Goner
Sitting in the soni-jet on the way up to Sky’s Edge, I looked up from my tablet when Nayden left the cockpit to do another search of the cabin, like a being could dissipate on a cellular level somewhere else and reanimate inside the jet.
Which was ridiculous.
Usually, after he did this, he went back to the cockpit.
This time, he sat down in a seat across the cabin from me.
I was on my tablet, adding to the saved items I wanted to show Tanyn for the refurb of Sigil.
I’d asked Zyr to go through, uncover and send pics of what was already there to see if there was anything I wanted, and if it could be salvaged.
Most of it had been ruined by the damp and cold.
I even had to request she stop sending pics of the paintings on the walls, because most of them were watermarked, or the paint had chipped or faded, and the loss of these historical pieces was such a waste, I couldn’t bear looking at them.
“We’re ten minutes out,” Nayden said.
I looked up from my tablet to him, then out the window of the jet to see the lights of Abyssinia getting closer and closer.
I turned back to Nayden. “Do you have someone special you’re going home to?”
“I’m sorry?” he asked.
We had not gotten personal. We’d not gotten anything at all. He tolerated me. He protected me. He commanded the crew who also protected me.
And that was it.
“A female? A male? A partner? Someone special,” I explained.
“No,” he said shortly and looked away from me.
All right.
Still at tolerating.
Not optimal, but we were both working with it.
I turned back to the window and now could see the wintry beauty of Berg Castle lit up in the center of the city.
“Down in the Fall, do they teach you Edgian history and folklore?”
Surprised that Nayden was initiating a conversation, I returned my attention to him.
“Yes and no,” I answered. “We’re given some basics, mostly as pertains to how the Fall and the Edge clashed, or other, over history. Though, obviously, you can dive deeper into whatever subject matter interests you.”
“Do you know of King Tol and Queen Serya?”
My eyebrows arched. “The Siege of Abyssinia?”
He nodded.
“The most profoundly stupid display of demon pride in history?” I added.
He didn’t appear insulted.
Then again, Tol had displayed the most profoundly stupid demon pride in history, and it really wasn’t an argument.
“What do you know about it?” he queried.
“That Serya was a warrior demon, like he was. However, she’d just had their first child, a boy, so she wasn’t, at the time, fighting fit.
They’d also just sustained two huge losses on the battlefield.
And when the rebel forces were advancing on Abyssinia, and their warriors were battle weary and provisions were very low, she advised he retreat.
Regroup. Retake the city when they were stronger.
He refused to give up the capital. As a result, the rebels surrounded the city and set siege.
It lasted over a year. And I don’t like to think of all the stories about how the beings inside its walls suffered when the food and firewood ran out. ”
“Strategic retreat is nothing to be ashamed of. Even the best generals elect to do it,” Nayden said. “Thousands of beings died simply because of Tol’s pride.”
“Including Tol and Serya,” I said.
“Yes, but fortunately, Prince Magnum’s nanny disguised him, and when the siege was over, she spirited him away and hid him well so he could be alive to retake the throne thirty-six years later.”
I wasn’t sure why we were talking about this, so I just lifted my chin to indicate I’d heard him.
“Berg Castle was commissioned by Tol’s father. Finished during Tol’s reign,” Nayden shared. “Tol and Serya were the first to live there.”
“It’s said that it’s built on the steps that lead down to all the hells.” And there, I did know some Edgian folklore.
“This has been debunked,” Nayden replied.
“It’s still a cool story,” I mumbled.
“Berg is built from black diablo stone,” Nayden said.
“Yes, I know the castle is enchanted to cover the stone with snow and ice.”
“No. It isn’t enchanted. It’s cursed.”
Okay, that I hadn’t heard.
“Cursed?”
“Magnum’s nanny was from the Break. As such, she was a witch.
She loved her charge, but she also loved and respected Serya.
And the beings of Abyssinia, all of them, including the royals, suffered during that siege.
She was furious Tol put Serya and Magnum through that.
Therefore, prior to leaving, she cursed the castle Tol was so very proud of that he put retaining it over the lives of his family and his beings.
She cursed it to have its noble diablo stone covered and hidden behind walls of ice, like the walls of ice that had built about around Serya’s heart as she, her husband, and nearly her child wasted away simply because he wouldn’t listen to her.
” He cocked his head to the side. “As history has a way of doing, they changed ‘cursed’ to ‘enchanted’ to make it sound better.”
“It might have been a curse, but she made it beautiful.”
“A castle isn’t supposed to be beautiful. It’s a fortified structure built to keep its inhabitants safe. It’s supposed to be formidable and intimidating. Now, it looks like something out of a fairytale.”
The pilot’s voice sounded in the cabin. “Initiating landing procedure in three minutes.”
I buckled in before I turned to look out the window to see we were nearly on top of what was, indeed, a fairytale castle.
Strictly, there was nothing demonic about it.
However, in my mind’s eye, I changed the white to the famous glittering black stone that came from the diablo quarry in southern Sky’s Edge, and it was an altogether different structure.
Still beautiful.
But a terrible beauty.
“Lore says,” Nayden began, and I went back to him, “this witch wove a failsafe in her curse. Lore says there will be a queen of the Edge who will break the curse on Berg Castle. She will be the perfect match to the king. She will come to him in a time of trouble. And her love for him will see him through those troubles. And the love and wisdom she offers him will keep him, their family, and the beings of the Edge safe. And when this king finds that queen, she’ll bring down the enchantments that lock the castle in an eternal freeze.
And those of the Edge will know the king has found his perfect mate. ”
My skin was feeling tingly in a manner I wasn’t sure I cared for, at the same time I knew it was excitement.
“Why are you telling me this?” I asked.
He lifted a shoulder nonchalantly, but there was nothing nonchalant about the intent way he was gazing at me.
“You say there’s a good probability you’ll be in Tan’s life for a long time. He’s resolved to make you his queen. You should know about your beings, their history, myths, traditions.”
Hmm.
So maybe he didn’t simply dislike me because I’d messed things up with Tanyn.
Maybe there was a hint of him not wanting me, a demon from the Fall, to be his queen.
I didn’t ask after this, and not only because the jet was powering down to shift into hover for landing.
I shoved my tablet in my bag and grabbed my coat.
We landed.
I shot a quick glance out the window to see Tanyn standing at the edge of the landing bay, no coat (gods!), no hat (that male!), his hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans.
Scrummy.
Hurley was sitting beside him.
Quickly, I unbuckled, stood, swung on my coat, grabbed my bag and walked to the door.
It opened, the steps folded down and Nayden went first (he always went first, security protocol, according to Nayden), the pilot held back, and I stepped out.
Tanyn didn’t move (though, Hurley did, right to me, whereupon I bent to give him some pets, even as I kept moving), and I sauntered Tanyn’s way like I had all the time in the world to get to him.
Until I was ten feet away, then, very unlike me (and I didn’t give a crap) I skipped eagerly toward him, threw myself at him, locking my arms around his shoulders.
I caught his smile right before he kissed me.
And I felt like I’d come home.
The male refused to let me have the top!
This was why he was covered in scratch and bite marks, and my pale skin was coming up with delicious bruises.
Granted, there were often times where I got distracted from my goal, and these times centered around when he was kissing me, I was tasting his skin on my tongue, he got two strong fingers inside me, I got a few strokes in on his cock, and the like.
But when Tanyn had his lips locked around my nipple, and he was concentrating on driving me mad by sucking hard at it, I struggled through the waves of pleasure, planted a foot in the bed, heaved and rolled him to his back.
Triumphantly, I swung a leg over his hips to straddle him and reached for his cock to get it inside me.
I didn’t take hold because he surged up, then up, and I was up too, with his hands under my arms.
Then I was on my back with him on top of me, as well as thrusting inside me.
I refused to acknowledge how good that felt (and it felt good).
“I’m a great ride, you know,” I panted, lifting my hips to his rhythm to get more of him.
“I know,” he replied, and to drive his point home (literally), he started going faster.
Harder.
“I meant me doing the riding,” I pushed out, sinking my nails into his lats and delighting in hearing his resulting grunt.
“We’ll see.”
“We could see now.”
He sunk into the root, filling me.
We felt so perfect like that, and for other reasons besides, I whimpered.
“Are you not enjoying this?” he asked.
I was a very good liar.
But not that good.
I decided to remain quiet.
He grinned a victorious grin.
I frowned, lifted my head and gave his lower lip a vicious nip.
And yes, I tasted his blood.
Delicious.
Lightning crackled in his eyes, he took my mouth with his as his cock took everything else.
After a few minutes, I came, loudly, gloriously.
And not long later, I watched him do the same.
“Um…” I did not fully state what was on my mind.
Even so, Tanyn flashed a smile at me.
We were still in bed.