Chapter 50
Istep out of the shower and see Moe writing furiously in her notebook.
“What are you doing?” I ask, curious.
She quickly closes her notebook. “Uhm…”
“You’re writing something,” I note suspiciously. Perhaps it’s a note to Lis? The thought instantly puts me in a bad mood.
“Yes but—” She presses harder onto the cover. “It’s not done.”
“What is it? More transcribing or…?”
She blushes, her gaze fixed on the notebook.
“It’s a story I’m writing. But it’s only the beginning of it. The entire experience here, watching you fight… I suppose it’s given me some inspiration.”
I wipe the moisture from my hair as I walk closer to the bed.
“May I read it?”
She purses her lips, a look of indecision on her face.
“I want you to,” she starts, “but not now. There are some quirks I need to fix,” she explains. “But when it’s done, you’ll be the first to read it.”
“Promise?”
“Of course! Who else would I nerd out over books with?” She asks in a joking voice. But beneath that, I can tell this means a lot to her.
“What is it about?” I ask as sit down, the mattress dipping with my weight.
“Someone like me,” she says with a small, hidden smile. “Someone who loves books and gets to live her very own adventure.”
“Then am I in there, too?” I wiggle my brows suggestively at her.
“There is a love interest,” she says as she bites her lower lip. “He’s a wicked villain who wants to have his way with her.”
“Oh, I do like the sound of that. Make me very strong, all right?”
“So strong, you can turn people to dust.”
“Dust?” I laugh. “That would be a very nice ability to have. My fights would be done within seconds.”
She crawls closer to me on the bed. “If you train well, you might accomplish that in the future.”
I roll my eyes. “There you go again with Lis. Come one, Moe, we had a good moment here.”
“I asked her to help you,” she says in a quiet voice.
“You…did?”
She nods. “I want to see you succeed, Nyk. Not just because I’m bound to your life-force in this realm, but also because I know how much this means to you. How many times did you tell me about finding a teacher? That books can only teach you so much?”
“You’re right but—”
“No buts.” She shakes her head. “You will train. And you will do it well. I don’t want to hear any objection from you.”
“My, so bossy this early in the morning?” I raise a brow.
“You’re usually more pliable,” she replies smoothly. “Given the topic, I have to use my strong Moe voice with you, otherwise you will go on a crazy tangent again.”
“But Moe—”
“What did I say, Nyk? No buts. You’ve already made a fool of yourself with all that talk of me and Lis being romantically involved, which,” she pauses and wrinkles her nose in disgust, “ewwww! I can’t believe your mind would go there.”
“Because you were so close and—” I try to argue but she cuts me off.
“Just accept that you made a fool of yourself,” she says as she pats me on the shoulder. “Although I will say, I do appreciate the initiative.”
“Huh?”
“The jealousy and possessiveness. A little misplaced this time, but I did like it.” She winks at me. “Next time try to read the room a little better, alright?”
“You…liked that?” I blink.
“What female wouldn’t like her male so thoroughly obsessed with her he doesn’t want anyone getting too close to her?” She lets out a dreamy sigh as she lays her head on my shoulder.
I nod. Yes, what she’s saying is correct. Who could mind that? “I would not mind it if you did that to me, either.”
She lets out a giggle. “Oh, Nyk, you truly underestimate feminine wiles,” she whispers. “If it were me, I would have found a way to remove the obstacle. Neatly, without much fanfare.”
I blink in shock, but she continues. “You would have, too, if you did not care so much about my feelings. You wouldn’t want to see me hurt, no?”
I shake my head silently. She smiles. “I am the same, with one small difference. I know you would never mind me doing anything bad.”
“…”
“You don’t care if I’m bad to others as long as I’m good to you.”
“That’s… Yes,” I admit.
“Good,” she purrs and kisses my cheek. I’m left stunned as she gets out of bed and places her notebook alongside her other writing supplies.
Before I know it, I follow after her, grabbing her hand and turning her to look at me.
“You would really kill someone if you were jealous?”
She merely smiles. Her fingers hover over my lips before she cups my cheek. “Let’s not attempt it, all right?”
My heart thuds in my chest. The more she speaks, the harder I get.
“What about me? Would you kill me too?”
I’m not sure why that prospect excites me so much, but there’s this ruthless and determined side of Moe that is so antithetical to her usual soft and kind demeanor. And to my surprise, I love both.
“Hmm…” she murmurs. “You’re lucky. You’re fated to only be with one female your entire life.” She gets on her tiptoes, her mouth close to my ear, her warm breath fanning my skin. “That’s the only reason why you live.”
She barely finishes her words when I snap.
One hand on her throat, I push her forward until her back hits the wall. Tipping her chin up with my thumb, I capture her lips in a deep kiss.
She meets me stroke for stroke, her hands roving over my body and undoing the towel tied at my waist. It falls to the floor, and her hands are already on my hard cock, touching, stroking.
I grab her by the ass and hoist her up in my arms, her legs on each side of my hips.
Pulling back, I nibble on her lower lip as I ask.
“How many pairs of underwear do you have?”
Her entire face is flushed, her mouth swollen and well kissed. Her eyes are heavy lidded as she watches me.
“Only two,” she replies. I should have intuited that—she’s always washing the damned things.
“All right. I’ll be considerate,” I murmur against her lips.
With one hand, I reach between our bodies, and instead of tearing her underwear apart as I’d initially planned, I merely slide it to the side,
She’s soaking wet as I part her folds, and roll that small bud between my fingers.
She lets out a small moan that I swallow in my mouth. I press her harder against the wall and align my erection to her entrance before slamming home in one thrust.
“Nyk,” she cries out.
“My lovely female,” I rasp. Our lips meet again in a ravenous kiss as I continue to thrust into her, each time harder and faster. The walls around us start trembling as I forget my strength and pound into her with increased urgency.
She doesn’t mind it. If anything, the way her nails drag against my arms, penetrating the first layer of skin and drawing blood tells me she loves this just as much.
“Fuck, what you do to me,” I tell her, voice rough. “Been dreaming about this. About you. Fucking you…” I doubt I’m making any sense, but the deeper I thrust inside of her, the more my sanity seems to slip away from me.
“Do it then. Fuck me! Destroy me and I’ll destroy you right back.”
“You don’t have to ask twice.”
By the time we reach our climax, we’re both covered in scratches, scrapes and bite marks, our blood mixed together in a fascinating tapestry where our skin meets.
The next morning, Lis brings me to an open stretch of ruined stone beyond the populated areas. It’s a broad, flattened platform ringed by broken columns and jagged debris, isolated enough that no one passing nearby will lose a limb when she inevitably decides to maim me for educational purposes.
Moe follows along carrying a bundle of food and a waterskin, far too cheerful for someone about to witness my suffering.
Lis stops in the center of the clearing and turns to face me.
“Attack.”
I blink. “That’s your instruction?”
“For now.”
I narrow my eyes. “No explanation? No lesson?”
Her expression remains maddeningly calm. “The lesson will present itself shortly.”
I do not like the sound of that. Still, I lower into my stance.
If she thinks I will make this easy for her, she is mistaken. If she has power and experience on her side, I have a very thorough distaste of her.
I surge forward first, shadow gathering around my hand as I swing for her throat. She moves before the strike even finishes forming.
One moment she is in front of me. The next she is beside me.
Her foot hooks my ankle causing my balance to vanish.
The world flips and my face slams into the stone hard enough to make my vision flash white.
Pain explodes through my nose.
Behind me, Moe gasps… then starts laughing.
I shove myself upright with a growl, blood dripping from my nose. “Again.”
Lis gestures lazily. “Proceed.”
I attack harder. This time I feint left before cutting right, shadow snapping toward her ribs while I aim a kick at her knee.
She catches my ankle. She just catches it.
Then twists. Once more, I hit the ground so hard the air leaves my lungs in one violent rush.
Moe laughs louder.
“You are enjoying this far too much,” I wheeze.
She wipes at tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. “You made a very strange sound when you landed.”
“I did not.”
“You squealed,” Lis says in that serious voice of hers.
“I did not squeal,” I protest.
Moe nearly falls off the broken pillar she has claimed as her viewing perch as she keeps laughing.
Humiliation burns hotter than the bruises forming across my body.
“Glad I can provide some entertainment,” I say drily.
Then I throw myself at Lis again. And again. And again.
Every attempt ends the same way.
She sidesteps my strikes with infuriating ease, redirects my momentum, and plants me into the ground before I can so much as brush her sleeve. My shadows never touch her. Every strategy I form is anticipated before completion, every feint read before I commit to it.
By the tenth time I am once more flat on my back, staring at the crimson sky, my chest heaving and every inch of me aching.
Lis stands over me, not one speck of dust on her clothes.