Chapter 30
As the captain of his Highness’s Guard, Leofric was offered a private tent in the veritable city of them that had sprung up on the villa grounds after the fire.
At first, Leofric thought he’d been brought there to die.
Fitting, he’d thought, each breath like swallowing razors, every movement an unending agony. Fitting he should die in a field tent, just as Hamalcar had, though Leofric had to admit this one smelled better than any legion’s Medicus after a battle. It would be alright to die here, he had thought.
Two days passed and Leofric realized possibly he had been a bit dramatic. He hadn’t died yet, and if anything, felt a bit better. But he was still alone. “Hello?” He called, his voice like a death rattle. It had been barely louder than a whisper, though Leofric strained enough to shout. No one came. He wilted back into the pillows, exhausted, and slept for half a day.
By the end of the fourth day, Leofric was sitting up in bed, impatient and sick of the sick tent. He had reported what he’d seen in the vaults to anyone who would listen, but unfortunately a man hunt for Kato would have to wait until the security of the royal villa had been restored. No trace of the man had been found, and it was difficult to discern which of the royal family’s treasures were truly missing, and which had been destroyed in the fire. Cosmo had assured him that Kryos and Cedras’s grace both remained safely guarded.
The Medicus had been in to see him, and his family, and Auro too. All counseled patience, that his lungs were healing, and they just needed time. Cosmo barely left his side, and Leofric woke the morning of the fifth day to Cosmo soaping the side of his head. “What are you doing?” He croaked.
“Shaving you,” said Cosmo. “Head to toe. That’s what you wanted, right?”
Leofric tried to laugh, but it bloody hurt. “Who in the right mind would give you a razor?”
“It’s good to see you feeling better,” said Cosmo with a smile, but his eyes were wide with concern, red and sunken in his face like he hadn’t slept. “You’ve been too weak to berate me for days now, and I found I rather missed it.”
Leofric smiled and let Cosmo’s touches lull him back to sleep again.
“They’re moving everyone back into the villa this afternoon,” Cosmo told Leofric when he woke the next morning.
“Excellent,” said Leofric who’d had nothing but tepid tea and broth for a week. “Perhaps I can get a decent meal once the kitchen is back up and running.”
“You can’t swallow anything but broth until the Medicus examines you again,” said Cosmo. And he shot Leofric a wink. “Believe me, I asked.”
Leofric groaned. He felt fine. Mostly. He still got dizzy and winded walking to the chamber pot, but Cosmo didn’t need to know that. “This is killing me.”
“No,” said Cosmo sourly, “You nearly did that yourself.”
Before Leofric could respond Cosmo rose from the edge of the bed and slammed down the bowl of broth he’d brought, spilling half its contents on the ground. “Eat whatever you like, I don’t care.”
“ Cosmo!” Leofric tried to yell, but it sounded more like a growl. “Stop.”
For a moment he thought Cosmo was going to ignore him, but instead he sat heavily upon the cot once again. “You could have died, ” he said.
“I know,” said Leofric. He still couldn’t believe how stupid he’d been. “I was looking for you.”
Cosmo shot him a look. “You know I’m a god, right? And impervious to flames?”
“I didn’t say it was my most brilliant moment,” Leofric said.
“So why, why did you run back into the fire?”
Leofric scowled, the words sticking in his maw.
“There is something you’re keeping from me,” said Cosmo angrily. “ Still. ”
Leofric took the deepest breath that he could manage. “You are right. I was worried for you, yes, but when I saw you weren’t in your chambers I thought?—”
“Thought what?”
Leofric hung his head. “I thought Ozias might have been after Kryos’s grace.”
Cosmo didn’t answer.
Leofric kept his eyes trained down, waiting for Cosmo to react, but he stayed silent until Leofric looked up. Startled, he saw that Cosmo’s face was one of concern, not anger.
“I thought the same,” he admitted quietly. “I woke and he was gone, so I went searching for him, and then I heard the fire. I didn’t see him again until he carried you out.”
“Cosmo, your brother saved my life.”
“I know,” said Cosmo, taking Leofric’s hand and bringing it to his lips to kiss. “And I’m very grateful.”
“As am I,” said Leofric. “I feel ashamed for being so mistrustful.”
“You didn’t know him,” said Cosmo. “There is much I still feel I don’t know about him.”
“No, and I did not try,” said Leofric. “The fault is mine.”
“For the love of—will you stop?”
“Stop what?”
“Leofric, I swear, you aren’t happy unless you’re miserable.”
“I don’t—” Then Leofric stopped, with a grimace. “You’re right.”
Cosmo blinked. “The smoke has plainly addled your brain.”
“Maybe,” said Leofric, sitting up. He cupped Cosmo’s cheek, stroking his thumb over one of his favorite clusters of freckles. “Though I think my madness dates earlier than the night of the fire.”
Cosmo scoffed, but he couldn’t disguise the pleased little smile, the twinkling in his eyes. “Oh?”
Leofric kissed him softly. “Yes.” He paused. “Even so…can you forgive me?”
“For this? Certainly. For abandoning me on a mountain top…”
Leofric groaned.
“Pain?”
“Oh yeah,” he grumbled, eyeing Cosmo up and down. “A rather large one.”
“I was under the impression that you enjoyed pain.”
“I do,” Leofric allowed. “And you, you bloody menace, are my favorite.”
He seized Cosmo by the neck of his tunic and pulled him in for a bruising kiss. His lungs seared when they broke apart, gasping. “Careful,” Cosmo murmured. “Easy.”
He encouraged Leofric to slide down until he lay fully supine on the cot, then stood. Leofric thought Cosmo was actually about to leave, to insist Leofric rest. But instead, he looked down at Leofric with a calculating stare, and then whipped his tunic up over his head, casting it aside.
Leofric sputtered, “The medicus!”
Cosmo grabbed the edge of Leofric’s blanket and cast it aside, leaving Leofric naked but for the linen bandages wrapped around his chest. “I doubt he’ll bother us,” said Cosmo as he toed off his sandals and climbed gingerly onto the cot. “He trusts me to tend your needs.”
Leofric gulped, his hands already twitching to reach out and grab Cosmo’s narrow hips. “Be still,” said Cosmo. “Or you can explain to the Medicus why you’re coughing blood.”
Leofric debated, for a moment, if that might just be worth the risk, but ultimately, knew he would obey whatever Cosmo asked him to do. Nodding, Leofric lifted his hands above his head to grip the wrought iron frame of the field cot. It felt indecent, lying like that, on his back with his legs spread and Cosmo between them, wearing nothing but a band of linen around his midsection. The look in Cosmo’s eyes was indecent, too, and Leofric wondered if his damaged lungs would survive what was about to happen.
But then, nothing did. He waited, and waited, his cock hard against his belly, untouched. Cosmo simply sat between his legs and looked. After how many times they’d been together since that first night in the cave on the mountain, Leofric had thought Cosmo wouldn’t have any surprises left for him.
Fool, fool. Leofric couldn’t have said how long Cosmo looked at him, staring, devouring every inch of Leofric with hungry eyes, but it felt like an eternity. His breath had slowed, though, his chest rising and falling steadily under Cosmo’s scrutiny. His gaze was soft, and piercing at the same time. Cosmo still had not even touched him, yet Leofric felt flayed wide open. The first place Cosmo touched him was the place above his ear, the shorn patch of Leofric’s scalp that revealed his tattoo.
Using the pad of his pinky finger, Cosmo traced the vines until his touch whispered over the shell of Leofric’s ear. He shuddered, a full body shiver, and Cosmo immediately backed off. “Easy,” he said again. And then his fingertip was back, tracing his ear, dragging over his cheek, down his nose, over his lips.
Slow and soft and measured, three words he never would have used to describe Cosmo’s approach to fucking, but Cosmo had surprised him yet again. He lay still and let Cosmo touch. Eventually, he closed his eyes and floated in the darkness, relaxed and light, the warmth pooling in his groin as soothing and pleasant as sliding into a steaming bath.
He didn’t think he’d ever been so aroused and yet so relaxed at the same time, melted into the cot under Cosmo’s gentle, worshipful touches. Every muscle, every scar, every dip of his body, every bruise. Not one single inch of Leofric was untouched, except for the skin obscured by bandages. Even those, Cosmo brushed his fingertips over the edge of the fabric, tracing their borders to make sure nothing was missed in his perusal. Only one of his nipples was exposed, and it received quite a lot of attention, and soon enough Leofric was panting to the tent’s canopy, and he felt a tiny bead of heat leak out of his cock and pool beneath it on his abdomen.
Aside from his wounds, there was one other notable exception—Cosmo had not touched his manhood yet, at all. Not even once. He could feel the air shifting, tiny breezes as Cosmo’s hands fluttered around it, but never once did he connect. It twitched and leaked, and went ignored. Cosmo ran his fingers down the crease of Leofric’s groin, stroking the inside of his thigh, down to the place behind his knee, his calf. His ankle. When felt Cosmo’s lips at last, it was on the arch of his foot and he couldn’t help the frustrated noise that slipped out. Cosmo paid the whine no mind, merely traversed the planes of Leofric’s leg with tiny kisses, moving upward at the same agonizing pace. Leofric could have wept with relief when he felt Cosmo’s breath, hot and warm as it gusted over his balls. Finally. But no, still no, and Cosmo nosed his way behind Leofric’s sac, gingerly lifting his legs to drape over his own shoulders.
Staying still was more of a challenge after that as Cosmo used his mouth to worship his hole. Leofric was brought back to the night he’d pulled Cosmo out of the brothel, the way the woman on his face had felt about whatever sorcery Cosmo worked between her legs. He couldn’t help but laugh, giddily, that Cosmo was his now.
Cosmo doubled down, concern for Leofric’s frailty seemingly forgotten as he feasted, clutching Leofric’s thighs, crunching him in on himself a bit so he could really get at it, and Leofric threw his head back and moaned. Leofric teetered close to the edge, but it seemed Cosmo was unwilling to help him over, at least, not yet. Leofric tried to cant his hips, to encourage Cosmo, to welcome his fiendish tongue, but Cosmo drew his mouth away, with a parting lick. Before he could complain, a warm weight blanketed Leofric’s entire body. “Are you alright?” Cosmo asked, him, even as he sucked marks into the side of Leofric’s neck. He bit down, hard, and then said, “Am I hurting you?”
Leofric bucked against him. “Fucking yes, ” he said, releasing the frame of the cot and seizing Cosmo’s shoulders to roll them. They landed on the ground beside the bed. Leofric’s lungs burned but he couldn’t stop, didn’t want to ever stop. He kissed Cosmo, tasting a hint of himself on Cosmo’s tongue, and nearly spent against Cosmo’s belly. Cosmo rolled them again, pinning Leofric on his back upon the ground. “You’re supposed to be resting,” said Cosmo, panting.
“I am resting,” said Leofric. “Lying down and everything.”
Cosmo nipped his chin. “I don’t think this is what the medicus had in mind.”
“No?”
Cosmo shook his head.
“Well,” said Leofric, “If you don’t fuck me, I’ll have to fuck you, and I imagine that is far too strenuous for someone in my delicate condition.”
“The medicus did say that you should be well enough for gentle lovemaking,” Cosmo agreed, maneuvering himself between Leofric’s thighs.
“He what? You didn’t, you— ohhhhhh.” He broke off on a satisfied groan as Cosmo pushed inside him in one fluid thrust.
“ Fuck, you’re tight,” said Cosmo. “Are you certain this is…”
Leofric rolled his hips, trying to get Cosmo even deeper. “ Yes, ” he said. “Fuck, yes.”
“You are such a deviant,” said Cosmo with something akin to awe in his voice. He drew out and thrust back in. Harder. Deeper. Leofric sighed, pleasure rolling over him in waves as he felt his body go slack. Cosmo gathered him up, held him tight and whispered, “I never expected this. I never expected you.”
“Me—ungh—neither,” Leofric agreed, wrapping his legs around Cosmo’s waist, arching his back. He thought he could feel his bandage slipping, but he ignored it.
There wasn’t much talking after that, as Cosmo moved against him, throwing his weight into every thrust, rolling his hips to change the angle of his cock, pounding and pounding and pounding until Leofric saw lights popping before his eyes, and realized he’d been holding his breath. Dizzy, his vision going fuzzy around the edges, heaved a great, gasping breath and came at the same time, with harsh yell and his vision whiting out.
Cosmo released a harsh, broken moan as Leofric’s channel clenched around his meat, and he came in a great hot gush like magma burning through Leofric’s gut. They collapsed in a delirious, trembling heap on the floor of the tent, and Leofric clasped Cosmo so tightly he feared some sort of rictus had set in.
Pain of the not so pleasant sort began to seep in as they lay in a daze, and Leofric nudged Cosmo off his chest so he could take in some much-needed breath. He sat up and examined the tattered bandage around his middle, which had been covering some ghastly wounds on his back from where the beam had swung down and nearly decapitated him. Cosmo gasped when he saw them, horrified. “Oh, Fuck— I didn’t?—”
“ Shhh, ” said Leofric. “I told you. I am fine. ”
Cosmo cleaned them both up and rebandaged Leofric’s torso, before forcing Leofric to lay back down on his cot. He then fetched him a cup of water and stroked Leofric’s forehead. “I can’t believe you let me fuck you like that,” said Cosmo after a while.
Leofric didn’t open his eyes, but he smiled. “Oh, you can too.”
“Well yes, in general, but—” Cosmo sighed. “I love you, but for fuck’s sake Leofric you are such a fool.”
It took a moment for his words to penetrate Leofric’s exhausted, oxygen deprived, cum drunk brain. He sat up so fast he nearly knocked Cosmo over. “You—you love me?”
Cosmo looked at him defiantly. “Of course, I do,” he burst out. “Didn’t you know?”
Stunned, Leofric let Cosmo force him back down onto the pillows, tucking the blanket around him. Cosmo seemed unconcerned by Leofric’s reaction—or lack thereof—to his pronouncement, which Leofric probably should have suspected. He was talking now about plans to travel into the forest that night with his brothers.
“It’s the last day of summer,” he reminded Leofric. “We want to meet Cedras when he wakes up.”
“Let me come with you.”
Cosmo clucked. “If you can stand up without keeling back over, you can come.”
Leofric scowled. “If I’m well enough to fuck I’m well enough for a walk through the woods.”
“The Medicus disagreed,” said Cosmo. “Gentle lovemaking, yes; trek through the wilderness, no.”
Leofric eyed him suspiciously. “I suspect you of lying to me. And besides, you’re hardly gentle.”
Cosmo kissed his nose. “I’ll be alright,” he promised. “I’ll have my brothers with me.”
That was, at least in part, what Leofric was afraid of. They were like magnets for calamity, all of them. “Will you…will you come see me, after?”
“Of course.” Cosmo stood, pulled on his tunic and turned to leave the tent. Leofric couldn’t let him go, not yet.
Say it, you coward.
“I love you,” he gritted out. “So, you better come back to me, you bloody menace.”
The sun set on the last day of summer, and Cosmo felt strange. It was the first time in four hundred years he hadn’t ended the season with a painful pull in his chest, urging him back to the temple. He didn’t miss the ache, exactly, but the absence of it was discomfiting.
After leaving Leofric’s tent, Cosmo found Ozias in the garden with Auro. Cosmo wanted very much to spin over his talk with Leofric in his mind, to replay his terse confession of love so he could be sure he could keep the memory forever, but he could not.
He had something far more difficult to address with his brothers. It was good that Ozias had saved Leofric’s life, of course. It was good that Leofric had decided to trust him. But Cosmo hadn’t been able to let go of one, tiny detail of the whole affair, one niggling question that remained:
Why had Ozias been on hand to save Leofric’s life?
The answer was blindingly obvious. There was only one reason Ozias would have been down there, and it wasn’t to search for Leofric.
Cosmo, Auro, and Ozias walked together across the grounds to the forest’s edge. Auro was excited to go collect Cedras from the temple, but Cosmo could not catch his mood. When they were well within the forest, Cosmo summoned his courage. “Brothers,” he called. “A moment.”
Ozias and Auro turned, bemused, to see why Cosmo called a halt.
“Ozias, I have to ask you something.”
“What is it?”
Cosmo took a deep breath. “Did you set that fire?”
Auro gasped, and Ozias went pale. “Of course, I didn’t,” he spat, his eyes angry. “How can you think that?”
Cosmo did not let himself look at Auro, who appeared beyond hurt at Cosmo’s accusation. “If you did not set the fire,” said Cosmo evenly, “Why were you down in the vaults?”
Ozias looked like a cornered beast, his eyes flickering from Auro’s face to Cosmo’s, as if weighing which he could bowl over and escape. Finally, he closed his eyes, covering his face with his hands. “Alright,” he said. “Alright.”
“Alright what?” Auro asked.
“He went for Kryos’s grace,” said Cosmo. “Didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Ozias, looking ashamed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t—I wasn’t thinking.”
“Weren’t thinking?”
“It is hard for me to…” Ozias trailed away, sitting heavily upon a log. “It is hard for me to trust anyone, anymore. I worried about your plan, about your intentions. I thought, perhaps if I could get my hands on Kryos’s grace, I could destroy it or—I don’t know. Maybe I could be one of you.”
Cosmo and Auro exchanged a look. “One of us?”
“Is that so odd?” Ozias asked, voice raw. “Kryos has proven himself a disloyal, unworthy brother. Or at least—that’s what I thought. I don’t know anymore.”
“Ozias, what were you thinking?”
“I wasn’t,” Ozias repeated. “I just—I’ve been alone so long. The fire, the villa was in chaos, I thought, now. Now. Or you’ll regret it. ”
“And Leofric caught you?” Cosmo asked, fury rising inside him like a serpent.
“No,” said Ozias, aghast. “I found him pinned beneath a burning beam. And I realized I could only choose one—myself, or my brothers.”
“And?” Prompted Auro, hands braced upon his hips.
Ozias rolled his eyes. “And I chose you two, obviously.”
Cosmo wasn’t certain he believed the story entirely, but the sun was setting and they had only a few hours to make it to the temple before Cedras woke. Ozias walked a bit ahead of them, and as he stepped out across the temple’s bridge, Cosmo flung out an arm to stop Auro following him straight away, and waited until Ozias was well across the lake. “What make you of this?” he whispered to Auro.
Auro chewed his lip. “I don’t know why?—”
“ Cosmo! Auro! ” Ozias’s voice came from the temple. “ Come quick!”
“What now?” Cosmo said, jogging through the shin deep water to follow Ozias to the temple. When he entered the single room, staring at the four plinths, he stopped in his tracks, because he did not understand what he was looking at.
The only statue remaining in the temple was that of Kryos, tall and domineering as ever. The other three stood empty. Auro’s, of course, and Cosmo’s. And…
This can’t be, Cosmo thought. It was still summer, for a few more hours. This—this should not have been possible.
Cedras was gone.
Thank you for reading Dauntless Summer!