Chapter 20
RYNETH
The gray morning light cut across the bed.
Ryneth stayed still and stared at the faint imprint of the planets that hung in the sky above.
Fingers softly brushed his hair, teasing his nape and shoulder blades.
It made the muscle in his shoulder twitch.
It was still early, and he didn’t know what had woken him, but with a sigh, he leaned into the touch, groggy with sleep and something else.
Opium still lingered in his bloodstream.
“Don’t stop,” he mumbled.
“No?” came a husky drawl.
“No.”
The bond.
As if being called out, his palm itched, something running inside his veins like a live wire.
Fingertips slid down his spine to the curve of his ass, and Daven murmured, “You passed out when I got you home last night. How’s your hand?”
Ryneth’s gaze swept over his palm. The skin looked smooth, with the faintest of symbols pulsing. “It aches, but it doesn’t really hurt. Yours?”
“Same.”
Ryneth bit his lip as he gazed back outside. “What time is it?”
“I don’t know.” Daven’s lips pressed under his ear, his hair tickling Ryneth’s throat. Goosebumps scattered all around his forearms. Nip. “And I don’t care.”
Ryneth shivered and looked down. He was naked, his cock hard as it lay against his thigh. “It feels early,” he said weakly.
Daven chuckled. His fingers traced one of Ryneth’s ass cheeks and squeezed, spreading them until Ryneth felt the weight of Daven’s erection teasing his rim. “It’s the perfect time.”
“For what?” Ryneth whispered, but heat pulsed low in his body at the sound of Daven’s voice turning hoarse.
“Your mind might still be fighting me, but your body knows.” He slid his palm around Ryneth’s cock and squeezed.
Ryneth gasped, bucking his hips without approval.
“You see? It welcomes me.”
“My mind…” Ryneth glanced back at him. “It feels strange. My hand won’t stop humming. It doesn’t hurt. It just feels… wrong. What did that ceremony do to us?”
Daven rubbed his thumb over the faint mark in Ryneth’s palm. “I don’t know exactly,” he admitted. “I’ve never done it before.” Then his mouth curved. “Don’t look so shocked, baby.”
Their palms pressed together, and heat moved between them again. The tightness in Ryneth’s chest loosened without his permission.
“That,” Daven murmured. “That wasn’t there before. Every time I touch your hand, I feel it. My body knows where yours is. It settles.”
Ryneth swallowed. “I feel you too,” he whispered.
Daven’s lips brushed under his ear. “Yeah. Weird, isn’t it? Hm. But I like it.”
Ryneth quickly turned back and stared outside, but his lips parted anyway, and a soft sound slipped out before he could stop it.
“You’re too much,” he muttered, voice rough with sleep and embarrassment.
His gaze caught on the fading planets in the distance, then dropped.
“And you look…” He swallowed. “Like that.”
Daven chuckled behind him. “Don’t get sentimental now, baby.” His hand closed more firmly around Ryneth, drawing another helpless reaction from him. “You know exactly what you do to me. Now give me your hand.”
Their palms met, Daven’s larger hand wrapping his ringed fingers over Ryneth’s. It felt as if the blood in his veins heated and created a soothing rush through his insides.
Ryneth’s body relaxed and he felt his eyes flutter closed. “So tired.”
“Then sleep. We’ll talk later.”
“I can’t. I—I feel you. Inside me. How do you do that?”
“I don’t know. I just can. You can too, when you stop being stubborn and start figuring it out.”
Did that mean he didn’t have to carry it all alone anymore?
Ryneth wanted to shake the weakness off, but he was too tired to fight. His throat locked with emotion.
“I don’t know how to stop fighting,” he admitted. He meant for the words to come out sharp, but they only sounded tired.
He was.
Because once the heat burned off, there was nothing left but the parts of him he hated most. The need. The fear. The ugly, hungry relief of wanting someone else to help him carry it.
He didn’t want Daven to see that. Didn’t want this arrogant prince to know how badly some part of him was already leaning into the idea of not carrying everything alone.
“Not alone again,” Daven murmured sleepily.
Ryneth froze. “What?”
Could he hear his thoughts?
“You were gifted to me.” Daven’s voice was weaker now, as if he were speaking from somewhere half inside a dream.
Ryneth’s heartbeat kicked hard as he lay there, too still, as if moving might break whatever this was.
“I never wanted to keep anyone.” Daven made a soft, sleepy sound, like even now the thought offended him.
“No?” Ryneth breathed.
Daven didn’t answer.
The next time Ryneth opened his eyes, birds were flying through the air. The sky was bright blue.
“Finally.” Daven’s arm was still wrapped around him, and he nuzzled the hair on the back of Ryneth’s head. “You kept on releasing your static on me, aethera. Even in your sleep you’re fighting me.”
Ryneth blinked. “I was?” Their hands were still connected, his body still full with this comforting buzz. “I’m sorry.”
Daven chuckled raspily. “No need to be. I locked it out. Look.”
Air sat tight around them in an invisible bubble. When Ryneth looked at the room around them, he saw the broken mirror and the smoke of a snapped wire.
“I think you secretly enjoyed yourself.”
Ryneth snorted but didn’t move. He was too comfortable.
Daven’s hand drifted lower again, his fingers closing around him with lazy certainty.
Light, he was hard already. Or maybe he’d never really softened.
His thumb brushed over the sensitive underside once, then again, slower this time.
“Your static feels different now,” he murmured. “Stronger. More awake.”
Ryneth made a rough sound and rocked his hips before he could stop himself.
“You told me it started when you were twelve,” Daven went on, voice still low against his skin. “What did it feel like the first time?”
Wet fingers traced the line of his veins up to the tip, playing with the foreskin until Ryneth grunted and rocked harder into his hand. “It felt good.”
“Yeah?” Daven’s mouth curved against his shoulder. “Did you fry anyone? Make them suffer for what they did to you?”
“I told you. I threw him over the Ward. I never saw him again.”
Daven was silent for a moment. “What happens at the other side of the Ward?”
Ryneth snarled. He didn’t want to admit the truth, but it felt like the words were being pulled out of him, together with this hunger that made his teeth ache and his hips roll faster.
“I don’t know. I kept looking for him after, but he never came back.
Someone must have taken him.” His throat tightened. “I still feel bad about it.”
“What do you mean, you don’t know?” Releasing his dick, Daven rolled him onto his back faster than lightning. “Are you telling me that you’ve been defending a wall without knowing what’s on the other side of it?”
“I—” Yes. “It’s not like that. It’s complicated.”
Daven pinched the bridge of his nose. “I don’t think it is. I think people have sold you a lot of bullshit.”
“Concordant is no bullshit,” Ryneth shouted. Bucking his hips, he tried to move the other man, but Daven had straddled him, aligning their naked cocks, rutting them together.
Good Light, he drove him crazy. And when had he gotten undressed in the first place?
“If you saw what I’ve seen, you wouldn’t talk like that. You arrogant fuck. You—” But his fighting stopped, until all he could do was moan at the friction of their cocks sliding together. He opened his eyes, expecting smug triumph, but Daven only looked hungry.
“Tell me what you’ve seen.”
Ryneth winced as the memories flashed. Daven’s mouth touched his own, then dragged to his cheek, his temple, leaving featherlight kisses in their wake.
“Tell me,” he urged.
“They came at night,” Ryneth shivered. “Mara locked all the doors. We killed the lights. The block was loud. People were crying, shouting. Then there was this knock on the door. Light, we were so scared. We all sat huddled together.”
Ryneth hissed at the recollection of that night.
Daven’s palm pressed against his, erasing some of the ache. “And then?”
“Nothing. They left. We all survived. But the next morning, when we came outside, we heard that they’d taken over twenty people from a neighboring block.” He turned his head and found Daven’s mouth, needing the touch.
“Did they take them across the Ward?” Daven asked against his lips.
“I don’t know.” Ryneth rolled his hips against Daven’s. “Please—”
“What do you need?”
You.
Ryneth couldn’t say it. “Make me feel better.”
He hated how true it was. The fear in him hadn’t eased until Daven touched him, and now his whole body had begun to chase that relief like it already knew where safety lived.
Daven dipped his head and nuzzled Ryneth’s throat.
“I need more,” he whined. “I need—”
Daven’s teeth bit his flesh, marking the sensitive skin under his ear. Ryneth howled, pain skyrocketing through him until it burned through his oversensitive groin.
“Fuck.” That felt good.
Daven licked the sensitive spot, humming when he looked up to admire his work. “You look pretty like this, aethera. Marked. Desperate. You want me to stop your mind from tumbling? Want me to make you feel good?”
“Yes, yes,” Ryneth moaned before his brain could catch up.
“Such a good boy.” Daven tapped his chin. “Open for me.” He spit inside Ryneth’s mouth, then dove right in. Their kiss was slow, a clash of teeth and dominance as their tongues played.
Hooking one leg around his shoulder, Daven slicked his fingers with lube, then traced the tips down Ryneth’s weeping cock, over his balls to his rim. “You have such a beautiful cock. Such full balls. We’ll empty those soon.”
Ryneth tensed automatically when Daven prodded at his hole, but after a tssk he forced himself to relax.