Chapter 126
Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Six
Faylinn
It took weeks to fully restore Vespera to what it was before Samyr’s troops blasted through the outer walls and destroyed every living thing they encountered.
Rohak and I coaxed the full story from the unAwakened cadets little by little, day by day, after we pulled some of the citizens from the catacombs below to aid us in the cleanup efforts.
Thankfully, every person who had elected to stay in Vespera’s city limits was huddled beneath the Academy.
The normally cool and dry tunnels were muggy and rank with sweat, excrement, and the pervasive scent of fear.
After much coaxing—and a few exhaustion-driven threats—a Fire Mage, Earth Mage, and Air Mage followed Rohak and me up and into the courtyard, where we, finally, made much quicker progress.
Trying to move bodies with my own bare hands that had decomposed into the ground below was an experience I never wished to repeat, nor was it one I would quickly forget.
With the dead burned—their ashes interred in a mass urn in the graveyard next to the Academy—the air finally started to clear. The carrion slowly disappeared, and life eventually returned to the courtyard.
Blood still stained the stones, a reminder of what was lost and sacrificed here for the lives of those left behind.
We never identified Leal’s, Sol’s, and Thandi’s bodies, though we hazard cautious guesses based on the bones we’d found.
Leal—or who we assumed was Leal—died with daggers still clutched in her fists, a dozen enemies felled around her, her weapons stuck in eye sockets and other vital organs. We interred Leal with the daggers still in her hands—a warrior in death just as in life.
Sol and Thandi were found together; Thandi’s massive frame huddled on top of his fallen Mage, their bones melding together until it was impossible to tell where one ended and the other began.
We buried them together in their own plot, a headstone engraved with runes for love and life marking their final resting place.
Grief was heavy and rampant, but eventually, life resumed.
It was still so odd to me that people could simply pick up where they left off.
Days after the destroyed buildings were repaired and Vesperans returned to their homes, we found vendors selling food and homemade wares in the courtyard once more, their feet and carts covering the blood-blackened stones.
After much deliberation, Rohak decided to leave the courtyard as it was. No further cleanup would happen, leaving the splotches of black as a morbid reminder of the cost of war.
After Gene’s death, Art eventually returned to Vespera with a haunted look in his gaze, his normally exuberant personality substantially subdued.
But I found a bit of that old glint in his eyes when I informed him that I needed something that would allow me to carry the baby and whatever Rohak needed for the day from the Academy.
Days later, Art revealed his creation with a proud flourish.
There was a small seat fashioned to even smaller cart wheels with a tray below for me to “carry books,” he proclaimed.
Fia giggled and gurgled, clapping her pudgy hands together in delight when I placed her in the cushioned seat.
Even now, she squealed as I pushed her over the bumpy cobblestones, giggling in sheer delight as her body jiggled with the motion.
“You like that, hmm?” I teased lightly as we crossed the courtyard, teeming with new life. The scents of sizzling meat wafted in the late spring breeze, and my stomach gurgled obnoxiously.
Maybe I can convince Rohak to leave his office for a few moments. The man needs sunshine.
“What do you think? Do you think Daddy Rohak will let us have lunch out here today?” I cooed to the little girl who babbled in response, lifting one foot to shove in her surprisingly wide mouth.
I’d internally debated what to call myself and Rohak to the little girl who was not biologically ours but was ours.
After days of little sleep and many tears, Rohak made the decision for me, referring to me as ‘Mama’ as he gave me a crying Fia.
Despite my panic over the title, Fia instantly quieted when her head hit my chest, her little breaths coming in pants as she fought to console herself.
In that moment, I realized that I was this little girl’s mother, and the exhausted man on the bed was her father.
Ben and Asha would always be her parents—and we would remind her of them often—but we were her parents, too.
And that was okay.
In addition to caring for Fia, I’d put the knowledge I acquired from the Seeing Room in the Valley to good use.
Deep within those catacombs, I was gifted the knowledge of a long-lost rune that allowed Mages to both store and draw their power.
The well gifted from the rune was small and needed to be refilled often, but it immediately alleviated Elyria’s dependence on rare Vessels and dwindling crystals.
I was tired—a soul-deep exhaustion that was so pervasive I felt it would never lift.
But still, I persevered.
Because I was here, with the opportunity to grow old, when so many others’ futures were ripped cruelly away.
The administrative building was quiet today as we rolled into a box that moved via a rope pulley. It was another one of Art’s inventions—tasks he’d thrown himself into with little reprieve after Gene’s death. Clearly, he was as adept at dealing with his grief as Rohak.
I pulled us up to the second floor, Fia’s gurgles growing sleepier as we rolled down the hall to knock on Rohak’s door.
“Come in,” he grunted gruffly, the Bond pulsing with agitation and exhaustion.
I sighed as I pushed the door open with a loud squeak.
Rohak barely pulled his eyes from the papers littering his desk, flicking his gaze up once before returning to the missive clutched in his hand. He did a double-take, however, once he realized who was standing in his office.
A radiant smile broke out over his exhausted face, lighting his emerald eyes once more so they sparkled with happiness. His black hair was a disheveled mess, and more than a little grey dotted his temples and streaked through the top.
The stress of this position and the aftermath of Solace’s death would send him to an early grave if he didn’t find a way to relax.
A plan came to mind, a mischievous grin pulling at my mouth as I watched him pick Fia up and gently rock her to sleep in his arms. Our baby girl was absolute putty in his hands, much the way my heart was whenever he interacted with her.
Rohak sang softly to her, words I didn’t know but had heard him sing countless times on countless sleepless nights, as he gently stroked her little face.
Little Fia’s eyes fluttered closed, her long lashes fanning across her cheeks as she breathed deeply into the crook of Rohak’s elbow.
A gentle smile played at his lips as he sank into one of the armchairs by the cold fireplace.
“This is the only time I see you happy,” I said quietly.
Rohak hummed. “Children have a way of making you see what is really important in this world,” he mused, softly stroking her cheek once more. Fia chuffed in her sleep at the deep baritone that rattled through Rohak’s chest, but she didn’t wake.
I leaned against the wall, resting my head as I watched the two of them, heat growing between my thighs.
Something about my grumpy General caring for such a small, innocent, fragile life really did it for me.
Unintended arousal pulsed through the Bond toward Rohak, and I felt, rather than saw, him smile.
“You need to relax more,” I said, my voice huskier than I anticipated.
“Is that so?” he asked, never pulling his eyes from his daughter.
I nodded even though he couldn’t see me. Only then did he finally look at me, and I gasped at the heat and desire in his tired eyes.
“Words, Faylinn. I need your words,” he growled. Fia wriggled slightly, and he set her gently in the crib we’d put in his office so she and I could spend more time with him.
“Perhaps there’s something I can do to help you relax?” I asked as he pulled the curtains around the sleeping baby before prowling toward me with heated intent.
He hesitated even as his hand squeezed his hard cock through the outside of his pants.
“She can’t hear us,” he declared, and I nodded my head.
“Absolutely not,” I agreed.
“Then we need to be quick,” Rohak whispered, fingers already deftly unlacing his pants and pulling his erection through the hole.
I bit my lip at the sight, desperate to feel him inside me once more.
“On the desk. Pull your pants down and spread those legs.”
I did as he commanded, pulling my pants to my ankles so there was just enough room for him to step between my spread thighs. The cold draft hit my exposed sex, and I shivered at the sensation before Rohak pulled my legs around his hips.
“Hold tight, Faylinn,” he growled, positioning his cock at my entrance.
My arms wrapped around his neck just as he thrust inside.
I gasped at the intrusion, but Rohak gave me no time to relax, no time to adjust. His hips thrust hard, the tip of his cock brushing that spot inside that set my blood on fire.
I groaned into his neck, and he nipped my ear in admonishment.
“Not so loud, my love.” He pushed his hands beneath my ass, tilting my pelvis and lifting me slightly so his cock could find a home deep within my pussy.
I panted and writhed, my body chasing the high his was so desperate to give me.
“Come for me, Faylinn,” Rohak said down the Bond, swiveling his hips at just the right angle to have me seeing stars in an instant.
I came with a small cry, burying my face in his shoulder as Rohak followed me over the edge. We stayed like that for a moment, breathing hard and laughing lightly at what we just did.
Rohak pulled reluctantly away with a groan, kissing the top of my head as he tucked his spent cock back into his pants.
I leaned back on the desk as I panted, coming down from the orgasm Rohak just handily delivered with very little effort. His cum seeped from my pussy to coat the inside of my thighs, but I didn’t reach for the rag he’d gently pressed into my hand.
Instead, keeping eye contact, I reached between my legs and pushed his cum back inside, tilting my hips upward in an effort to keep it there. Rohak groaned lowly, his eyes flashing with heat once more as he watched.
“Fuck,” he growled through the Bond, peaking my nipples once more. “Are you trying to get pregnant, Faylinn? Or do you still have that Conception Rune?”
I removed my fingers, wiping them surreptitiously on the rag as I hopped off the desk and pulled my pants back up.
“Faylinn,” he said in a low, warning tone.
I winked at him as I pressed a kiss against his lips.
“Whenever you want it off, you just say the word.”
“Now. I want it off now.”
I giggled out loud and opened my mouth to respond, but the sounds of Fia waking from her nap had both of us sighing as we moved toward her crib.
“This conversation is suspended, but not anywhere close to over, my love,” Rohak said as he reached to pluck Fia from her crib, pressing her body to his chest once more.
My clit pulsated from that heated threat alone, and I knew, whenever I removed the rune, it would be short order before I was pregnant.
“Did you sleep well, my little love?” Rohak cooed, patting her back with his massive hand. “I missed you while you slept.”
Fia blinked slowly, loudly expressing her frustration at her nap ending. She was a crabby thing when she first awoke, not unlike the grouchy man who currently held her tight.
I smiled slightly as I reached for the books beneath the cart.
“What are you two doing this afternoon?” Rohak asked, his attention on the baby, but the question was aimed at me.
My hand strayed on the cover of the golden book we’d taken from Isrun. More and more lately, I felt what I could only describe as a pull toward the blank tome, as if it were begging for me to fill its pages with words and runes.
I tapped my fingers lightly against the cover as I spoke.
“We’d like to take you to lunch in the courtyard since it’s so nice outside today.
You need sunshine and air”—I fixed him with a no-nonsense look when he made to interject—“but then I think we’ll come back here.
I . . . something about this is compelling me. ”
“You need to write,” he said simply. “It’s meant for you to write, Faylinn.”
I sighed with a frown.
“And what would I write, Rohak?” I asked tiredly, rubbing my hand down my face. “All I know is love and death, war and its aftermath.”
“Then that is what you write, my love.”