Chapter 18
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
I reached for my magic to help Ruhan as he held his own between the two assassins. I’m not sure my magic ever responded as swiftly as it did in that moment.
As I watched the three in their deadly dance, Fiach swooped in where he could to cause further chaos. I hesitated, unsure how to wield my magic so that it didn't also hurt Ruhan and Fiach, their movements almost too fast to track as they weave and spin out of reach of the other’s weapons. Watching them a moment longer, I don’t think it's possible to attack the one without the other. So instead, I blunt my magic.
I closed my eyes, trusting in my magic instead of my sight. I pushed my magic to fill the entire cottage, and my mind is swarmed with information. I can tell every move, every breath that is taken, hear each swoosh of Ruhan’s Morgenstern as he swings it. I can sense when the assassins are about to strike, and the knowledge is heady. My magic strains against the balance I have been working so hard to master, and sweat breaks out along my lip.
I couldn’t allow my focus to waver a muscle. Ruhan and Fiach’s life hangs in the balance of my concentration. I dig deeper into my magic, asking it for more power than it's ever offered before. The cloying smell of gingerbread and ozone makes it hard to breathe in the confined space, but I can’t let up. The certainty that if I fail now, Ruhan and Fiach will bear the brunt of it fills me with terror, and I struggle to center myself. My pockets are empty and my fingers reach for something, anything to aid in my endeavor as my tenuous grasp on magical balance slips.
With a muffled curse, I open my eyes and focus on Ruhan, his movements, his grace, his beauty. His love. I let it fill me, let my reciprocated love for him fill me, and my magic begins to balance out again. I pour it into Ruhan with abandon, letting it bolster him.
Studying him as intently as I did, I recognized the very moment it began to work, when he realized what it was that I tried to do.
With renewed strength he swung his weapon harder. The air around us began to shimmer, the amount of magic in the air becoming visible at the vastness of it, the strain weakening my muscles. I gritted my teeth, unwilling to lessen my power and risk either my lover or my familiar. I must remain strong for just a little bit longer.
I fell to my knees as I continued to pour out my magic like a blanket, and the air began to change. I sniffed as I realized the smell of gingerbread was fading, and panic filled my lungs with its icy fingers of terror.
No! I couldn’t stop now!
I screamed my frustration as I poured more of my magic out, suffusing Ruhan with it. The lack of gingerbread scent threatened to paralyze me with fear, but I continued pushing, never letting up on my magic.
Ruhan roared, and I watched numbly as his Morgenstern swept out powerfully and connected with the head of an assassin. He fell with a thud, and Fiach dived down and speared his beak deep into the assassins eye. He didn’t move.
I raised my eyes back to the battle just in time to catch the final blow to the second assassin, Ruhan staggering at the effort.
I released my magic. Ruhan and I stared at each other, the relief palpable, and I lurched to my feet, unable to keep myself from touching Ruhan a moment longer. He took a single step towards me and collapsed, holding his side.
I saw red and screamed.
My gaze zeroed in on the blood that was pouring from between his fingers as I stumbled to his side. Placing my hands on his wound, I pressed and called for my spent magic. It sputtered as it tried to respond, giving a valiant effort to respond, but I have nothing left.
“Fiach! Help me!”
My gallant familiar was already at my side, but I screamed for him anyway. He flew away, and I stared at him, aghast, until I saw him rifling through my satchel beside my bed. I realized what he was trying to do. “Fiach, you glorious bird!” I could have kissed him if I wasn’t racing against time itself. I grabbed Ruhan’s hand and pressed it against his own wound. “Don’t you let up!” I yelled in his face. Probably unnecessarily, but I was stressed. A smile ghosted across his ashen face, soothing my panic enough that I could race towards Fiach.
I knelt down beside Fiach just as he pulled my pink crystal from the satchel and snatched it from his beak with a quick word of thanks. This was not a time for manners.
Fiach apparently agreed as he raced in front of me and landed beside Ruhan, hopping from foot to foot in his distress.
“I’m coming, I’m coming!” The words burbled out of my mouth unbidden. I placed the crystal on top of Ruhan’s wound, ignoring his slight wince of pain.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry! Just another moment longer, hold on.” I was barely aware of what I was saying as I rushed through the motions.
Placing both of my hands on top of the crystal, I pressed it slightly against the gaping wound and closed my eyes. I guided my magic towards the crystal and pulled .
The crystal exploded into a million pieces.
Ruhan yelled with the sound, and I jumped, startled, my hands burning from where they rested on the crystal.
Dark, amazed eyes met mine, and my breath caught at the wonder in them. It took a moment to realize that his eyes were free of pain.
My eyes flew from his fathomless gaze to his wound. Now completely closed.
I didn’t trust my eyes and reached out to touch his smooth skin, smoothing away the blood staining it to make sure my eyes were interpreting the sight correctly.
“It’s - it’s gone,” I whispered, my body strung out and buzzing with too much stimulus.
“You healed me.” His eyes never left mine and the admiration I found in his enchanting gaze stole my breath. “My little warrior.”
Our lips clashed in a frenzy as our fervor converted into passion. I moaned as the feeling of his lips raked against mine, and I pulled him closer. I couldn’t get enough of him.
The action seemed to snap Ruhan’s resolve, and his hands joined mine as they roved over each other, feeling, touching each other like it was the only thing in the world that mattered, was to feel the other against our body.
Because it was.
He rolled me under him, and I moaned in approval, shocked to find my clothes were already gone. I didn’t care how it happened, only that he joined me. I tore at his clothes, frantic to get them off. He helped me, his hectic movements only spurring me on as his clothes joined us on the floor.
Frustrated, he reached over to a dagger lying on the floor nearby and cut his clothes off. I laughed, and the joyous sound reached into the rafters of the little cottage. Ruhan’s movements stilled at the sound, pulling back to look at me.
As I looked at him, the smile that broke over his face brought tears to my eyes.
He leaned forward, as if he couldn’t stop himself, and settled his lips on mine, caressing them gently, teasing them open. I let him in, the feeling of his tongue tangling with mine overwhelming. I pushed for more, and he gladly gave it, ravishing my mouth with undeniable skill.
Kissing Ruhan was like magic, intense and all-consuming.
I felt my magic respond to the kiss, feeling that all too familiar torrent that seemed to spring up whenever he was near. I wasn’t sure how I could have magic again so quickly after exhausting it, but I was too absorbed in Ruhan to pay much attention. Especially as his hand found my breast.
The exquisite sensation of him playing with my nipples brought me to the precipice, and I writhed, desperate for him to help me reach the crest.
“Is this what you want?” Ruhan moved his hand slowly to my center, and I sobbed as he teased my folds, so tantalizingly close to that little bundle of nerves.
“Yes. Please!” I writhed, barely able to think, much less talk. So I let my body do the talking for me.
I lifted my hips, an offering for him, and his eyes sparked. He held my gaze salaciously as he lowered his head, prolonging the torment. The obscene sight of his head bowed between my thighs brought a gush of arousal, and I nearly came as he licked my seam, hips bucking. He licked and sucked my folds, pumping into me with his fingers and bringing me heights I’d never soared.
“You’re perfection.” Ruhan breathed as he looked up, and I nearly drowned in his expression. His eyes were dark pools of erotic satisfaction, and he looked at me as if I were his world.
Just when I thought I couldn’t go any higher, I felt his magic tease mine, flirting with it coquettishly. My magic responded, and I gave in to the sensation.
“Ruhan!” His name tore from my lips as his tongue feasted obscenely at my core, and I exploded as his teeth grazed across my nub.
“Are you ready for me?” He asked, taunting me as he lined himself up, holding back until I responded.
My body and magic thrashed, intoxicated. I couldn’t formulate words in response, so I wrapped my legs around his body and pulled him closer.
He entered me with a single stroke and our magic swelled, mixing and swirling in time with his frenzied thrusts as he drew in and out. With each pump our magic mingled closer, with each undulation of my inner walls our magic integrated until it detonated, taking us with it.
As we lay panting in the aftermath, Ruhan rolled me on top of him and kissed the top of my hair, the tenderness of the action making my heart squeeze.
“I love you, my soulmate.” He whispered into my hair.
Soulmate. The words felt right, settling into my heart like a soft summer rain as I repeated them back.
This Fae, this brave hearted male who had stolen my heart, worshiped my body as we lay on the floor of my tiny cottage beside the bodies of our enemies, and it was perfection.