Chapter 12
Twelve
Vox
We traveled through the mountains toward Hamor, but halfway down the other side, Hayle was casting worried looks at Avalon. She was more solemn than normal, staring at the back of Zier Tarrin’s head, like she shouldered all the blame for what had happened to him.
“I know that we’re in some kind of time crunch, but I think that Avie needs a moment of peace,” he said softly to Lierick and I, and we all looked ahead at her. Her shoulders were stiff, her face turned down in a frown.
“What do you suggest?” Lierick asked.
“A little past the pass we’d use to head back to Hamor is a hidden mountain lake.
I found it back when I was a kid. I’m sure I’m not the only person who knows about it, but it’s difficult enough to get to from anywhere civilized that it’s normally empty.
I think perhaps an afternoon of normalcy might be beneficial for us all. ”
My whole body felt poised to fight or flee, and I couldn’t remember the last time it had relaxed enough to take a full, deep breath. Maybe Doend? Hayle was right. We all needed this. Besides, Zier was looking a little pale, and he could probably use the break.
“I’m in,” I told Hayle.
Iker shrugged. “There’s a village just down the other side of the mountain I would like to assess. I’ll make my own way back to Hamor.”
Lierick nodded. “Be careful.”
With that, Iker split off and turned east. I should have been curious about how thoroughly they knew the terrain of Ebrus, how long they must have studied us and embedded their spies. I didn’t really care, though; at this point, I had more loyalty to the Second Line than to my own.
Avalon looked back over her shoulder at us, her eyes bouncing between Iker’s retreating form and our small group. “Where’s Iker going?”
“Recon,” Hayle replied, striding toward her. “I want to show you something before we head home to Hamor. A surprise.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Haven’t you known me long enough to know how I feel about surprises?”
He just grinned at her. “You’ve been the greatest surprise of my life, Avalon Halhed, and I love you. Now, let me treat you like you deserve.” Sweeping her up, he moved quickly down the mountainside like he was part goat. “Last one there has to sleep on the outside tonight.”
I rolled my eyes at his theatrics, but honestly, I didn’t mind sleeping on the outside. Every night meant I either got to have the soft curves of Avalon against my body, or the hard edges of Lierick. We never started that way, of course, but by the time I woke up, I’d be spooned around his back.
The moment between waking and the world crashing in were the greatest moments of my life, the real dream.
I looked over at the man in question. My enemy.
My friend. I wanted so much more, but it was doomed.
If the Second Line was successful, I’d either have to kill the rest of my family and take the mantle of Baron, or stand down completely.
None of my family would take my perceived treason well, and even though not one of them could stand against me magically, together they were too dangerous to keep alive.
If the Second Line lost… The idea of losing Lierick was like a dagger to the heart. At least I wouldn’t have to live without him long, because I would swing right along with him, as would Avalon. And probably Hayle.
We needed the Dawn Army on our side.
Lierick’s fingers brushed against the back of my hand as we walked down the rocky path.
Eventually, his pinky finger linked with mine.
Since Doend, we’d been walking this line between allies and more, much to Hayle’s impatience.
The Third Line led with their heart, which made them fierce and unpredictable opponents, but invaluable friends.
He honestly couldn’t see the problem with Lierick and I starting a relationship.
We didn’t say anything as the lake came into view. It wasn’t huge, but the water was so clear, it looked like it was barely more than a puddle. Though the giant boulder jutting from the center told me that it was a lot deeper than it appeared.
I gestured toward a large, flat rock. “Let’s put our stuff there.
” Lierick nodded, and we climbed over the rocks as Zier stood at the edge of the lake beside Avalon and Hayle.
She was grinning wildly, toeing off her dirty boots that were still crusted with shit.
We could wash them here, and I’d use my magic to dry them instantly.
If it seemed sacrilegious to sully the lake with shit, but worse still to walk around in refuse.
Hayle must have agreed, because he picked up Avalon and tossed her into the water with a screech. He laughed as he dived in after her, and she slapped at his chest as he swam up, grabbing her up in his arms again.
“The love between them is something, isn’t it?” I looked over to see Zier had appeared beside us.
“He loves her without fear, without limit. It’s something to aspire to,” Lierick agreed. “Very few people would give themselves so wholly, out of fear of the inevitable heartache.”
I swallowed at his words, but I couldn’t make myself look his way.
“And is the feeling mutual?” Zier asked, though there was something more in his tone. I turned to look at the man, who must have been a decade older than Avalon. Hayle had said there was something there, but I hadn’t seen it myself, not really.
“She loves him so completely that you can’t help but believe there would be nothing left for you.
But you’d be wrong; Avalon’s capacity for love is endless.
If you let her, she’ll love you with just as much devotion as she loves Hayle.
She will hold your heart in those hands like it’s the most precious gift she’s ever been given.
It doesn’t matter if she holds one or four. ”
“She’s not greedy, either. She doesn’t believe that she’s the nexus of our world. She doesn’t mind if we… care about others,” Lierick added, then grinned. “But she does seem to enjoy it if she’s pressed right in the middle.”
I knew he was thinking about Doend, when we’d all gone to bed together. I bit back the groan that bubbled up my throat. It had been the most amazing night of my life, but the regret that came with it had been nearly as intense.
Not regret that it had happened, but regret that more hadn’t happened. Maybe I’d missed my opportunity with the Second Line Heir, and maybe it was for the best, but I couldn’t help the yearning.
It was pitiful.
Zier was nodding, oblivious to my inner turmoil. “I might go bathe.” He pushed off the stone, peeling off his shirt and pants as he got to the water’s edge. I noticed Avalon very purposefully trying not to stare. It was almost unbearably cute.
“You would think she’d have her hands full already,” Lierick murmured softly.
I shrugged. “She calls to something inside him. Inside us all. Fate, maybe?” I didn’t fight it too hard, and maybe that was because I’d fallen in love with her across different lifetimes, or maybe it was because my soul had always known it was meant to be hers.
I wasn’t so egotistical to believe that I could be the only one she affected like that.
We sat shoulder to shoulder and watched Avie and Hayle goof around in the water. Zier watched them quietly from a few feet away, floating on his back.
Lierick slid his hand to my thigh. “Fate. That seems right.” He swallowed. “Like this.”
I sighed heavily. “Like this.”
“It could all go so wrong,” he murmured.
“Terribly wrong.” A smile tugged at one side of my mouth. “Hayle would say that it would be worth it anyway. That the pain just meant you’d loved.” I still couldn’t look at him.
“And is that what this is? Love?”
I turned now, my gaze meeting his golden one. “It could be, if we let it.”
He leaned closer and brushed his lips across mine, testing if maybe this burning between us was just that, something incendiary that would set us both on fire and then flare out quickly. I knew it wasn’t, even if part of me wished it was.
I kissed him back, pressing hard, sliding my tongue across the seam of his lips until they parted. He made my heart thud in my chest.
“Come on,” he said softly, pulling me off our perch.
We moved to a smaller outcropping of rocks, and he didn’t hesitate.
His hands hit my chest, and he leaned forward, kissing me harder now, with more desperation.
“I don’t know what will happen from this point, but I don’t want to meet the Goddess without knowing what it would be like to be yours,” he said against my lips.
My eyes felt too wide. “Here? Now?”
“There might not be a later, Vox.” He pulled back a little, letting me breathe.
I didn’t want to breathe, though. I wanted to be his too. I gripped his ribs, pulling him closer to me, until we were pressed so closely together, nothing could get between us: not daylight, not history, not our future. There was just me and Lierick.
He pushed his hands under my shirt, and I pulled it off. I wanted as little between us as possible while being out in the open, under the warmth of the blue sky and bright sun. I wanted to see the warm rays touch his golden skin.
Goddess, he was beautiful.
I dragged off his shirt too and continued to kiss him, even as his hands went for my pants, loosening them and sliding his hand inside my underwear.
Biting back a grunt at the feel of his hand around my cock, I went to work on his own pants.
I freed that monster cock and gave it a couple of exploratory strokes.
“Fuck,” Lierick breathed. We were similar heights, so when he spat on his hand and grabbed both our cocks as we thrust against each other…
“Goddess,” I choked out, making him laugh. We kissed and kissed, him holding us both tightly so our cocks slid together, making my balls ache for release. I was going to explode.
Dragging my mouth from his, I flopped my head back against the rock face. “Lierick, I’m going to come,” I groaned.
The fucker stopped and stepped back. I let out a grunt of protest and grabbed for him, but he slapped my hands away with a laugh.
“I don’t want to come on your stomach our first time, Vox.
I want you to come inside me. I want you to make me yours, and I’ll make you mine, even if it’s just this one time. ”
There was an urgency in his tone, and I realized he believed this would be our only chance. I swore to the Goddess herself it wouldn’t be, but I could give him this.
I grabbed his jaw, kissing him hard. “This is just the beginning of something. Sometimes it’ll be you and I, and sometimes we’ll have Avie between us.
” His cock jumped between us at that. Yeah, Avalon could only make this more…
everything. “But this won’t be the last time, Lierick. I swear it on my life.”
I spun him toward the rock wall, dragging his pants further down his thighs.
Pressing my arm between his chest and the rock face in front of him, I spat on my other hand.
I rubbed a finger around his tight hole, pushing it in slightly, making us both moan.
Then another finger, stretching him, preparing him, making him grunt.
Fuck, he was tight. Would I fit?
“Vox, please,” he groaned.
Lining myself up, I pressed inside him. His body stretched around me, then pulled me in. Holding myself back from thrusting balls deep was the singularly most restrained I’d ever been in my entire, pathetic life.
Finally, I was buried inside him, as close to another man as I ever could be. I kissed the back of his neck, burying nose in his soft golden hair.
Once I thought he’d had enough time to adjust—and I’d gotten ahold of myself, so I didn’t blow in three strokes—I started to move.
It was everything. Not like making love to Avalon, which was like holding something soft and gentle and perfect in your hands.
No, fucking Lierick was something more primal.
More wild, filled with burning need. Different, but not better.
“Fuck, Vox,” he moaned, the sound muffled by his forearm. I held him tightly, moving with longer, wilder strokes. His hand was on his cock, stroking in time with my thrusts, and it was too fucking much.
I wrapped my hand around his and squeezed, and he came in hot spurts all over his chest and the stone that was scraping against my knuckles.
Like I’d been granted permission, I came inside him, buried so deep that I never wanted to leave.
I kissed his shoulders, his nape, his spine, peppering every inch I could reach with soft caresses.
Finally, our panting subsided, and I pulled out to the sound of our combined groans. “That was…” I whispered, still not ready to face him.
“It was,” he agreed softly.
It had to happen again. Again, and again, and again if I had my way. I turned his face and kissed him once more, trying to convey the tenderness that didn’t come to me naturally, the emotions that I kept suppressed for everyone except Avalon, who refused to let me hide them away.
He smiled as he moved back, bending down to pull up his underwear, but kicking his pants off the rest of the way. “Let’s go clean up,” he said, a small smirk on his face.
Smiling at him, I nodded. Kicking out of my clothes except my own underwear, I picked them up and carried them down to the water’s edge.
Everyone else was still floating on the surface, and it looked idyllic. The kind of moment you wanted to live inside forever. Avalon turned her head to look at us, her cheeks flushed pink. It might have been the sun or…
Hayle’s lascivious wink let me know that everyone knew what Lierick and I had just done, but none of them seemed to care. Not even Zier, who looked like he was sleeping in the water.
Tugging at my hand, Lierick led me into the cold water, and I hissed a little at the chill on my overheated skin, until I lowered my body temperature to match.
I walked out toward Avalon, wanting to check in on her. I wanted to make sure what had just happened was okay. Because as much as I wanted Lierick, I needed Avalon just as much.
“Okay?” she asked as I scooped her into my arms, treading water without the use of my magic. I enjoyed the weight of the water around me.
“Better than. Is it okay with you?”
She wrapped her legs around my waist and kissed me. “I couldn’t be happier. I love you, Vox. If my only success in this lifetime is to show you just how worthy of love you are, then that would be more than enough.”
Fuck, I loved her so much. Kissing her back deeply, I told her that over and over again as we floated in this quiet little oasis, a place of calm before the storm that was brewing on the horizon.