Epilogue
Aldryc
My fingers traced idle patterns on Pip’s bare shoulder, and I smiled when I felt him shiver.
“You good?” I asked.
“Mm, yeah. The bath was perfect after a long ride, and this bed is so cozy,” he said. “I’m glad Sky’s okay, too. It’s wild, the time discrepancy Moerrven explained. If it’s true, it’s possible hardly any time at all has passed since we fell through.”
“It’ll be hard to know for sure until we get more answers about how it is happening,” I said. “I still cannot believe we raced all the way out to Stonedeep to rescue Sky from that dragon, only to discover he’d already rescued himself.”
“All that soup with Moerrven got me thinking, though. How much time do you suppose has passed back home? In San Jose?”
“Moerrven did the arithmetic—rough arithmetic, he was careful to say—somewhere around his third bowl. He believes an hour in your realm is close to two days in ours.” I traced a slow line down his spine. “By that reckoning, you have been gone barely a day.”
He went quiet, which was rare enough that I propped myself up to look at him.
Then a smile broke slow across his face.
“My coffee’s probably still warm.” He was quiet another moment.
“I keep waiting to feel torn about it. Like I should be scrambling for a way back. But I’m not.
The mirror can stay a mystery for a while. My story’s here now.”
“Then let the scholars have their puzzle,” I said, and pulled him close.
Pip laughed. “That dragon should have known better than to trifle with Sky.”
“Your friend has a startling capacity for talking his way out of trouble.”
He nuzzled my shoulder, his smile against my skin. “You have no idea. That’s Sky in a nutshell.”
“Since he’s my husband’s good friend, I suppose I’ll end up knowing him quite well, won’t I?”
Pip sighed. “Unless he finds a way home, of course.”
“Well, Moerrven seemed very determined to help him with that. Would you miss him?”
“It was fun to have a friend here who gets it, but he deserves to go home if he can. Sky has a much larger family than I do, with more people who would miss him.”
“Are there not people back in San Jose you’ll wish you could see?” I asked, slightly afraid of the answer.
“Maybe. But the people who matter? They’re right here. You, Lyriel… hell, even Vaelith, who apparently ran a betting pool on us.”
I frowned. “A betting pool?”
“All in good fun. Said she put her money on us from the start.”
“She’d better have.”
“Of course she did! It’s… nice. Having people in my corner.”
I smiled, pulling him closer until he lay half-sprawled across my chest. I thought about how Pip had quietly taken people like Vaelith, people who I’d spent my life training and working with, and somehow brought them closer, made them feel more like family.
Pip braced himself on one elbow to study me, his pretty blue eyes bright. He shifted, frown knitting his brows. “So now that Sky’s safe and we’re here in… whatever this town is called, maybe we could stay a few days. Have a honeymoon.”
I frowned. “A honeymoon?”
“Yeah, a vacation after the wedding. Newlyweds do it.” He gestured impatiently. “You know, travel for fun. Pleasure.”
I let my silence hang in the air for a moment. “For… fun?” The exasperation on his face was too delicious to resist.
“Have you never wanted to explore new places and eat cultural food, stay in cute cozy inns like this one and have lots of sex in a bed that isn’t your own? That’s what people do! Vacation!”
“Perhaps we should just head back to Feravael tomorrow. Attend to our duties.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me! You can handle not working for one day!” He was getting worked up now, and he swung a leg over my hips and straddled me, pinning me down with his small, naked body.
“I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying. What would there be to do if not for training?”
“What would there be to do if not for training—” He paused. Something must have given me away, because he narrowed his eyes at me. “You’re fucking with me.”
“I am. Well, partially. We do not have this thing you call a honeymoon, but people here do travel for pleasure from time to time.”
“Aeldryc, I can’t believe you played a prank! I feel my influence on you has grown exponentially.”
I laughed. “I do have a sense of humor. Sometimes. Besides, I already told Moerrven we’d stay for a week while he explores this library he’s sure has answers. He gave me a list of restaurants to try and everything.”
Pip lit up. “A whole week?”
“Yes, a week of, what did you call it? Cultural food. Plus, we can go shopping, and maybe hiking up into the mountains, or simply cuddling in this comfortable bed. Your choice. Except for a few meetings with Moerrven, my schedule is wide open. I am at your service.”
He beamed at me and leaned forward, the silver chain from the collar he still chose to wear dangling down and tickling my chest. “At my service.”
“Yes, we can do anything you please. There’s a hot springs—”
“Anything I please?” Pip interrupted. “What if I want to fuck your hole?”
“I’ll tolerate it,” I said.
“How gracious of you, Commander,” he teased. “You’re not even going to fight me on it?”
“I see the way you come apart while I’m inside you, sweetheart. I would very much like to experience having the man I love buried inside me.”
He gave a delighted gasp, clapping his hands as he bounced on top of me. “You want to be the slut.”
“I wouldn’t go that far. But I’ll let you fuck me.” The iron nails on the bed gave an approving hum as I yanked him down for a searing kiss. His mouth was hot, demanding, and I matched him with equal fervor until we both gasped for air.
I tightened my arms around him as he traced my spine down to where the sheet still draped us. “I love you. My strange, impossible human.”
“I love you too,” he whispered back. “Even if you don’t know what a vacation is.”
“That was teasing!”
Pip scoffed. “You have meetings planned!”
“It’s only efficient. Moerrven would have to travel to Feravael otherwise.”
“Once a type A control freak, always a type A control freak,” Pip teased.
“Stop taunting me and fuck me like the slut I’m going to pretend to be. Should I put on shorts and shake my ass?”
He smiled against my lips. I cupped his head and held him there, kissing him roughly before tracing my lips down the smooth curve of his jaw. My teeth grazed the sensitive skin of his throat, and he squirmed. He tangled his fingers in my hair and moaned, grinding against me.
“Wait,” he breathed, tugging softly at my hair. “We had a deal. I top first.”
I pulled back, violet eyes dark with want. “You drive a hard bargain, husband,” I teased, though a smile curved my lips.
He reached for the oil on the nightstand. “Mustn’t lose focus. You taught me that. Now spread your legs, slut.”
I was laughing as I lay back, giddy with something I couldn’t name. I grabbed my thighs and held myself open for him as he poured oil over his fingers, warming it slightly before reaching between my cheeks and circling my entrance.
The unfamiliar touch was a strange, tickling sensation—not unpleasant, just new.
His eyes were on me as he pressed a finger gently into my hole and the laugh died in my throat, my whole body going very still, like an animal that has heard something it doesn’t yet understand.
It was alien, a type of vulnerability I didn’t think I’d ever known.
“Relax,” he coaxed, voice gone thick. His finger curled inside me, hitting a spot that sent an electric tremor up my spine.
I tried to obey, but every instinct screamed at me to clench tight, to stay armored.
He read me, of course. He always did, this clever, maddening brat who’d somehow become my axis.
He leaned forward to nip at my jaw, and I let my eyes flutter closed, letting his warmth and his merciless persistence guide me through the prickle of uncertainty.
He was using two fingers now, stretching me.
The slick pressure made my cock leap against my stomach, so hard it almost hurt.
As the iron in the room began to sing, I looked up and met his eyes.
He gave me a slow, knowing smile. “Fuck,” I breathed, the words catching in my throat.
“I didn’t think I could love you more, but I do. ”
“And all it takes is a little press against your prostate.”
I groaned. Pip leaned forward and kissed me, slow and deep, just letting his finger stay inside me, connecting us in the most intimate way.
I moaned against his lips, grinding down on his hand as things started to feel better.
He looked up at the candelabra hanging from the ceiling as it vibrated above us.
“I love our little alarm system,” Pip said, nodding at the vibrating metal. “Your magic always lets me know when you’re enjoying yourself.”
I let out a gruff laugh, cut off as he leaned down, and wrapped the hot velvet of his mouth around my cock, swallowing me whole.
I bucked, and every movement either impaled my hole deeper on his fingers, or dragged my cock across his slick tongue.
He thrust his fingers deeper, and when the pad of one stroked a place inside me that felt like a live wire, I choked out something filthy. My own voice, desperate and animal.
Pip drew off just long enough to make sure I was watching. “You like that? That’s your prostate.”
He grinned like a devil and swirled his tongue around my head, then plunged down again, fingers curling and stroking that spot—my prostate—with ruthless precision. The experience was uncannily powerful, absurdly effective.