28. Cosmic Flames
28
Cosmic Flames
ISSA
K i’Remi’s words settled over Issa like a balm, sinking into the marrow of her bones.
I’ll always have your six.
It was such a simple statement, a mortal concept.
Yet, it was the most profound vow anyone had ever made to her, other than her family’s promises.
She had a lifetime of pledges of loyalty and redemption, oaths wrapped in divine decree, edged with celestial obligation, and laced with unspoken threats.
Still, this was different.
Ki’Remi was unbound by the gods’ will or the burden of ancient contracts.
He wasn’t saying it because he owed her anything or feared the consequences of leaving her side.
He was expressing it because he meant it.
That insight broke something open inside her.
A slow, aching crack appeared in the wall she’d built around her heart.
She trembled until her man lifted a rough, calloused hand to her face, his fingers brushing her cheek.
The tenderness in that small gesture undid her, unraveling whatever resolve was left.
He frowned when his thumb came away wet.
‘Issandra?’ His rasp was hoarse, sensual, possessive, fokkin ’ caring. ‘ Ko sawa ?’
She wanted to tell him she was okay, crack a joke, tease him, and brush away the vulnerability threatening to consume her.
The words refused to come.
Instead, she surged forward, pressing her lips to his, needing to feel anything other than the raw emotion about to swallow her whole.
Ki’Remi stilled for half a second as if startled by her sudden urgency, and then his hesitation vanished.
His hands were on her in an instant.
One cradled the back of her head, fingers tangling in her hair, the other gripping her waist, pulling her flush to his body.
The kiss was soft at first, slow and deep, a careful exploration. As the seconds ticked by, something inside them both fractured.
Heat surged between them, the intensity building like a storm rolling in over the horizon.
His lips moved against hers with a hunger that stole her breath, a raw, desperate need that sent shivers racing down her spine.
And when he kissed her deeper, when his teeth scraped over her bottom lip, when he growled her name like a man on the edge of losing all control.
Her fire ignited.
The flames erupted around them, an inferno of celestial energy.
This time, it was different.
Instead of the usual golden and amber flickers that danced from her skin, the hue shifted.
It twisted and curled into deep, luxurious purples.
Ki’Remi pulled back just enough to stare at the shifting colors, his breath ragged, his muscled chest rising and falling against hers.
His lips fell, kissing her again.
This time, there was no hesitation, no restraint between them.
He walked her back to the bed and thrust her into the velvet covers.
That’s when she reared up and, in a forceful move, flung her thigh around him and pushed him to the divan, straddling his waist.
She bent over him. ‘Remi, I want you now, but I’m not letting you lead the pace.’
His brow arched. ‘You’re not?’
‘ Nada . I need you in me now, and if I let you run this show, you’ll tease me for too long.’
He threw his head back and laughed, exposing his sinewed nape.
She leaned in and kissed it, then propelled upright to throw off her clothes while he pulled off his.
Then she fell on him, hands between them as she guided his turgid, throbbing member inside her. Her lips enclosed the tip of him, her thighs shuddering.
She flung her hair back, her gold-curled mane flying as she lowered herself onto him.
‘ Fokk, it’s so good.’
He encircled her waist to drive her down, so he filled her.
‘ Naam ,’ she cried out as his impossible thickness stuffed her.
Her head slumped back as she canted her pelvis, grinding down on him.
He knifed up, his mouth engulfing her raspberry-tipped nipple, his arm tight in her middle, suckling her while thrusting upward, impaling her with hot, hard shards of lust. She pushed back down, fighting him, and he chuckled against her breast as her pelvis writhed even harder.
She heaved, hair flying, holding onto his shoulders for dear life as they surged and bucked.
‘Remi, fokk , this is cosmic,’ she breathed.
Their bodies flowed in a rhythm older than time, a perfect, sacred alignment.
More purple ethereal flames danced around them as she swirled her hips.
Not with hesitation or careful restraint but with savagery borne of her need to release her pain.
The intensity built as they moved in syncopated hunger.
His growls mixed with her moans, and the blaze raged hotter until, with long sobs and deep, rumbled groans, they shattered.
Her core blazed, searing heat rushing through her veins, burning from the inside out.
His cock, scorched her pussy as he poured his essence into her, his body tensing as her inner fire surged over him. Wrapping him with ribbons of fever.
‘ Fokk ,’ he ground out, his head dropping against her shoulder. ‘Woman, I adore you.’
His grip on her hips was almost bruising, his muscles trembling beneath her touch.
The energy inside her erupted, waves of divine fire unfurling through the space encircling them.
Until all that remained was a storm of twisted limbs and ragged breaths.
When the last tremors left their bodies, they lay tangled together in the aftermath, their skin damp and their inhales uneven.
Ki’Remi traced a single finger along the curve of her bare shoulder, his touch feather-light.
His brows furrowed, his dark eyes flickering from fascination to reverence as her lilac and deep magenta flames shimmered and disappeared under her skin.
‘Issa,’ he murmured, his voice hoarse, as if the heat of her flames seared his throat. ‘The colors today. What did they signify?’
She reached up, cupping the side of his face, her thumb tracing the sharp line of his jaw.
‘Purple,’ she whispered. ‘Signifies a rare piety. Also magic, and mystery.’
Ki’Remi exhaled, his grip on her tightening. ‘What does it mean for us?’
Her windpipe tightened, emotion clogging her chest.
‘It also means I trust you.’
A muscle ticked in his chin. His hands clenched at her waist as if grounding himself.
And then, with excruciating slowness, he dipped his head, his lips hovering just above hers.
‘You trust me?’ he asked, his voice a rough whisper.
Issa nodded. ‘I do.’
Ki’Remi was silent for a long moment.
Then, he grunted. ‘You didn’t before?’
She laughed, turning onto her side to face him.
‘I trusted you with my body,’ she admitted, trailing her fingers over the sculpted ridges of his abdomen. ‘Now, I trust you with my soul.’
His hand curled around hers.
Their eyes met, and his nostrils flared.
His muscles tensed, and he growled, ‘Good,’ rolling over her again, his heaviness covering her.
Her breath hitched. ‘What are you doing?’
He nipped at her bottom lip. ‘Exploring all the colors of the rainbow.’
She let out a breathless laugh. ‘That’s not how it operates.’
He grinned wickedly. ‘It’s how it works now.’
The flames burned again.
When he claimed her again, the hues were vibrant, flaming scarlets that signified raw, unadulterated passion.
Ki’REMI
The luxurious bolthole of a gilded cage was beginning to close around Ki’Remi.
They spent their time in an odd rhythm of captivity, alternating between making love until their bodies ached and needing a reprieve from their lovemaking.
For sanity’s sake, the Sableman pulled out an old, well-worn deck of playing cards from his satchel, teaching Issa how to play the Pegasi variant of Tarac’s Gambit.
She was a quick learner. Too fast.
Within hours, she beat him at his own game, her smirk growing victorious with every round.
Ki’Remi narrowed his eyes at her as she laid down a perfect five-card succession, securing her third win.
‘This is bullshit,’ he muttered, tossing his losing hand onto the table.
Issa sipped from her glass, eyes twinkling with mischief. ‘Oh? Can’t handle being beaten by a woman?’
He grunted, stretching out his legs and rolling his shoulders with ease. ‘Not the issue. The problem is,’ he leaned forward, pinning her with a slow, smoldering look, ‘you’re hustling me, Elaris.’
She grinned. ‘Wouldn’t dream of it, Sable.’
He smirked for a beat and then shuttered down.
‘Enough of this sitting around. How much longer will Sulfiqar make us wait?’
Just as he spoke, a whistling, hissing sound filled the air.
‘The fokk ?’
Issa knifed up and ran to the terrace.
Ki’Remi followed, his eyes tracking what she was staring at.
From beyond the heights of Sivania’s floating citadel, dark shapes burst from the aether.
‘Hell,’ Issa snarled. ‘Sullied daemons. It appears the warring factions have let go of all restraint.’
Ki’Remi whipped out his meta firearm, ready for action and battle.
Until Issa rounded on him. ‘ Nada . The guards can’t know you’re armed.’
With a suck of his teeth, he folded back the meta-enabled weapon into himself just as their Sacran sentinels appeared, rushing through the vast chamber.
‘Get back inside,’ they growled. ‘Now!’
The guards bundled the couple into the suite just as shields flew up, and all hell let loose in the heavens.
The Saatifa raced out the doors, which slammed shut and locked, leaving them alone.
The pair moved to the thick crystalline glass windows, to the gruesome view of the slaughter unfolding beyond. Ki’Remi and Issa gazed silently as creatures of twisted malevolence poured into the sky like a black tide.
They shrieked as they descended in a cyclone of winged horror, their malformed bodies shifting between shadow and flesh.
Their eyes were dead hollows, radiant with the corrupted essence of whatever jinxed existence birthed them.
From the high temple’s eastern gate, a war cry rose.
The guards surged forward, their celestial armor glistening like forged stars, their weapons glowing with the divine light.
The clash erupted across the terrace and the towering structures beyond, the first clash of divine steel against cursed claws sending shockwaves through the ground.
Ki’Remi’s eyes narrowed, his mind parsing the battle in strategic pieces.
The Sullied were fast.
They moved in erratic, blurred streaks, their bodies twisting unnaturally as they struck the gods in vicious, clawed swipes.
The Saatifa were stronger.
Disciplined. Trained for war.
They met the daemons head-on, their celestial blades singing as they severed limbs and cut through their blackened forms.
However, for every Sullied that fell, two more took its place.
It was carnage.
A maelstrom of divine light and tainted darkness.
A Saatifa warrior, a towering deity with obsidian skin streaked in glowing gold sigils, plunged his spear through the heart of a shrieking daemon. Impaling it against the marble floor.
But before he could pull free, a second Sullied lunged at him from behind, its jaws stretching unnaturally, fangs dripping with corrupted ichor.
A heartbeat later, the god disappeared.
A deafening crack split the air, his body turning to pure energy, snuffed out.
Ki’Remi stood rigid, hands on his hips, jaw clenched so tight his molars ached.
The Saatifa warriors fought with precision, their weapons flashing with raw power.
The Sullied battled with madness, their attacks wild but relentless, as if they had nothing to lose because they didn’t. This was a suicide battle, pandemonium, for the sake of chaos.
Yet, for all their divine might, Ki’Remi noted that the celestial beings struggled.
He’d seen war, witnessed battlefields tear apart.
In the Seventh Heaven, the gods were no different. They fell, bled gold dust motes, and died.
A god with silver eyes and emerald skin crumbled beneath a dozen daemon claws, his celestial form flickering, splintering like glass, his essence sucked into the void.
Another’s head fell off, decapitated, his body vanishing before it even hit the ground.
A female warrior, sword glowing with the heat of the stars, got dragged screaming into the abyss, her light swallowed whole by the hungry dark.
Ki’Remi exhaled, his arms crossed over his broad chest, his face an unreadable mask.
‘They are not gods,’ he declared.
Issa, standing beside him, her expression hard, tilted her head.
A single silver curl tumbled across her cheek as she turned to him.
‘Sssh,’ she murmured. ‘Don’t tell them that.’
He swiveled to her with an arched brow.
She shrugged. ‘They don’t like being made aware that although they are immortal, they still fall short of utter glory.’
The Rider studied the so-called eternals as they battled for their lives, his mind shifting, recalculating, reassessing everything he now knew.
These weren’t beings of infinite wisdom and mercy. They were just creatures of immense ancient power who had the capacity to die and lose in battle just as they did to triumph.
His meta-vision took it all in, his neural node, with Mirage’s aid, assessing weak points and understanding their combat approach.
Computing, crunching, and readying himself for what was to come.