Gripping her breast with one hand, he used the other to hold her waist down upon him while he moved up to meet her. Her tongue dove in his mouth and he felt the fierce passion behind every movement of her lips, and the frantic pull of his hair as her hands clinched in orgasm. She moaned loudly, riding him harder and he felt his own climax beginning to build with her. It had been so long that before he could help himself, his head was exploding, and the rapid movements of their hips intensified. They were one. Their bodies were joined, working together, a burst of energy made up of love and passion exploding all at once; their voices crying to the heavens.
Then it slowly died off.
Sweating in the humid air, he looked into her eyes, and kissed her fiercely once more. Her hair hung in his face and her thin naked form rested upon his now exhausted body. Her hips didn’t move, leaving him softening within, as she snuggled against his neck, kissing him softly.
“I love you,” he whispered, his head fuzzy and unable to focus.
She nipped him in the neck and he felt a tingle down his spine. “I love you too,” she cooed as she began kissing her way down his neck to his chest.
He tried to raise his head but didn’t have the strength. “What are you doing?”
“I’m not done yet,” she whispered back, making her way to his waist.
He leaned his head back and his eyes rolled upwards towards the sky as her mouth found him. With her persistence and his lack of will to do anything but enjoy her, he was soon ready again and she pulled him on top of her, pulling his waist into her with her feet.
This time it was slower, more powerful, and when they lay there out of breath, not able to move from each other’s arms, he became aware of just how much she really meant to him. Nothing in the world would ever make him stop loving her; wanting her. She was truly everything he’d ever want and need, that would never change.
As he lay on top of her with their stomachs pushing one another with their shallow breaths, he felt something push against him and he rolled over with surprise. “What was that?” he whispered softly, eyes wide, hand reaching for her stomach.
Her hand found his and led it to where he’d felt the push. Something was shoving her skin out and moving along just below her belly button. She giggled and pressed his hand to her belly. “Your child just wanted to say hello.”
“My child—,” he broke off, stunned by the sudden press of flesh against his palm. Until that moment, it had only been a concept, now it was real, and his mind was racing. He was going to be a father. They were having a baby. And they had just escaped a group of carnivorous creatures hell bent on eating them. He had to get this over with and get her to safety; it was more than just her life now that he had to worry about.
Something moved in the ferns and he broke from his trance of feeling their baby move to glance in that direction. If more of those creatures found them, they were in trouble. Now they were completely exposed, and his swords were—uh—buried under the armor somewhere.
A black nose poked through the underbrush and then he heard a familiar whine. A wolf’s head slid through the ferns and eyed them suspiciously. The nose lifted in a sniff and Tristan forced a smile. Then he glanced up and saw white hair flop into view; Kylee had found them.
She stepped into the soft moonlight, her albino eyes following Tuskar’s eyesight, then a look of embarrassment filled her face as she looked away quickly, blood rushing to her face. “I found them!” she yelled over her shoulder, turning away and giving them her back.
What the hell?
He had been so wrapped up that he hadn’t thought of what they looked like to anyone that found them and he felt sudden embarrassment rush through him as well. “Sorry,” he apologized, knowing that Willow’s sister had just seen more than she had ever wanted to.
“Don’t be sorry, just get some clothes on before the others get here. Unless you want to try and explain why you two are having sex while the rest of us spend the entire day looking for your sorry—well, your ass isn’t that bad,” Kylee finished after a brief pause. The ranger had spared a glance at him while he was struggling to find his pants and his face reddened, his heart quickening in his chest.
“Kylee!” Willow whispered in mock surprise, quickly working her pants back on.
“Hey, it’s just an observation. You wouldn’t mind if I—,” the ranger continued, looking back his way just as he was sliding his underwear on.
“Eyes front!” Willow snapped and her sister broke into fresh giggles.
Kylee continued to stare and the blood filling his cheeks felt like it was going to explode. “If I were you, I’d hurry, or else Reyna will cut that off for wasting her time looking for you.” Then the ranger whipped her head around and stared in the direction of answering hollers in the distance.
He quickly started trying to fasten his armor back on and saw that Willow had almost completed her own. “You know, your niece was just giving her daddy a little push.”
Kylee turned around once more. “The baby moved? And you’re putting your armor back on? I want to feel!” The seriousness of which the ranger usually composed herself was completely gone as she slid quickly to Willow’s side and pressed her hand to her sister’s stomach. It was a good thing that the chest piece hadn’t been fastened yet. “I feel her! Aww!”
It was amazing how quickly a woman could go from one extreme emotion to another, as he sat and marveled over the two sisters grinning widely and hugging each other.
Willow broke into laughter and Tristan couldn’t join in. The blood was still pounding against his cheeks as he began sliding his breastplate over his head. “I thought she had to hurry to get her armor on?” he ventured.
“Hush!” both women snapped at once and he turned his head away to hide a smile.
A cat jumped into the flattened area they had created and landed with a soft thud. Bleak was howling about slowing down, his eyes sweeping across them. “Uh, Trek, Oi tink dis isn’t a gran' moment for us ter be 'ere,” the brownie offered with widened eyes.
Trek’s green eyes found him, bore into him deeply, then twitched towards the cooing sisters. With a slight shake of his head, he turned and sauntered a short distance away. Even though Bleak urged him to go further out, the cat plopped down and refused to listen to the howling brownie on his back.
He was just sliding his last gauntlet on and getting to his feet when Merlin stepped into view, Melissa, Kore, and Reyna following close behind. The mage’s eyes fell on Kylee and Willow, then flickered up to him.
He forced a smile and shrugged.
Reyna sneered and turned away. Melissa gave him a knowing smile and he flushed in embarrassment once more. He could tell by the look in her eye what was crossing her mind and he forced his gaze towards Merlin, who only stared at him impassively, waiting for an explanation of what had happened to them since they’d been snatched from the forest.
“Kore think elf need clothes,” the tall warrior announced, then rounded about and stalked away.
Well, for better or worse, they were all back together again.
Chapter 9
Temple
I
“Earth gnomes, huh?” Willow asked, as she and Kylee finally joined them. “There has to be something more vicious to call those creepy little cannibals.”
A shiver of disgust snaked up his back at the memory of what he had seen, and he worked on focusing on what came after rather than before. It was a sweet memory—until they had been caught butt-naked by his new sister-in-law.
“Are you sure it was Token’s hat?” Merlin asked, as they began making their way forward through the devastated earth. The mage seemed heart-broken at the news, even more so than when Jared had died.
He felt it himself, now that he allowed himself to think on it. Sadly, he shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. “I wasn’t going to try and get it to make sure. It could have been. What would he be doing this far south?”
Merlin had gone quiet, thinking it over, but
Melissa stepped forward to answer him. “If he was heading to Grendweir, he’d be passing this way, skirting the forest to the north on his way home.”
The mage shook his head and pursed his lips. “Damn fool never should have gone off by himself.”
“And another one of us bites the dust for this insane quest of yours, that right?” Reyna added in, her anger getting the best of her. She was a kettle pot, steaming, ready to let loose its wrath with only one degree of control holding her back.
Merlin rounded on her. “He was a friend of mine long before you were ever born. He was a kind soul that never did anything to hurt anyone. To think of what might have happened to him—no one deserves that. Show some respect.”
“Oh, now you want respect?” Reyna asked, pushing her way past the silent orc standing near their rear. “Why not start by keeping us alive for one. These two were kidnapped right under our noses and only dumb luck saved their sorry asses. And they had all four of these swords you need for your crusade. Tell me magician, what would have happened had they died down there? Where would your quest be then? For what purpose did my brother and that drunken dwarf have to die for then?”
“You seem to think that I have the power to stop all of these terrible things from happening, but I don’t. I have my limitations, just as you do. I can’t save everyone all the time, no matter how hard I try. So please, back the fuck off,” Merlin sneered, losing his cool and clenching his fist.
Reyna stepped closer, throwing her chest out. “You want to make me?”
Fire begin flickering around Merlin’s fingers, his brow drawing together, lips ready to begin muttering his words of magic.
He stepped between them. “I miss your brother as well. I wish I had been able to prevent what happened to him, but I failed. We all did. By not being at our best and relying solely on Merlin to bring us through. It’s not all on him, it’s on all of us. We rushed into that fortress without properly scouting it from the air. Had we done so, we might have noticed the two enormous dragons hiding within, or the baskets lying behind the palace indicating recent activity. But we didn’t do that. Bleak over there hollered that we were in danger, and no one listened to him. We always plunge blindly ahead, never pausing to ask what might happen until it’s too late and we’re already in over our heads. We all have to do better if we’re going to make it through this alive. And to do that, we have to stick together and quit this game of throwing blame every time something goes wrong. I’m sorry about your brother, just as you were sorry about my father. And Kylee’s mother and brother. Token. We’ve all lost someone. The person to blame is not the mage who’s brought us together to help us save our world from destruction, but the person whose hell bent on raining it down on us. None of this would be happening if not for her. You want to blame someone, blame the Phoenix. Personally, I’m going to keep going because to do anything else is a spit in the face of everyone who died getting us here. Melissa,” he called, turning his head to glance her way. “How much further?”
“We’re almost there,” the magician commented back, a look of surprise on her face.
He shook his head and moved in the direction her hand had been pointing, not bothering to look and see if anyone else was keeping up with him.
“That was hot,” Willow whispered softly, linking an arm through his and pulling him towards her as they walked.
He hadn’t flinched when she grabbed him. That was something. “Lady, haven’t you gotten enough?” he asked, shaking his head with disbelief. His body was still slightly winded from the battle and the sex afterwards, yet she seemed to be bouncing joyfully at his side.
She leaned closer to him and whispered, “never.” Then chuckled.
The trees abruptly cleared away and he was facing a cliff wall that stretched high into the heavens. They had found their way back to the base of the Drago Mountains and the mouth of a cave sat directly across their path.
“I’m going to venture a guess that we found what we’re looking for,” he muttered as the others came to stand by his side.
Merlin looked at him and their eyes met. The mage nodded and gave him a grim smile. Tristan silently acknowledged him and began to step forward, his heart hammering now that their destination was finally within reach.
Melissa was hanging back and he turned to see what the sudden hold up was. She stepped forward with a hesitant movement, then motioned for the others to come to a halt. “The magical defenses we erected won’t allow more than one person to enter the cave at a time. I’m afraid that whoever goes in will be doing so alone.”
“And you wait to tell us this now?” Willow asked, furious. “You think we’re just going to let someone disappear into that cave, possibly never to be seen again, without going with them to ensure their safety? Are you nuts? Why would you do such a thing?”
The magician came closer, meeting Willow’s glare. “I didn’t tell you because part of me never believed we’d actually make it here, that we’d have all the swords, or that I would actually give a damn what happened to any of you. But that has changed, and I do.” Melissa came closer, her eyes resting on Tristan as she spoke. “The defenses we set were designed to keep a singular individual out. The Phoenix was able to retrieve the Book of the Dead because the defenses erected around it were too broad in scope, meant to keep everyone from finding it, and not really focused on one sole person making the attempt on her own. Well, we knew who we were defending Nimue from and that if the Phoenix did come here, she would do so alone. She’d never let anyone have a chance at touching the sword, lest they use it against her.”
“There are four tests that a person must go through in order to unlock the individual doors leading to Nimue’s chamber. Heart, Mind, Body, and Soul. The elements the swords represent, reflect each of those tests, and must be sacrificed to activate each individual test. Powerful magic was used to create these defenses and something that strong will not leave the person doing the test unaltered in some way. Yes, there’s a chance that you won’t succeed, that you might die. And even if you do pass each one, you will be changed, both mentally and physically, by the test and the way in which you complete them,” she continued, focusing her attention on him.
Willow tried to move between them. “Then why don’t you do this yourself? You created them, surely you know how to beat them.”
Melissa was shaking her head. “I might disable the test and make it to Nimue’s chamber, but she wouldn’t give me the sword. And once I exited the cave, everything would just reset back the way it was, awaiting the next person to enter and start the whole thing over again.”
“Why wouldn’t she give you the sword?” Willow asked stepping forward to face the witch head on.
Melissa chuckled. “Because I’m not pure of heart and only such a soul may ultimately retrieve Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake’s safe keeping.”
“Well that leaves out Reyna,” Kylee suddenly broke in with a laugh and the black knight gave her a scathing glance. “Oh, don’t look at me like that, I saw what you did back at that palace. You took your time about it too. Don’t pretend you’re anything other than dark, just like your armor.”
“I’ll show you dark,” Reyna muttered and Tuskar suddenly began to growl at the unveiled threat.
“Enough!” Merlin snapped. “Tristan, this is why I came to find you, why I told you that I needed you with me. You, Willow, and Kore are the only three of us with any chance of drawing that sword and as Melissa has just described to you, these tests may alter your body. Willow is pregnant with your child and I think we can both agree that she must remain out here at all cost.”
Willow’s face clouded over. “Now, wait just a damn minute.”
“Agreed,” he nodded, interrupting whatever she had been about to say, getting a severe look from his fiancé in return. “Kylee can restrain her if she has to. But she does not enter that cave for any reason.” He turned to his lover and stared her straight in the face. “Yes, Kore might be able to do this, but I
think we both knew going in that it was ultimately going to be me. This is what I’m here for. I love you Honey, and I love our daughter. I cannot allow anything to happen to either of you. Please, stay here and wait for me to return.”
“I can’t lose you,” Willow whispered in horror, her arms reaching out and pulling him close. “I love you too much.”
He sighed. “I understand. But we both know that I have to go. If you want something done right—”
“Send someone else to do it,” she finished with a smirk. “If something happens to you in there, I’ll hunt you down in the afterlife and beat the living crap out of you.”
“Deal,” he smiled back, kissing her tears away. “I’ll need those swords now.”
Merlin suddenly laughed. “I almost said, your weapons, need them you will not, but then I realized you’d take me literally and no one would get it.”
“I got it,” Melissa sneered. “You are such a nerd.”
“You’re right, I wouldn’t have,” he muttered, giving Willow one last embrace, then turned towards the cave with mock confidence. “Well, no use backing out now, we’ve come this far.”
The orc stepped forward and came to his side. “Kore go. Tristan stay.”
He shook his head and smiled at the towering giant. “I appreciate that, but it has to be me. If anything happens to me, I need you to take care of the girls for me,” he whispered, inclining his head towards the two elven women staring after him.
“I heard that,” Kylee growled.
After a moment of reflection, Kore simply nodded in understanding and backed away.
“No sweat,” he muttered, trying to work up his courage. Richter was slung over his back and he held Madera in his right hand. Taking one last glance at Willow, he began walking before his mind decided it was suicide and made him turn around. This is why I’m here. Everything we have gone through, the sacrifices made, I have no right to selfishly back out now. I wanted a purpose, and this is it. It’s time to finish this. He forced himself through the cave entrance and into the darkness beyond.
The New Age Saga Box Set Page 60
