Shey Thrudesh-Vo
TWENTY-ONE
Shey found Tyche sitting on the floor of his half-moon balcony, his back against the railing and his arms around his bent legs.
His hair was damp, as if he’d taken a shower recently, and he was wearing a pair of black jeans and an oversized sweater that threatened to fall off one shoulder.
The small bit of pale skin that was visible glowed in the moonlight, giving him an ethereal aura.
The clothes, however, made him appear fragile.
Shey had seen the god’s power. He wasn’t weak or helpless in the slightest.
As he approached, Tyche lifted his face and gazed wordlessly at Shey.
Dark circles underlined his bright-green eyes.
He blinked slowly, and for a moment, it was as if he were staring straight through Shey.
An icy chill struck Shey, sending goose bumps down his arms. His heart stuttered as fear gripped him tightly in a frigid, bony fist.
Without thinking, he rushed forward, dropped to his knees beside Tyche, and grabbed his face with both hands, pulling him in for a hard kiss.
He felt Tyche flinch, and his hands landed on Shey’s shoulders.
Shey tensed, waiting for Tyche to shove him away, but a heartbeat later, the fingers curled, twisting in his shirt as he pulled him closer.
His mouth softened, and he returned the kiss.
It wasn’t passionate abandon but more like cautious confusion.
Every warning word Fiona had spoken echoed through his brain. He was setting himself up for heartbreak. Reaching for Tyche like this meant he was grasping for the impossible, but he couldn’t stop himself. Not when Tyche looked at him like that. He was lost. Drowning. Alone.
Shey refused to allow Tyche to feel that. He wasn’t alone, and Shey would always find him.
Shey tilted his head to the side and licked his way into Tyche’s mouth, deepening the kiss.
A tiny moan of pleasure rose from Tyche’s throat, and his hands released Shey’s shoulders to wrap around his neck.
Shey pulled him closer. They shifted and moved without ever breaking off the kiss so that Tyche was straddling Shey’s lap while Shey’s hands moved up and down Tyche’s back, rubbing tense muscles until they loosened.
The kiss stretched on and on, slow and tender. There was no rush. Shey wanted to live forever in the moment, holding Tyche. Their hearts beating wildly against each other through their chests.
But it couldn’t last forever.
Tyche pulled away first to look at Shey. The lost, distant stare was gone from his eyes. They sparkled and were focused. A beautiful blush painted his cheeks, and his lips were puffy from their kiss.
“Why did you do that?”
A hundred lines popped up in Shey’s mind at Tyche’s questions. Everything from flirty to whimsical to filthy. Yet, what came out of his mouth was the truth.
“I was scared.”
Tyche’s brows snapped together over the bridge of his nose, and those perfect lips bent into a frown. “Why?”
“When you looked at me, it was like you were staring right through me. I was afraid that if I blinked, you were going to disappear. Once you disappeared, I’d never find you again.
” As he spoke, his arms tightened on Tyche, locking the god to him as if that were even possible. “I-I don’t want you to leave…me.”
“You…you don’t even know me.”
“I learned everything I needed to know about you in that damn prison.”
Tyche swooped in and claimed his mouth in a bruising kiss that took everything Shey had and more.
His tongue dipped into Shey’s mouth and tangled with his tongue.
Their teeth clacked together. It was as if Tyche were trying to taste his soul, and Shey was willing to let him.
He was happy to hand all of himself over to Tyche if that was what he wanted.
Just so long as he didn’t stop. Didn’t disappear.
But Tyche soon slowed, gentling the kiss as he threaded his fingers through Shey’s hair. He finally pulled away, and they were both panting.
“I think we should probably stop. This is becoming…” Tyche’s voice drifted off, and he swallowed hard. As he was talking, his face had turned a shade of red almost as dark as his hair. Did he think Shey couldn’t feel his problem with him straddling his lap?
“Maybe we should keep going, but lose the clothes?”
Shey smirked and grabbed Tyche’s ass. He pulled him closer while thrusting his hips upward, rubbing his hard dick against Tyche’s thigh. They were fully dressed, but there was no masking how much they were turned-on.
A low, guttural sound fell from Tyche’s parted lips, and his eyes rolled into his head.
The fingers in Shey’s hair tightened to the point of pain, but he didn’t care.
Considering his lack of kissing experience, it was no great shock that Tyche was a virgin.
Now Shey was consumed with one driving thought—to make Tyche come.
He wanted to fuck Tyche. Have Tyche fuck him.
Didn’t matter. He wanted to be the one to make Tyche come so hard that all of Thia trembled.
“Shey?”
“I can make you forget everything. Just for a little while.”
Tyche’s eyes opened, and his lips trembled. “That is so tempting, but I spent a very long time trying to forget, and it fixed nothing.”
“Do you want to try talking about it?”
Tyche fell into him, hugging him tightly. “I think I’d like to try that.”
It was another few minutes before they untangled themselves and got to their feet.
Tyche lingered on the balcony, staring out at the city with one hand resting on the railing.
He might have said that he wanted to talk, but he was hesitating.
Shey didn’t mind. He was willing to give Tyche the entire night if he needed it.
“I peeked in on Adrian and Haru on my way here. Haru appears to have bounced back completely. I guess that’s how dragons are made.” Shey leaned his butt on the railing and watched Tyche.
A ghost of a smile drifted across the god’s lips. “Dragon magic is powerful stuff.”
“Adrian took a good knock to the head, but he appears to be recovering. He doesn’t seem to have lost anything valuable. Definitely not his snark. Probably thanks to a certain god’s magic.”
“Probably so.” Tyche held out his right hand and motioned toward the entire city.
“You know, I can remember when this was all trees.” His hand drifted to point at the harbor.
“A tiny fishing village started right over there. It was a circle of about a dozen thatched huts and a handful of sailboats they’d pull ashore each time the weather was bad. ”
Shey nodded. “The first people who would form Caspagir.”
“No. They died.” Tyche lowered his hand to rest on the railing, but his gaze didn’t move from the spot where he’d indicated the village had existed.
“Sickness swept through the village one winter. Killed most of them. One family tried to escape it, but as you know, winters are hard here. Wolves killed them before they could get more than a few miles away.” Tyche turned to stare at Shey, his expression sad.
“The founders of Caspagir came to this area hundreds of years later.”
Tyche’s words shook Shey to his very core.
Logically, he’d known Tyche was old. Ancient.
But sitting across from the man, listening to him complain about shitty coffee and tease a dragon, it was hard to get that idea to sink in.
But watching him point out places and people that had existed thousands of years ago left him with a weight in his stomach he didn’t know how to handle.
And yet, he couldn’t stop Tyche from telling his story. Something was weighing on him, and he needed to get the words out.
“It wasn’t long after that I left this region and started traveling west. Through what would become the Ordas and into Erya.
I happened upon a bigger town with a few permanent structures.
It was a peaceful spot. There were wide plains, and some people had taken to keeping herds of sheep and goats.
I also found that I missed people.” Tyche glanced at Shey and flashed a weak, crooked smile.
“It happens to everyone once in a while.”
Shey grinned encouragingly, afraid of what was coming but also not wanting him to stop. “A quiet life is nice, but people can be useful. They introduced you to coffee.”
“True, but not for a long time after this. The interesting thing about this town was that it possessed a group of about five minor gods. I’d never encountered any of them before. In fact, I couldn’t remember ever seeing so many in one location.”
“Really? You don’t have annual conventions where you get together and share stories while drinking bad beer?” Shey teased, trying to get Tyche’s mood to lighten.
Tyche threw him a dark look. “Definitely not. Being a crown prince, there’s an ancient saying that I’m sure you know. One mountain can’t—”
“One mountain can’t contain two tigers,” Shey finished for him. “I know it well. It’s a warning given to all royal children, especially those with siblings or a powerful extended family. Two figures of power will always fight for dominance.”
“Exactly. It’s easy when any of us crosses the path of a major god.
The true tiger is obvious. The rest of us retreat or risk annihilation.
But with a meeting of minor gods, it’s usually a crossing of equals.
” Tyche paused and shook his head. “They’re not all like that.
Yesuntei wasn’t. Cirina wasn’t. She wanted only to protect her sister.
I was indifferent to all of them, too aware of my own limitations.
However, that group of five intrigued me.
They had called a truce. Each god spent the night outside the town, and each morning, they returned for a meal and conversation.
It was a rare chance for us all to share our stories.
Learn interesting things. No antagonism, because it was agreed that after our exchange, we would go our separate ways. ”