Chapter 44
IZADELLA
Alight flashes and Nyvenah stands at a back entrance that was not there before. Her glossy, joyous eyes stare at the two of us. Her smile, so full of pride that matches mine, fills my heart with elation that is overshadowed as fear spikes within me.
No, never in me. In Leon.
I turn to ask why, but he quickly moves me behind him, his body tense, and he shoves his Zemra stone into my hand.
“Nyvenah, I promise we did not seek out the temple. I stumbled upon it when we needed shelter and Izadella was unconscious. I did not know what this place was until she woke up and explained it.” He walks backward, pushing me with him.
“Any Zemra temple law we broke was unintentional. I will not be separated from her again. I am not Ellovian. Any attempt to separate us will result in war.”
Leon waves his hand, and a small dark gem appears out of thin air. He slams it into the ground with a blast of magic.
No! I do not wish to leave! I reach one hand out for her.
Nyvenah’s shouts to stop are drowned out by the swirling wind. Leon throws himself over me before the temple spins around us. “Hold on!”
His twisted terror at losing me once more blasts my soul, and the whirling wind makes it hard to breathe. We spin and spin, the sensation so much like that of a tree portal.
Endless waves of his emotions cloud my thoughts. Leon’s hand secures my head to his chest, the spinning finally slowing down.
When we stop, he doesn’t let me go. His panic continues to flood me, and I know he can feel my anger rising.
He’s taking me from my home. Even if he would never take me somewhere unsafe, wherever we’re going is not where I wish to be. I need to find Nueena. I long for my own bed and to be reunited with Farren.
I push against his chest, and he reluctantly releases me with heaving breaths.
I’m ready to release my anger at him but Leon’s fear keeps rising uncontrollably. Shaking, he says, “She can’t take you…Won’t let her…Mine.” His voice is sharp as daggers.
Is this how he felt the whole time I was away? I’m drowning in his fear and guilt. It’s endless within him. My own anguish at the sight of him is not something I can keep from him, and it only adds to his guilt.
I need to convince him no one is coming to take me from him.
Nyvenah will not punish us for finding the temple in a moment of great need. Her smile when she found us told me that, but Leon clearly did not understand. We did not seek the temple like Nueena and Tavien did; we did not break its laws.
She did not gaze at us with disappointment or dread that she must dole out punishment like she once did with her own daughter.
Nyvenah knew what having a Zemra would mean to me.
“Oh, Leon, it’s all right.” I wrap my arms around him, attempting to settle his soul from his swell of sorrow.
“No, it’s not,” he rasps, pulling me tighter against him. “Hide…Never parting.”
I don’t know how to calm him, and he pulls back suddenly, grabbing my hand to leave.
We stand on a dais in an elaborate gold-and-emerald throne room.
For some odd reason a tree is bursting in the middle of the room.
Has Leon taken me to his home, to Kalvorn?
The main door opens, and six guards of some kind rush towards us but stop when they see him.
“Leave us! Now!” Leon bellows and they quickly follow his instructions.
Once we are alone, I shove him onto the throne. “We’re not going anywhere, Leon.”
“Please, we have to, I just got you back.” He attempts to stand and I grasp his shoulders, pressing down as he stares up at me with helpless eyes of emerald, his panic still overwhelming, but at least he obeys.
Euphoria flares within me. The throne he sits on is gold!
My jewelsmith magic rushes to greet me in a blissful reunion. It shines within me, whirling, desperate to be released when I touch the curved armrest.
I nearly collapse with joy at its return.
With my magic back, I feel whole once again.
It burns with loving fire in my veins, an effervescent caress on my soul.
Happy tears spring to my eyes. I never thought I would have my magic back, the magic of my mother and the women before her.
The sensation of it is glorious in my veins.
Leon must feel it too, the elation that erupts when the gold beneath his arms swoops up like water, glinting as it moves. I command the metal to wrap around Leon’s forearms, cuffing him to the chair. His eyes narrow at his newfound confinement, and when he tries to lunge forward, he cannot.
A new type of heartache flickers in him, in me. Does he think I’m going to leave him here and return to Ellova alone?
I slide one knee, then the other, on each side of his legs, settling over him. He continues to struggle against his bonds, so I take his face into my hands.
“Leon, my love, my Zemra.” I place a soft kiss on his lips, a bulge quickly growing between us.
“No one is going to keep us apart for entering the temple. You didn’t know where you were.
I was lost to the realm in a deep sleep, and you needed to keep me safe.
We did not seek out the temple purposely, so we never knowingly tried to break the sacred temple laws. ”
I circle my finger around the headrest, stealing some of its gold.
No one will notice.
My magic sings to me. Following my command, the metal stretches out to a thin chain that swirls around my Zemra stone, leading up to a necklace. I fasten the sparkling emerald around my neck.
It glows when it touches my skin, and a tear slides down my face.
To be able to use my own magic to create my Zemra necklace is the greatest gift Leon has no idea he has given me.
He may have abdicated the throne for love, but he is Kalvorn’s rightful king by blood and now a piece of his throne, his birthright, will always be with him.
Leon’s shoulders slump when I place his Zemra stone around his neck.
The stones are what amplify our bond. If we are not holding or wearing them, our connection will be weaker, and the further away we are from each other without them, the harder it will be to sense each other.
Now that both stones rest against our flushed skin, our emotions vividly tangle together.
I try to reason with him. “Nyvenah was truly happy for us. Nueena and Tavien finding the temple was a carefully calculated act. They knew they were breaking the law. They spent months researching and innocently asking questions as if they were just curious. Tavien snuck into restricted libraries. Nueena lied when asked why she had such an interest in the temple. The law states that those who seek the temple are at the mercy of its punishments. Did you seek out the temple? Did you know what it held inside?”
He shakes his head violently, his long hair falling into his face. I push back the black-and-silver strands, my fingers tangling in them while I hold his head up to look at me.
“No,” he rasps. “I only sought to keep you warm and safe. That’s why I went inside. We cannot be sure if we are immune to its punishments. I was not ignorant of its law.” His breathing is wild and strained, his yearning for me burns in our chests.
Panic and pain still overshadow any other emotion I can sense from him, his eyes wide in distress, distrust etched in the lines of his face.
I wish to bring him peace in a way only Zemras can for their mates.
With trembling hands, I make my way down his chest, caressing the skin there.
His cock and my core are only separated by the slip of fabric at his waist. He is so much broader in his fae form, thick with muscle, beautiful in that way only fae can be.
Lower still I go until I reach the tie of his robe, unraveling the knot to free his length.
Leon lets out a deep groan when I take it in my hand, his head rolling back against the throne as I slowly move, peacefully pumping it.
Need and gratitude overshine his fear, longing for me replacing his need to hide me away. Good. My own desire to soothe away his sorrow with my touch, my body, grows wild within me.
I center myself above him, slowly lowering onto his waiting cock. “Strawberries,” is all he moans.
Raw lust fills us both, impossible to tell who felt it first. His pleasure dances with mine, and our magic swirls together.
My new bond is far more intense than I could have ever imagined. Desperate need for him floods me once more.
Measured movements quickly become frantic. Leon’s fists are balled and white-knuckled with want at his inability to touch me now that the gold of the throne ties him down, but I know the tease is adding to the moment, anticipation joining the constellation of his emotions.
Each powerful thrust of his hips meets mine with a desperate motion, the movement of my breast has his tongue sliding over his lips with lust.
I laugh and sit up, leaning forward to grant this unvoiced desire. He moans again as he takes my nipple into his warm, waiting mouth, teasing it.
I slow so he can take his time with each breast, hips shifting with delicious leisurely rocking, hitting the perfect place within me.
The building of pleasure fades, so I chase it again, gliding myself back down and rolling against him at the perfect angle. We moan together.
Him. Us. It’s delicious.
My hips rise and fall, pumping over and over again.
I grip one of his shoulders for balance as I rock myself on his cock. His eyes track my other hand as it slides down my stomach to my clit, gliding over the wetness in a rhythmic motion ’til I’m shaking.
His love and desire pour onto me through the bond like a waterfall.
Our entwined desire and lust for each other are an experience like no other. I had always heard sex with your Zemra was different, but this borders on otherworldly, unending ecstasy.
The connection between us is an endless ocean of love and desire. I know his soul as deeply as I know mine. Every facet of him shines like a diamond within me. Our very being swirls together in a joyous meld.