5. Sun
Chapter 5
Sun
“ G et the hell up.”
I woke more sluggishly than usual after falling into a rare deep sleep.
We were back in one of the rooms, a grand one fit for a traveling noble with plush blankets and pillows, even though the patterns of the fabric were dated by years compared to what was fashionable in the new capital.
I untangled myself from my harem, dazed and confused. There was something so soothing about feeling their heat late into the night and into the wee hours of the morning. It made me feel safe and secure in my place in the world again after being cast adrift.
…But not when Hadi glared daggers at me from the doorway. I wondered if Kiar and I made our way back or if he’d found us overheated and covered in cum in the changeroom. Either way, I wanted to die on the spot.
Clem woke next, beaming at me with a mischievous grin, casting me a meaningful look before his eyes flicked to Kiar. I knew then Hadi had found us, and if I were smarter, I’d fall on my blade before I explained a damn thing to him.
As Hadi snapped orders at Clem to get me clean and ready to leave by bringing my clothes, I gazed down at Kiar’s flushed face. I was amazed alcohol had such a profound effect on him. He was sprawled over all of us as if his tail would never end, and it struck me that this might’ve been the first time I saw it completely uncoiled.
As my eyes trailed down the length of Kiar’s exposed body, Bracken clinging to his back, I wanted to feel the heat of another part again rather than be fucked to sleep.
Proud, arrogant Kiar allowing me to enter him?
Unspeakable until last night. And I liked it very much. Maybe, just maybe, he’d let me do it again if I took a jar of fermented fruit with us?—
“ Ahem ,” Hadi’s rough voice filled the air, clearing his throat.
I jumped and whipped around to face him like a child caught stealing cookies from a jar. Hadi had already seen me as a hypocrite, but it felt worse for him to witness me gawking at Kiar.
“Time to leave?” Bracken murmured, rubbing sleep from his eyes as Kiar rubbed pain from his throbbing temples, no doubt.
“Yes, let’s go,” I offered, never working up the courage to meet Hadi’s gaze again.
It didn’t take us long to get ready and gather at the back of the springs, as I was still worried the innkeeper might somehow fly down the mountain fast enough to find us. Taking the back entrance was the best route.
As everyone gathered, I etched what I could remember of the military map of this area into the snow. We’d take the path along the mountain, not too high to freeze, but high enough to avoid foot soldiers patrolling for the most part. And then…
“And then…” I paused as my twig brushed against the human capitol of Kari and obliterated it.
“...Are you still torn, Sun, about committing treason? Be assured you can’t betray a traitor,” Hadi said, much too kindly, and I nodded sharply, keeping my eyes trained on the ground. But as his eyes bore a hole into my downturned head, everyone’s lower bodies shifting uncomfortably, I was forced to look up.
I smiled at him reassuringly, eyes slightly averted, “No, no. I am…” I swallowed hard, “I am afraid to do what must be done, but I am committed. He will die. It’s what comes after that frightens me more.”
There, I said it. To my surprise, everyone sagged with relief at the admission. Maybe I had been brave, not a coward, to admit we had no plan and absolutely no idea what to do if this crazy scheme of ours succeeded. Despite repeated attempts to promote me and drag me from the frontlines, I was a soldier, not even a general.
I could not even envision the day after tomorrow, let alone what would happen to this realm when the leader of the last quarter century lay butchered in the throne room.
“It’s not our fault or yours,” Clem whispered. “Humans and nocs should be able to get along, right? More bloodshed will be regrettable, pointless, in the face of the truth.”
He was right and wrong, and posed the question so innocently, I sighed. With the godstones in hand, I wished I could have all of Naran before me to proclaim the truth, to spark a just revolution with words only.
“Yes, but we will not change decades of hatred through a strongly worded sermon,” I said out loud, and Clem clicked and turned his head in a near-complete circle up at me. “To redeem this world, we must put our faith into action.”
Everyone grunted their approval and nodded, and we set out to do just that. As we moved to leave, the sun not at its zenith but not too late to be afraid, Kiar slithered beside me and fell into step.
My naga’s hand brushed against mine, and I smiled, elated honestly by his presence and the throbbing of his bite marks in my flesh. I was a man, one free with my body, and had been confessed to a fair number of times. But it felt unique to… to be allowed to do what I did. It felt like something more profound than a confession could ever contain.
“You will feel more confident whenever we do get to the battlefield,” Kiar said softly and slinked away, and I brought my fingers to my chin to stop myself from bringing them to my lips. Then I grimaced, understanding he meant slaughtering more nocs would show me at my best, and I didn’t even have a chance to react to that when a vile hiss filled the air.
I flinched, instinctively reaching for my dagger only to meet Hadi’s face towering over me. The others weren’t far from us, but far enough, they most likely didn’t notice the murderous look in his eyes.
Hadi was not pleased in the least. And I knew why, no matter how much I tried to deny it. I’d left a potential party with him, Bracken and Clem and run off to Kiar…
I turned on my heels and started walking, trying to keep pace with the others and ignore him so we wouldn’t cause a scene. And we did just that for some time until Hadi caught up with me and forced me onto his back. My feet were cold, so I welcomed it until panic settled like a knife in my gut.
Clem glanced back and beamed and either didn’t see or chose not to comment on the look of sheer unease on my face.
Luckily, I didn’t think Hadi was the type to force an awkward discussion.
“Why?” he suddenly demanded and I cringed. Never mind.
I remained mute, and his pincers flicked by my knees.
“Did I not make you cum hard enough that you fled to Kiar?” another guttural whisper turned my cock hard as stone.
Fuck!
“Stop it. I don’t want to talk about it right now.” I tried to sound harsh, but I was too quiet to pose much of a threat.
“Why not? Jaw sore from helping Kiar last night,” he mocked me.
I did not appreciate him making me feel bad for it. But I didn’t know what else to do but take it. When I denied Kiar and Bracken, we were enemies. Hadi wasn’t my enemy any longer and I had accepted his touch once already.
“It’s more… complicated with you, is all. I said no to Bracken and Clem, too! And Kiar at first–” he cut me off.
“Oh, I’m sure you put up a good fight.”
“I will not be guilted into your web,” I snapped.
Hadi grumbled, falling silent, seething, and I let my face dig into his shoulder, wanting to bite him and mark him, too, if it would make the arachnid shut up and stop arguing about our sex life close enough that the others might hear us.
If I allowed that final barrier to fall… maybe foolishly, deep down, I thought by guarding this last wall around my heart, my people would accept me again someday. In their eyes, if the noc king didn’t debase me, maybe I could be forgiven.
“You are mine,” Hadi said, so firmly and absolutely that I feared he read my mind. “You are mine now and forever, and you will never escape. Get used to it already. I can be gen–” Now I cut him off.
“Now that sounds ominous,” I said, chuckling without mirth.
“This is no time for jokes,” he barked loudly enough that everyone was forced to look back at us.
“I’m not joking. You’re scaring me,” I admitted quietly, not because he felt like a threat but because the resolution in his tone told me all I needed to know. My defenses were useless; I was his, and he knew.
Hadi fell utterly silent at that, recoiling as if I slapped him. He marched us to everyone’s side, clicking his pincers nonstop. Everyone seemed uneasy, sensing the tension, and I ignored them all to rest…
When I opened my eyes again, we’d traveled a great distance, far past Ri to the west, the third largest provisional capital, and approaching Hae, the second largest, over the mountains. The Yang River was also thinning, which meant we were nearing the mighty dams that helped power and protect our new capital in Kari.
Hadi’s breath was slightly labored, and I realized we had climbed a rugged pass, one that was very dangerous but helped us avoid the slower, more winding pathways through the mountains.
All while I slept like a babe on his back. I spat.
“We should rest. It’s alright. We need a plan anyway.”
Besides, it was a little too convenient we hadn’t been intercepted yet.
“No. We move,” Hadi said, ignoring the fatigue on Bracken and Kiar’s face as I turned left and right to look at them.
I grimaced; they were warrior princes, which meant they would follow orders, as I sat like Clem, a dainty protected thing on their back.
I tried to struggle off Hadi’s back, but the sharp click of his pinchers said he’d have none of it. I opened my mouth to argue, only to slam it shut as something large and black leaped from the sparse treeline above us in our direction. I hardly had time to speak before it was upon me.
And then, I was tumbling off the side of the mountain, wrapped in the claws of a snow-white beast.