Chapter 8
RYNETH
“What do you want?” Ryneth hated how broken his voice sounded, and it wasn’t all to blame on the hell he’d been through over the past days.
Daven terrified him.
The way the man came barging into his room like he had every right and didn’t stop until he was hovering over Ryneth. It made him feel cornered, and Ryneth didn’t do helpless.
On Düren, there was no space for that.
On Düren, helpless got you left behind.
The memory dragged him backward before he could stop it.
He was standing at the Ward in the black before dawn, boots soaked through, fingers numb around a cracked pulse-lamp while the older boys laughed at anyone who shook. Guarding the wall wasn’t service. It was what they made you do if you were poor enough to be useful.
The wall cut the city in two. On one side was the Ward. On the other, whatever they were all told to fear.
When his shift ran long, he went home cold and hungry. And when he stumbled back at sunrise, there was no comfort waiting for him. Just another day to survive.
There was only one rule at the wall: don’t fail, because nobody will come to save you.
Ryneth had learned early that fear didn’t matter. Only whether you were still standing when morning came.
But here, on Helion, everything was different. And somehow he’d gotten himself caught up in the web of the Imperial family. What had his fellow Dürens said on the spacecraft? Something about the Imperial family being as cruel as they were just?
Still, he held his chin high and kept his eyes on the other man.
Daven smirked, all sharp amber eyes and lazy arrogance. He knew the effect he had on him. Knew that he was standing too close and didn’t give two fucks about it.
He also looked like he’d been pacing outside the door, waiting for permission he didn’t need. His collar was unbuttoned, his blond hair mussed, and when he reached out a ringed finger and nearly traced the shape of Ryneth’s lips, Ryneth couldn’t help but shiver.
Something was not right when Daven was near. It wasn’t just fear. It was worse than that, because some treacherous part of him felt the man coming before he even touched him.
“Touch me and I’ll bite,” he snarled.
“Yeah?” Daven tilted his head, gaze dropping to Ryneth’s mouth. “Do it.”
“I’m serious.” Ryneth tried to speak around the fingers Daven now pressed to his mouth. Asshole. “If you don’t—”
He couldn’t finish, because Daven dipped his finger past his lips, the rings heavy and cold against his mouth.
Ryneth’s stomach dipped with something that felt awfully close to arousal. He hadn’t been lying. Closing his teeth around Daven’s fingers, he bit. Hard.
Daven curled his lips, nostrils flaring. “You’re going to regret that, aethera.”
But he didn’t pull away. Instead, he leaned impossibly closer, like the bite had only made him want more.
Ryneth didn’t care. He wouldn’t let go.
Even with his teeth sunk into Daven’s fingers, his insides still gave that awful, traitorous pull, like his body had mistaken danger for relief.
The air changed. That was the only warning he got before a cool sensation slid over his spine, up his nape, then down his throat.
Daven didn’t even move his hands.
It spread over his skin, cool and present, making Ryneth’s cock stir. When it slipped inside his mouth, tickling his lips and tongue, Ryneth moaned.
What the hell?
He jerked his head back, tried to let go of Daven’s fingers to shut the invading air out, but he wasn’t strong enough.
Never strong enough.
Ryneth hated it. Hated him. For leaving him open like this, his own venom used against him, together with this cruel hush that left nothing good in its wake.
Daven grinned like he’d been waiting for it. “Oh. Now you’re listening.”
He slowly pulled his finger back, only to push it in again. And out. Daven fucked his mouth with his ringed finger, and Ryneth lay there, paralyzed by the air Daven held tight around his wrists. He couldn’t move. Could only take it.
“You’re furious,” he murmured, sliding his finger in and out of Ryneth’s mouth. “But you need to understand that you don’t get to start things with me and then pretend you’re in control.”
“Hmmfp—”
“What? I can’t hear you, aethera. Your mouth is so full. You look fucking precious sucking on my finger.” His gaze darkened. “But I mustn’t push. You’re the patient, after all.”
This time when Daven pulled his finger from Ryneth’s mouth, the strange hush went with it, leaving him cold and furious.
“I won’t be yours,” Ryneth gritted out. He lunged for him on instinct, but his hands never made it off the mattress. The air clamped harder around his wrists and shoved him back down.
Ryneth snarled and fought harder, twisting against the invisible restraint until his shoulders burned. He tried to wrench one wrist free, then the other, then kicked when Daven leaned closer. The effort left him breathless, but he kept fighting anyway.
Daven’s mouth curled. “Go on. Call your static.”
Ryneth reached for it so hard it made his teeth ache, but nothing came. Panic flashed hot under his skin. Not now. Not when he needed it.
Leaning in, Daven brushed his mouth to the side of Ryneth’s throat. “You’re going to learn what you are to me.”
“Fuck you.” Ryneth turned his face sharply, nearly catching Daven’s jaw with his teeth.
Daven caught his chin before he could do it again, thumb digging in just enough to hold him still. “That’s more like it.”
When those terrifying jewels inside Daven’s mouth came closer, Ryneth snarled and tried to scramble away, but there was nowhere to go. The room suddenly felt too small.
“I’m nothing like you,” he shot back, but his body started to betray him. “I’m a patient. You can’t do this.”
“I’ve been doing this in my head since the moment I first touched you.”
Those words should have disgusted him. Instead, heat flashed through him.
Ryneth tried to think of anything but the man pinning him there. But Daven’s fingers curled around his chin, turning his face so their eyes met, and it fucked with his mind.
“You bastard. You fucking prick.”
The air slid over Ryneth’s dick, and heat punched through him so hard his breath caught.
“Don’t push me, aethera,” Daven warned. “You lost the right to order me around the moment I touched you.”
Ryneth bit his lip against the humiliating sound that almost escaped him. Daven’s air was cruel and careful at once, and his whole body reacted before he could stop it. His hips lifted off the mattress, searching for friction that wasn’t there.
Why did his body want the thing that was going to ruin him?
It wasn’t just lust. It was something stranger, something that made his body react before his mind could catch up.
His body was betraying him so badly it felt obscene.
Daven’s mouth curved. “Feels good, doesn’t it? Here.” He took the glass from the bedside table and held it to Ryneth’s mouth. “A good patient drinks when he’s told.” Slipping a hand behind Ryneth’s neck, he tilted him at just the right angle.
Ryneth glared at the glass. He was thirsty, but he was proud too.
“Just drink, aethera. I can see you need it.” Daven’s voice sounded surprisingly soft. As if he truly cared. Which was insane.
Still, the thirst won. Ryneth drank.
He could feel Daven watching his throat. By the time he lowered the glass, it was already empty.
When Daven set the glass aside, Ryneth tried to jerk his head away, but the grip tightened, fingers digging in as Daven dragged him closer instead.
“You really are very pretty.” Daven didn’t remove his hands, still holding him there.
The hush drifted lower. It brushed over his balls, slipped between his cheeks, and traced his cock without giving him what he needed.
Ryneth choked on his breath. His entire body locked, held at the mercy of the man sitting too close, clearly enjoying himself. “I’m not pretty,” he gritted out.
Daven licked his lips. “No? It’s true if I say you are. Just like you’re enjoying this, aren’t you? My air cupping your balls. Teasing your cock.”
“You f-fucking—” But Ryneth’s eyes rolled back in his head when an invisible fist started stroking his cock. “Good Light… No. You sick fuck. I—I’m not…”
Static burst from his hand, sudden and wild, not summoned so much as unleashed. It came the way it always did, late and violent, like the only thing that had ever come to his aid when no one else did.
He shot a bolt that began to pulse. The door lock chirped, snapping shut as the security system flared.
Daven watched the electric light invade the room and grinned.
“Aw, cute. Try again. You know you can’t beat me, so you’re going for the help of the medical team?
” He let go of Ryneth’s nape and face, lowering his head back to the pillow with infuriating care, like he was handling something he already considered his.
Ryneth dreaded the moment. He dreaded the realization that Daven was right. He hadn’t attacked the man, because he was too strong. And because his own body was betraying him.
Heat kept building in him in a way that felt wrong, too fast, too much, and if Daven kept touching him like this, he was going to lose control.
Ryneth flushed, a deep red creeping up his neck. “Stop. Stop now.”
“Make me.” Daven let the air move lower, circling Ryneth’s waist, pressing him into the bedding. “You’re defenseless. All that static, and nowhere for it to go. Does that feel good, aethera?”
He leaned closer, voice turning quiet. “I promise you, once we’re back in my penthouse, I’m going to have you like this again.”
“You asshole,” Ryneth wanted to snarl, but the only sound that left his mouth was a filthy moan.
“Look at that,” Daven whispered. “Looking so pretty for me.” His gaze dropped. “Do you want to come, Ryneth? Do you need the release?”
“No,” Ryneth bit out.
Daven smirked. “I think you do.” He used a thread of air to hold Ryneth’s head against the pillow. His air turned into an invisible fist, tightening around Ryneth’s cock. Then he started stroking. “You’ve been through hell, aethera. And I saved you from it.”