Make Her, page 13
His lips came for mine and kissed me gently, right before I threw myself against him, lunging up as far as I could to claim his mouth and make him and all his sweet words mine. He laughed, held me tighter, and kissed me harder until he groaned.
“Did I hurt you?” I asked, pulling back quickly. It seemed impossible and yet my own lips were swelling from his kisses just as fast as they could heal.
“No,” he breathed, then scoffed. “Well—yes—in that right now my balls ache. ”
“Why might that be?” I asked him, even though I thought I knew. I tucked a hand behind myself to stroke my fingers on his sack, and heard him huff a sigh, as he closed his eyes—and when I stopped, he made a noise of complaint.
It was my turn to laugh. “Torturing really is fun, Rhaim. I can see now why you like to do it. ”
“Difficult moth,” he muttered, then licked his lips and started to use his hands to move me.
Still locked to one another in the position we were in, all he could do was rock me, and yet—I squeezed my thighs together to help me ride him, and he adjusted, tilting himself even higher up. I held onto his shoulder with one hand, and kept the other stroking him below, until he commanded, “Touch yourself,” and so I did, moaning softly and bowing my forehead against his chest.
“Lisane,” he groaned, pumping me against him with intent. I brought both hands up to his shoulders, now trusting in his friction to do the rest. “Please, come for me moth,” he said, making me glance up at him. His eyes searched my face, as his lips twisted into a devious grin. “I might die if I don’t come inside you. ”
“You’re not funny,” I complained, then hissed with need. “Rhaim—”
“Yes, little moth,” he agreed in a dark tone. “Yes. ”
I clasped him between my thighs and ground myself against him. “I’m so close,” I whispered, growing frantic.
“I know. I can feel you. ” He sounded awed. “Wrapping me. Grabbing me. Pulling me in. ” He made a grunt with each abbreviated thrust. “You’re going to come so hard, Lisane—you’d push me out if I didn’t have my knot in you. ”
But he did, and—and—and—he made a guttural sound as the stars flowed through me. I cried out his name, feeling every inch of his length and girth as everything inside me clenched and I rode up and down on his lap. “Rhaim!”
“Yes,” he growled, and it rumbled through his body, as all of me pulsed again. “My little moth,” he said, with a grunting shove. “My princess,” he groaned, bowing his head as I still writhed against him, gasping from another wave. “My chosen mate,” he breathed. “Look down. ”
I did as I was told, and saw a dusky red sliver of his hard shaft pumping forward as his hips did, knowing it was filling me. I moaned softly at the sight.
“I can’t believe I have you. I can’t believe I’m in you. I can’t believe you want me,” I heard him say above me, in time with his slowing thrusts.
“Rhaim,” I said again, and looked up, straining against his knot to throw my arms around his neck to kiss him more. His mouth caught mine and his hands helped keep me there as I felt the hot liquid he’d just shot in me spill out between my thighs. “I love you,” I told him when I could speak next, brushing his hair away from his eyes. “And I will always love you. You will always have me. ”
“Truly,” he agreed, taking us both carefully to his pallet.
25
Rhaim
I wanted to stay hard in Lisane forever, just like this.
But she wasn’t wrong—my most likely death was at her father or her brother’s hand, with her terrified at my side. And even though I knew my fate was inevitable, I would do anything I could to postpone it—just like a thousand-thousand mages before me, I was sure.
Even so, I kissed her contentedly until my knot faded. Whatever happened to her after I had passed, I always wanted her to know my love for her. Once I could slide out of her though, I knew it was time. I got dressed, then went and got a rain-damp cloth to wipe her blood and my cum away.
“I’m sorry it’s cold,” I apologized as she watched me be tender toward her with glittering eyes.
“Can’t we just go back to your castle, Rhaim?” she asked, opening her legs for me without shame. “No one else will want me now. ”
“Because they are fools,” I told her. “But that doesn’t mean we are free. ”
I couldn’t have anticipated this turn of events, but now that she was in my arms again— there were plenty of desolate places in the world that only I knew. We could go from one to the next, I could protect her with my magic—or she, me, with hers!—and we would have as long as fate allowed us.
I saw her thinking then, her gaze tracing over me, before looking past me, to the front of my tent, outdoors. “Is that what I think it is, in the cage?” she asked.
“Yes. A Deathless. ”
“And you caught it? And. . . it didn’t kill you? Or die itself?”
“No one is more amazed by that than I. ” I caught my hair back and pulled all the loose strands into a tie behind me, so that I might think more clearly, as she wriggled back into the dress I should have torn off of her on principle alone.
She shrugged her sleeves back on, then looked at me. “Are you close?” she asked with hope.
“To defeating them? No. ” I closed my eyes and shook my head with resignation. “I don’t think anyone will ever be. Not in a permanent sense. ”
“Do you want to hear how I managed them in camp?” she asked, twisting to present her back to me, with all the laces I’d undone. And as much as I wanted to just take her into my arms to portal, I supposed I ought to let her dress first.
“Tell me,” I said, running the first of the untied ribbons through its embroidered hole.
I listened to Lisane tell me a fantastical story as I worked the laces up her dress. My little moth had burned the tent they’d trapped her in, and then gone to where they’d had her unveiling, and pried unicorn horns free from her throne to fly at them with her mind. “Unbelievable,” I said when she was through.
“Not really,” she said, twisting back over her shoulder to give me a tight smile. “I hate those things. ”
“You have more reason than most. ” I gave her final set of laces a tug, bowed them off, then stood to offer her a hand. Lisane took it, and let me pull her up. If we were to escape, the first thing my moth needed was shoes. . . and I was just about to ask her where in the world she wanted to go, when she looked up at me.
“You can’t even imagine what it was like, Rhaim. ”
“I have fought them before,” escaped my lips, then I realized I’d been a fool when I saw the sorrow in her eyes. “In your chambers, you mean. ”
“Yes,” she said, very slowly.
“You may tell me,” I said, wrapping my arms around her, “but let us wait until after we portal. ”
“So we’re running?”
“I don’t know how else to keep you—but that is all I want in life. ”
“Where will we go?” she asked, looking up.
“Far away from here. ” I knew of a hunting cabin in the Ashen Mountains—it was empty when I left it because I had killed all the hunters myself. I should have just taken her straight there, and not bothered with this tent. “Will you come with me?” I asked her.
“Of course,” she said quietly, squeezing me.
“Good,” I said, and swept her up into the cradle of my arms. “Let’s go. ”
It was already daylight on the trail near the cabin. The forest we were in was beautiful—but not as beautiful as Lisane, and the way she smiled with total abandon the second the sunlight struck her face.
“Is there a bath wherever it is that we’re going?” she asked, turning toward me as she beamed.
“There’s water nearby. We can heat it with a fire. ” I moved to hold her closer to me. “Finish your story, little moth. ” I wanted to dispel any clouds from her memory—and to start making new ones with her as soon as possible.
She tucked herself against me and nodded against my leathers. “All right. You have to try to imagine it though, Rhaim. You can’t just listen, okay?”
“I will try,” I promised.
She made an agreeable sound and continued. “So—pretend that you never got to go outside, and see all this. That all you know are your chamber’s walls. And that there was this one day a year that was special to you—because that’s when you always got the best presents. ”
I frowned a little, listening to her, angry at her father anew for keeping her hidden—then it occurred to me I did not know when her birthday was.
“And your brother just got to go up into the castle,” she went on, “and he’s left you mostly alone, so all you have left is your mother and your books, but you know on Darkest Day, everyone will have to visit. So you stay up all night, thinking about it, looking forward to seeing everyone, and just when you’re about to fall asleep. . . that’s when you hear screams. ”
“Darkest Day?” I repeated her, stopping. We were at the edge of the clearing with the cabin in it—it was small, but well-made, and the forest hadn’t reclaimed it yet.
Lisane nodded strongly and gave me a strange look. “Yes. ”
“No. ”
“What do you mean, no?” she asked, pushing away from me. I set her down—we would be on grass all the way now to the cabin’s front stair.
I shook my head lightly. “The Deathless didn’t attack Drelleth until—” I thought back to all the records I’d learned, and ticked attacks off in my mind—“three weeks after that. Your father’s castle was the fourth incursion,” I said, and watched her eyes widen. “Not that it wasn’t devastating, I’m sure,” I said, then instantly wishing I could take my words back, as she gave me a look of sheer disbelief.
“Do you think I don’t remember when my own mother died?” she asked, her voice arching as her expression went dark. “Are you calling me a liar?”
“No,” I breathed. A dreadful realization was sinking through me, and I dragged my eyes away from her to the cabin beyond, to see if I could keep it to myself.
The cabin was everything I ever wanted. Endless hours with her, in front of a warm fire, on a soft bed.
And I could have had it, too. . . if she hadn’t been looking at me like that. “Lisane, who all died at your castle?”
She licked her lips and swallowed, still looking hurt. “My mother, obviously. And two of my favorite maids. ” Then she squinted at me in anger. “Why do you ask?”
“Did you ever see their bodies?”
She put a hand to her mouth immediately. “What kind of question is that?”
“One born of cruel necessity,” I said, gently catching her wrist, so I could hold her hand in mine. “Answer me, moth. Please. ”
I watched old pain blossom on her face and hated it. “Only my mother’s. I—I saw the Deathless down her. Right before she closed the door. ” She was lost in her own memories for a moment, and then she started trying to read my face. “Why do you ask?” she pressed again.
If she was right—and there was no reason she shouldn’t be—then the first Deathless attack had been in Drelleth’s women’s chambers. And her father, and others perhaps, had gone on to cover it up.
All of the records I’d ever seen had claimed that Pelakia was the location of the first eruption—an island made from an old volcano—and men and mages had trod its rocks to sand, looking for any clues as to why. I’d even made Sibyi take me there, during the Deathless doldrums, to see if there was something I could find myself.
But if Drelleth was the first, and Drelleth seemed to have gained the most by hiding it. . .
“Rhaim?” she pressed again. “What are you thinking?”
I ran my other hand against her jaw to steady her before speaking. “That your mother was the Deathless’ first casualty. ”
Her eyes widened, her lips parted, and she began to pant. “No. ” But then she refuted herself before I could. “One of my maids ran to get the guards. I never saw her again. My other maid who died was sleeping. ” Her gaze traveled up into the trees behind me, as she talked to herself, wracked with memories. “I never stopped to wonder how they died. The one who got the guards—she should’ve been safely in the hall—how would the Deathless have killed her?”
I nodded on her behalf. I had no doubt that maid was dead, though. Murdered to keep her silence, because, as a maid, she could leave the chambers and talk.
Unlike my poor Lisane—who had witnessed horrors, but who didn’t count, as no one would ever take her seriously. Even if my moth had been given to a pleasant Ker—should one such exist—he likely would have never given her story a second thought, as insulated as he was from thoughts of the Deathless at all times, by his throne-sworn.
And very much unlike me, the one mage who had promised to put an end to them entirely.
“And no one else knows?” I asked her.
“Helkin. And Castillion,” she said with a nod. “I heard their shouts of surprise on the far side of the door. And my father, of course. ”
“Of course,” I repeated mildly.
She squeezed the hand I held. “Does this change things, Rhaim?”
Do you want it to? I longed to ask her, praying that she would answer she did not, as she continued. “Does this mean you can figure out how to stop them?”
I watched hope unfurl in her eyes like a flower with copper petals and knew it would be the end for me—because I could deny her nothing.
“No, little moth. There are no guarantees. ” Not where the Deathless were concerned. But hiding in a cabin was no guarantee either. I took a deep inhale. “But it might help if others knew, too,” I answered her honestly, with resignation. “I should at least tell Sibyi. ” Seeing as I’d gone and left him with the damned thing.
“Which. . . means going back,” she said, finally looking around. She spun slowly, taking in the grass beneath her feet, the dense trees, the shaded cabin, and then gave me a sad smile when she was finished. “It’s beautiful here, Rhaim. ”
“Not as beautiful as you,” I said quietly, and opened us up a portal back to the darkness of my tent. We stepped through it together, and then I let it go, watching any hope of a different fate for us close behind her.
26
Lisane
It was still dark when we returned to Rhaim’s camp.
He briefly left me in his tent, then returned with boots, and Sibyi, the weather-mage, that I hadn’t been properly introduced to.
“Don’t even look at her,” Rhaim told him, while I knelt to move mounds of fabric away and pull my new boots on.
“You do realize when you say that, it just makes it harder not to?” Sibyi complained.
“Do all mages have hungry eyes?” I asked, bouncing up—the boots Rhaim had found for me were too big, but they were better than nothing.
“Yes,” Rhaim said firmly, moving to block Sibyi’s view of me.
“No,” Sibyi disagreed, stepping aside. “I’ve just never met a woman who could do strong magic before. It has nothing to do with the rest of it,” he said, waving a dismissive hand at me, while Rhaim began to growl.
I grinned at him, in spite of myself. “That is how I felt when I saw your storm-form!”
“Yes!” Sibyi said, smiling back. “Half the fun of meeting other mages is finding out what they can do—”
“My moth is not a toy—”
“I also want to meet the girl with magic,” said a deep voice, as the front of Rhaim’s tent parted.
“You’re. . . a tree,” I said slowly, my jaw dropping.
“See?” Sibyi said, swinging his hand between me and the new mage. “It’s hard not to look!”
“Not all the way, yet,” the tree-mage answered me. “Though I feel our curses run a similar route,” he said, giving Rhaim a nod.
Rhaim put his fingers to his temple. “Magic mocks us all,” he muttered, and then more loudly said, “Fine. This is Lisane. Lisane, this is Sibyi and Wyrval. ”
“Do you have a moniker yet?” Sibyi asked.
“She does not,” Rhaim answered for me. “And she doesn’t need one,” he said, giving me a strong look. “Because no one else needs to know how her magic works. ” I caught his hint with ease.
Sibyi squinted at me, unwilling to let it go. “I heard about the unicorn horns—and the fire. So the real question is—did you cause the fire, or did you pick it up, and float it toward your tent, like the unicorn horns? Can you start fires, or are you merely telekinetic?”
“Tele. . . what?” I asked, and looked to Rhaim.
He moved to stand in front of me. “We didn’t come back here for this. ”
“I’m surprised you returned at all, honestly,” the tree-man intoned—and I remembered mages could oftentimes feel other mages’ portals.
“Why did you come back then?” Sibyi asked, looking between us.
I waited for Rhaim to discuss the discovery of my father’s lies. It would be easier hearing it from his tongue, than it would be for me to confess it all again.
“We’re here because we need to take our captive Deathless to the war camp,” Rhaim said—surprising even me.
“What?” I asked him.
“There’s a connection between your father and the creatures, moth. I don’t know what it is yet, but I know I need to get a Deathless close enough to him to find out. ” He looked to the others. “I will tell you more later—for right now, we need to put wheels on the cage, and I will summon beasts to pull it. ”
Wyrval made a contemplative noise that sounded like wood creaking. “That journey will take several days. ”
“Three, with no sleep,” Sibyi said.
“I can create trees of the appropriate size for wheels—and vines for ropes—” the tree-mage went on, already planning.
