Chapter Fourteen
As if unleashed, Firo is on me before I see him move. Faeries are fast, I’ve learned, when they wish to be. There is no art in his fucking. He merely wishes to spend. Having endured the talents of Luthian’s “pet,” I assume the denial was torturous. Firo plunges into me without hesitation, sobbing aloud in relief as he sinks in to the root.
“Wrap your legs around him,” Luthian instructs me. “You won’t hurt his wings. He’ll move them.”
I tentatively lift one knee back, and Firo’s wings unfurl over us in an autumn-colored canopy nearly as wide as the one over the bed. Emboldened, I lift my other leg around his waist. It changes the fit of him against me, brings him tighter to me, and I gasp. It’s so different, feeling another body atop mine, lying between my legs and inside of me. My skin prickles with anticipation everywhere it touches his. I find I must put my arms around his shoulders, too, and cling to him, pressing all of his flesh against mine.
Firo’s hips move to withdraw, and he plunges in again before Luthian can stop him with a sternly barked, “I haven’t given you permission to fuck her. Only to enter her!”
Sweat drips from Firo’s brow with the agony of his restraint. “Please. I can’t take anymore. I have to come.”
It’s unfair of me, but I intentionally ripple my muscles around him and giggle at his groan. Perhaps I can make him spend without him ever having to move. How disappointing that would be, I imagine.
“Poor Firo,” Luthian says with a sly smile my way. “I fear you may be in some danger. She has a devious look about her.”
“It’s as good as they say,” Firo gasps, sweat dripping from his forehead and onto mine, and I remember what Sarta said about faeries enjoying human pussy.
Luthian glances down at his nails. “I wouldn’t know. All right, I suppose you may take your reward.”
He wouldn’t know?
Firo’s fingers sink into my thigh, gripping me with bruising strength. My question over Luthian’s words evaporates from my mind, consumed by the strength of Firo’s body moving against mine, our skin sliding together, aided by the slippery fluid coating me.
“I can’t hold out,” Firo sobs, his hips lurching forward punishingly hard.
“I think you’ll find that you can,” Luthian says mildly.
Firo’s eyes squeeze tightly shut. His movements lose their rhythm, and his mouth drops open to emit a groan.
He freezes. Luthian chuckles archly.
“Remove the spell!” Firo gasps.
“I will,” Luthian says. Then, at Firo’s sharp glance, Luthian holds his hands up innocently and adds, “I promise. But this is the first time Cenere has ever experienced this. I want it to be good for her. Don’t you want to make it good for her?”
“I want to come!” Firo snarls, his desperation making him a wild thing. He pummels his cock into me and I squeak in surprise and pain, but his determination leaves him after a few futile thrusts.
Luthian clucks his tongue in pity. “You are free to come once Cenere has.”
It shouldn’t be difficult; the intimacy of our joining intensifies every sensation. But the thought of him spending inside me triggers a thought I’ve never had before. “Guardian… can a faery make a human pregnant?”
“Yes,” Luthian answers, and at my wide-eyed panic he adds, “But only with intention. He will not release living essence into you.”
“It won’t matter because I will be dead,” Firo seethes. “Please, Cenre. Please make yourself come.”
I move a hand between us to relieve us both, my fingers playing a tune they know very well over my clit. I lock my ankles together behind his back, arch up from the bed, every muscle drawn tight with my impending release.
I should have known better than to take Luthian at his word, because the moment I reach the apex, the heartbeat that I’m about to tumble over...
I don’t.
I gasp and blink up at Firo, and he knows. I’m trapped in the same state as he is, suspended on the very edge of release. It’s always as terrible as the last time, and Firo has suffered this way for hours.
“Please,” he whines, actual tears forming in his eyes. “Please, I can’t take it. She feels so good.”
“That’s what I like to hear,” Luthian says. “Tell me how good she feels.”
Firo swallows, closes his eyes, and strokes into me once, twice, enough to push me over the edge, if either of us could fall. “She’s so hot and wet...and rough inside. There are ridges and... old gods, I can feel every one of them catching me.”
“It is better than my pet?” Luthian asks.
“Yes!” Firo gasps without hesitation. “She’s squeezing and... oh, fuck, I’m going to come!”
“You’re not,” Luthian says boredly. “I’ve heard that human cunts have the same effect on us as ogre cum.”
“But not as violent. Not as overwhelming. I can feel everything. All of her. Not just on my cock but... oh fuck, it’s like all of me is inside her, and every fiber of me is about to climax.”
I laugh breathlessly at the description. I thought I learned all there was to know about the exciting sexual properties of the creatures of Fablemere. I never thought of myself as having those properties.
Luthian makes an interested noise, as if he’s studying us and taking notes. “What would you give me, to be able to come inside her right now?”
“Anything,” Firo answers. He doesn’t even stop to think. “Gold. Jewels. Ships. Anything you ask of me, you can have.”
“A tempting offer, but that isn’t what I want,” Luthian says. “What about information? Secrets?”
“I’ll tell you anything!”
My eyes widen. Even caught as I am on the precipice of release, I recognize the danger of Firo’s words.
I’m sure that’s the point, as Luthian goes on, “Would you betray the secrets of your own court?”
“Yes!”
Anger flashes hot through me. That’s not why he’s been tormenting Firo, surely? To force him to give away information against his will?
“Would you murder the leader of your council?” Luthian paces around the bed. “If I put the blade in your hand and promised you this joy, would you sink a dagger into your Hierophant’s heart?”
Firo grinds his teeth, taking a longer moment with this question. But his hips keep pumping between my thighs and he sobs, “Yes. Old gods, help me, I would. I would.”
“And if I demanded a favor of you,” Luthian asks. “You would agree, here and now, to perform that task, regardless of what it may entail?”
“Yes!”
“Then promise me. A binding vow, at this moment.” Luthian’s voice is low and serious, and I see on Firo’s face that he knows it’s no longer a game. “You will give me a favor.”
Firo growls his helpless rage as he fights against himself. Finally, with a sob, he agrees. “Luthian of Mithrax, I grant you a favor! Now, let me come!”
Luthian snaps his fingers.
Firo’s frantic thrusting ceases, but not before I’m tossed over the edge and into a churning sea of my own pleasure. I’m keenly aware of Firo’s shout, a long, tortured cry that sounds like his very spirit has been torn out of him through his throat. I shake with the force of our mingled climax, wail with relief with each hot, strong burst of him. He empties all of his strength into me, it seems, for he slumps senseless over me, his head pinning my hair to the pillows while his cock still twitches and spurts.
“Congratulations, Cenere,” Luthian says. “You’ve learned exactly how much that beautiful little cunt of yours is worth.”
Ignoring him, Firo kisses my cheek. “It’s wonderful, Cenere. You feel incredible.”
“Thank you?” I’m not certain how I should respond to the compliment. I haven’t done anything to cause it. The praise is entirely unearned.
Firo slides from my body with a groan. “If I stayed inside, I would never have left. Luthian, be serious. You’ve had her, haven’t you?”
Luthian shakes his head. “No. You were the first to sample her.”
“Then you’ve been with other humans like this one,” Firo says.
Again, a shake of the head. “Never.”
Firo climbs off the bed and strides to the bathtub, taking a towel to clean himself off. I lie frozen, stunned. Luthian has never been with a human? But he has knowledge of so many different creatures. Why are humans different?
Does he not want to lie with me?
Does he feel I am beneath him?
“Thank you, Luthian,” Firo says, tossing the towel aside. He gestures to himself and is fully clothed at once, in fine satin breeches and a long coat with tails, in hues that match his broad, autumn wings. “Your teaching has been most enlightening.”
“You’ve been a good student,” Luthian tells him, dressing himself, as well. “You’ll more than survive at court. I dare say you’ll thrive there.”
They clasp each other’s forearms. It’s as if I’m not there, as if there is no witness at all to this tender parting scene. They say their farewells, and Firo gives me a glance and a small nod as he strides from the room.
When the door is closed, Luthian finally deigns to look at me.
I push myself up and reach for the goblet of water on the side table.
“My honey flower, you should be very prou—”
I hurl the glass at him, and nearly hit him. He barely has time to wave the projectile out of existence before it smacks him. His brows draw together. “Have I done something wrong?”
“Is that all I am to you? A means to an end?” I shout, trying pathetically to cover myself with my arms. I don’t want to be naked in front of him. It’s too vulnerable, even though he’s seen every part of me already.
He tilts his head. “Yes. That cannot be news to you. I’m a means to an end for you, as well.”
What a fool I am. Of course, I know all of this. But I’m angry and hurt, and I’m not sure why. “Why haven’t you been with a human?”
“I’ve never had an interest,” he says with maddening calm. “Cenere, I’m shocked at this outburst. We made an agreement.”
“An agreement that you would train me,” I spit back. “Not that you would use me to... That you would weaponize me and...”
But that was all part of what we discussed. Every bit of it.
“You entered this arrangement with the same goal I have. To make you a queen, ruling at Cassan’s side. Human memories are short, but not that short.” His eyes narrow. “Has something changed?”
Nothing has, but everything has, in ways I cannot begin to express in words, because I can’t identify what I’m feeling. I’m angry, and that anger clouds every other thought in my mind. So, I ask again, “Why haven’t you ever been with a human?”
“As I already told you, I’m not interested.” He’s annoyed with me; it radiates from him. “I’m going. You need time to calm yourself—”
“Is it because I’m ugly?” I demand, climbing from the bed to follow him toward the door. “Because I’m too innocent, even now? Am I beneath you because I’ll never be as depraved as you are? As cruel and disaffected?”
He reaches for the handle and I make a swipe for his arm, briefly catching his elbow before he wrenches away.
“Or am I beneath you because I’m human?” I demand.
One moment, I’m standing behind him. The next, my back is against the door and his hand is around my throat. He doesn’t choke me, as he’s done in our games before. This is not a game. He’s furious, his starry gaze alight with a rain of silver fire.
“The reason I have not fucked you, Cenere, is not because you’re a human. It’s because if I fucked you, I would never stop. I would let my palace crumble, let the world forget who I am, that I have ever existed. I would abandon every scheme, forget every slight I’ve yet to repay. Because if I were ever to be inside of you, I would never leave.”
“Then don’t.” I whisper.
My plea undoes something in him. The rage in his eyes quells. The grip at my neck loosens. And then his mouth is on mine, he’s pressing me tighter against the door until the ornamental whorls in the wood dig into my back. He fumbles between us to unlace his breeches. My hands find their way beneath his shirt, roaming over his tightly muscled chest, desperate to touch all of him. He jerks my leg up to girdle his hip and I feel the tip of his cock brush my center, the head of him barely pushing inside. I cry out in anticipation and—
He vanishes. I stand motionless, holding nothing, my body aching and clenching, still longing to be joined to him.
But he’s gone.