would you want to do that?
Invisible hands glide over my cock. My erection intensifies a thousandfold. I close my eyes and groan. Is this really a dream? Is this madness? I can’t bear it anymo—
Something soft and warm and sinfully good slides down the length of my cock. It isn’t her hands anymore. It’s…
“Amali, what are you doi—”
Mm, she groans, and suddenly I realize that impossible sensation is her mouth sliding over my erection.
Devious woman, I marvel. How can she even think of this when she is a prisoner of the Midrians, forced to endure suffering that she won’t even speak of to me.
And even though I am furious; even though I want to go and kill every single Midrian on the face of the continent, I can’t do a thing right now, because she has me at her mercy.
“A-aah,” I gasp, closing my eyes as she moves back and forth, harder, faster, sending me into another dimension entirely; one where deluded Midrian emperors and vindictive Ven and mad gods don’t even exist.
There’s no evil here.
There’s just pleasure.
And her.
Instinctively, I reach forward, trying to touch her; this very real figment of my fever-dream. I no longer care how or why she came to be here with me.
I just want her. All of her.
With her ephemeral tongue and lips, she weaves a spell that sends me spiraling into uncontrollable lust and pleasure. My hands find warmth, and suddenly she feels so very real beneath my fingertips.
I run my monstrous black hands through her silky-soft hair; over her head, down her neck, her shoulders, along her strong, supple arms. Her skin is soft and dewy. Her body is just as I remember it; lithe and strong and utterly perfect.
Gently, tenderly, she sucks on me until I’m weak at the knees and trembling all over; until I’m so hard I could explode.
Surely I’ve died and gone to some sort of heaven.
Just when I think nothing could ever possibly top this, she takes me deeper.
“Am-ali…” Her name is a ragged cry, drawn from deep within my throat.
Stars explode behind my eyelids. I don’t dare open my eyes. She feels so real to me that I can’t open my eyes.
I can’t bear to look down and see nothing.
So I just drown in the undeniable feeling of her until I can take it no longer.
I’m going to…
Sweet hells…
She’s going to make me come.
No, not like this.
Without thinking, I withdraw from her tender, savage lips and drop to my knees.
My eyes are still closed. I rely on touch and instinct alone, my hands gliding over her body. With every passing moment, she feels more and more real.
She feels naked.
I kiss her lips. I kiss her neck. I kiss the gentle hollow above her collarbone. I take her perfectly round breasts into my arms and caress her pert nipples, prolonging my sublime torture just a heartbeat longer.
Then I lay her on her back on the silent forest floor amidst the soft, scattered leaves that never make a sound when one walks on them.
She moans with desire, her soft, sweet voice echoing in my mind.
I find her entrance. I find her so perfectly ready for me.
I fuck her. Slowly and tenderly at first, then faster as my urge becomes uncontrollable.
I give her what she needs.
I take what is mine.
I listen to her sweet, desperate cries in the dark chamber of my mind.
And just like that, I’m over the edge.
For a heartbeat, my eyes snap open, and I see her face.
Her glorious face.
She lies back against the grey and black leaves, eyes closed, lips slightly parted. In this silent, colorless world, she appears more vivid than ever. Her red hair is wild and tousled. Her lips are the most delicate shade of pink, glistening with a hint of moisture.
Her deep crimson Mark burns into my soul.
She’s no ghost.
She isn’t just a figment of my imagination.
She is very real, and she is mine.
I close my eyes, and let go.
Of everything.
And I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I will tear apar
t the very heavens just to get her back.
Twelve
Amali
For one sublime moment, I feel perfectly safe.
When I’m with him, I always feel safe.
Suddenly, I’m solid and I’m in his arms, climaxing hard as he engulfs my lips with his, as he holds me tightly, pressing me against his warm, powerful body.
As he comes inside me.
I writhe and twist, riding the waves of our pleasure.
He kisses me deeply, devouring me with the hunger of a man who’s been starved for an eternity.
Then he slowly pushes up on his arms, still inside me as the aftershocks of my orgasm ripple through me.
Perhaps I have already died, and this is heaven. Never could I have imagined that I would get to experience this kind of pleasure in my lifetime.
Even in my dreams.
My eyes snap open. I’m perfectly naked in this silent, colorless world, where even the autumn leaves on the forest floor come in shades of grey and black.
I stare up at the man of my dreams, drinking in his otherworldly glory. He looks different in this world. His already pale skin has turned the color of snow, and his eyes radiate darkness. His hair is longer too, falling past his shoulders; a tousled dark halo framing his hard, elegant features.
The anger hasn’t left him completely. It’s still there in his midnight-black eyes, smoldering alongside his desire.
He looks so wild and fierce. The way he’s looking at me right now, as if he could devour me completely…
It makes me melt a thousand times over.
Why should I even go back to the real world? I could stay here in his arms for an eternity.
“I’m coming for you,” he whispers, stroking my hair with his obsidian hand. “Be patient, my love. You must endure for just a little while longer. This too will pass, and I will make the Midrians pay for what they have done.” He kisses me tenderly on my lips. Only he could make an ominous revenge-oath sound so wonderful. “You have to go now. Just remember, you have power too. Use it.”
His voice begins to fade.
His features start to blur ever so slightly.
“No,” I whisper. “Don’t leave me…”
“I love you, Amali.”
I reach out to touch his face, but at that moment, his elegant features shatter into a thousand tiny specks of light, threaded through with darkness.
“No!” I cry, trying to cling to every last trace of him.
But he’s gone, and I’m falling, falling, falling…
“Oi.”
Another voice, this one rough and harsh, pierces through the fading memory of Kaim, even as I fight so hard to keep him in my arms.
“Oi.”
Shut up, fool. I rage against the intrusion, wanting nothing but my godlike lover. How dare they interrupt us?
But there’s a pain in my shoulder… and now in my head. Something is poking me; something hard and sharp.
“Oioioi. Wake up, bitch. Witch. Whatever. It’s all the same to me. Wake up, or we’re all in big fucking trouble.”
Now the hard, sharp thing raps on my head, sending a lance of pain through my skull.
I gasp, and the delicious memory of Kaim disappears from my mind’s eye.
“Stop!” I yell over the roar of the sea, utterly furious. How dare they? My eyes flutter open. I feel the roughness of the rope around my arms and legs. I taste the salty spray and feel the cold ocean wind on my back. I see the sky above. It’s no longer cloudless and blue. Now there’s darkness above, and I catch only glimpses of the stars through the thick clouds.
Oh.
It’s night.
It’s cold.
I’m tied up against the figurehead of a ship, arms and legs wrapped around the hard, artificial body of an arrogant god.
And Kaim is gone.
Damn it.
The waves are higher and fiercer than before, lifting the ship up and down, spending a spray of cold seawater over me as the prow hits swell after swell.
The pointy thing pokes me again.
“Stop that,” I hiss in irritation. I look up and see a man reaching forward from the edge of the ship, a long pole in one hand. That’s the cursed thing that’s been poking me this whole time?
“Drink,” he shouts over the roar of the ocean.
“What?” I yell back, confused.
“Drink the fucking water, unless you want to die of thirst, you stubborn bitch!”
The end of the pole hovers just above my eyes. There’s a wet sponge attached to one end. I can’t even worry about the indignity of drinking from a wet sponge right now.
My parched throat begs for water.
The pole wavers up and down until I manage to catch it between my teeth. I bite down on the cursed thing, taking the sponge between my teeth.
I drink. It tastes foul and stale, but it’s water nonetheless. I suck up every last drop until the sponge turns dry.
The man on the other end pulls the stick away.
“No!” I cry. It isn’t nearly enough. That small sip of water has only whetted my thirst for more. “I need more water. Please.”
Unbidden, an image of the crystal clear streams of my homeland flashes through my mind. My soul cries out for the sweet, fresh water that flows down from the mountains. There, I can drink to my heart’s content.
“That’s all you’re getting for now,” snarls the man, a leather-faced, barrel-chested sailor with crude tattoos on his sinewy forearms. “Be a good girl, and maybe I’ll give you another one before the morning sun comes up.”
Disappointment and anger course through me, twisting thorns into my heart. “Bastard,” I hiss under my breath as I look up to the dark skies. It looks very cloudy tonight. A chill wind is blowing in from one side. “A storm’s coming,” I shout back. I don’t know that for certain, but I’m willing to take a chance. “It’s an absolute monster. You’ve angered the gods, Midrian.”
The sailor scoffs, but I detect a trace of fear in his body language.
“You don’t believe me, do you?” Tossing caution to the wind, I laugh maniacally. It’s all I can do. Either my words will be dismissed as the ravings of a madwoman, or they’ll turn out to be very potent indeed. “You’d better come back and talk to me when we’re in the midst of it, or I swear on my life you’ll meet your death at the bottom of this sea.”
The sailor raises his pole threateningly. “Shut up, witch, or I’ll knock yer fucking teeth out.” He mutters angrily under his breath as he walks away, leaving me alone with my thirst and gnawing hunger and the fury of the sea.
And the one thing that keeps me sane right now.
I close my eyes and think of Kaim. I remember the feeling of being held so tightly in his arms.
The Kaim I saw in my dreams was real.
He was real.
Be patient, my love. I’m coming for you.
I know.
When he comes, the storm the sailors fear so much will be nothing compared to what he’s going to do to them.
Thirteen
Kaim
“No…” I whisper as Amali slips through my fingers, her warm, perfect body turning into quicksand beneath my cursed black fingers.
But then I remember that she shouldn’t be in this place; she shouldn’t feel so solid here, and I feel a sense of relief even as my need becomes a gaping chasm.
See, I’ve long suspected that this cold place I inhabit in my dreams is close to the veil between life and death.
If she’s left this place, then she’s gone back to the world above.
She’s alive.
And I need to figure out how to rescue her.
Slowly, I rise to my feet, pulling my trousers over my hips, shaking my head at the memory of my devious mate, who can do such things to me even in a place like this.
With little more than a look, she can make me lose my mind.
I glance around, searching for any sign of the dark, nameless asshole, but he is nowhere to be seen.<
br />
Is he hiding? Has he been watching us? If he has, I will fucking kill him. I don’t care if he’s the Dark One himself.
Oh, you don’t need to be so modest, boy. I see everything. I know everything.
“Well, aren’t you clever?” I snipe, feeling petty and irritable. “Do you always make a habit of disappearing when you’re most needed?”
On the contrary. I tend to appear when I’m least needed. People never truly want me, my boy, even when they’ve convinced themselves that they yearn for me.
“I don’t deal in riddles. Are you aware of my situation or not?”
As I said, I know everything.
“Then you know I seek to bargain with you.”
I do.
“And yet you ignore me now? When before you were so insistent?”
The dark figure chuckles in my mind. I have never ignored you, Kaimeniel. But you are not yet ready for what my blood will grant you.
“Now I remember why I never wanted to bargain with you. Speak plainly, for once.”
When you are as old as I am, everything that is cryptic becomes plain. I don’t know how to speak any other way anymore. Be patient, child. Soon you will understand that—
Suddenly, a fog of white fills my vision, and I’m falling.
Brutally torn away from my dream-world, I leave the dark stranger and his annoyingly cryptic promises behind.
Again, I’m left without answers.
I’m fall through a storm of white powder, through the freezing cold and the swirling wind.
Wake up. This time, it’s Vyloren’s voice that echoes through my mind. Open your eyes, boy.
Why do all these ancient, powerful beings like to refer to me as if I’m a mere child?
It’s starting to grate on my nerves.
What in the cursed hells did you do, dragon?
My eyes snap open just in time for me to fall to the ground with a painful, jarring thud. I land in a bed of freezing snow, ducking my head into my chest as I roll awkwardly to break my fall.
I bounce up and down like a sack of bones, tumbling down a steep slope that’s covered in snow. With my arms still firmly fastened behind my back, it’s a small miracle that I don’t break anything.
