32. Lex
Chapter 32
Lex
I flexed my neck, twisting my head from one side to the other in an attempt to relieve the tension that started in time with our shift. Which, by my estimation, was nearly ten hours ago.
Almost time .
I breathed a sigh of relief at the idea that I only had two hours left in this ten-by-six box they called the “guard house.” I wasn’t even sure the purpose of it anymore, we hadn’t had an attack this far north in . . . a millennium? Longer?
Sasori would know .
My Vessel, or one of them, loved random “fun facts” about the history of the places we lived or visited. Before we were permanently stationed in Vespera with the majority of Lord d’Refan’s original Mage force, we traveled about, securing territories and cities for Lord d’Refan and searching for something—though we never actually told what —and all the while Sasori would give Ilyas and me random tidbits about each place.
It was simultaneously annoying and endearing.
“Hey, Sasori,” I called, pushing back in my chair so the front two legs reached off the ground and I balanced on the back two.
“Hey, Lex,” she called back, her cat-shaped almond eyes on the cards in front of her. Ilyas and Sasori were playing one of the numerous card games that they both insisted were stimulating . I hated cards. It was all luck with little strategy and not something that held my interest for long periods of time.
So I stared at the ceiling, or counted the bricks in the walls, or thought about fucking one or both of them, and they played cards.
“When was the last time this guard house was actually used as, you know, a guard house?”
“Really, Lex? You want her to spit random facts at us now? Once she starts you know she doesn’t stop,” Ilyas, my second Vessel, grumbled good-naturedly.
Sasori simply rolled her eyes at us. After seventeen years as a Bonded triad, we were more than acquainted with each other’s quirks and senses of humor.
“Well, if we’re speaking in technicalities, it’s in use right now.” Sasori threw down two of her cards and Ilyas thumped his head on the table with a dramatic groan.
“Why do you always win?” Ilyas’ grumble was almost inaudible as he threw his cards across the table at Sasori. She gathered them up with barely restrained glee, always more than happy to hand Ilyas his ass at cards. Her mind was as sharp as her cheekbones, and she flexed her intelligence often. Both Ilyas and I found it attractive. While neither of us were necessarily dumb, we also weren’t nearly as intelligent as Sasori. She grew up in Samyr, a Northern Allied Territory on the western coast, to a family of merchants, which allowed her an education most people couldn’t afford.
I lazily perused her body as she leaned across the table to gather the remainder of Ilyas’ cards. Her pin-straight raven-colored hair was tightly wound into two braids that reached her mid-back and they swayed each time her lithe, yet strong, frame reached for a card on the table. Her skin was a stunning milk-white that only grew paler during the winter. Her lips were constantly large and puffy, and I couldn’t help but think about them wrapped around my dick.
“But, if you’re asking historically, I guess the last time would have been back in the Sundering. Which was . . . about a millennia ago, give or take a few years.” Her voice, and answer to my mundane history question, brought me out of my unabashed staring, and I caught a slight smirk on Ilyas’ lips as if he knew my earlier thoughts .
“I knew it!” I thumped my chair back onto four legs, my smile triumphant.
“Why?” she asked, finally gathering the cards together in one pile.
“Just something I was thinking about while we sat here for hours upon useless hours.”
“I can think of something we can do during these hours that is much more useful,” Ilyas intoned, his head still resting on the table, but he had turned his face toward me, his striking green-blue eyes heated.
Color rose in my cheeks at his very obvious perusal of my body, but I shook my head, albeit unwillingly.
Ilyas huffed, “You’re no fun.” And he promptly turned his head back to the table.
“Just wait until we get back to our rooms at the Academy. It’s a couple hours, you can wait that long, can’t you?” Sasori scolded as she absently shuffled the cards.
“No. I can’t. My balls are heavy, and my dick is constantly half-hard being around the two of you. It’s not fair,” Ilyas half-whined, half-grumbled from his position on the table.
“Are you . . . pouting?” I asked him.
Ilyas raised one large hand and flipped me off in response.
I chuckled at him, and Sasori joined in. Ilyas’ head suddenly rose from the table, and he flicked his gaze from Sasori to me and back again, mischief dancing in his eyes. “Oh, now it’s some big joke to both of you! Like we can’t see the outline of Lex’s dick throughout the day. And you can’t tell me that you’re not wet just looking at the two of us, Sasori, because then you’d be lying, and we don’t like liars. Right, Lex?”
Now it was my turn to roll my eyes.
“Careful, Ilyas. Keep up your whining and I’ll make you sit and watch, unable to touch your dick, while I fuck Sasori all night.” My dick twitched at my words, and I caught Sasori’s smirk.
Yeah, she’d like that, too. Torturing Ilyas like this was oh-so fun .
Ilyas pouted but his pupils blew wide, telling me exactly what he thought of that situation.
My Vessel likes a little delayed gratification.
Just as I was about to let my mind wander that delicious path, I heard a shout from outside the guard house .
“Did you hear that?” Though my question was obviously useless as both Ilyas and Sasori were standing up from the table and coming within arm’s reach of me.
Having one Vessel was becoming increasingly rarer, but two were almost unheard of. Somehow, my power continued to grow past what one Vessel could hold and funnel, dictating the need for a second. Usually, over-pulling on a singular Vessel caused the Vessel to burn out, destroying their ability to sense magic. Fortunately, in my case, I was able to Bond Sasori just before Ilyas burned out. Now, I was cautious of how I used my Vessels, treasuring them and protecting them as if they were True Bonds, even though only Ilyas held that title. Sasori was a Forced Bond. And the difference between the way each Bond felt in my soul was staggering. Ilyas’ Bond was a comfort, a warm breeze in the spring, and a connection I craved, needed, depended on. Sasori’s Bond felt oily, like I couldn’t ever fully grasp it. Sometimes pulling too much on Sasori even caused me to feel sick. Not in a Mage Sickness way, but just a feeling that my blood and magic was somehow dirty or tainted.
It was strange.
Because of it, though, I used Sasori as my Vessel for Pain and Ilyas my Vessel for Pleasure. As an instructor at the Academy, I was obligated to pull on both for instructional purposes, but my other activities demanded I pull more often from Ilyas, which was always a literal pleasure for me to do. I made sure to fill both of my power reserves each day, but I never anticipated needing them tonight, especially in the relatively unused guard house.
I rose from my chair once I heard a second shout and the three of us moved in synchrony to the small arched doorway which led to the main gate. It was antiquated, but anyone who came through Vespera whose magical signature wasn’t recognized was immediately detained, the gates on either side of the entrance coming down and trapping the intruder. Usually visitors, travelers, or merchants were logged and screened before coming through the gates, which created a manual bypass of sorts.
But those guards weren’t stationed at night, and we had no notice of any impending travelers or visitors, so the safety measures were activated.
I stepped out of the doorway and into the caged entrance, the floor and walls illuminated by the weird magical globes hanging from the ceiling and attached to the stone walls. I glanced around, at first only noticing a large horse with no saddle, breathing heavily and foaming at the mouth. It teetered on its legs as it limped about, obviously in pain.
Where did you come from and where is your rider?
I felt Sasori’s and Ilyas’ presence at my back as I continued to gaze at the space, my eyes finally finding what I was looking for. There, lying face first on the ground just behind where the horse first stood, was a man probably not much older than me. And he didn’t appear to be breathing.
I took a quick step outside the door, indicating for Ilyas to go and soothe the horse. Even though Vessels couldn’t channel in the way that I could, their blood still sang with magic, which was amplified by their Mage’s magic. Ilyas, as my Pleasure Bond, was usually a soothing presence for people and animals, his touch and mere presence exuding peace and delight.
Sasori and I continued a slow, cautious approach to the figure on the ground while Ilyas calmed the horse. The closer we got, the more it looked like the man really was dead.
But if he’s dead, there would be no magical signature to keep the gates active .
I motioned for Sasori to halt just behind me as I continued my approach to the boy. He was large, quite possibly one of the largest men I had ever seen, with deep-brown hair and tawny skin. His clothes were patched and worn, and it was obvious he was both not from here and spent a great deal of time in the sun.
Who are you?
I kicked him lightly with my boot, his body moving gently, but he didn’t wake. I kicked him again, just a bit harder, and this time I heard a light groan. Sasori and Ilyas were quick to my side.
“Roll him over,” I said.
My Vessels quickly pushed the man to his back, his limbs flopping uselessly. As his arm hit the ground, his fist popped open, revealing three completely spent crystals. Sasori picked them out of his hand and wordlessly handed them to me. The remnants of Earth Magic clung to them.
An Earth Mage .
I knelt next to the man, who still hadn’t uttered another word or opened his eyes. I lightly slapped his face in an attempt to wake him, but when I pulled my hand away, I hissed.
Blood covered my fingers from where they touched his ear.
Mage Sickness. Fuck .
“Get him back on the horse and to a Healer. Quick!” Ilyas and Sasori sensed my urgency and Ilyas quickly gathered the man by his shoulders while Sasori grabbed his legs.
“Oomph, he’s heavy ,” Sasori said as they lifted him off the ground and waddled over to the horse. With a little help from me, we were able to sling him across the back of his horse, his legs dangling from the opposite side of his head.
“Lex, if it’s Mage Sickness, there’s nothing they can do,” Ilyas said in a hushed tone.
“I know,” I ground out. “But we have to try. Obviously whatever he came here to say was important, otherwise he wouldn’t have burned himself out trying to get here.”
Ilyas only nodded his head before patting me once on the shoulder. Deep down, I knew he was right. But I couldn’t watch him die without trying to do something. I just couldn’t . It reminded me too much of my time before Ilyas and Sasori.
I shook my head to get rid of the thoughts and made to lead the horse, but I was stopped by a weak hand pulling at the back of my black tunic. I sucked in a breath and whirled to face the sick man.
“Help,” he whispered, his eyes still closed.
“Yes, we’re going to get you help. Try and stay conscious if you can,” I told him earnestly, gesturing for Ilyas to manually open the gates from inside the guard house.
“No . . . we . . . need . . . help.”
“We? Who’s we?”
“Isrun.”
The name was oddly familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it. I looked at Sasori and mouthed the name to her. “Do you know where that is?”
She rolled her eyes at me.
Petulant. She’d pay for that later .
I raised my eyebrows at her, and she replied with a smirk on her full lips. “Yes, it’s a little farming village just inside the Borderlands.”
Borderlands . . .
“A borderland?” I asked the man. “What happened?”
A feeling of dread pooled in my gut before the man even opened his mouth. I had heard that we sent a small convoy of Mages there earlier this month due to some suspected rebel activity.
Rebel activity . . .
“Are the rebels there?” My question was urgent, and my voice rose.
The man didn’t answer for a minute, and I thought he may have passed out again.
“Yes . . . save her . . . please.” He was fading fast and just as Ilyas finally opened the gate leading into the city, I heard him utter another word like a prayer. Just a name, but it struck me to my core. “Faylinn.”
Well, fuck .