Chapter 16
Sixteen
Vale watched Ivy stare around the wide, bony walls. He should have urged her to walk faster. To follow where the void was directing her. But he was so tired, and Ivy looked so lovely as she gazed wondrously around the crumbling castle.
“Is it very different?” Vale asked.
Ivy laughed, running her hand over a chipped wall. “For one, mortal castles are made of stone, not bone. And they’re not as big. Or abandoned. Or…”
She trailed off, her eyes flashing green as they came to a stop in front of a towering doorway.
Vale peered inside, ignoring the exhaustion pounding through his marrow.
The throne room had decayed since he last saw it several decades ago.
A new hole had opened in the ceiling, allowing vines to creep through and twine down the painted wall and over the twin thrones sitting side by side against the rear wall.
Once, there had been a giant skeleton sitting slumped on one of those thrones.
It had been the first thing Vale cleared.
Vale turned to Ivy. “Is it here?”
“I…” Ivy cleared her throat, the green glow draining from her eyes. “I think so.” She pointed at the painted wall behind the thrones. “What is that?”
Vale looked up at the faded painting. It was partially obscured by vines, but there was enough showing through to make it clear: a rich, lush, bony wonderland.
“That is the void when it is healthy and taken care of,” Vale said. “It looked like this when I still had the light-motes to assist me.”
Ivy pointed higher up the wall. “And those?”
Vale lifted his gaze. This was why he had stayed away from the castle these past few centuries. He did not want to look at the hazy, gleaming lights floating above the content void, even in a painting—dozens of them dancing in the dark sky, beautiful and joyous.
“Those are the light-motes,” he said quietly.
Ivy tilted her head, her braid falling down her cheek. “Did they have names?”
She said it dreamily, like she already knew the answer. He said it anyhow.
“Yes,” he admitted.
She did not ask. He was glad for it.
“You lost your joy,” she murmured, her eyes huge and green once more. Her voice became strange and deep. “The caretaker must be fulfilled. Or they wither.”
Vale startled. “What?”
Ivy shook her head. The glow faded from her eyes.
“Huh? I don’t—” Ivy rubbed her forehead. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what that was.”
Vale reeled at the implications. He had been happy before the light-motes died. Had he not? He always thought that his joy vanished with the light-motes. But was it the other way around? Did they vanish because he was dissatisfied?
“It is in here,” Ivy said. “At least, that’s what the void says.”
Vale pushed his thoughts of ancient history aside and stepped inside the throne room, looking around for a crack in the void that would allow them into the mortal realm.
The thrones were decaying, as were the walls.
The paint was so faded that it was difficult to make out under the vines crawling over it.
But there was nothing that looked like a gap in the void.
“I do not see anything,” Vale said.
“I don’t feel anything,” Ivy agreed, her voice faint.
She cleared her throat again, and Vale noticed how red her cheeks were.
He thought it was because of the walking.
But this was different from the flush that cropped up when they had been walking for several hours.
This flush traveled into her dress, making her hot under the flimsy fabric. Making her wet.
Vale inhaled deeply. The sweet scent of her slick made him feel as if the pollen was rising inside him again, even though his pollen had left his blood on the first day.
“You feel something,” he corrected, stepping closer. He wound his tail around her leg, and Ivy stuttered a laugh.
“Can’t go into pollen-heat when we rush the mortal realm,” she said. She turned to him, warm and rosy with her lust. “We have to be fast.”
“That is never a problem with you,” Vale assured her.
Ivy laughed again. There was something desperate underneath it, as there always was when the pollen set in.
She reached for him. Vale bent obligingly, capturing her in a kiss.
He had never kissed so much until she came along.
He assumed it was a mortal preference. But now he could not get enough of it: her tender mouth, her hungry tongue.
The way she panted against him, never shying away from his fangs as he expected her to.
Even when she had not been under the influence of the pollen, she had not shied away from them.
Something began to glow. Vale opened his eyes to see her eyes glowing behind their lids, even as she continued to kiss him.
Ivy broke away, chest heaving.
“The throne,” she said, her eyes glowing, her voice strange and deep once more.
Vale frowned. Was the void… speaking through her? It never sounded like that in his head, but he could come up with no other explanation.
Ivy shuddered, her eyes going back to normal. “Sorry! The throne… We need to be on the throne.”
She pushed at him. Vale walked back, settling on the smaller throne. It was covered in uncomfortable vines, but he did not care. Not when Ivy was sitting on his lap, grinding against him like she was already close.
“Please,” she said, pulling her dress up. “Vale, I need it.”
Vale reached for his robes, pulling his cock free through the fabric. A not-insignificant part of him wanted to push her over the arm of the throne and mate her like that. But he was exhausted, and Ivy seemed just as happy to stand up on his lap and sink down on his cock.
They groaned in unison as he filled her. Ivy was so short she had to squat, taking a mere half of him before she stood back up, legs trembling.
Then she sat down. His cock filled her so thoroughly that it bulged in her stomach every time she lowered herself.
Vale gripped her hips, taking care not to dig his claws through her dress.
Ivy stared up at him, her face slack. “H-harder.”
Vale snapped his hips up. Ivy groaned, her head falling into his chest. For a moment, all she could utter were choked-off moans. Then she lifted her head, her cheeks so pretty and pink, Vale had to kiss her.
Ivy moaned against his lips, then pulled away. “Your claws. Do it harder.”
At first, Vale did not understand. But he tightened his claws experimentally, checking her reaction.
Ivy’s eyelids fluttered. She let out a cry, riding him faster.
Vale pressed his face to her hair, inhaling deeply. There was a hint of bitter pain underneath her sweet pleasure. But if anything, it only made the desire smell more enticing. Ivy certainly seemed to think so, her moans reaching a fever-pitch as she rode him.
Vale thought that she had been suffering through the pain for the sake of her pleasure. Now he understood what had been missing since he cast the spell that allowed her to take all of him, no pain required. The pain was part of her enjoyment.
Vale dug his claws in deeper. Blood trickled into her dress, and Ivy giggled.
It was such an unexpected response to bloodshed that Vale could not help but marvel at her.
His strange little offering, who wormed her way into his life with the intent to destroy it, only to go against her people to help him save everything he held dear.
It made him want to slow down. To quieten the eager rocking of her hips, to bask in her closeness. But the pollen was working its magic inside her, filling her with desperation to climax as fast as possible. So Vale reached down and rubbed at her instead, urging the process along.
Ivy yelled and stilled, trembling in his arms. Then she sagged, and the scent of pollen faded into her usual sweetness.
Vale took his claw tips out of her hips, ignoring the hunter-brain that awakened within him at the scent of blood. He lifted her up and down on his still-hard cock.
Ivy moaned weakly. She squeezed around him, always so eager to please.
“You will stay here,” Vale said into her hair. “Be my queen. That is partly why your uncle sent you, yes? In the hopes I would lift you to godhood.”
“I wouldn’t call having a—ohhh—a void in my head godhood,” Ivy panted, grinning.
Vale nuzzled her sweaty skin. Then he took her chin, tilting it back until she was staring at him while he lifted her easily up and down.
“I never wanted power,” Ivy said. “That was my uncle. I just wanted—oh!”
She cut off with a cry, her eyes slamming shut. Pleasure, of course. But also magic. The void’s green glow leaked out from her eyelids, seeping through her face and shining from her chest.
“You wanted?” Vale prompted, thrusting faster. His completion was rushing toward him, undeniable now.
Ivy let out another shaky laugh. The green light was brighter now, but it did not matter. Vale saw her perfectly: her wonky braid and her flushed cheeks and her beautiful face naked with desire.
“I just wanted to find a place that wanted me,” she admitted.
Vale pushed as deep as he could and came with a weak growl. It was not a powerful orgasm, but still enough to make his legs shake. Although apparently even walking could do that these days.
Ivy’s green glow dimmed. Vale pulled back to ask if she had seen something, only to pause as he noticed her hips.
Her dress had fallen over them again. The gauzy material was stained red with tiny dots where he’d sunk his claws in.
Vale brushed them gently. “I can find some soothepine.”
“Don’t bother.” Ivy touched the small wounds, her fingers fitting between his claws. “I quite like them. The sensation is exciting. And, well… if they scar, then it’s like I’m yours.”
“You do not need a scar to remind you of that,” Vale assured her. “You were given to me, and I am keeping you.”
Ivy beamed, her eyes filling. She opened her mouth, then stopped, her gaze fixing on something behind his head.
Vale turned to see the wall behind them flickering.
Ivy gasped. “The painting!”
She climbed off his softening cock and stumbled onto the bone floor, walking around the thrones to reach the glowing circle that had appeared across the wall.
“It’s in the middle of the light motes,” Ivy said. She reached up, ghosting her hand over the glow that would have matched the painted creatures if the paint was not so faded. Then she turned to grin at Vale, who was still sitting on the throne.
“This has to be it! Come on, let’s go find the antidote!”
Vale heaved himself off the throne and went to her side. He attempted to walk as he always did, but Ivy’s sagging smile proved otherwise.
“How are you feeling?” she asked.
His least favorite question. Vale sighed, his tail lifting grudgingly. The temporary energy from having Ivy on top of him was gone, leaving only the void’s exhaustion behind. If the mortals wanted to make him easier to bind, they had their wish.
“I can still fight,” he said.
Ivy did not look comforted by his words. Vale scooped her up, settling her in his arms. He took one last look at the faded painting he was about to step into, his long-gone light-motes forming a circle of light for them. Almost as if they had been waiting.
“We will find your uncle,” Vale announced. “We will retrieve the antidote. We will kill anyone who gets in our way.”
Ivy squirmed uncomfortably in his grip.
Vale’s eyes narrowed. “If you did not want me to kill your Circle, you should not have told me they were cruel to you.”
“They weren’t that bad,” Ivy protested.
Vale sighed. “We will only kill people who try to kill us first.”
Ivy kissed his chin. “Good. Now let’s go save our void.”
The words sent a fissure of rightness through Vale’s heart.
He tightened his grip on Ivy, then he stepped out of the wilderness void.