Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
KIERAN
Arken ended up beating me to the other side of Lake Eidrytch by a hair, but I refused to admit it.
By the time we both surfaced at the stone bank near the mouth of the grotto, we were both breathless and gasping, laughing deliriously as we exchanged a playful splash or two. Or three.
“I absolutely won,” Arken argued. “You just don’t want to admit I’m the faster swimmer. Let me have this, you cocky son of a bitch!”
“Mmm, not so sure about that,” I teased. “You had a head start, after all.”
She crossed her arms while treading water, pouting adorably. “I will race you back right here and now, Vistarii. And I will win.”
“Sure you will,” I replied easily.
My tone was placating, but only because I liked to irritate her. In truth, she probably would win. The woman could fucking swim and might’ve beaten me to the grotto by several feet if I hadn’t given her a taste of her own medicine. For whatever reason, I found this to be alarmingly attractive.
It was rather uncommon for me to be bested so thoroughly when it came to anything athletic.
“But,” I said. “If we race back now, we can’t explore the grotto, now can we?”
I smirked as Arken’s desire to challenge me waged war with her inquisitive and adventurous nature, wide golden eyes gazing wistfully into the depths of the cavern. I leaned in closer, lips brushing against her ear.
“Trust me, sweetheart, I’ll make it worth your while,” I whispered, smirk widening when a tiny noise of intrigue escaped her mouth. Or maybe it was arousal. I was content with either option. “And there’s a waterfall…”
“A waterfall?” she breathed.
“Mhmm,” I confirmed, using the rocky ledge to push myself up and out of the water.
Arken watched my forearms flex as I did so with a glaring lack of subtlety.
Dark pride washed over me, replacing the water that dripped from my skin.
Fucking Hel, I loved the way she drank me in so godsdamned lasciviously, and without an ounce of shame.
Gone was the girl who had once blushed furiously when I caught her gawking at me across the training fields…
replaced by the confidence of a woman who seemed to know she’d laid claim to my body and soul in a matter of days.
And Source damn me, Abyss drag me under, that was as decadent as it was terrifying to consider.
Probably because it was the truth.
I physically shook the unsettling thought from my mind, spraying the air with misty droplets of fresh water, then bent down with an outstretched arm.
“Come on, then, Little Conduit,” I said when she finally tore her eyes from my body to meet my own. “Come play.”
I flashed Arken a grin as she bit her lip, taking firm hold of my forearm and using it to hoist herself up from the embankment.
It was admittedly a strange sensation, wandering through the grotto without any clothes on.
I probably could have told Arken where we were going, and I suppose that I, myself, could have dressed accordingly…
But I hadn’t had the strength to leave my bed early enough to try to fetch her swimclothes, and by the time my circadian rhythm demanded I rise, the notion of taunting her out of bed had already taken hold.
She was very fun to tease. And a lack of appropriate attire wasn’t going to stop me from fucking her out here, either.
The inspiration for this endeavor had been innocent, though—a quiet conversation from the night before.
As we lay in bed together, entirely spent from our insatiable exertions, I’d woven my fingers through Arken’s hair, working through the muss and the snarls I’d left behind.
All the while, she whispered memories from her childhood, about Amaretta, and all the little things she missed about the Brindlewoods.
“And I miss swimming,” she’d sighed. “It’s criminal that the Studium doesn’t even have a wading pool or anything. Even Elsewiere has one.”
“Athletics aren’t really the Studium’s strong suit,” I’d replied. “But there’s always the Pyrhhan Coast.”
“Too far,” she had murmured softly, burrowing her face into my chest as sleep began to take her. “Too…cold…”
While Lake Eidrytch was about the same distance from Sophrosyne as the most direct path toward the Western Seas, she was correct: despite the unseasonably warm weather we were experiencing this autumn, the waters of the Pyrhhan Coast would be frigid right now.
I’d take her there one day, though. If she thought the veins of astral quartz cutting through these cavernous stone walls were pretty, she would lose her ever-loving mind over the Crystalin Cove.
Those hot springs were privately owned, but I didn’t give a shit. The owner could add it to the ongoing list of slights I’d inflicted upon him over the years. But I digress.
The girl wanted to swim, and I had made it my mission to see that pretty little mouth of hers smile as often as possible, so here we were. Hand in hand with fingers interlaced, still rather wet, and entirely naked before the Source, the creeping streams of sunlight, and the occasional lizard.
“Holy Hel,” Arken breathed when we were about halfway through, exposing some of the largest streaks of iridescent quartz embedded in these echoing, nature-made halls of stone.
With a glowing orb of Light arcana floating above one palm, Arken released my hand so she might take a closer look.
“Gods, it’s so pretty.” She marveled at the sight, tracing a fingertip over a smooth intersection of crystal that branched out in every direction.
Arken’s arcana seemed to bring out the best in the raw quartz, her Light catching every prismatic shift and casting little rainbows here and there across the cavern.
“You said this quartz forms around all the caverns in the Wyldwoods?”
“Only those lakeside, for some reason,” I said.
“Something about the moisture, aetheric density, and the types of sediment, if I recall correctly. But unfortunately, most of them are gone now. They were fully excavated and mined for resources decades ago. According to my father, this is one of the few still standing.”
A sliver of ache, the tiny pulse of a memory I’d buried deep, attempted to make itself known again. I swallowed hard, forcing it back down.
“That’s such a shame,” Arken sighed wistfully.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Yeah, it is. Though I suppose I don’t need to inform you, of all people, about the properties that make astral quartz such a precious resource.”
“Scoring high in both hardness and tenacity, astral quartz is resistant to scratches, cracks, and chipping,” Arken rattled off, as if she were reading from a textbook.
“It is alchemically inert, with a vitreous luster and a high refractive index, making the crystals particularly useful as arcane amplifiers, storing latent spellwork in abnormally large quantities per cubic inch. When ground into a fine dust, astral quartz becomes arcane powder, a critical component in many rare elixirs, tinctures, and potions.”
“You are such a fucking bookwyrm.”
She grinned. “We’ve been over this, Vistarii.”
I chuckled, taking several steps toward her.
Eyes glittering, Arken attempted to take a step backward, only to find her back against the smooth stone behind her, my arms bracketing her on either side.
As I leaned down to kiss her, soft and slow, I felt the peaks of her bare nipples brush against my chest, urging me to crush myself against this soft, perfect body… but no. Not yet. Not here.
Eventually, I forced myself to pull back, a particularly heroic effort when she leaned forward, her mouth attempting to draw me back in, but I managed. My stiffening cock ached and twitched in protest, but still I managed.
I had gone far too long without being inside her today, but we were almost there.
I would take her soon enough.